We're now into a new year and I hope everyone had a good Holiday.

The election results are in. Great Lakes now has seven on the Board of Directors. According to the recent by-laws change, here are the new terms (according to number of votes received):

3 years
Jack Shaw, Chairman
David Van Hoose, Vice Chairman and Convention Coordinator
Doug Johnson, First Vice President

2 years

Rich Smethurst, Second Vice President
Tom Bryant, President

1 year

Bud Hunter, Membership Secretary
Steve Smith, NCC Representative

Congratulations to all and thank you to Andrew York for his service on the Board for the past two years. Andy, don't be a stranger -- we can always use an extra pair of hands (when you're not holding Spencer). Also, I want to thank Jeff Chattin, our Election Official, for the fine job he did tabulating the votes. I would like to welcome aboard Joe Cairo, who is now Treasurer of Great Lakes.

I'd like to thank everyone who voted in the election for the Board of Directors. But I must admit the total number of voters was rather disappointing. We have close to 200 paid up members and only around 10 percent voted. Just a reminder that before you write someone in as a write-in candidate, make sure they're a paid up member. Also, only votes on the ballot are valid (e-mail does not count).

There will be a membership meeting at Drums 3 in May to change the by-laws concerning the corporate address being that of the Chairman of the Board. The current corporate address in the by-laws is that of a past Board member who has not been a Board member for some time. The following change is also proposed to prevent this problem from occurring again. "This address will automatically change whenever a new Chairman of the Board takes office." Also we will have brief reports on Drums 3, Warparty 2002 and ATC 2002.