: Message posted on Stardate 06070.9 at 1711 hours : Posted by Aaron Carroll. : This question is to all Presidental and Vice presidential canidates. Please tell us how long in the last term you were LOA. Please if you feel that there should be explainations beside some of these LOAs please list them. This question is by far relavent as if our Prez and Veep are LOA Often they fail to serve the club properly. : : I will hope for a timely respone from everyone ;) : : ~Aaron I've taken three LOAs that lasted beyond three days, plus a handful of day-long ones. As the series of people who repeatedly thwapped me for it can testify, I'm very bad at taking LOAs and frequently posted and dealt with e-mails during them. My first LOA was for a little over a week in January, when I went to Walt Disney World. I had a great time and I completed my first half-marathon (13.1 miles)! Talk about requiring dedication around mile 10. My second LOA was for a little under a week or so in February, when I just needed a short break from life and being tethered to my computer. I even read some of those book thingies! My third LOA was a few weeks ago for three days, when I prepared for, then took and recovered from the LSATs. Finally, the handful of one day ones were when I wouldn't even be AWOL by the end. I consider it *extremely* important to keep folks informed of when they can count on me to post. I aim to be a daily or bidaily poster and it's important to me to inform people if I'm not going to be able to maintain that. Since you brought it up, Aaron, I also want to reiterate that I think a LOA is a wonderful thing. While excessive LOAs from the club's command can hurt it, a fresh and rejuvinated command is extremely important as well. Remember, this is a club of volunteers who have real lives behind all of this and, sometimes, real life has to come first. We should never fault someone for that. Thanks for the question! Sarah Hemenway/Dipper: It's YOUR club!