Presidents Message

From President Rich Templin:

“The Good – The Bad – The Ugly”

As we close another year, I would like to give all of our membership an overview of your organization. Our organization is alive and doing well; not only were we successful at accomplishing many goals, many other areas are experiencing revitalization.

The Banquet was again a huge success thanks to the efforts of Judy Miller, Pat Zarfoss, Gail Langan, Frank Dorrittie and Bill McGrath. From the opening reception to the induction of the Class of 2017, through the closing remarks, everyone in attendance had a wonderful evening, one filled with renewing relationships and reliving memories with old friends, to developing new friends as well. It was a night to remember.

“The Good”

Induction Class of 2017 – Rick Morey and his committee once again did a wonderful job at presenting another great class of inductees. This task is never easy and as members, you should be proud that you take great pride in the voting process, with a response of 87% of our members voting.

A special thanks to Larry Hershman and Dan Rippon for their efforts to reestablish the electronic voting process.

Associate Membership – It’s with great pride that I thank both Bob Findley and Bob Bradley for their efforts to not only reconstruct the Associate Program with the induction of the class of 2017, the Associate Membership is now over 100 members. Based on the efforts of these individuals and your support the Scholarship Program can once again be available to the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame.

Website – We finally made it after many years of struggles. If you have not yet visited the site I encourage you to take the time to see what has been developed (www.wdchof.org). To preserve the continuance of this program we have engaged the services of an outside organization (Penny Lane) to support and enhance the project. Many hours of work and effort by Dan Rippon, Bob Zarfoss and the third-party vendor made the site what it is today.

Although Phase 1 of our website has been completed we have already started plans for Phase II Development and implementation.

Cruise – Bob Cardaneo has reported the cruise for 2018 has 50 people enrolled. This is an increase over the past couple years. However, out of the 50 people only 8 people are members of the Hall of Fame. This program is a major financial contributor to the Hall of Fame – so if you are considering a vacation in the future I encourage you to consider this as an option. Great times – good friendship and wonderful locations.

Officers Term Limit – The program has been formalized and the officer rotation process will begin in 2018. This process will ensure new ideas, new energy and continued growth of the organization.

Corporate Partners – This was the first time that our organization received financial support by corporate organizations for the induction of our members for the class of 2017. This effort would not have happened without the efforts of Frank Dorrittie and Ed Telecky.

“The Bad”

Scholarship Program – Took too long to reestablish. Although some contributions and associate membership fees were made, we had to rebuild the funds to support this program. To make sure this program is solid for the future a portion of the funds will be held in reserve and only monies/interest above this threshold will be awarded for scholarships. Only you, the membership, control the fate and success of this effort. Associate membership understand your yearly contributions go directly to the scholarship fund and are not used for the Hall of Fame operating budget.

Pay Pal Account – For some time we discussed this process as an option for payment of yearly contributions, banquet, cruise and other obligations. Finally, a test program was initiated at the 2017 banquet. The full program will be rolled out in 2018.

“The Ugly”

The ability to convince both the associates and regular members to financially support the efforts of the Hall of Fame.

All that has been and will be accomplished can only be done with your help – we all know it takes money to make necessary changes. Be helpful, do what you can, everything helps.

Communication – with the help of the new website hopefully information will be more readily available to you, the membership.

In closing – it’s been a great year. Help us continue this process. I thank all the board members for their support and efforts to make our organization one that you can be proud to be in its membership.

One member and his perseverance and effort to attend the Hall of Fame events stands out. WDCHOF member Larry Darch attended the Hall of Fame banquet after missing several years because of illness. Larry has been hospitalized for over 2 years. He said “it was great to see so many friends in attendance.”

We celebrate Larry’s improved health, and his making it to Rochester after two very difficult years. Let’s all not only be happy for Larry, happy to have seen him, but let’s use Larry as an example. Getting to our event should be every member’s goal.