Volume 14, Number 1, Jan. 1992, pp.1-2

President's Letter

The 1991 annual WAAC meeting held in Seattle was a resounding success. As everyone who attended I'm sure will agree, the setting was congenial, the level of information exchange was very high, and the membership also had a great time.

On behalf of the membership, I would like to extend a warm and sincere thank you to outgoing WAAC President Glenn Wharton for the tremendous job done in organizing this exceptional meeting, as well as Patricia Leavengood for all her help with the local arrangements.

Some of the highlights included the panel discussion entitled, "Cultural History Collection Care: Challenges to the Established Order" and the banquet dinner aboard the historic steamboat Virginia V.

Thanks also to last year's board members, Elisabeth Cornu, Eric Hansen and Chris Stavroudis for their participation in soliciting the many interesting papers for the meeting, as well as for their involvement with the following projects: Latin American liaison, the McCrone microscopy course, and "A Guide to Anthropological Museums Collections" as well as Membership Secretary, respectively.

The 1991 Nominating Committee (Tatyana Thompson, Leslie Kruth, Rosamond Westmoreland and Mark Watters) would like to welcome the new WAAC Board of Directors: Patricia Leavengood, Vice President; and Victoria Blyth-Hill, John Burke and Zora Sweet Pinney, Members at Large. Liz Harvey has accepted the position of Secretary/Treasurer, and Chris Stavroudis will continue to serve as Membership Secretary. We are thankful to the outgoing Secretary/Treasurer, Carol Verheyen, for all the effort and work done to assure the smooth internal operation of WAAC.

And, last but not least, a very special thanks goes out to Elizabeth Welsh, the newsletter editor, for a terrific publication. WAAC serves its membership primarily through information presented in the newsletter and at the annual meetings. The membership especially values WAAC Newsletter not only for the wealth of information it provides but also as a vehicle for informal exchange of ideas.

After much discussion, the Board voted to increase the membership dues next year to $25 for individual membership and to $30 for institutional membership. The membership dues have not been raised since May 1988, and this increase was needed to meet the rising costs of producing and mailing the newsletter.

Plans are well underway for the 1992 WAAC annual meeting to be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico on September 27-29 (Sunday through Tuesday). The schedule will follow approximately the same format as the Seattle meeting. A half-day symposium on the conservation of Tibetan thangkas is being planned for Sunday, September 27, as well as a full-day seminar with Richard Wolbers for Tuesday, September 29. The meeting dates will allow participants to take advantage of the lower airfares when staying over Saturday night. The meeting will be conducted primarily at La Posada Hotel ($115- 125) with overflow staying at the nearby Inn at the Alameda ($125). With its Southwestern charm, Santa Fe is an extremely popular destination, and I would therefore advise everyone to make reservations as soon as registration information is available, especially if extra days are planned to soak up the Santa Fe ambience. More information about the meeting and Santa Fe will be forthcoming, in the next WAAC Newsletter.

I look forward to working with all of you this year and welcome any suggestions or comments.