Our first political efforts have been interesting experiences, and I would like to extend a special thanks to our terrific officers and board members who helped me with the 2005 New Mexico state legislative session. At our planning session earlier this year, we identified a series of measures that we wished to pursue with the state governments. We were able to get several of those started this spring. Special thanks to Cameron Saffell for his de-ciphering of the legislative agenda and committee reports. Pat Beckett worked the phones to make sure everyone was posted on developments during the session. Susan Barger and the National Park Service’s Harry Myers were “on call” in Santa Fe to answer the committees’ questions and inquiries. Conchita Lucero helped with promoting the new history component for the state social studies curriculum. I especially want to thank all of our member who made phone calls, sent e-mails, and wrote letters on behalf of our efforts.
We did a great job and I hope all of you proudly read Cameron’s report on the session in the next issue (Vol. 1, No. 3, July – September, 2005) of Chronicles of the Trail.
We have exciting news and an innovative idea that we are putting in place to help Mexican sites and agencies become institutional members of CARTA. We have reduced the institutional dues for Mexican membership to half, or fifty dollars annually. Many of these agencies and sites work on a small budget and with the peso exchange at eleven to a dollar it is almost impossible for them to maintain an active membership in our organization. We really need to reach into Mexico to make them an active part of CARTA and help promote and develop sites along the 1100-mile stretch of the trail that winds through the republic. Unfortunately, even at fifty dollars, many sites will be hard pressed to be a part of CARTA. Therefore I am suggesting that CARTA members “sponsor” a Mexican site and help us bring as many of them as possible into our association. A small donation of fifty dollars a year from an individual or institutional member could help identify and map the trail, develop travel and tourism projects, promote individual sites, protect and restore structures, and allow Mexican members to serve as officers and board members. We could begin to feature these new members in our publications and help publicize activities and plans along the entire Camino Real de Tierra Adentro. We have several interested agencies ready to join; please let me or any of our board members know if you are willing to be a sponsor.
We will be debuting our new CARTA membership brochure this summer. We hope to get both an English and a Spanish version out soon, maybe in time for the fall meeting. I hope this becomes a valuable tool for recruiting new members and that all of you distribute them as much as possible.
Many of our officers and members have been out representing CARTA at various events along the trail. I met some great folks at the March Doña Ana County Historical Society meeting and at the 14th Annual San Elizario Genealogical and Historical Society conference in April. Our plans for site certification are moving along and we hope to have some of the details finalized this summer. Mary Davis, Ida Baca and Sara Stebbins represented CARTA at a series of planning sessions held by the El Camino Real International Heritage Center’s Foundation for their upcoming grand opening weekend in November 2005. We hope CARTA can play an important role in the celebration and hope to see many of our members volunteer to help out. Watch for details about the opening in our fall newsletter. Ed Staski represented CARTA at the U.S.-Mexico Border States Symposium held at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces in April.
Our 2005 elections will be coming up soon. Watch for your ballots this summer and please encourage other members to vote. The results will be announced at our fall meeting.
Our fall meeting will take place on Saturday October 1, 2005, at the Rancho de los Golondrinas Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Louann Jordan is making arrangements for us to hold our general business meeting and board meeting and wrap up early so that we can all enjoy the Harvest Festival taking place all day at the museum. If you have never attended the festival, there are many fun and exciting activities all over the spacious site of the museum. We hope to see many of you there!