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The Wooden Canoe Heritage AssociationAbout the WCHA |
The Wooden Canoe Heritage Association, Ltd. is a non-profit membership organization devoted to preserving, studying, building, restoring and using wood canoes, and to disseminating information about canoeing heritage throughout the world.
The WCHA was formed in 1979 by Jeff and Jill Dean of Madison, Wisconsin, and has a current (CY2005) active membership of over 1800 canoeing enthusiasts. Members are widely dispersed, and international memberships are increasing each year.
Annual and lifetime memberships are available in the WCHA (join the WCHA) at slightly varying prices depending on where in the world you live. All memberships include a subscription to Wooden Canoe Journal, the bi-monthly magazine of the WCHA. Members are also given discounts on merchandise offered by the WCHA Sales and Marketing arm, with hard to find books, decals, and catalog reprints a specialty.
The WCHA is managed by a Board of Directors, who are elected to serve a two year term. The Board meets formally at least once a year. Due to the wide distribution of the membership, most board business is conducted over the telephone and through correspondence, although some business is also conducted at the Annual Assembly. A copy of the By-laws of the WCHA is online for the benefit of our members.
Address all correspondence to:
Wooden Canoe Heritage Association
Post Office Box 117
Tamworth, New Hampshire 03886
Any questions not answered in these pages should be directed to the WCHA secretary, at secretary@wcha.org. If you have WEB SITE questions, please address them to the WCHA Webmaster at webmaster@wcha.org.
Phone: 401-846-7542
Fax: 401-846-6675
editor@wcha.org
By Jeff Dean
Updated May, 2001
Jill and I founded the WCHA in 1979 in Madison, Wisconsin, and operated the association for its first several years of existence, with strong support from Tom and Karen MacKenzie, the late Gordon Orr, Julie McCrum, as well as a bunch of wonderful "Maineiacs," like Guy Cyr, Garrett and Alexandra Conover, Jerry Stelmok, Rollin Thurlow, and others from Canada, New York -- all over, actually. The organization grew faster and larger than we ever dreamed it would -- which was good, because it meant lots of people shared our interest in the heritage of North American canoeing. It overwhelmed us, finally, so we turned the organization over to a new, elected board of directors. Since then, the organization has grown larger and even better. Alas, Jill and I have not attended an assembly since -- something I hope someday to remedy. Indeed, to most WCHAers, we have dropped out of sight altogether. So I thought this letter might be a means for letting you all know that we are alive and well, still here in Wisconsin (feeling lonely, since Tom and Karen moved out east).
Jill finished law school way back in 1983 and has since retired as a partner in the Madison law firm, Lathrop and Clark. She is our family "curator of canoes and canoeing," keeping track of our modest catalog collection and our assortment of old canoes. I retired in 1997 from the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. We now split our residence between Madison and Tucson, Arizona.
Historic canoes is just one of my interests. My greater obsession is with motorcycles, and I am a Chief Instructor certified by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation and do contract work for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. I also teach motorcycle courses at the Madison Area Technical College and Tucson's Pima Community College. I am also past president of BMW Motorcycle Owners of America.
I am often asked how often we set foot into one of our canoes, which include two Morrises, two Rushtons, a Gerrish, a Seliga, the obligatory Old Town, a MacKenzie, and a Vaillancourt, among others. The answer is too rarely. When we do, however, rest assured that a pair of Alexandra Conover's incredibly beautiful hand-made paddles propels our canoe. I see from the web page links that Alexandra is still making them -- great news!
Jill Weber Dean and Jeff Dean