Back in 1996 . . . the Tiger Inn Website was just a twinkle in the eye of Drew Dylewski '96, then Vice President. Drew's knowledge of computing and HTML turned an experiment into a functional endeavor. The TI page had a picture of the building, links to members' pages (mine, Dave Kashatus '97's, Randy Burt '96's, David Newman '96's, and Drew's), a few choice statistics about then President Jeff Buck '96, and the Official Beer Friz Home Page. I must admit that the TI page in its original form was truly TFI. There was no shi-shi crap to be found. I must also admit that Drew's graphic capabilities might not have earned him a check plus in second grade. Below is a sample of some of the custom-designed Windows wallpaper Drew kindly left behind.
   
Unfortunately, Drew decided to forsake all of his artistic abilities, move to Texas, and go to medical school. On one of Drew's last days as a TI resident, he also kindly left behind all of the TI HTML and graphic files. I watched him type then unintelligible UNIX commands and listened as he told me things I did not understand. Since Drew was graduating and otherwise didn't like to be bothered, I just smiled and nodded.

I had to do web reading before I even knew how to access the files he gave me, but eventually I too became proficient in HTML, and so did Dave Kashatus '97, and so did a seven-year-old I know, and so did a monkey I once saw. Anyway, Dave and I were the only ones who discussed the TI Website. We had a lot of vision, but very little time. Dave was busy running TI and falling in love with every secretary and TA in the EEB department, and I was busy running TI and teaching high school. Luckily for the alumni who have since sent in e-mail and subsequently lost faith in humanity, I published just enough to give everyone an inkling of our master website plan, but did not have any time to make all of the pages I promised actually work. I was well aware of my treachery but alas, I could do nothing about it.

Enter, the present Website revisions. It was always my intention to leave TI with the website nearly done and in the hands of someone capable. I wanted to address the latter concern right away so that I could pass on what I had. In lieu of someone capable I enlisted Brian Smith '98 (a.k.a. TI House Manager, a.k.a. the Choad) and Jason "the Human Deal Machine" Wortendyke '98 (a.k.a. TI Vice President) to carry on the site. Jason proved to have too much dealing to do to write HTML all day but Brian had just the qualifications the website was looking for. It was not long before the Choad was spending hours on end trying to get the tree to drink the beer while whipping around the mace for the Viking Night (a.k.a. Scandinavian Culture Appreciation Night) page. And I was right next to him wasting an almost equal amount of time trying to get the tiger to roar and the beer taps to fill the glasses. And all was well.

Together, Brian and I have committed a tremendous amount of time to making the Glorious Tiger Inn Website fun and functional. We hope that it will increase in importance over the next year as much as it has over the past. We also hope that for all of us alumni who visit, this is a great link to some of the best times we've ever had. Brian has earmarked whatever time he has after making a run at graduation and taking care of the Glorious for maintaining the website on the undergraduate side. I have promised to continue my service to the Glorious by keeping up the website on the graduate side. There are plenty of opportunities to contact us via links inside the site, and we hope you will use them to provide us with guidance. Until we hear from you, please do everything you can to make our efforts worthwhile and to support the Tiger Inn.

Sincerely,
Scott Rofey VP'97, Graduate Website Coordinator

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