Email Archive: Meeting Report

Hi all,
Some of those interested in forming a non-profit organization devoted to advocacy of environmental issues in and around the North Fork American, met at the Dutch Flat Community Club on Monday evening. Thanks to some diligent telephone tag on the part of Catherine O’Riley, we expected seven people to attend, but were pleasantly surprised when fourteen people arrived.
Jim Ricker of Dutch Flat ably presided over the meeting. He astounded me by bringing along a folder containing his notes of the meeting we held in March of 2000, at Bob & Judy Suter’s house, in which we discussed forming a non-profit organization. Susan Prince of Dutch Flat used an amazing little folding keyboard attached to a Palm minicomputer to take notes.
I had envisioned reading aloud the text of six emails received from people interested in forming a non-profit, but unable to attend the meeting, but the opportunity never seemed to arise. Thanks nevertheless to those who offered support and suggestions, notably Michael McCormack, Tim Lasko, Tom McDonnell, Michael Joyce, Bill Newsom, and Evan Jones. Catherine and Jim did take the time to read these emails, at any rate.
Having established that those present were all in favor of forming an organization, and moreover a non-profit organization, we moved on to the initial issues of, first, what should the name be, and second, what should the “mission statement” of the organization be. We did little more than chalk up some possibilities on the old blackboard (the DF Community Club is the old DF school, which dates to 1898).
We scheduled another meeting for early May, on Monday the 6th, I believe. Suggestions as to a name are welcome. Since we intend to defend the wildness and beauty of the North Fork of the American river, the name should reference that. Immediately we have quite a mouthful of words and syllables. Hence a name which lends itself to a good acronym is desired; much as the group “Protect the American River Canyons” has the acronym “PARC” which of course sounds like “park.”
Incidentally, from an historic viewpoint, the phrase “American River Canyon” was taken to apply *only* to the North Fork canyon, *not* to any other branch of the American river. However, this point has been muddled over the course of time, and nowadays one often finds other forks of the American denoted as *the* American River Canyon. All this is only to say that a name which includes the phrase “American River Canyon” is susceptible to misinterpretation on the one hand, and confusion with PARC on the other.
The meeting went very well. Thanks to all who attended, and all who sent emails.
Cheers,



[The blog post above was extracted from an archive of Russell's emails to his "North Fork Trails" email distribution list.
Posted by Richard L. Towle (Russell's brother)]