Susan "Sue" Owen '94 July 22, 2019 10:17 AM updated: April 16, 2024 11:12 AM
To highlight the wide range of Aggie Musters, we covered six local Musters in April 2019 for a story in Texas Aggie magazine. Read the series: tx.ag/ComeAndMuster
In the Texas Hill Country, six Highland Lakes are strung along the Colorado River as it meanders down into Austin.
Tonight, a lakeside lodge on Horseshoe Bay will host more than a hundred Aggies and family for the 2019 Highland Lakes A&M Club Muster. As they arrive, they're greeted by a “Howdy” from the Club president’s son, holding the front door for each of them.
Mike Linam ’95, who's been the Club president for “about five years,” says Muster is their largest annual event, but there are also now monthly socials, a golf tournament and dinner, plus a holiday party at year’s end.
Sometimes their Muster is more casual, sometimes more formal; tonight it’s “boots and jeans,” Linam says.
Also like many local A&M Clubs, they’ll present scholarships at Muster.
“It’s a really cool moment,” Linam says. “And it gives our crowd a hope for the future of Aggies, because you’re seeing these incredibly bright young people who could choose to go anywhere, and they’re choosing A&M and they’re excited about it.”
Muster chair Whitney Clement ’97 is updating tonight’s Roll Call, which has local names from The Association’s list plus anyone whose name is requested.
Clement is prepared for more names to be added as Aggies arrive. “I’ve got 30 more candles ready underneath the table just in case,” she says.
Dinner is catered by a local restaurant. As the scholarship presentations begin, Stennis Shotts ’77 tells the crowd, “We’re able to support six local high school students who have wisely selected Texas A&M.”
Finding corporate sponsors has helped the Club increase not only the number of scholarships, but also the amount.
Shotts says, “We upped it from $3,000 to $5,000, so you guys picked a really good year to win!”
Muster speaker Barry Hendler ’71 talks of how A&M’s traditions flow from its students, who are given responsibility and respond by becoming leaders.
“I know of no other university that has from its inception allowed students to have this degree of control,” he says. “It is truly the students that have for 143 years made these traditions as respected as they are.”
Mike Linam '95 congratulates Highland Lakes A&M Club scholarship recipients.
To the incoming students, Hendler offers advice:
“Make friends. There is no more friendly campus than Texas A&M.
“Get involved. You will learn to follow and then to lead.
“Get the spirit.” The traditions of A&M are more than they seem, he says. “Those traditions created a common bond. And that common bond is what makes A&M special.”