I am starting my sixth year as Level Walker chair.  I wouldn’t continue to do this if I didn’t firmly believe we support one of the most varied and wonderful national parks properties in the system, and the National Park Service staff who support it are some of the finest and most dedicated individuals I’ve ever known.  It’s a cause worth supporting, and our group of volunteers bring a lot to the table.

Under the earlier by-laws of the Association, I would have hit my term limit in another three years.  I didn’t want that to happen; first, because I strongly believe that having a good working relationship with the National Park Service and maintaining continuity is important. You only need to look at Jim Heins’ management of the VIP program to see that success story.

Second, I personally enjoy working with the fine group of individuals – you – who make up the corps of Level Walkers. I am humbled by the heritage of the program (started in 1960) and the level walker chairs who have proceeded me.

For these reasons I proposed a by-laws amendment at the 2017 annual meeting that divested the Second Vice President office from the Level Walker chair.  It received a positive majority vote, and the Level Walker chair now serves at the pleasure of the president, with no term limit.   I plan to serve the Association, the National Park Service and you for as long as I am able.

With five years under my belt I see this as time for me to tune up how I do things.  I’ll discuss these changes as we go through future blogs. This blog is the first change. Most of us are older, and may have only heard of blogs from our children or grandchildren.  I read blogs but have never done one, and it was a learning experience to set this one up.  I was lucky that two of the park’s most awesome interns, Dorothy and Monica, gave me some helpful advice.

The blog replaces the info emails. I feel have fallen short on passing on info to you via email, but that has become an impossible situation.  Apparently, some time back someone reported me as spammer (and it would have been someone on my email distro list), and now my group emails result in a flood of kick-backs, missed deliveries and other nastiness.

The blog is a much neater solution.  If you want these updates, enter your email address under FOLLOW BLOG VIA EMAIL and select FOLLOW.  You won’t get junk mail for doing this, but you will get a notification any time I send out an update. You don’t need to be a WordPress user to do this.

The blog provides an index by category, past post date and a calendar.  It’s searchable, too.  Check it out and let me know what you think!

Photo – Fisheye lens view of Williamsport from Conococheague Aqueduct  10 March, 2017 – Level 38