Question: What Does It Take To Make MAKC? Answer: You!

The Mid-Atlantic Karst Conservancy, Inc., is approaching its fourteenth year, and thanks to you, our members, we are able to conserve caves, do caving projects, open up closed caves, collect caving memorabilia and books to preserve and share, hold events, and much more.

Each OTR, or open house, or project, we ask you, our members, to participate. Not everyone comes to every event. Some of you don’t come to any events. But you send money, or books, or even an email or letter of encouragement. What makes MAKC work is you, our members.

Our members are individuals, grottos, new cavers, young cavers, some in between, and some who do not cave, but who like what we do and what we stand for. Our members are vendors, surveyors, writers, history buffs, businessmen and women, geologists, photographers, designers, and cave owners. You are parents, grandparents, grandchildren, friends, and relatives.

Some of you contribute to our newsletter. Some of you volunteer at our booth. Some of you help with the library. What started as a group of 11 cavers who each pitched in $10 each in 1997 now owns three caves, and leases and manages the longest cave in Pennsylvania, over three dozen caves on Chestnut Ridge, a cave in Virginia, and three in south-central Pennsylvania. We are only as good as our members, our volunteers and our dreams. Your dreams are our dreams, and all we have to do is work hard, pull together and who knows what we might accomplish? Look what we’ve done so far!

Elections are held at our November board meeting. New board members are nominated and elected to three-year terms, officers are elected for the coming year, and committees are appointed. With that meeting comes change, sometimes in small doses, other times in larger doses. Again, it is dependent on what you, the members, want.

It’s been several years since we’ve done a report on the business end of the MAKC. So, in conjunction with that, this issue of our newsletter is going to focus on what we have done, what we plan and need to accomplish, what it will take to keep us going at our current level of sustenance, and what it will take to keep us going well into the future. While the business end of things can be somewhat boring, without taking care of business, we’re not going anywhere. So, take a gander, see where you have helped and where you can help us in the future!

And one more thing—thank you!