Message from the President

From the AAVSO and particularly from the AAVSO director I have learned quite a lot about how a healthy organization functions. The delicate balance between the director and the board, and the equally delicate balance in a mix of amateurs and professionals, both are well illustrated by the AAVSO under the leadership of Janet Mattei. It is also evident that to keep amateurs in any field enthusiastically involved requires a deft and not-too-heavy hand on the part of the professionals, particularly those on staff who deal with the membership every day. At the same time, it is important for the organization to maintain its standing with the professionals, and this also requires political as well as scientific skill in the leadership positions. Volunteers are galvanized to contribute by an organization that makes it clear that their contributions are important and valued-as are those of the AAVSO observers and others who help the association run in many ways. Very similar requirements will be felt for our art center, and I am most appreciative of the example set by the AAVSO and its members (as well as by some successful art centers we have been visiting).

Going through the process of founding a new nonprofit corporation has also led me to an appreciation of what that involves. In particular, launching such a venture requires people of vision who are willing to stake time and resources on a future benefit. It is clear from the result that the founders of the AAVSO were such men and women of vision.

A current AAVSO member with an eye to both the past and the future has nudged us to launch a full-scale effort to preserve the historical archives of the AAVSO. The correspondence, minutes, and records of the early days of our organization will tell an interesting story, but that story is now scattered in fragile format among many dusty documents in the AAVSO basement. Over the next several years these documents will be unearthed, sorted, classified, scanned, and filed for future reference. By the time the project is done, historians (and people interested in founding similar organizations, perhaps?) will have a chance to look at the records of the early days of the AAVSO and understand where it came from and who we have to thank for its existence today.

- Lee Anne Willson

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