From President Norine Haas

    This is my last message as President to you, the Torch Club members in the United States and Canada!  The last two years evaporated as quickly as Maryland's three feet of snow did when the warm sun began to shine, and during that time, the Torch International Board has worked in earnest to plan for the long-term viability of the organization.
 
    You have already heard about the Century Project—a goal of 100 clubs and 5,000 members by the year of our Centennial in 2024, with the hope of developing a new club to host the centennial celebration in Minneapolis, where Torch began. This is ambitious, but doable in the next eight years if we all work together.

    As we plan for the future, we will also look in the rear view mirror.  A committee to plan the centennial will consider how best to highlight outstanding milestones of the hundred years of Torch history, and how to celebrate this major event in the life of Torch International.

    In February, the Board set goals to develop new clubs by urging established clubs to reach out to their communities to invite newcomers to join their ranks.  Each Regional Director suggested towns and small cities within a 50-mile radius of an established club where a cadre of candidates for a Torch Club might be found.  More than 30 locations were deemed possible sites for a new club, with one locality in each Region pinpointed for an effort to get a new club underway this year. 

    Materials and "how to" suggestions are available for this effort, and club "sparkplugs" may call Jim Coppinger for assistance if they have a bright idea for a club within the 50-mile radius of their club. Albany, NY club members Leo Kellogg, Dick Lynch and Diana Hinchcliff, new Region 1 Director, have done just this, and I will travel to Saratoga Springs on April 7th to present the charter to the new Saratoga Torch Club.

    The Board also urges clubs to create a website, if they don't already have one, and to consider social media to promote club programs and activities.  A Torch club is a marvelous asset in a community, and we have plans to provide media samples for clubs to use to make their presence known. Let the citizenry know that an organization still exists that provides a setting in which reasonable, intelligent people can learn together and have rational discussions that shed light rather than heat. See our new tagline below!

    We plan to archive the Torch papers from magazines in the earliest years, and another Torch Tour is on the drawing board.  All of these plans and others will be discussed further when we get together in Columbus, Ohio in June.
 
    Sadly, Region 5 Director Linda Jefferson, a past president of the Columbus Club, will not be with us.  Most unfortunately, she died in early February. She will be greatly missed by her fellow Board members, by Torch colleagues throughout Ohio and in her home club, and most of all by her family. 

    It has been my pleasure to have served as your president.  As Past President, I will continue to cheer you on as we work together to advance the cause of Torch!  Martin Luther King said, "Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase."  Let’s take some first steps together to create a bright future for our clubs. It will be fun!  And please use our new tagline wherever you can!  "Torch: A Forum for Reasoned Discourse."

My best to all, Norine