Greetings cousins! I hope a beautiful spring has sprung wherever you are! Here in Maryland, we never quite got a typical cold/snowy winter season. But now flowers and trees are blooming and leafing out everywhere to let us know time marches on and the season has changed. That means we are just over a month away from our special time of gathering together for the annual Wing Family reunion, June 22-25 in Merced. California - - here we come! Cyndy Doherty and Jeff Miller have a great time planned for us. More details are in this edition of the newsletter and on our website. I have my travel plans all set and hope to see you there as well.
With this edition of the newsletter our title has been established (“Window on the Wings”) as well as a new graphic. I thank our Communications Committee for their creativity on this.
The Museum Committee continues its hard work. The Curator and Assistant Curator are preparing the Fort House and Wing Family History Center for opening in mid-June. There will be a new exhibit focusing on Wing whaling history. In addition, we are hosting the Spring Hill History Day on June 17.
The WFA Board had its Spring meeting, via Zoom, on March 11. In addition to the many committee and officer reports shared there were a couple of bylaw amendments recommended to be presented to the membership. We are required to notify the membership of these proposed amendments. They will be presented for voting at our annual membership meeting on June 24. These bylaw revisions are printed separately in this newsletter and I ask that you please review them prior to the annual membership meeting.
Our Genealogist, Robert Wollan, has made several presentations to Districts to introduce them to the PAST (Personal Access to our Shared Tree) program. The goal of this program is to have our members access the WFA Ancestry tree to help review and submit updates to it. I encourage anyone who wants to help to email him (genealogist@wingfamily.org) and request an invitation to help review our tree.
It is the time of year when so many Districts are planning to have local reunions. I encourage you to attend these where possible. If you don’t know of a gathering planned for your area reach out to your District Representative. I know they’d love to hear suggestions and have help planning a get together!
Finally, PLEASE double check to see that you are up to date on your dues payment. The dues are an important income source to keep our organization running smoothly. You might consider converting from annual membership to life membership! And while you are at it encourage your cousins to join our wonderful WFA. Any help you can give will be greatly appreciated!
Hope to see you in Merced, CA in June!
Beth Fisher
Your ‘Cousin Prez’