An entertainment in Vauxhall Gardens in c.1779 by Thomas Rowlandson. (1)
"My idea of good company, Mr. Elliot, is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company." Anne Elliot in Persuasion ch. 16
As mentioned in the welcoming post the Rochester and Syracuse regions are now one region of JASNA. Hopefully, this will make the administration of the regions easier. The great programs and good company will definitely continue. Below is the text of Marie Sprayberry's message to members about the merger.
An Important Announcement for Members and Friends of the
JASNA Rochester and JASNA Syracuse Regions
At the JASNA Annual General Meeting in Montreal in October 2014,
JASNA’s North American Board of Directors made two decisions on new by-laws
directly affecting our Regions:
( 1) Term limits have been set for Regional
Coordinators, who now cannot serve more than three consecutive two-year terms
(a total of six consecutive years). As of Midsummer 2015, A. Marie Sprayberry
and Lisa Brown will have reached the six-year limit for JASNA Syracuse, and
Celia Easton will have completed over ten years of service for JASNA Rochester.
Moreover, both Marie and Celia would like to step down as RCs for personal
reasons at this point. And there is no clear successor to Marie and Lisa in JASNA
Syracuse.
( 2) From now on, a new Region cannot be founded whose
central city is within a two-hour drive of the central city of another Region.
Under this new by-law, JASNA Syracuse would not have been considered for
independent Region status.
The Rochester and Syracuse RCs have been discussing what to do ever
since. Under the circumstances, it seems to us that the best thing to do is to
merge the present Rochester and Syracuse Regions into a new Region. The JASNA
North American leadership has approved the merger. Our current choice for the
new Region’s name is JASNA Central and Western New York (CWNY).
Since Lisa Brown is only two years into her current service as
Rochester’s co-RC, we propose that she become the new RC for the combined
Region, for at least the next two years. Lisa will be assisted by an Executive
Committee consisting of Celia, Marie, Christopher Cassidy (who will be the “blogmaster”
for the new Region’s blog), and others to be determined later—including, we
hope, some current JASNA Rochester member(s) from the Buffalo area. Any current
JASNA Syracuse or JASNA Rochester members who would like to serve on the
Executive Committee in some capacity should contact Lisa or Marie. In
particular, we are hoping that someone will volunteer to serve as Lisa’s co-RC,
in order to “learn the ropes” of becoming Lisa’s eventual successor.
Meetings will be held primarily in Rochester’s current regular meeting
place (the Pittsford Barnes & Noble). Marie plans to continue with meetings
at Liverpool in the Syracuse area, as well as at Binghamton and Hamilton, but
will probably cut her schedule back to four meetings a year. We are also
hopeful that one or more Buffalo-area members might be willing to hold occasional
meetings there.
Regional dues: JASNA Syracuse has not charged regional dues (in
addition to the annual fee for North American JASNA membership) since 2009, but
JASNA Rochester has traditionally charged a modest $5 a year to cover
incidental costs at the local level. The plan is to continue this very
reasonable charge for the combined Region, for those who participate in
local-level events.
1. "Thomas Rowlandson - Vaux-Hall - Dr. Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith, Mary Robinson, et al" by Thomas Rowlandson - This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID ppmsca.05671. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Rowlandson_-_Vaux-Hall_-_Dr._Johnson,_Oliver_Goldsmith,_Mary_Robinson,_et_al.jpg#/media/File:Thomas_Rowlandson_-_Vaux-Hall_-_Dr._Johnson,_Oliver_Goldsmith,_Mary_Robinson,_et_al.jpg
