President's Messages

Report of the President to the Members – July 2009

Much of this report was put together before the news reached us of the untimely death on June 1, 2009 , of John Barcalow VanDerbeek IV, our immediate Past President. Our condolences have been extended to John's widow Diane and his sister Muffy VanDerbeek Unger who were both heavily involved in the work of the Society and to all of John's family and friends. On your behalf I attended the Funeral and Memorial services held June 5, and 6, 2009 in Aberdeen , Washington . Trustee, Patrick Van Pelt delivered a eulogy and both Past Presidents Bill Van Winkle and Wells Van Pelt spoke at the Memorial service. Also attending were Vice Presidents Edwin Outwater III , Steve Snedeker and Friends Leena Riker and Mary Baskett. Many other Trustees expressed a wish to be there, but circumstances prevented them from attending. The text of the obituary from The Seattle Times can be found by clicking here CGL July 5, 2009

It has been my privilege to be your President for three months now. I want to say how thankful I am for the hundreds of hours of work put in by my predecessor John B. VanDerbeek IV. If I recall correctly, John estimated that he had dealt with approximately 30,000 e-mails during his term of office. That amounts to over 40 per day which gives you some idea of what is involved with this job. At this early stage, I cannot claim to have reached the same level of correspondence, but we are not far off. When added to a busy law practice and the activities of a large and active family you will have an appreciation for the daunting task ahead of me. The job is fascinating and broad in scope, with an organization spread across the continent but focused on New York . We will continue to strive to keep the membership involved and informed as we move through this momentous year of 2009, and beyond.

Recent Successes

John traveled tirelessly across the country and into Canada to promote the mission of the Holland Society of New York. He never wavered in his dedication to the cause. With the expert and hard working assistance of his wife, Diane, John's presidency saw many successes. The membership campaign led by Patrick Van Pelt did a tremendous amount of work and produced a lot of information regarding the membership. We now have a database containing leads on many potential members and this is an asset that will bear fruit for years to come. We have already seen an increase in membership applications which has allowed us to increase the size of our membership at a time when many societies such as ours are suffering from declining membership.

The Henry Hudson capital campaign led by Charlie Zabriskie was a tremendous success. Enough money was raised to pay for the move to our new headquarters and increase the endowment to assist in paying for our increased rent. Most of the pledges have now been collected, and I urge all of you who have pledges outstanding to fulfill them at the earliest possible opportunity. Your society is counting on your support.

The move to our new headquarters was a major undertaking. Only a few members will be able to fully appreciate, what is involved in renting, and building out appropriate commercial space in Manhattan . Our new headquarters in The General Mechanics Society Building on W. 44th St only came about because of the tireless efforts of many people. John O. Delamater, and Kenneth Barricklo were instrumental in making this happen. John undertook the complex negotiations with the landlord, leading the negotiations on the behalf of the Holland Society and the other smaller heritage societies, which also became involved in this move. Ken not only designed the beautiful headquarters but against his better judgment, he undertook the job of supervising the construction. I know that this involved significant personal sacrifice on the part of each of these individuals and we cannot thank them enough for what they have done.

New Leadership

For the first time in many years we have had a turnover in the office of President, Treasurer and Secretary occur at the same annual meeting. The departure of Lou Springsteen as Secretary after three decades of work in that position was recognized by a presentation to him at the annual meeting. We are very fortunate that Lou remains with us to assist with his experience and historical knowledge. Our former Treasurer, John Esko Delamater, was moved to California by his employer in midterm. He made great efforts to stay on top of things in New York City and fortunately we had the help of our Assistant Treasurer, his father, John O. Delamater to help keep things going. Our thanks go to John Esko Delamater for the job he did under the difficult circumstance of being on the other side of the Country.

Committees

For many years our former President, Peter Van Dyke, served as chairman of the Finance Committee and managed the investments of The Holland Society. In the last few years he advised us on several occasions that it was his intention to retire from this job and that we would have to consider hiring advisers to assist with our investing. In November of 2008 Peter resigned as Chairman of the Finance committee. Our former president, Wells Van Pelt, with the assistance of committee member Dan Van Riper immediately stepped up to deal with this issue. Wells spent many months working on this and I want to thank him for all his efforts as interim chair of the finance committee at a most difficult time.

Very few people attending our board meetings will be able to recall a time when Ken Demarest was not a key component of the Law committee. In fact he has been chairman of that committee for many years. Ken has decided at this time to step down from the Law Committee. His dedication to the mission and ethos of the Holland Society is unquestioned. He has been very loyal to the society and a faithful participant at all functions, both business and social. His literary efforts, in the form of poetry, which he has for years shared with us at our dinner meetings have become the stuff of legend. They have never failed to delight us. Ken we thank you for everything you've done for the Holland Society and especially at this time we thank you for your work as Chairman of the Law Committee. We look forward to many years of continuing involvement by Ken at our trustees meetings as part of the Council of Past Presidents

I am pleased to welcome as chair of the Law Committee Joseph Hoagland and Bromme Cole as Chair of the Finance Committee.

The Executive Committee is composed of the Past President, President, Treasurer, Secretary and two Directors elected by the Board of Trustees, Robert Goelet and Joseph Hoagland. Departing members of the committee include Steve Wyckoff, Bill Van Winkle and Wells Van Pelt, and their guidance at the Executive Committee will be missed. Fortunately they will continue to attend and participate in Trustees meetings.

Jim Van Wagner was elected as our Treasurer at the annual meeting and our Domine, Rett Zabriskie, has been elected as our new Secretary. I look forward to working with the Board and its committees and officers the Vice Presidents and Members in the months ahead as we face, what will undoubtedly be challenging economic times.

Budget

At the present time, we do not have the revenues which had been budgeted for the year 2009, and we have incurred a number of non-budgeted expenses. We have found it necessary to eliminate the position of Executive Secretary and revise the way in which our headquarters operates. Other steps are also being taken to balance the budget.

Website

During the past two years the very successful website of the Holland Society has been largely due to the technical efforts of Bob Banta - with much of the content both written and photographic being provided by Diane VanDerbeek. Our thanks go out to Diane for this and all the other support which she provided to the Society. Bob now finds himself in the position of being the writer as well as the technical expert, when that is not what he signed on for. We are in need of someone to be responsible for the content of our website. In many cases this will require liaison with the appropriate committees. For example the membership application which is posted on the site is a result of the work of a number of committees, including membership and genealogy. Volunteers for this important job are welcome to apply by contacting me or our webmaster, Bob Banta.

The Roster

We are at the time of year when the Roster, which is printed and distributed to members is usually produced. This year we have different resources available to draw our information from than in the past. Previously our staff was able to draw on information from an Access database and put it in PageMaker software for publication. Now our membership information is in Sharepoint, and we are learning how to overcome some technical hurdles to ensure that we have a Roster, at least in electronic format for distribution to the Members. Much of the initial work has been done by Annette Van Rooy and Patrick Van Pelt is bringing the editing phase to a conclusion.

Kingston Double Dutch Days

Please see the report on this excellent weekend which can be found by clicking here. In particular you are urged to view the pictures of the weekend's events by clicking here.

Colin G. Lazier

President

The Holland Society of New York

July 5, 2009