Volume 14, Number 3, Sept. 1992, p.1

President's Letter

Serving as vice president and president for WAAC during the past two years has been a very rewarding and enjoyable experience for me. I would like to thank everyone who has and will continue to work for WAAC and whose contributions have insured that WAAC remains such a viable organization. There are many unsung heroes whose efforts are invaluable. I would particularly like to thank Mary Hough, who has selflessly taken over the position of secretary/treasurer, and who is energetically overhauling the books and records. This reorganization will make this position infinitely smoother for future secretary-treasurers. Our thanks go out also to Chris Stavroudis as membership secretary. This is an extremely time-consuming position, and his smooth management of the membership list ensures that everyone gets their WAAC mail. Every year about ten people volunteer to get out the meeting registration packet, ballot, and other pertinent information. This year, I would like to thank Chris Stavroudis, Lark London, Victoria and Charles Blyth-Hill, Mary Hough, Aneta Zebala,Jini Rasmussen, and Peter Lodato for volunteering an evening of their life to stuff and stamp envelopes. Further thanks go to this year's board members, Patricia Leavengood, Zora Pinney,John Burke, and Victoria Blyth-Hill, for their contributions at board meetings and helping whenever needed.

I hope to see you at the annual meeting in Santa Fe. This year promises to be somewhat unusual with a 1/2-day symposium on Tibetan thangkas, a full day of individual papers, and a full-day seminar with Richard Wolbers. We have received a number of interesting individual papers. I would like to thank all of those who submitted papers and also Victoria Blyth-Hill for organizing the thangka symposium. Additionally, thanks to Landis Smith who, as the Santa Fe liaison, has continued to offer suggestions and information that will make the meeting informative and congenial.

In June of this year, WAAC was finally able to publish A Guide to Handling Anthropological Museum Collections, which I am sure most of you have received by now. Thanks to Nancy Odegaard who has written the guide and has made it available for WAAC to publish.

Patricia Leavengood, Vice President, continues to plan for the 1993 annual meeting which will take place at the Marconi Conference Center on the Tomales Bay in Marin County, Northern California. The Marin coastline is stunningly beautiful, and Patricia will provide the membership with more details at the Santa Fe meeting.

Last but not least, thanks to Liz Welsh, Newsletter Editor, and the regional reporters and column editors for their contributions and commitment to the newsletter. This publication has become a standard bearer in the profession and provides an invaluable vehicle for information exchange.