Presidents Message for January 2009 Welcome to the first Touch & Go for 2009. Last year was another very successful time for our society with a great number of achievements. Our summer newsletter was, once again, a great success; the fall canned food drive and holiday toy drive exceeded expectations. In addition, our committees (election, membership, donations/prizes, program, trivia, video, and website) have helped provide value to our members while assisting with the smooth operation of our organization. At December's annual meeting, the board of directors was elected to office. They are: Roger Cain, Gela DePutter, Alice Hendricks, Norm Jukes, Matthew Mintz, Dan Morgan, Rick Turner, Betty Veronico, and Nick Veronico. After three years of service to the Society for Aviation History, Darlene Cain stepped down. Thank you, Darlene for all of your hard work! Also, Matthew Mintz has stepped down after a number of years as tour director. See the society's webpage for many of the great tours Matthew arranged for us. Thank you, Matthew! With Matthew's departure, we're looking for a couple of people to help organize tours in 2009, and additional people to help on the video committee. Please email, call, or see me at the next meeting. When you have time, please visit our website for updated photo pages, meeting information, and, just added, new speakers pages. Roger Cain has added a "Past Speakers" page that serves as an index, and clicking the link will take you to the year where you can scroll to read about the talk of your choice. Note that your dues are due in January, and membership costs for the year will be $25. We have not increased our dues for the past five years, and, like everything else our costs have gone up. We do appreciate your understanding. On page 7 of this month's Touch & Go newsletter there is a write-up about the Col. Ben Donahue Memorial Scholarship. After Ben's passing, the Donahue family asked that donations in Ben's memory be made to the society. The society's board of directors worked long and hard to investigate the best way to honor Ben's memory while using the funds to support the aviation community. After a few false starts, it was determined that the Col. Ben Donahue Memorial Scholarship will sponsor Civil Air Patrol (CAP) cadets to attend our educational programs. In addition, it will pay for the distribution of our newsletter to the region's CAP squadrons. Our thanks to former Society for Aviation History board member Ian Abbott for solidifying our relationship with the CAP. As always, I look forward to your participation at the next educational program, and please introduce a friend to our society! - Nick Veronico
Past President Messages are linked below:
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