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Charlottsville Conference
Board Meeting Minutes
January 17 - 20, 1997
| Secretary's Report;
Charlottsville, VA Conference. January 17-20,1997 Notes: 1- State membership lists have been received from Montana, Idaho, Washington, and forwarded to Shirley Goodrich (Treasurer). 2- No minutes having as yet been received pertaining to the South Carolina Conference that was held. 3- Ray Kresek has forwarded a copy of the minutes of the Alberta Conference. *note:- From these minutes it is understood that a "suggestion" was put forward at the Conference to change the name of "Archivist" to read "Historian". This was agreed to unanamously by the attendees' at Alberta. This needs to be acted on at this Conference to change the by-laws to read same. 4- Central Mailing: *See Alberta Conference minutes. In short: There are pros and cons to this issue that are on going. Some very good points are made by both points of view. Discussion: 5- Dues ($) At Alberta (see minutes) It was agreed that dues should be collected during the month the member joined. *Note: It may be noted, that this generally is believed to be a matter for each Chapter's Director or Committee to handled, which ever works best for that State/Provence/District/ Chapter, as long as it is functional and the needs of the National Association are satisfied. 5a- *Note: In NJ's Chapter, we have tried several ideas, at 6 month intervals, annual intervals of renewal,etc. What seems to work best, but sometimes involves more accounting is including the person's renewal date and type of membership on the Newsletter mailing label with a highlighted expiration date if it has NOT been renewed. People who are non-renewals are dropped from the mailing list after 2 quarters or (6 months) whichever comes first. These folks may still be considered Chapter members but will not be receiving newsletters. If someone is helpful in contributing articles or Research information on Lookouts, etc.. they may then be considered to receive complimentary Newsletter copies.* This however is open to a quarterly review of this status. Postage and copy costs, what they are, prohibit mass mailings of complimentary issues unfortunatly. A line has to be drawn somewhere. We all would like "as much Lookout information" as possible to be circulated, because this in turn brings in additional information, however few of us are financially independent to do this. *State Chapter members might there-fore include a higher number of "members" of all types, than is reflected in a "paid" National list of that State's membership. There appears to be no set integrated system of a truly "National list of Association members". We are in the business of Researching Fire Lookouts and their associated histories which is what our By-laws elude to. It seems "we" (meaning all of us), are doing a pretty good job at what we had set out to do and should be applauded for it. We can try to improve on the system in basic ways, but we must also never loose sight of what works for some Chapters dosen't necessarily work for all. 6- Central Office: As was expressed at the Alberta Conference. A membership list is needed of all State Chapters, which will be required by 501c3 status. A "Central Office" will require it...Steve Cummings. Question: What or where is or should be such a "Central Office". Treasurer's address: Secretary's address: Chairman's address: or another independant location of all of these. Discussion;-- Observation: As has been found out by the events of the past year. No "one" person seems to be imune from personal loss or conflict. Perhaps the question of a "Central Office" should therefore be where the Associations Charter is located. (at this time, where might that be ?) Discussion; 7- There has been no correspondence with the Chairman concerning any Conference agenda's, financial reports or other matters since the Vermont Conference last summer. There has been contact with the Eastern Region Deputy Chair concerning the Virginia conference and a "report" was suggested as a follow up. 8- "Lookout Network" Newsletter was received from Gary Weber with first information on Virginia Conference in December. 9- NETWORKING: *See Alberta notes;--- As noted, "the feasibility of sending ALL lookout information to an (Archivist) Historian would be prohibitive, for sheer weight and propondurance of information that is now available from 21 National and International Directors, plus those other areas where Correspondence is received. Each Director should work toward supplying the Newsletter Chairman/editor, committee, with as much of a summarized edition of what they have on Lookout research, and this in turn needs to be put out in subsequent Newsletter issues to the general membership, on a continuing basis. This work is on-going and I'm sure the Newsletter editor/editors would appreciate any help or suggestions on the best ways to go about this. 10- There has been no correspondence received concerning any other Committee reports since the Vermont Conference. 11- To the Acting Secretary's knowledge there had been no one appointed as an "Election Officer" to handle the matters of this upcoming Election of National Officers. As Acting Secretary, I had taken the following steps to ensure at least some type of follow through on this. a:--- Election ballots were prepared and mailed out to ALL directors, National & International. b:--- Included in above was a form for the nomination of any others for the Offices in question. i.e> Western Deputy Chair;(Archivist) Historian; and Secretary. Results: * 3 ballots have been received to date:(Parmenter(ME)Kresek(WA)Wolff (NJ) 18 have not as yet been heard from on this issue--- 12/20/96 Funds for this mailing was graciously supplied by Mr Steve Cummings (PA) who has been reimbursed. 12- There has been no correspondence concerning any other matters of Lookout Association internal business or National Historic Lookout Register issues, since the Vermont conference. 13- In other matters: Correspondence of a nature pertaining to Lookout restorations in the Catskill Preserve in New York were received via Gary Weber (ID). This concerned an upcoming project by a Mr & Mrs George Elias of Grahamsville, NY who are working toward building a new hiking trail to Red Hill Fire Tower in Ulster County. In conjunction with this, they are hoping to do restoration work on the tower and are attempting to influence the NY DEC in opening the other four towers in the Catskills. They hope to have this trail completed by Spring 1997. Continuing Correspondence with Mr and Mrs Elias has been made and hopefully something fruitful may come from this. Correspondence was received from Corey Telarico of Oneonta, NY concerning his visits to the Page Pond Hill Fire Tower in NY and to Berry Hill, also in New York. Corey's information has been added into current Research histories on Northeastern fire lookouts*. Information was also received via Mr Artie Grimes (NJ) on several lookouts he visited in Maine this summer. This has been added to the continuing research on Maine Lookout Towers.* *if anyone would care to have an upgraded list of current information in this project, please see me about it. Hunter Mountain, NY - there remains on going development of a plan to restore the roofless, Hunter Mtn tower working with NY State Region 4 officials. Other Research and information regarding Lookouts is in progress, both on a National and State Chapter level, and through efforts of many individuals. This information is not necessarily National Association business needing a report done on by this Secretary for Conference agenda. This concludes this report for the Charlottsville Virginia Conference as to the best of my knowledge and ability. There may very well be many other important issues which I have not touched on or that are not apparent to me as Acting Secretary. I would like to conclude this report with a few observations I believe we should be working on. A- The office of "Archivist" Historian, as pertaining to what is available or what is needed from all other Directors, Board of Directors, other Nationally elected officers or other Committees. To many, this seems to be a "gray area". If information, concerning Lookouts and Research of same is available and is on a "data base", how does this benefit those of us, who are not fortunate enough to have a compatible computer system or other. Is there an accounting, list, catalogue, record of what is avaialble in or from this repository. B- Newsletter: Gary is doing a tremendously efficent job in putting out this publication. We should all owe him a debt of thanks for his efforts. We should also continue to send in information for issues in a timely manner to assist him. Any other long term ideas for Newsletter publication should also be explored, funding, design, layout, etc etc. "Lookout Network" still remains this Association's best bet to improve our Research and collective ideas and responses to Lookout Restorations, explorations, and other areas. We've got a good foundation to build on, let's all keep up the good example Gary and Joe Higgins in the past and others has shown us. C- Better Communication: The MOST important issue we have in this Association is the desire to correspond and maintain that which links us all together, Our vocation for the subject we came together for. We cannot maintain interest among ourselves without contact or updates on what our Association is doing, what is needed, or where we are going. Every effort should be made to get out an "other than" Lookout Newsletter reporting to our State Chapter, Provincial, Regional Directors and Representatives. A semi-annual (6 month) "Views from the Summit" which our founding Chairman Steve Cummings started should be continued. If this is not possible from the Chairman for what ever reasons, then the Deputy Regional Chair-persons or their delegates should assume this responsibility as best they can., but an effort should and must be made on this. D- National Historic Lookout Register: Our other and perhaps best known example of what we are about is the Register of Historic Lookouts. I believe we are doing an outstanding job at carrying this through and myself, look forward to each "National Woodlands" issue on the latest. Dr. Argow deserves perhaps much more accolades then we could possibly give him for his efforts in this quest. We should continue to make every effort to assist as "Partners in Lookouts". E- Future Conferences: Shirley and Kevin Goodrich are doing a great job at keeping us up to date on the progress of the Summer Conference to be held in Sanford, Maine. It is most important that our Conferences be given enough lead time, so people can get the information to make plans well in advance to attend. One of our short comings in the East has been to not do this, in a timely manner, and this has hurt our attendence at these affairs. It is most essential, that Directors get information on upcoming conferences in enough time to be able to let their membership know what is needed. ie. map, location, motels, accomodations, campgrounds,approx. rates of inns and such/ Conference agenda etc etc. We should not attempt to run a "Club med" type affair, but what is relevant to our Association's agenda would be a must. Submitted by Bob Spear, Acting Secretary, Forest Fire Lookout Association Inc. enclosures: Charlottsville,VA Conference Chairperson Eastern Region Deputy Chairperson Directors attending. others; by list. |