The Board of Trustees met on Wednesday evening, July 23, 2008, at the Waltz Building. You may download the agenda as a word document HERE. The meeting continued the patient process of approving the By-laws Committee's draft, Article by Article; and though we hit a snag or two, progress is right on track to present the revised By-laws to the Membership for their approval at the our annual meeting in November.

Welcome to New Members Kathleen Ihnken; and Joelle and Andy Blair, new owners of the Wood House on the corner of Fourth and C, which was on the home tour last year. This house is also the birthplace of Trudy (Wood) Stack, our generous benefactor mentioned in last month's letter. Kathleen, on the other hand, is brand new to Snohomish, and a recent graduate of the Certificate Program in Museum Studies at UW. Now, she wants to learn how historical societies work and plans on returning to the Certificate Program to take up the study of non-profit organizations and fundraising. Kathleen attended her first board meeting this past week and left with an encouraging smile.

A Home Tour poster draft was presented by yours truly. It seems that when no one steps up to lead the annual tour effort, the task falls to the President by default! And I am trying to make lemonade.

The first time I came across the name J. S. White was on a tour of downtown Snohomish a few years back, led by David Dilgard, History Specialist with the Northwest Rooms at the Everett Public Library. Jump forward to last fall when I came across the J. S. White House on Avenue H while door-belling for Karen Guzak's city council campaign. So when I was blessed with this opportunity to organize the 2008 tour, I proposed the idea of programming the tour as a tribute to this pioneer architect by finding as many White homes, businesses and historic sites as I could in the short time available. I am very excited as to how the 'walking' tour is coming together, even though I am including homes that we don't know for sure who designed them but are of the style of White's time, 1885 through his death in 1920. I hope to have the posters up and the tickets for sale in the shops around town by the first of the month -- plus, we will be selling tickets online this year using Google's Checkout services. In the meantime, you may check out the tour using their handy interactive map HERE.

Friends of the Blackman House is the name I would like to give to a new group of volunteers interested in giving tours of the Blackman House Museum. Bev Leslie, Stacie Douglas, David and Shireen Peznecker, Harold Sweeney and Polly Roberts have signed on to explore the possibility of becoming a docent of our historic home; along with Trustee Marcia O'Hair who has been sharing weekend duties with me since February or so. Working with an outline of the Blackman Family history, members of the group will be encouraged to bring their own interests to the project about the history of early Snohomish. One three hour shift a month is all that's required time wise, plus attendance at our supper meetings held roughly every two months. Please contact me if you are interested in learning more about this unique opportunity to share your love of Snohomish.

No meeting in August -- it's tradition! Join us at the Picnic in Hill Park on August 24th, noon till dusk, for games, contests, prizes and music all day -- you bring the food!. Next Board Meeting is Wednesday September 10th at 7PM in the Waltz Building.

Cheers!

Warner Blake, President