Checking aboard

Debbie Holl doesn't remember how long she's run the registration desk at reunions of the Navy Musicians Association.

"About ten years," she says. "And I love every minute of it."

"No, I'm serious," she adds as she reads the skeptical look on my face. Why, I'm wondering, would anyone love managing the data bases, lists, sign-in sheets, goodie bags and dealing with the scores of MUs that parade past her desk during our reunions?

It's about the people, she says. Dealing with nervous newcomers is a challenge that Debbie particularly enjoys. "Every year we get new people who tell me they're afraid they won't know anyone," she says. "And by Friday night you see them standing in the halls laughing about some gig back in 1942."

A job like this takes a "people person," and that's what the NMA has in Debbie.

A rare, quiet moment at the registration desk