The President's Corner

Over the last four decades the PHOC has benefited from the efforts of many dedicated members who have volunteered their time, energy, and talent to build a strong outings club. The result is an organization with a well-established governance structure and an outstanding framework for communicating with members. It's a pleasure to be involved with such an organization. I appreciate your allowing me to serve as president of the PHOC this year.

Thank you to our outgoing president, Glenn Davis, for all his time and efforts on behalf of the club. We will continue to benefit from Glenn’s leadership and involvement, as he will be on the PHOC board as immediate past president. Joan Heiss (vice president), Dale Dagenbach (secretary), and Vance Barron (treasurer) will serve the club as your officers for this PHOC calendar year (2/1/2025 to 2/1/2026). We have a terrific team of committee chairs for the year ahead: Clare Strayhorn for editing and publishing the Trailmarker, Shari Altman for communications and marketing, David Johnson for membership records, Tom Esker as Webmaster, Beverly Grier and Susan Slocum for social activities, and Larry Zang for the trails committee. In addition, five members have volunteered to organize hikes and outings for the 2025 issues of the Trailmarker in the role of outings coordinator: Ken Yates, Ruth Moss, Wayne Hale, Dave Johnson, and Vance Barron. Together this group represents decades of outing and club experience, which we are extremely fortunate to be the beneficiaries of.

Please note and take advantage of the program of hikes and outings presented in this and every Trailmarker; Clare does a great job putting together six issues every year. In addition, the PHOC Google Group email account is an important tool for broadcasting both planned and last-minute pickup hikes and outings. Hubert Latham and David Johnson use it to announce their ongoing weekday hikes, most of which occur within the Greensboro watershed.

Information on activities as well as information on the club as a whole can be found on the website, PHOC.club. The website is detailed and intuitive and a very helpful resource (thank you, Tom). Be sure to download the Wild Apricot app to have all the club information accessible on your mobile device.

There are many folks that have a hand in making the club a continued success, including all of our participants. If you are new to the club (or even if you've been with the club for years), please do not hesitate to ask a fellow member for information if you're uncertain about any aspect of the club. As new members participate in club activities, they can expect to meet an inviting and interesting group of people with diverse life experiences. I hope that each of you will consider leading hikes, organizing other activities, joining the social or trails committee, and serving as chairpersons and officers to contribute to the ongoing success of the club. I’m looking forward to
seeing you at one of the outings over the coming months. Happy trails.

George Crouse
PHOC President
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