The President's Corner

As we say so long to 2025 and welcome in 2026, I’d like to remind everyone that on January 12th, at our Annual Potluck Supper, PHOC will elect new leadership for the upcoming year. I appreciate having had the opportunity to serve as president of the club. Though the people in an organization change, it stays strong over time through its principles, purpose, established systems, and, most importantly, the actions of its members. PHOC has continued to thrive, built on the efforts of talented and involved folks who have developed a solid structure and strong foundation for it. For this past year, I want to thank my fellow club officers, the PHOC Board, the committee heads and members, and all the outings coordinators and outing leaders for all of their contributions to the continued strength of PHOC. In this write-up, I want to specifically call out the efforts of Beverly Grier and Susan Slocum. Beverly and Susan took on the role of co-chairs of the club’s Social Committee in 2021. Every year since then they have organized and coordinated all of the club’s social  gatherings—a huge effort that has been a huge success. With the completion of December’s holiday party, Beverly and Susan have now stepped down as co-heads of the social committee; they are, however, continuing as social committee members and are helping with the transition to the new committee leads, Allison and Virginia. Thank you, Beverly and Susan. I also want to call out the efforts of the club’s VP (and nominee for president), Joan Heiss. Joan’s caring nature and seemingly endless positive energy are always on display in everything she does for the club. PHOC will be in good hands in 2026. Thanks to our January and February outings coordinator, Mark Prill, and to all the members who have volunteered to lead outings, we have a great lineup of activities for the winter months. Please consider starting your New Year off on the right (or left) foot and join us for the annual New Year’s Day hikes at Hanging Rock.  The winter months, in my mind, are a close second to the late fall in terms of providing terrific conditions for hiking. It may get a bit chilly, but layering up works, and remember all the positives: no yellow jackets, no ticks, no mosquitos, and the smaller crowds in the parks and on the trails. For any bureaucratic organization types, another positive is that winter hikes are about as far from corporate “intuition walks" as you can get! No one’s going to tell you to dive deeper and leverage your core competencies; or get the low hanging fruit and bring it to the table; or even to bring a synergistic approach to the deliverable. It’s all about being prepared and enjoying the stillness and the feeling of peacefulness that comes from being in the winter woods. OK, maybe I’ve gone a bit off-trail here, but you get the picture.

Please plan to attend the January potluck at Westminster Presbyterian Church.
Thank  you, Clare, for producing the Trailmarker. Once again, welcome to 2026 everyone; let’s all make a resolution to have fun out there. I hope to see you on the trail soon.

Happy Trails,

George Crouse
PHOC President
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