As the year draws closer to its end, it seems like a good time to look back on what we have been doing since assuming the GPA’s first co-presidency in June, as well as to tell you our vision for the GPA in the years ahead. That vision combines equal parts of getting back to basics by reviving traditions that have lapsed in recent years, as well as initiating what we think will be innovative, new departures for GPA in the year ahead, as we seek to broaden its visibility in the wider Guilford community and to promote better understanding of the importance of preservation values to the health of our community’s economy, environment and legacy of historic homes and house museums.
With regard to getting back to basics, Judie Fine has agreed to assume the important responsibility of being GPA’s official Records Manager. Meeting throughout August with Shirley Girioni, Judie has begun to systematize and create filing categories for GPA’s archives and working documents at our office space in the Guilford Savings Bank annex building on Boston Street so that all of our extensive records will be physically located in one secure space and arranged to provide easy access to members. This is a major organizational undertaking and we are grateful to Judie for agreeing to take over the systematizing and maintenance of GPA’s always-expanding records and document files. If any former board members are in possession of such GPA archival documents, please send them along to Judie.
With this publication we are reviving our annual newsletter so that our membership can have an at least once-yearly update on all of GPA’s many activities and projects, particularly as the scope of those activities and its collaborative involvement with other town organizations has grown markedly in recent years. Until now, that function has solely fallen to the efforts of board member Sharon Olson who continues to serve as GPA’s webmaster from Lawrenceville, New Jersey.
Our new board member, Jan Maiale, has provided invaluable services during the first year of her involvement with GPA’s Heritage Tourism Initiative as its Publicity Chair, making sure that members of the general public have timely notice of HTI-related events and workshops. But the annual newsletter is the one place where all of GPA’s many other activities and undertakings can be showcased. Board member Ellie Green has agreed to take responsibility as Newsletter Chair for coordinating its re-launching with this issue, with considerable input from other board members whose articles appear herein, a considerable effort for which we are hugely grateful, particularly as she adds it to her already generous contribution of time as Membership Chair.
Another important GPA institution which we are looking forward to reviving is the annual preservation awards event under the leadership of board members Joe Nugent and Walter Corbiere. That event, which has not been held now for quite a number of years, is an important event linking GPA both to its existing members, as well as to members of the general public, whose efforts to promote preservation values by restoring historic structures or landscapes, or by educating us about the history of our town, enhances the quality of life for us all in Guilford. We look forward to reintroducing our annual awards event in the spring of 2014 and hope that it will provide yet another wonderful event to celebrate Guilford’s 375th anniversary from a preservation perspective. We are also moving forward to complete the inventory of architecturally significant structures begun in 2005 by applying to SHPO for a grant to accomplish that work.
In addition to the above, we also look forward in the year ahead to pursuing several innovative initiatives to broaden GPA’s visibility in the community and to encourage more young people to become interested in preservation work. One such initiative would be to actively recruit one or two board members each year from the GHS junior and senior classes so that their perspectives on what local preservation issues should be addressed can be brought into the mix and their skills as future preservation leaders be developed through board membership and participation. The demonstrated interest of students from those high school years has already been made evident by the success of the Historic Walking Tours and we might look to that cadre of enthusiastic tour leaders to recruit our youth board members.
Another potential initiative that might also be pursued in the coming year would be to create better linkages between our traditional preservation efforts focusing on town history and historic architecture and those efforts by our peers active in preserving Guilford’s natural environment by creating preservation-themed hikes through Guilford’s protected open spaces and along its numerous trails. Those open spaces and forests and trails pass through and near numerous sites with historic resonances and affiliations with Guilford’s past history. Connecting those natural resources with their historic backgrounds could do much to deepen the experience of both and bring more people into our preservation efforts in future years. An inaugural “History Hike” is already under development for the coming spring.
As you can already see from the foregoing, GPA is a dynamic, growing force for preservation in our town. We look forward to the contributions of energy and ideas from all of you, our members, in the year ahead and encourage you to become active in our many worthwhile undertakings so that preservation of our remarkable community will continue in the years ahead. Please donate generously to our work by renewing your membership and considering a designated gift as well.
With all best wishes,
Rob and Shirley
