This time last year, Grace Eckland was our President, and Board member Tom Ramsey was serving as interim Executive Director, while a search for a new full-time Director to replace Chris Goebel was underway. Rudy Raisin, and later Charles Coleman, led that search committee.

Also, Lynn Ketterhagen had just joined the staff in a full-time administrative position.

Last July, thanks to the initiative of Board member Steve Pope, we held our first successful Mai Tai No Tai Luau summer "Friend and Fund"-raiser at the Yacht Club

In October, in response to rapidly growing real estate development pressures around the lake, the Conservancy held a special meeting focusing on that issue, and we brought in Peter McKeever of Madison, a top conservation lawyer and former board member of the Land Trust Alliance (LTA), to help us look at all ways to address the development issue.

In November, Jim Celano was selected from among a slate of qualified finalists to become full time Executive Director. Jim was immediately dispatched, along with myself and Tom Ramsey, to participate in a fast-track learning experience, the national Conservation Conference in Providence, RI - a veritable college of conservation knowledge.

In December, the Conservancy and friends went formal for the traditional Holly Ball friend and fundraiser at Big Foot - another success, as a party and as a fundraiser.

Over the winter, the massive Geneva Ridge site southeast of Lake Geneva was annexed to the city, and plans began for its development. The Conservancy appeared before City Council meetings and ran ads communicating why the natural resources of the property should be conserved through responsible development.

In March, the Conservancy adopted a series of development guideposts and an action focus calendar, coming out of the October meeting. Also in March, Lynn was promoted to Land Protection Specialist, with the daunting initial task of updating all our existing conservation easement baseline studies to fully comply with the latest LTA Standards and Practices. And Katie Sullivan joined us as Administrator, rounding out our regular staff.

Somewhere around that time, Grace Eckland, having completed the hiring process for our new Executive Director, and overseeing the reorganization of our back office, passed the baton to me as president, and Charles Coleman was elected vice president, a key board position that had never before been filled. Charles also volunteered to chair fundraising, bringing new momentum to this vital effort. Tom Ramsey continues as Secretary/Treasurer. Tom Kabler also came onto the Board and Finance Committee.

This spring, we began a virtually endless series of meetings on development with officials from throughout the county, with Congressman Paul Ryan, State Senator Neal Kedzie, with developers and builders. The latest of those meetings was with Mayor Shepstone and two planning commission members from Lake Geneva, arranged by Conservancy Board member and LG city manager Dennis Jordan.

Also this spring, we found ourselves in the midst of a new and growing movement to preserve historic Yerkes Observatory and conserve its native lakefront and deep woods, in the face of pressure from its owner, the University of Chicago, to sell it for development as a spa hotel and housing complex. These efforts to save Yerkes are just moving beyond the warm-up stage.

Over the past six months, Grace Eckland with Jim's support, have made great progress in refreshing our easement arrangement at the Richard Driehaus estate, moving toward updating this as one of the most comprehensive conservation easements we have. This will be one of the sites that a group of conservation leaders from throughout the country will visit this October, when the LTA holds it national conference in nearby Madison.

In May, we benefited from the second successful Lake Walk for Conservation, sponsored by the Geneva Inn. And Sharon O'Brien organized volunteers this spring to do the beautiful landscaping that now surrounds the Mill House, despite the total chaos of road development that presently surrounds us. It's beautiful Sharon!

A few days ago, Katie re-launched our updated website and brought it in house so we can keep it fresh for all interested parties, and at virtually no cost! Thank you Katie.

Today, it looks like Black Point is moving forward toward preservation and we're beginning work on a conservation easement there. Jim today is presenting our summer development initiative plans. And I'll be discussing the progress the Board Development Committee is making to continue to strengthen our excellent Board.

And finally, we stand just about 2 weeks away from the summer's highlight, the 2nd Annual Mai-Tai No Tai party, on July 16th at the Yacht Club, this year featuring the mystical Hawaiian fire dancers, And Steve and Sharon, among others, are hard at work to make it a another even more fun and profitable luau.

And those are just SOME of the highlights. It's been quite a year, and another equally active and challenging year lies ahead for us all. Thank you to the Board, and especially all the committee heads and those who have taken leadership of various tasks, and to our many community volunteers and contributors for their dedication and great work. Thanks you all!

Charles Ebeling
GLC Chairman