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http://www.appalachiantrail.org/about/namechange.html
Blazing a New Chapter
An Open Letter to Our Members
The January-February issue of the Appalachian Trailway News will report on this in detail, but I wanted you to hear first, before it gets into the news, that your Board of Managers did decide at its fall meeting to change the name of our organization from Appalachian Trail Conference to Appalachian Trail Conservancy.
This historic decision was not made lightly. The vote was overwhelming: 23 to 1, with 1 abstention. And, in fact, this decision has been years in the making.
ATN readers will recall that, in two issues last year, we announced that, consistent with a new strategic plan adopted by your Board, we were considering such an important change to better position the organization for success in the years ahead. Since August 2004, we’ve received and published letters from members on both sides of the issue, all of which were considered in our thinking, along with some very important market research, the first we have undertaken.
Simply put, our new name—scheduled to take effect as we celebrate ATC’s 80th anniversary at our biennial meeting on July 4, 2005—is a much better fit for our responsibility to protect and promote one of the most biologically and culturally diverse units of the national park system.
Not only have we outgrown the name “Conference,” which originated in 1925 when the organization was primarily a coordinator of clubs, we’ve earned the right to proudly declare that we—all of us who work tirelessly to maintain the Trail’s pristine 2,174 miles from Maine to Georgia—are focused on preserving America’s premier hiking experience for the next 80 years.
Personally, I have never been more excited about the Trail’s future. I’ve been privileged to be an A.T. volunteer since 1980, and this year is my fourteenth on the Board of Managers. So, I’m very familiar, and comfortable, with ATC: its name, how it’s organized, and how it works. I do sympathize with members who might resist the name change. But, to achieve our vision of an enduring, protected special place that rings with the affection of those who maintain it, we must blaze this new chapter of the organization’s strong history together.
I invite you to join us in this exciting new journey, to help us honor A.T. heroes of the past three generations next year, and to help us inspire many more new ones.
Kineo Kid