IATC member and past president Reed Taylor was recently given a great honor. Thirty-seven years ago, Reed was a founding member of the Buffalo Holocaust Resource Center, which has now formed the Summer Institute.  The institute's Executive Director, Drew Beiter shared with Reed's children the following message:

 My name is Drew Beiter. I serve as the Executive Director of the Summer Institute for Human Rights and Genocide Studies of Buffalo, an organization that your amazing father Reed has supported and taken part in as a Board Member and participant. I write you today to share the great news that given your dad’s immense influence on our lives, our Board of Directors has approved the "Reed Taylor Award for Excellence in Human Rights Education", which will be awarded annually to a teacher in the Buffalo area.  We’re delighted about this as we hope you are as well.
 
For the award's first year, we’d like to present it to him as its first recipient at our annual Conference for Educators. We expect to have roughly 150 teachers present, a great audience to celebrate your dad’s incredible legacy.

I congratulate Reed on this singular and well-deserved honor, a sentiment which I know is shared by all Reed’s many friends throughout Torch.
       
 
     While the agenda for the 2019 IATC Convention hosted by the Durham/Chapel Hill Torch Club is still evolving, you can find an overview in the most recent IATC newsletter, which should have landed in your e-mailbox on December 27.  See also www.torch19.org.

      The venue for the Convention is the beautiful Croasdaile Country Club, established fifty years ago and recently renovated. Set in a beautiful North Carolina country setting, the Croasdaile meeting and banquet facilities are at our disposal from June 20–23, 2019.

     Those planning their expenses for the Convention should note that the registration fee includes the dinner on Thursday evening, which kicks off the Convention, continental breakfast and lunch on Friday and Saturday, as well as Friday dinner and of course the very special Paxton Gala Banquet on Saturday. Thursday-Saturday will also feature networking receptions with cash bars before dinner.

     The tours are also included and feature the Duke Lemur Center, the Sarah P. Duke Gardens, and the North Carolina Museum of Art. Transportation will be provided for the tours as well as from the hotel to Croasdaile. We hope you will enjoy some of the free time on Friday and Saturday afternoon to explore the variety of sites nearby.
    
George Conklin
President