VAF Initiatives 2013-2014 (adapted from
annual banquet comments)
by Chris Wilson, VAF President
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| Cocktails on the schooner Meerwald at the end of the Bayshore tour |
Each of us who were able to attend the wonderful annual conference
in New Jersey has our favorite tour stops and memories. My own favorite was the
reception and dinner on the Thursday Bayshore tour at the Bivalve wharves and oyster
shipping sheds. What a great historic setting with the evening light shimmering
off the water and the easy conviviality among VAF members and the dedicated
volunteers there, who have preserved the wharves and the oyster schooner
Meerwald. Our thanks for many such memories goes to all of the members of the
conference organizing committee, especially to its chair, Janet Foster, and to our
co-sponsors at The Richard Stockton College.
The papers committee--Chair, Jennifer Cousineau, Jeff Klee and Andrew Sandoval-Strauz--also played a pivotal role in shaping the intellectual content of the conference. The VAF continued its support for young scholars by awarding Ambassador Fellowships to support the attendance of student delegations from the SUNY Cooperstown Grad Center, the University of Delaware, George Washington University and McGill University. In addition, Simpson Fellowship supported the conference expenses of 13 students and young professionals who delivered papers.
In recent years, the Second Vice President has taken the lead in fostering upcoming conferences. Over the past six years, Second VP Marcia Miller has worked with local organizers on a series of memorable conferences at Washington DC; Falmouth, Jamaica; Madison, Wisconsin; Gaspe, Quebec; in south Jersey, and on next year’s Chicago conference. In-coming Second VP, Jeff Klee, will continue this important conference development work.
Our distinctive, tour-heavy conferences are central to our organizational identity, but the VAF is also increasingly known for the engaging writing in our journal, Buildings & Landscapes, with its geographic breadth and intellectual depth. The journal’s growing reputation is due to clear-sighted, hard work of co-editors, Marta Gutman and Cindy Faulk, and book review editor Andrew Sandoval-Strauz.
Of course, our on-line profile has also grown in recent years, notably in our graphically appealing, content rich website. Susan Garfinkel--who has arguably contributed more than anyone to the maturation of the website--stepped down after 6 and one-half years as co-editor this past November. Over the past year, David Bergstone has been indispensible not only in his role as the continuing co-editor of the website, but also for his work with the transition to our new Wild Apricot platform. During this past year, the education committee under its chair, Sarah Fayen Scarlett, has also revitalized the online syllabi section of the website, and has begun to develop PowerPoint presentations on various subjects for use by educators.
The VAF has seen a gradual decline of membership over the past couple years, and the board has responded by establishing a Membership Committee to develop a strategy for rebuilding membership. One key step has been to establish a Wild Apricot account, which allows us to handle memberships on-line, to send renewal notices electronically, to identify and recruit interested non-members, to distribute our newsletter, to handle conference registration on-line, and much more. Membership committee chair Wendy Ward, along with David Bergstone, Christine Henry, and Gabrielle Lanier took the lead in this transition to Wild Apricot.
The Vernacular Architecture News (VAN)--as you know from reading this issue on your computer--has gone digital under its new editor, Christine Henry. She will continue to distribute quarterly issues of VAN through email, along with such occasional special issues as this past and up-coming conference issue, and, early in the spring, a directory to summer field schools.
Out-going board members--Michael
Chiarappa, Jennifer Cousineau, Elaine Jackson-Retondo, Virginia Price, and Aaron
Wunsch—each made numerous contributions on various projects during their three-year
terms. First Vice President, Clair Dempsey, served as an indispensible advisor
and sounding board for me this past year, while also chairing the nominating
committee, and preparing new orientation materials for the incoming board
members.
Don Linebaugh completed his second five-year term as treasurer at the New Jersey conference. In addition to the substantial work of tracking our finances and managing our investments, Don has provided continuity through five VAF presidents. I owe him a particular debt of thanks for his steadying advice as I got my feet under me as president. Lisa Davidson, of the Historic American Buildings Survey, who played a leading role in the organization of the Washington D.C. conference in 2010, has taken over as VAF Treasurer.
The Vernacular Architecture Forum is an all-volunteer organization, without any paid staff. We depend on the generous contributions of time and intelligence from members, board members and officers such as those I have mentioned. Thank you to everyone for your contributions, which make this a vibrant and dynamic organization.
