District Nine Report, June 23, 2007

Presented to annual Wing Family of America meeting

District Nine of the Wing Family of America which now consists of Texas Wings held their 16th annual meeting in San Marcos at the Freeman Ranch.

The group was convened by our President Kevin Wing who introduced a special Guest from LaGrange, Texas, who in the uniform of the 1840’s acted as special greeter to the 41 in attendance. Martin Wing of the ill-fated Meir expedition in the early days of the Texas Republic had joined the group. He related his experience of drawing the last black bean and subsequently being shot. He noted that San Marcos was not too far from LaGrange where he and his compatriots are buried, so a visit to his Cousins seemed appropriate. Some of you may remember that he paid the Cape Cod gathering a similar visit.

Lois Wing Smith, the editor of the OWL addressed the group and covered items that are for sale as fund raisers. These included the Genealogy Book, The John Wing Sermons, The OWLs on CDs and the new Member directory. She also covered her efforts in collecting stories and information to make the OWL interesting to all. And we all agreed as to how well she succeeds in her efforts.

Lois also encouraged each member to help keep the local directory of Wings current by providing their information, data and add to our heritage by providing their family history to the Historian.

As a gesture of good will, she also provided gifts to reward the efforts of those who made this year’s meeting so successful.

I reported on the important things happening on the National Level, those things that Lois did not cover. Again this year we collected quite a donation of $235 for the Fort House Restoration from those attending. The District added $265 to make the total $500. I will present the checks to Steve Button today.

I brought attention to the effort that Toni Nash as our Webperson has put into the WFA website, literally transforming it into a historical source for updating the Family History. Having links to all the documents and information is a real asset to the members. A great thank you to Toni.

I also encouraged folks to join the Wing Family group where you can exchange e-mails with other members and stimulate lively discussions. We have several members of that group here today.

We then elected officers to serve next year with Mandi Wing as President and Betty Windle as Vice-Pres. Mary Nita Wing agreed to again serve as Secretary and I agreed to continue as Treasurer. Our meeting will again be at the Freeman Ranch in San Marcos on April 6. 2008.

Respectfully Submitted, Milton S. Wing, 9th District Rep.

2006 REPORT

The Ninth District, that now encompasses the Great State of Texas, held its annual meeting at the Freeman Ranch near San Marcos, Texas this past March. Our new President, Kevin Wing and wife Mandi were our host and hostess. Thirty-one attended the gathering. Caroline Wing, hostess of the first Texas reunion in 1990, was a welcome attendee. The main emphasis of the meeting was to inform the local membership of those items of most interest to the WFA National board of Directors.

Lois Smith, Editor of The OWL, and I as WFA District Representative, covered several of these items that included the following: 1) The Book - Wing Genealogy, Vol.1.; 2.) the revision of the WFA By-Laws; 3)Plans for the National Reunion in Sandwich; 4) The status of the publication and sale of the Sermons of Rev. John Wing by Higginson E-Books; 5) Reports of the National Reunion in Norfolk, VA hosted in 2005 by Warren Wing; 6) A discussion of the future Wing Fort House Repairs.

As a result of the needed Wing Fort House repairs, two gifts for the WFA Fort House Restoration Project were generated. The first gift was from the members assembled amounting to $125; the second gift was from our treasury as voted by the membership in the amount of $200.

No new officers were elected as we do that on alternate years as a result of the changes voted last year in our Texas Area By-Laws. It ws voted to have a fixed date each year (the Saturday after Easter) for our District Nine Texas reunions. So, next year on April 14th we will again meet in San Marcos, Texas. Ginger Wing Schmidt will chair a committee to set up the reunion dinner menu with food items provided by the families attending.

Note: At the National Reunion in Sandwich George Brennan, Staff Writer for the Cape Cod Times, interviewed both Lois and Milton. George Brennan's story "Family Ties" included the following quote from Milton - "I lived 50 miles apart from Lois in Maine and never knew it. Now I live 60 miles from her in Texas. We met at the 77th reunion and we've been friends ever since."