When the Board first started thinking about our 30th Anniversary/Annual Meeting celebration back last October, it was agreed that it would be a wonderful idea to put together some sort of history of WID/C3 and to honor the past presidents and leaders who created and sustained the group through the years. We knew that Louise Tessing, Maret Thorpe, and Carolyn Aronson, among others, had arranged to have our official papers archived at UIC, an important and thoughtful effort that ensured our history would be preserved and accessible.

So Susan Marx and I took on what we thought at the time would be a relatively simple task of putting something together using the archived records and asking for input from our past presidents and members. Of course nothing is ever as simple as it appears at concept stage, and it became a kind of mission for us to find current contact information for our past presidents and to solicit their help, and to comb through the rather disorganized 30-some boxes of papers, lists, minutes, invitations, notes, etc. stored on several carts at the Archives, to dig out and date and put in some sort of accessible order the materials we discovered, and then to figure out how to present what we selected.

Along the way, we found the process fascinating, if frustrating (the archives will of course not let you remove anything, and the only way documents or images are captured is by photocopies, which we then had to scan and retouch!), and had a great time working together. More, we realized how important our history is, how the excitement and effort and enthusiasm of 30 years of leadership and friendship made an organization that continues to teach, to encourage, and to give opportunities to so many of us. And how proud we should be to carry that momentum forward.

We had a great time showing the first draft of the video show at the Annual Meeting, and we want to thank Deborah Roach, who jumped in to create the presentation; Steve Starr, who advised and scanned a ridiculous number of documents; Gary Adcock, who took the time to video recent presidents; and Nate Marks, Louise Tessing, Sherry Trojniar Russo, and others who helped and advised.

We hope that our initial presentation will be just the beginning of what can become a living archive of our history, that people will discover and provide additional pictures, quotes, invitations, newsletters, and other documents which we will incorporate into the video on a regular basis, and add to the C3 web site. If you have anything to contribute, pleaseemail Susan Marx or Marilyn Markle or call Susan at 773.275.1315,