Volume 16, Number 1, Jan. 1994, p.1

President's Letter

It was terrific to see such a great turn out for the 1993 WAAC Annual Meeting. I have to thank Patricia Leavengood for introducing me to the lovely Marconi Conference Center, located almost in my own backyard! We are very appreciative of all the work Patricia, Corine Landrieu and Mary Piper Hough did to make this conference such a resounding success.

The setting was certainly breathtaking and I hope you all enjoyed the presentations as much as I did. The papers were extremely diverse and even in quality, a sign of our groups maturity and very high standards to which the members strive to achieve in their work. A big thank you to all the speakers who, despite their busy lives, managed to put together a very interesting and entertaining set of papers.

There was much chuckling among our non-conservator friends over the title of our symposium "Loss Compensation." Patricia and the three outgoing members- at-large, Elisabeth Mention, Jane Bassett and Sharon Shore need a special thank you for organizing this session. The speakers in this symposium are being polled to find out how agreeable they would be to having their papers published as a group. I will let you know the status on this in the next Newsletter; if you think it a worthwhile endeavor, please encourage them to participate.

Congratulations are due to our incoming vice president, Pauline Mohr who is a long time supporter of WAAC and will bring lots of energy and enthusiasm to the group. In addition Vinod Daniel, Theresa Andrews and Catherine McLean have been elected members-at-large, I look forward to working with them this year. Chris Stavroudis, a pillar of our organization, will continue to serve as membership secretary and Mary Piper Hough has, much to my delight, agreed to continue as our secretary-treasurer. For those of us who take on short stints as president, she has become an invaluable link from one year to the next. This year she and Chris will be changing the membership year to follow the calendar year, and poor Mary has the onerous task of filling in out a tax form for WAAC.

So many members have told me that the main reason they belong to WAAC is because of its great newsletter. The credit for that is due entirely to the tremendous commitment, thought and energy that Liz Welsh puts towards this endeavor. Always thinking of the members needs, she not only goes in search of interesting articles but she has found ways for cheaper mailings and this year has achieved a tremendously exciting coup by putting all out publications on the computer Internet (see WAAC Newsletter: May 93, "CoOL Breeze," by Elizabeth Welsh; and Sept. 92, "Islands in the Net: A Guide to the Internet," by Walter Henry).

Next year's meeting, by general request, will be a replay at Asilomar, Pacific Grove and will be held from Sunday September 25 through Tuesday September 27. Although this is a retreat-like setting, the town of Monterey, much developed since our last meeting here, is bursting with life and entertainment for those who weary of retreats. All bookings will be done through WAAC and the cost will be approximately $58 a day inclusive of meals (the childrens rate will be about $38 per day). For those requiring single rooms, the cost will be higher. We have reserved space in a number of different buildings in the hope of being able to accommodate the different preferences of the members. More information about this conference will be available in the next WAAC Newsletter.

There has been some suggestion that WAAC produce a cookery book. I would appreciate any comments about this idea and welcome any other suggestions you may have about other ideas or directions WAAC should take. I look forward to working with you.