My name is Jill Stephenson and I am honored to be the recently elected President of the Washington State Chapter of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation. And isn’t that a mouthful! I hope it’s not too revealing to admit that I sometimes can’t quite remember whether ‘trail’ or ‘heritage’ comes first, so I resort to thinking, "Last Chance To Have Fun". And, in the few years I’ve been a member of the National, Washington and Oregon Chapters, I definitely have had some fun!

Something I’ve been thinking about as I try to come up with words to say to all of you, is, what keeps you and me coming back? What is it about the a grand adventure, 200+ years in the past, that keeps us fascinated year after year, studying and learning and relearning? Why do we argue passionately about whether a camp was here or 100 yards thataway, speculate endlessly on the real reason for the gaps in Lewis’s journal and hotly debate whether it was suicide or murder?

I’m sure it’s something different for each of us. I can only speak for me and I’m not sure I have a definitive answer. The best I can come up with is this: I am constantly amazed that it is a true story of ordinary people accomplishing extraordinary things.

Which brings us to today and what we need to accomplish to ensure that The Story continues. Here’s a partial and very basic list:

* Renew your membership(s); National and State. Download Membership Application
* Consider joining another near-by State Chapter.
* Attend your local chapter meetings and any regional and national ones, if at all possible.
* Participate in our fun activities. We try to have them in different parts of the State and include both outside and inside programs.
* Communicate with me, or any other Officers or Board members about your questions, concerns and ideas.

So, that’s what we want you to do. What are we, your Officers and Board members doing?

* We are working to have an up-to-date website with current Officers, Board Members, activities and links that may be of interest.

* We would like to communicate with all of you that have email in a more timely manner about meetings, activities and news from National that everyone needs to know about. (Not as a replacement for the hard copy newsletter, but as a supplement and enhancement to it.)

* We will be working with the Idaho Chapter to help them with the 2010 National Convention. We’ll probably be asking for volunteers as the time draws closer.

We live, as all generations before and after live, in uncertain times. We don’t know whether our boat will float or sink, what super-human efforts might be required of us each day or whether we’ll be eating buffalo tongue or dog. But we still must proceed on to the best of our abilities. And have fun on our own grand adventure!

See you on the trail,

jill

It would be an under-statement to say that I was intimidated when I recently arranged to have coffee with Dr. Stephen Forrest, the new Director of Operations and Member Services of the National Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation.

I wondered what I would find to talk about with this awesomely credentialed young man who holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in history from the University of Oxford and a Doctor of Education in adult education from Oklahoma State University. These are in addition to his Master of Arts in history from the London School of Economics and his undergraduate degrees from the University of Montana!

Fortunately, three other members of our Washington State Chapter were also able to attend the impromptu meeting at a Tacoma Starbucks: Doc Wesselius, Vice President; Kim Fitzsimons, Board member; and Tim Underwood.

Conversation was not a problem as it ranged from marriage, Dr. Forrest (Steve), was in town to pick up his fiancée who was flying in to Sea-Tac that afternoon, to the lack of intelligence displayed by sheep, to, what else, Lewis and Clark, to many other subjects in between.

We all agreed that it’s a whole new world of experience and expectation when it comes to telling The Story and getting people on the Trail. Just among the five of us were varied reasons that brought us to join the Foundation in the first place and that keep us coming back for more. We all have different levels of scholarship and connected interests that are, perhaps, fairly typical of our membership, both at the National and the State levels.

Before going our separate ways, Steve asked what he can do for us at the State level. We suggested that being a clearing house for disseminating information and, of course, continuing to serve as a national presence in the political ring and federal funding circles, are two of the most valuable tasks to keep in mind as he takes on his responsibilities to keep us on track as "Keepers of the Story and Stewards of the Trail."

I came away from the meeting no longer intimidated by his scholarship, but reassured that he also has street—or should I say trail-- smarts to bring to the job.