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PRESIDENT'S REPORT
The Steel Center convered with snow, the morning of March 6, 2004
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I can't believe that May is here. Just checked (I write this on May
14) the park website and see that they are still under 91 inches of snow
at park headquarters (average being 92 inches). The yearly average is
533 inches and to date the park has received 540 inches so the overall
winter has been just over average, assuming there is no more snow. That
is NOT likely!
Still, we need to be thinking about this summer and what the Friends
of Crater Lake National Park need to be doing to support the park. We
continue with our strategy of requesting the park to define its highest
priority needs and then concentrating our efforts in those directions.
I know that the park staff is working hard to plan for a future that
continues to promise ever shrinking budgets in terms of real dollars.
In this changing world, the Friends will need to be flexible to meet new
challenges.
Our number one priority for the summer will be to encourage
volunteers to work with the park in interpretation and with the
Adopt-a-Trail and Adopt-a-Boundary programs. The Board has donated
$2,500 to the park to provide housing for Friends who are volunteering.
This will be the same historic house we used last year. Training for
both programs will be held the weekend of July 10-11, 2004.
Our goal is to staff the Rim Community House 7 days a week for the
summer. That is a big commitment. We need all the help we can find, so
encourage your friends to take advantage of this opportunity. Everyone,
without exception, that I have talked to find the experience to be 1)
not as difficult as they had feared and 2) much more rewarding and just
plain fun than they ever imagined. Volunteers will use the Community
House as a base for roving interpretation as well as a greeting/resting
stop for visitors. This location worked well last year during our
Crater Lake license plate sale effort. While we didn't sell all that
many license plates, what we discovered was that this restored building
is ideally located to provide visitors with information. Perhaps being
close to the restroom is a clue?
Details of this program are yet to be worked out, but we will begin
that process next week. Training is a must, so set aside July
10-11.
The Adopt-a-Trail and Adopt-a-Boundary programs continue to be high
on the priority list. As always, you can pick the trail and/or boundary
to fit your particular situation.
The Board has taken on two internal projects that we hope will
improve our ability to communicate with members. We have redesigned the
membership brochure and hope to have a printing in the very near future.
In conjunction with that effort we plan to upgrade this newsletter,
providing a common artistic "theme" with the brochure, better pictures
and generally a more attractive publication. Hopefully, the next
edition will be in the new format. Kudos to the Board for a lot of hard
work and especially to Tom Dew who has taken on the editing chore for
the brochure.
George E. Buckingham
President of the Board
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