President's Messages

Taking The Helm

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to serve this wonderful organization by allowing me to "take the helm" of this ship as your Captain.

My intent is to keep the ship steady as she plies the waterways into the young century, finding new, good wind to invigorate our sails as we continue our journey to build upon the excellent groundwork of programs by past membership lead by the three most recently past Presidents of our Holland Society including outreach to present membership as so ably promoted by Past President Wells Van Pelt, outreach to future leadership as so ably promoted by Past President Bill Van Winkle, and outreach to other heritage celebrating organizations of New York as so ably promoted by Past President Walton Van Winkle.

I am not interested in standing higher and speaking down to you, nor am I interested in becoming a titular Head of the Holland Society of New York. I am interested in leading by obtaining consensus using skills I learned working as a lobbyist to bring our opposite viewpoints to center in order for productive work to come forth from that center of our viewpoints rather than have each opposing side attempt to deconstruct the work of the other side.

In my hand, I carry my father's gavel, to open and close meetings, but also to remind me to honor him and my family, because that is the primary task we have upon our shoulders gentlemen. To this end, to honor our fathers, I will attempt to keep our members from polarizing on issues. We will instead haul our ship's sheets in unison, seeking a collaborative, not confrontational approach to problem solving.

We have a mission contained in our constitution. In his book "Centennial History", David Voorhees wrote the words, "to perpetuate the memory, foster and promote the principles and virtues of our Dutch ancestors". Out of respect alone for our forefathers, we must do diligent work to continue to support and promote those goals.

We have no extra time to disagree too long about issues.

We have no extra energy to expend as we continue to work to maintain the good goals of our HSNY.

We have work to be done gentlemen, to steer this wonderful ship of ours, HSNY, through the proper course into this young new century.

I call upon present leadership to do our best work and I promise mostly to listen as I lead because I realize our ship's crew today consists of some of the most able, experienced leaders I could ask for to help me navigate the proper course.

We also will have the opportunity to call to duty our newest, younger members of the ship. I'm speaking of people like Bromme Cole, elected by you today to lead the New Amsterdam Branch. and Patrick Van Pelt from Texas, Alex Simonson, Todd and Stephen Bogardus, Sean Palen, Greg Outwater , and our most recent young man to step forward to serve today, Stuart Van Winkle, Bill's very capable son.

It is very exciting to me to have these younger members turn to for service to our ship, not to replace existing leadership, but simply to invigorate us with their energy and ideas, and to prepare themselves to eventually take the helm.

I stand at the helm, with my wife just slightly behind me. She is accepting a supporting role in this organization as a Friend. I urge other members to ask wives and families to become engaged in supporting our membership through participation in events outside the boundaries of this City.

I wear my Father's rosette on my lapel next to mine. Wearing it reminds me to remember my ancestors and respect their great toleration of and cooperation with others in their community.

Therefore I wish to use the occasion of our first headquarters move in decades to increase our visibility and renew our efforts to offer our resources to others researching and celebrating our Dutch history of New York. Our architect, member Kenneth Barricklo, intentionally has designed our new space to provide us an opportunity to reintroduce our organization to others, and very generous contributions from members have been committed to provide our headquarters with a most modern, accessible and technologically advanced library possible. I support and will contribute personal funds to the task of updating our modes of communication and web connections and digitizing projects, in order to promote ease of accessibility to our resources and ease of communication amongst ourselves. As well, in this remodeled office space, we once again have the ability to host other genealogy groups like Holland Dames during events such as the very successful 5 Dutch Days of New York, with a fresh new facade on a most respectable street of New York City.

I also wear my Grandfather's ring on my finger. Wearing it reminds me to keep in mind always the importance of fiscal responsibility in my personal affairs. It is my intent to continue to support the tradition of fiscal responsibility for this organization.

I wish to thank Charles Zabriskie and his committee members for their countless hours of time creating a stronger endowment and Peter Van Dyke and members of the Finance Committee, and John E. Delamater and the others responsible for maintaining HSNY in a fiscally responsible manner. That goal is surely a sign of respect for our forefathers, as good financial management allows us to prepare our organization well for the future, and to continue to support those worthy programs of translation, research and heritage preservation projects.

My thank you to all who have contributed financially and otherwise to our organization. I encourage us all to continue to contribute the best way we are able whether it be financially or by gifting our skills and time resources to our fine organization.

It is my wish to use the opportunity of the 2009 Celebration of the voyage of Henry Hudson 400 years ago to once again give us a reason to remember our ancestors and celebrate the lives they began in New Amsterdam, up the valleys of the North River and the lands surrounding the South River, where they first ventured out from this island.

We have the opportunity to have a most visible leadership role in many of the fine programs, projects and celebrations for New Amsterdam and the communities of the Hudson River Valley. As the Halve Maen transports new explorers rediscovering the Henry Hudson River celebrating our Dutch history, I believe the ship will provide the means to outreach to potential new members who have not yet discovered the merits of joining our wonderful Dutch history organization, and to reaffirm to the citizens of New York the importance of the contributions of our early Dutch ancestors to beginning America.

We will take the entire year to once again remember how wonderfully blessed we are to have arrived at this most special destination in our lives.

Gentlemen, we are not very different than our ancestors. Our passions I am certain are similar…curiosity about the unknown future, service to society, importance of fiscal responsibility, respect for our past, and love of our family.

Our Dutch ancestors have always maintained the tradition of venturing forth to discover new worlds. I wish to begin this voyage into the New Century, ever vigilant of the dangerous waters of irrelevance, ennui and lack of purpose, to sail with passion to find opportunities to spread the word of our purpose of honoring our hard working family members who landed here in Manhattan close to 400 years ago in ships appropriately named Peace, Unity, The Crossed Heart, Hopewell and Fortune.

We shall, with good fortune, continue to do the good work of the Holland Society of New York forever if we have a deep-felt desire to respect our fathers and their fathers and their fathers.

Finally I believe we have a duty to preserve this ship of ours, an organization of men which has been so relevant in the past century. It is through our service to this organization that our beloved HSNY will survive well. I do believe most of us are convinced about the relevancy of our organization and are here today filled with pride to carry on this duty. With these things in mind, we cannot fail.

Thank you for your support. With your help, let us continue our journey's course. With honor I proudly take the helm.

John B. VanDerbeek IV
Holland Society of New York Annual Meeting
April 11, 2007