Finger Lakes Trail Conference Gets New Headquarters

April 9, 2001
by Irene Szabo, President, FLTC
reprinted from the FLTC News, with permission

Progress toward the first public office and paid staff of the Finger Lakes Trail Conference is galloping at a pace now so merrily fast that new becomes old even as I type. Your Board of Manager spent the weekend of January 20 working hard on transition plans during our annual winter retreat-only a week before I write this- but already we need an updated newsletter for the board members! And by the time the newsletter reaches all of you, we should have begun interior flourishes on our new office with a view to the south across the yellow blazes of the Letchworth Branch of the FLT. Our lease of the old manager's house at Mt. Morris Dam from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should be in effect, a small committee should be shopping for some of our needed office equipment while others work on transferring our databases and files or plan the actual Awesome Day of Moving Vans (and wagons, goat carts, shopping bags, and backpacks).

Back at our November board meeting there was an excellent and overdue motion passed to name Howard Beye our official executive director, thereby doubling his usual salary of absolutely nothing but honoring him, at last, for what his volunteer job had grown into over the years anyway. However, a key feature of this upcoming transition is that Howard wants to "retire" to being the trails chairman only, still a major job of coordination and paperwork that approaches abuse of his good will by the rest of us. So that part of the trail conference function will remain in the office of Howard and Dorothy Beye's basement, smushed between furnace and washing machine, while the rest will be moved to our new location in Mt. Morris.

We have already asked faithful office volunteer Gert Hauck to manage the new office on a very part-time basis (as long as she'll still volunteer to receive member renewals!), to "be Dorothy" as Gert herself said. Moreover, we are deeply into the process of hiring a part-time executive director to be "the rest of Howard" and even more, as the FLTC continues to grow into the roles required. Our anticipation as of late January was that we will introduce that new person as well as Gert at the FLTC annual membership meeting on May 5. Work has begun also on a before-and-after video presentation of both the old and new offices, narrated by Dotty Beye herself, so prepare to weep with laughter at this One-Time-Only Historic Memento.

The board is confident enough to proceed with these plans, all of which cost money not covered by our normal annual budget supported by dues and sales of maps, first and foremost because of the generosity of our membership. In early December an appeal letter was sent out to all members, explaining our plans and the prospect of the amazing low-cost office lease at the Mt. Morris Dam, which is why the latter is complete news to the rest of our March newsletter recipients- permitting landowners, public officials, and public land agency partners. Our members responded favorably to a degree seldom seen- over 20 percent- which has enabled the Board of Managers to continue this brave trek toward our future organizational health. Meanwhile, a half dozen other sources of funding are being cultivated simultaneously by a host of hard-working volunteers in order to avoid making the appeal a literally annual event.

Best of all, the FLTC plans a grand opening for our new headquarters on June 2, National Trails Day, a perfect time for us to gather for a public celebration. Happy details to follow, and we do have so much fun stuff to share. Save the date.