President's Messages

President's Message
To the Board of Trustees
Holland Society of New York
December 13, 2007

I began thinking about our December 13th, 2007 Board of Trustees Meeting as I sat in the hard wood pew at Saint Thomas Church following our flag processional march to begin the Remembrance Service, Sunday November 11th in honour of "those who have given their lives and those who have served in the armed forces of our country and for the eighty-sixth annual flag service for the patriotic and historical societies" That is a mouthful, but the event captured my emotions as I read the words "O God, my heart is ready" on the Crest of the Church. I once again thought to myself, why am I here in New York City today representing the Holland Society of New York? In this beautiful venue, there were dozens of banners from the 1756 St. Andrew's Society to the United States Daughters of the War of 1812, each banner showing a significant scene or phrase of that period of that organizations' history in America. It is with great pride that I represent you all as President of Holland Society of New York at the various events and ceremonies that seem to come in droves during the Fall and Winter season in New York City as I know my answer more than ever before to that question that arose in my mind that Sunday afternoon that coincidentally began our own Dutch-American Heritage Celebration Week, 5 Dutch Days of New York.

It was quite a successful event-filled week of celebration I might add, many of the activities centered around our Dutch/American beginning history of New Amsterdam/New York City. As we all began arriving, our Executive Secretary, Hanny Veenendaal, had us booked at a private showing of the magnificent Age of Rembrandt exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and for a guided tour for our Holland Society members of over two hundred Rembrandt pieces and five of the twelve remaining in the world exquisite Vermeer paintings. I wish to again thank Hanny for all the work she did that week to benefit our Holland Society of New York.

Presidents Bromme Cole and Greg Outwater combined their respective New Amsterdam and Old Bergen County-Central New Jersey Branches to co-host an evening of jazz with Dutch saxophonist Ben van Gelder followed by hearty dinner in lower Manhattan, excellent opportunities for us all to meet as we settled into the City for the week.

Sunny Monday morning began at a kick-off event at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery where, in the shadow of Peter Stuyvesant's statue, we listened to our 2009 Hudson Celebration ally, Minister for European Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Frans Timmermans give a most amazing heartfelt speech about the importance of our continuing relationships between Holland and America, significance of the events that brought the Dutch to early America and a pledge that "Holland would be at the 2009 Party", bringing our organization that great news about leadership commitment and financial gifts from his country to support the event. I followed with my words about my connection to the "Old Country" from Borculo (my middle name) to the place a short walk away where our Dutch families began life in Nieuw Amsterdam, many on plats of land below the "Wall of the Fort Street". I pledged our efforts, as a organization to remain deeply involved in the Henry Hudson Celebration about to begin in 2009, including our efforts to assist with the restoration of that historic St. Mark's Church and other goals of providing a lasting legacy for New York long after the celebration is ended. Thank you once again 2009 Chairs Jim Van Wagner and Bromme Cole for the outstanding leadership you are providing our Holland Society as we approach the anniversary of that fateful day in 1609.

Monday evening, Holland Society's Dutch Days event was "on" with flawless execution by Banquet Chairman Stephen Wyckoff of our 2007 Medalist Banquet at the Union Club. After a reading of Mayor's Bloomberg's Proclamation of Dutch-American Heritage Day in New York City, our honoured guest, Ted Turner spoke on a variety of very important world topics following acceptance of his Holland Society Gold Medal. Again Mr. Timmermans delivered a very upbeat message from Holland to the close to 150 members and guests that filled the ballroom. The dinner event had a feeling of high energy I'm pleased to report and I received many very positive responses from attendees about that. Thank you very much Stephen and your Banquet and Distinguished Medalist Committees for your wonderful efforts on behalf of us all.

That night, 2009 membership pins were given by Membership Co-Chairman Dr. Robert Schenck to Minister Timmermans, new Consul General Gajus Scheltema, and two new Friends as Dr. Bob gave his updated announcement of our 2009 "500 by 400" Hudson Membership Drive for our organization. Our Membership Drive is in full gear following the series of meeting that began earlier this year. Ad Hoc Committee members including Dick Ten Eyck and Friend Martha VanDerbeek Unger as well as our Branch Presidents have been asked to become recently involved in the Execution of Chairman Patrick Van Pelt's Membership Action Plan. Please all of us of this Board of Trustees and Leaders give them our vote of confidence by doing our part to assist this very important 2009 Membership Drive including personally enrolling as prospective future members individuals we all know from our own circle of family and friends?

If you have been logging onto our Holland Society Website lately, you will notice the good work of Bob Banta and his Website Committee, as additions include Member Profiles, membership campaign tools and much more content about Society Events and Branch Activities than ever before posted. The added "rich" content has greatly increased traffic to our website and I wish to thank Bob Banta and his Committee for their behind the scenes work for Holland Society.

During the 5 Dutch Days week in November, Charles Zabriskie gave me a most upbeat report of the Henry Hudson Endowment Campaign, while we sat in the easy chairs at the Harvard Club, in the building directly across the street from our new headquarters on West 44th Street. Charlie requested my support for his intention to seek Board of Trustee approval tonight for an increase in the upper limit financial goals for Henry Hudson Endowment Campaign, a request by the Chair I endorse and urge you to also tonight. Once again I wish to thank Charlie and his Endowment Campaign members for hours of dedicated service to Holland Society. And once again I ask you to continue to support Mr. Zabriskie and Mr. Peter Van Dyke as they lead us in their important work to provide us the financial option to be as strong as we can be for the future good work of our organization.

The 5 Dutch Days ended on Saturday as Board of Trustees Member Courtney Haff lectured on the excellent work being done for the NAHC project, bringing the Castello Plan to life, in three dimensional presentation with assistance from funding for this project from our ally, the Collegiate Church in time for the 2009 Celebration. And later that day, our Wyckoff members conducted tours of the exciting Wyckoff/Durling rebuilding project in Brooklyn to officially end the week of events in NYC.

Finally, moving day has been set by David Nostrand and Charles Wendell. If you think you would like to personally thank all the members involved in this monumental task of physical moving of our headquarters office to 20 West 44th after decades at the last office address, I'm sure they will be there for "Moving Week". I report the new offices are breathtakingly beautiful and I hope you take a moment to thank our members Kenneth Barricklo, John O. Delamater, Adrian Bogart, Jr. and others as they finish their "pro-bono" professional work involved in creating that new space. It was very generous of them to give us these gifts of services and I am deeply appreciative for their work on behalf of our beloved Holland Society. About one future possible use of our new space, I would like to engage the Board of Trustees tonight in dialogue concerning a gift I received following a Wednesday 5 Dutch Days evening event at the New York Public Library. Just after our opportunity to "touch" the antique maps detailing our family plats in Nieuw Netherland, Society of Daughters of the Holland Dames Directress General Barbara Brinkley asked me about the possibility of granting them an opportunity to store their organization's flag and other regalia at our new offices on West 44th. We had a chance to speak at length about the opportunities to draw our organizations closer, and came from that meeting with a mutual promise to present it to our respective Board of Trustees. I plan to keep my promise to Directress General Brinkley as I have included discussion of this item in our Agenda tonight. Just in case we both succeed in our pledge to cooperate in this venture, we took a photograph of the passing of the flags in an attempt to capture this historic moment. I believe more than ever before, this is the time to come together more intimately with our sisters…the Daughters of the Holland Dames.

Once again as I did last Presidential Address, I end with a quote from a fellow member of our Holland Society. Bromme Cole wrote about his experiences as a member of this wonderful organization. "It is a cold, rainy Monday morning as I sit in my warm office and write these words. It is the kind of damp, cold day which is typical of a late New York autumn; it serves as a chilly reminder that winter is coming soon. There is also something about such a day that is perfect for reflection."

Bromme wrote "…the world today is changing at a pace of unprecedented speed. Amsterdam and New York, historical centers of tolerance and liberalism, find themselves at the center of profound (and global) societal, cultural and political questions. I find it curious, but not coincidental, that the issues with which we struggle today, cultural integration, religious tolerance and equal opportunity seem to be fundamentally related to those very issues which confronted a fledging outpost in the New World nearly 400 years ago."

He continued, "A great writer once said that history is a prologue to the future; therefore should we collectively meet our historical obligation for 2009 and look hard enough, we will see our reflection and glimpse at a possible future."

I could not agree more Bromme. As I sat in that "hard" St. Thomas pew earlier last month, I promised myself to try to accomplish good work while I am able to, in order to make that future a better place. I want to be proud of my work. Let us head for the anniversary of that fateful year in 1609 with a renewed invigoration to tell the Holland Society of New York story of our Dutch-inspired notions of good trade, good service to our community and families, and tolerance for others, and take this opportunity to do the work once again that is contained in our Charter of "preserving and presenting" our family history stories we all find so important in our lives; stories and events that were so influential in forming many of the founding principles of our great Nation. Oranje Boven!

Thank you for your support this year and for giving me this opportunity to lead this marvelous organization.

My best to you all this evening,
John Barcalow VanDerbeek IV
President, Holland Society of New York