From the President

By: Bob Remer

Inserted in this issue is our Annual Report for 2009. The board of directors agreed to start publishing this regular report so we can acknowledge our many supporters and to give you the members and supporters some useful information about how we are doing. This is an important step in our development and I would particularly like to thank Jim Puralewski for taking the lead on getting this going; and special mention goes to Kathy Gemperle, Betty Mayian and Larry Rosen who did the heavy lifting in preparing the document.

As part of our efforts to reach out more to the community, the board agreed upon an important document about our long range plans and how we would like to look on our 25th anniversary year; called Vision 2013, this planning document will be available for inspection on our website. We invite your review and comments.

In keeping with this vision, we will be seeking funding and resources so we can “take the show on the road,” so to speak, and take Edgewater’s history to schools, community organizations, and religious institutions, while also inviting them to use the archiving and storage resources of our museum to preserve their histories.

We will also seek to make the museum more accessible by expanding hours; to this end we will be beefing up our volunteer docent program and recruiting more volunteers and members.

As we go to press, the U.S. Census for 2010 is in full gear. We urge the community to fully participate as the census is good for Edgewater in so many ways, not least of which is a treasure trove of information to help us understand our history and heritage.

Also, as we go to press, we learned of the designation of the Andersonville Business District as an official National Historic District. We are all so grateful to the Andersonville Chamber of Commerce and our own board member, Thom Greene, for their many years of hard work to make this possible. Thanks, Thom!

Finally, I would like to thank our new and returning Board members who were elected by the membership at our annual meeting in March. They give a great deal of time and they really enjoy celebrating Edgewater history. They form the backbone of EHS and the community owes them a debt of gratitude.