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Chair’s Report
July, 2014
Chair Tom Wheeler
For some time now I have been seeing the slogan ADK CARES on various mailings from ADK and have been oblivious to its meaning. There is the obvious warm fuzzy meaning which seemed nice but a little odd for a mountain club. But I never really thought about it beyond this. But now being chapter chair it seemed incumbent upon me to delve just a little deeper. The answer was easy to discover. CARES stands for the multifaceted efforts of ADK in Conservation, Advocacy, Recreation, Education, and Stewardship.
Our chapter as well engages in those multifaceted activities. Our Chapter CARES locally. As you review our newsletters, the reports of our vice chairs, and the outings schedule we can find aspects of each of these programs. You as members of the chapter can participate in each of these efforts or, if you wish, the programs which are most important to you.
I had the opportunity during the past month to have a conference call with ADK President John Gilowicz and several other chapter chairs. John arranged the call as part of his effort to inform the chapters of the direction of ADK in the coming years. He explained the process by which the club is implementing the strategic plan adopted last year. This plan has forty goals, but in implementation, the club is focusing on the ten most important goals. If one of those ten is accomplished, only then will there be focus on one of the remaining thirty. This seems an appropriate way to ensure that the club’s limited energies are not disbursed too broadly. One of the lessons I learned when I was on the Board was that there are always many more worthy projects than resources available. Being selective and working within available resources is one of the most important roles of club management.