As has been reported by Director Dr. Dean Wiseman in the "NSS Topics" Section, the motion to approve the HQC’s (Headquarters Commission) recommendation to purchase the Cahaba Shrine Temple in Huntsville, Alabama was approved. Negotiations with the Shriners have already begun through our realtor and former NSS Office Manager, Camille Mueller. We are confident a mutually acceptable agreement will be reached.
Given the many possible visions of the NSS’s future brought to the table for consideration by the HQC, it is fully understandable the concerns of our board members when it came time to vote. In the end, only 5 of our 17 board members voted against the recommendation.
Each and every board member has spoken from their heart. It was to be expected that their passions for their visions would be voiced as loud and strong as their love for our Society. Despite a subject that at times has been controversial, the Board reviewed the HQC’s work, approved it, and now stands behind that decision without a single vote against the motions that followed to support the purchase. Your Board is united in our next great step forward.
Before the meeting was adjourned over $13,000 had been raised by our Fundraising Chairman, Director Bill Putnam. Additional pledges have been offered and are awaiting our various programs to start. Among them are a “Buy-a-brick”, “Block-by-Block” monthly/quarterly pledges, and offers of professional assistance. More than one group has approached me asking about naming rights to various areas. Historically, when our Society has undertaken a large project we have pulled together as one voice to accomplish it. Your Board members have spoken – “Proceed”.
This is an exciting time in our organization. I, like many others I have spoken with this week at the Colorado Convention, look forward to moving into our new headquarters about a year from now; a headquarters that will give us plenty of room to grow over the decades as we expand our member services, properly receive, catalog, and digitize our member’s collections along with our own, and raise public awareness of our cave & karst conservation message. We will have room to become a research site for our members and other institutions alike.
Nothing is beyond the reach of cavers. I am proud to serve you. I am even prouder to be a caver.
Wm Shrewsbury
NSS-President
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