President's Messages
President's Message
To the Board of Trustees
Holland Society of New York
June 12, 2008
As the Board of Trustees and the Branch Presidents of the Holland Society of New York gather together at the start of the summer in New York City, we have much to celebrate, and continuing challenges to face.
We can surely celebrate the events of April 2nd and 3rd, 2008, as we dedicated the new library and headquarters and conducted our first Memorial Service of our organization at 20 W. 44th Street during Tulip Night, a joint function of the New Amsterdam and Old Bergen County/Central New Jersey Branches. During this delightful evening, we again recognized the efforts of the many individuals who made the move possible and were treated to a program which included artist Len Tantillo with prints of his scenes of 17th century New Amsterdam, authors David and John Major and Firth Fabend who presented their new books to the library, and many guests from our own organization and other heritage celebrating organizations who enjoyed seeing our impressive new space and partaking of the Dutch beer, wine, and food. The evening was a benefit for Five Dutch Days which this year will be November 12-16. Following this event, a gift was received from Trustee Peter Van Dyke for the entire expenses of the event, so we were able to give a substantial gift to the supported organization. A second very generous gift from Peter was received by the Society for purchase of office equipment to support our administrative work. As he is here tonight, I wish to thank him personally for those unexpected gifts. And for the organizing and execution of the historic event and their financial donations, I thank Bromme Cole, Greg Outwater, and Diane VanDerbeek. Finally a hearty thank you to our Executive Secretary, Hanny Veenendaal, for staying at the center of this and many events at the new offices.
As the last items on the punch list of items is completed for our beautiful new headquarters, I would like to happily notify you as an order of business later tonight a settlement of a construction claim favorable to the Society. I do thank John O. Delamater, Kenneth Barricklo and David Nostrand for completing the details and negotiations involved in that settlement.
If any of you have not yet been to see the new library and headquarters, I would encourage you to do so. The new location is very convenient to Grand Central Station on 44th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues. The library is designed to encourage mingling and relaxing. My thank you to our Trustee Joseph Hoagland and his wife Norma for making a substantial gift of additional furniture and for the commissioning of original artwork for the new space.
I would like to again tonight congratulate the latest recipient of our Holland Society Gold Medal for distinguished service to the Society, as I was very honored to have placed the medal upon the shoulders of Past President Bill Van Winkle to honor him for a number of years of very involved work on behalf of us all, including in my case, urging me to assume a bit of the leadership responsibility for this organization. It was a joyous occasion with Bill's family present to share in the celebration.
My heartfelt thank you to a number of our leaders traveling from all parts of America to attend this special annual meeting of invitees, our Branch Presidents. As you are aware, very important work of our organization takes place outside New York City, with Branch Presidents assuming that responsibility for connecting with the membership and conducting the business of Holland Society for us. And I am so pleased to preside over the events of this week honoring our Branch Presidents for their commitment to our organization. Give them your personal thank you following our Board of Trustees Meeting tonight, or tomorrow during the Branch President's Sailing Challenge at beautiful Seawanhawka Yacht Club on Centre Island, and listen to what they have to say about the good, bad and otherwise concerning our organization.
Since I last spoke to you, Diane and I have attended branch meetings for the Pacific Northwest, Florida, Virginia and the Carolinas, Rocky Mountain, Mid-West, Old Bergen County, Central New Jersey branches, and two meetings of the Niagara Frontier Branch.
The importance of our branches cannot be underestimated. While our ancestor's homes were concentrated on the east coast and in New Amsterdam, currently our membership spreads all across the United States, Canada and the world. In order for our organization to remain strong and to grow, our members must feel a connection with their own branch and their Branch Presidents. Branch events are critical to this feeling of connection. The recent highly successful survey prepared and presented by Membership Committee Co-Chairs Patrick Van Pelt, (also Texas Branch President) and Dr. Robert Schenck, (also Mid-West Branch President) illustrated quite clearly that our members and friends are very interested in branch activities. From my perspective, it is the branch activities that make our organization strong. As you know, Branch Presidents are expected to organize a minimum of one branch event per year. Most branch presidents more than meet this requirement. We visited
Cape Cod with the New England branch where Charlie Zabriskie organized a wonderful branch meeting that included four generations of the Van Voorhis family. Jim VanBlarcom of the Virginia Carolinas branch and his lovely wife, Leigh, planned a fabulous weekend meeting this year which included the Azalea Festival in Norfolk, Virginia which honored the Netherlands. We were delighted to be invited to a tour of the Dutch Navy Ship "Amsterdam." It was our third Virginia Carolinas branch meeting and it was wonderful to see old friends and meet new friends at a series of events which kept us busy all weekend.
Dick Ten Eyck gathered his geographically diverse Rocky Mountain branch at a lovely dinner meeting near Denver, Colorado which featured Holland Society Fellow Joyce Goodfriend. We enjoyed a wine and cheese tasting and dinner following at a Pacific Northwest branch meeting arranged by new Branch President Edwin Outwater, and will tour Oregon wine country with this branch in September. Dr. Bob Schenck arranged an outing to the famous Adler Planetarium in Chicago where we saw ancient navigation and astronomy equipment and heard a lecture about how Henry Hudson and other explorers in the 17th century used the stars to navigate to previously unknown locations in the new world. We took a break from winter weather in the Pacific Northwest to attend a luncheon for the Florida branch. This Fall, we will attend a Texas Branch event when I speak at the Texas Conference of Heritage Societies in November. Tomorrow, many of us will attend the Branch President's Sailing Challenge, ably organized this year by Stuart VanWinkle, Jersey Shore Branch President, and Bill Snedeker, Long Island Branch President.
Yet, despite all of this branch activity, we have a number of members who still do not feel a strong connection with their branch, and several branch presidents who are not fulfilling their responsibility to arrange branch events. I equate this activity with an analogy that my wife tells me about her rowing team. She says that even one person on the eight person team shifting her weight incorrectly or missing a stroke can throw off the timing of the entire rowing shell. Likewise, even one Branch President failing to arrange a branch event or connecting with members could have a discouraging impact on member participation. I encourage each branch president to fully participate in the organization by arranging branch events and by remaining in contact with the members of their branch. It is only through strong branch activities that we can continue to grow and prosper.
Branch Presidents should not serve "in name only." If, for whatever reason, Branch Presidents who are currently serving are unable to organize branch activities they have two choices. One is to find another branch Member or Friend to assist in organizing events. A good example of finding assistance is the Florida branch. Holland Society Past President and long time Florida branch president Roland Bogardus does not use e-mail communication. However, this form of communication is not only vital to our membership, it is increasingly the preferred form of communication and is certainly a much more environmentally friendly and quicker communication form. Therefore, he has arranged for assistance from Christine Snedaker, wife of long time Florida branch member Frank Snedaker, to serve as communications coordinator and send out e-mail messages as may be necessary to the Florida branch. Christine's simple act of stepping forward will hopefully go a long way in increasing the connection that Florida members feel with one of our largest branches. This is just one example of how a Branch President can obtain assistance if necessary.
The second choice that a Branch President has is to communicate with me or with Chairman of the Branch Committee Donald "Rip" Van Riper and let us know that he needs help in arranging activities. Many people are always willing to help in any way possible. Failure to participate in arranging branch events is not acceptable.
I encourage all Branch Presidents who are in New York for this meeting to spend time talking with me and/or Donald "Rip" Van Riper about what activities you are planning for the remainder of this year and next, and consider staging your 2009 Branch Meeting next year in New York in conjunction with an event we will celebrate for the 400th Celebration of Henry Hudson's arrival in the new World.
Our Hudson 400 Membership Drive is wildly successful. As a result of the membership survey, our hard working Membership Committee is tracking up to 120 new members and friends. Thanks go to Patrick Van Pelt and Dr. Robert Schenck, Texas and Mid-West Branch Presidents and Co-Chairs of the Membership Committee for traveling to New York tonight to deliver reports of their work, and to the Membership "Henry Hudson 2009" Committee members, John Fitzgerald, Dick Ten Eyck, Jill Jasso, Friend Martha "Muffy" Unger and Lisa Lasher. Thank you also, to the members of the Genealogy Committee, Chaired by David Riker and Co-Chaired by Colin Lazier and Aims and Purposes Committee Chaired by David Nostrand, as the membership drive has increased their work load of considering the candidates for membership into our organization. Soon, a short Legacy application will be available to download on our website so that potential new members who are qualified as legacies will have their membership application process simplified.
Our Capital Campaign has expanded into the branches and we have increased the fund raising goal. Between our meetings at the Union Club, there is no member who corresponds more with the members than Charles Zabriskie. My continuing thanks go to New England Branch President and Chair of the Capital Campaign for his substantial commitment of resources and for assuming the substantial costs of this most successful fundraising effort. I encourage all of you to give generously to the Capital Campaign in order to support our organization's future.
Dozens of gifts are received each month outside the Capital Campaign as well for the work of the Society in association with scholars and colleges, as the translating of the documents detailing the history of New Netherland and our families continues. I would like to acknowledge tonight a very substantial gift to this end from Trustee Robert G. Goelet and thank him very much for his long-standing commitment to our organization.
Arrangements are continuing for the 2009 celebration, and as part of the 2009 celebration Ed Outwater has undertaken the "RAPP" initiative - Records Access Preservation Project, an ambitious plan to preserve New York's first records so that they will still be available for others to study and enjoy for generations to come. The RAPP project is arranging for private funding to preserve the records, and we are working cooperatively with the Collegiate Church on this new initiative. My sincere thanks go to Ed for conceiving this project and initiating execution of it beginning this month and continuing for many years. What a benefit to have a person of Ed's experience to head up such a significant project.
I encourage all Branch Presidents to begin to plan branch activities in New York during 2009 for the 400th anniversary celebration. Dates for specific events are still being coordinated, and our newly re-designed website has a tentative calendar of events, many of which are still in the planning stages. We are looking forward to a visit from Queen Beatrix during the year, and to a symposium on Governor's Island lead by the Prince of Orange addressing such important world events as global warming, environment issues and immigration. If members of your branch do not usually attend our Fall banquet, they should plan to do so either this year or in 2009 when we are planning a joint banquet with the Netherlands America Foundation. Each of our Branch Presidents must undertake the responsibility of making sure that each member of their branch understands the significance of the 2009 celebration and ensuring a high level of branch participation in this once in a lifetime celebration.
As we approach 2009, the significance of the 400th anniversary celebration and the fact that we are living during this exciting time thus enabling us to participate can be realized by looking back 100 years to the 300th anniversary celebration in 1909. The earliest suggestion of a Celebration of the Hudson: Ter-centenary appears to have been made by the late Rev. J. H. Suydam, of Rhinebeck, N. Y., who, in a letter printed in the New York Tribune July 31, 1893, commenting on the Columbian celebration, proposed the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the discovery of the Hudson River in 1909. He inquired: "Will such organizations as the St. Nicholas Society or the Holland Society of New York deem this of sufficient importance to begin the agitation?"
The records of the Holland Society, eight years later, contain the following minutes:
"At a stated meeting of the Trustees of The Holland Society, June 13, 1901, the Secretary (Theodore M. Banta) called attention to the fact that the 300th anniversary of the discovery of the Hudson River by Hendrick Hudson will occur in the year 1909 - and offered the following preamble and resolution which were adopted:
Whereas the three hundredth anniversary of the discovery of the Hudson River by a Dutch ship under the command of Captain Hendrick Hudson will occur in September, 1909, and it is eminently fitting that the tri-centennial of that momentous event in our history should be celebrated in a suitable manner, therefore
Resolved, That the President of this Society be requested to appoint a Committee to take into consideration and report as to the best mode of enlisting the sympathy and securing the co-operation of all citizens of the State and of the country in a suitable commemoration of the ter-centenary of the discovery of the Hudson River.''
The President appointed as such a Committee the following gentlemen: Augustus Van Wyck, Warner Van Norden, Theodore M. Banta, Robert B. Roosevelt, Henry Van Dyke.
Ninety seven years later, we appointed Bromme Cole (Branch President of New Amsterdam) and Jim Van Wagner to lead the efforts of the Holland Society of New York in the 400th anniversary celebration. They have undertaken considerable effort in working with local and state officials, the Dutch government and many other heritage celebrating organizations to organize this historic celebration. I encourage each of your participation in the events next year and urge your support of Bromme and Jim's efforts. Once again, we are arranging for the "agitation" as our society called the 300th anniversary celebration, and with pride we can look to next year when we will again have the opportunity to remind the world of the importance of our Dutch ancestors in the discovery of New York.
I have committed much of this speech towards words concerning our Branch Presidents. I am thankful for such a cadre of interested, experienced, and able leaders conducting our Holland Society business in America. Please allow us to help you in any way we can to assist you with successful leadership of the Branches.
In closing, let me once again thank the membership for re-electing me in April of this year. I will continue to endeavor to honor our ancestors as we approach the 400th anniversary of the landing of Henry Hudson, on the fateful day when our family stories began.
My best to you tonight,
John Barcalow VanDerbeek IV
President, Holland Society of New York
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