Onto the Next Chapter

Onto the Next Chapter AT W.I.H.A.

Dear Editor,

To WIHA Membership:

I officially resigned from my position as President and Board Member of WIHA a few weeks ago but decided to wait and share this letter with you after Dave Hubbard's funeral.

We suffered a great loss with Dave's passing. He brought me onto the WIHA Board over 20 years ago. Dave was my mentor and teacher and dear friend. He was an inspiration to me, and I will miss him terribly.

The decision to move on is never an easy one. I am the longest serving WIHA President at eight years. Those years have been filled

with joyful experiences with a few difficult situations. We got through them together.

The first hurdle was Covid. I was the first President in WIHA history to close the Association down. The country was at a standstill, and so were we. No events, no dinners, no face-to-face meetings. We were still responsible for maintaining the Deane Winthrop House and staying in touch with our membership, but the lack of social gathering made the job harder.

I tried to use that down time to focus on what we could do. For example, during that time WIHA member Paul Leary of Leary Mechanical installed a fire suppression system in our nearly 400-hundred-year-old House. The job entailed putting in a special four-inch water line into the House just for the sprinklers' access. It was a huge project, and it got done. We can all rest easy knowing the Deane Winthrop House is better protected.

After the quarantine was finally lifted, we resumed our dinner meetings. I'll never forget how happy we all were to safely meet again. Memberships slowly began to increase and now our numbers are steady and growing.

When the very dedicated Steve Honan passed, I became Chair of House and Grounds as well as President. We hit a few speed bumps from issues with an abutting neighbor. It was a difficult situation that we never saw coming, but I did everything in my power to do what was best for the Association. I am proud that I dealt with the stress on WIHA's behalf with the help of our attorney, Sean Donahue.

The years have passed and things have finally calmed down. We are all focused on the House and the Association. Membership is up, the Board is fully staffed and strong, our last Strawberry Festival was the best ever, and the House is in great condition.

Many of you already know Bill Veiga. This is the right time to pass the torch as President to him. Bill understands all that WIHA represents to us and its importance to the Town. He's up for the challenge and I have every faith in him to guide the Association into the next chapter.

I am only a phone call or email away. It has truly been a pleasure serving you all.

God Bless.

Michael Herbert