You've been asking and I have been holding off--- until you at least got the wacko 2000 pin. Your critiques and reviews sounded positive, so here goes --- we're starting in on the 2001 pin with nary a breather in between. The core committee of myself,Barbara Hupp; foghornkeeper, Henry Hupp; Lamar Bevil; and Darlene Cook aka Ladybug are again going to get the project under way, with some artistic help a little further into the proceedings.

The Wacko 2000 pin was a financial success and Lamar will soon be telling us how much will be going to Morris Island Light. If there is someone out there who just wants to make a donation to Morris Island, contact Lamar about sending in your check. The same applies to any HL club. If you are a member of a club, please bring this up at your next meeting, as this might be a great club preservation activity each year --- to send in a donation for "wacko lighthouse of the year", and this club donation can also be sent to Lamar.

Because we have new forum posters joining us continually (newbies), this section, though old hat for wackos, will be new for them. When you newbies have made 50 posts, you get dubbed a wacko. When you are a wacko, you will be eligible, if you so wish, to: nominate up to 10 lighthouses you think could benefit from our money (following the criteria listed below); then vote for one out of the top 5 or 6 lighthouses which were nominated the most times, to arrive at THEE wacko light of the year; and finally have the honor of buying up to two pins for a set price. All of the profits on the pin sales get turned over to that year's lighthouse for its preservation needs. If you are close to wacko status now, work to get 50 posts so you can start with the nomination aciivity.

I am quoting from Bob Steinbrumm's posting last year: "The Wackos have a recognition pin; the lighthouse benefits from the donations; and now we can build up a collection of these pins." Right on, Bob; you gave the basics. It is our goal to have a beautiful and different lighthouse pin each year to continue this tradition of wackos caring and giving for lighthouse preservation.

Information will be given on a separate post aimed at newbies, asking for your input on achieving your posts.

This year Lamar and I will again simultaneously be receiving your nominations. As I will then be gone from my webtv for the entire summer, I have asked Darlene to substitute for me and help Lamar in the tally of the votes. She is also in charge of keeping the list of wackos up to date; receiving info from the newbies; sending out e-mail notices to remind you to nominate, vote, and order pins. This is important, as some wackos don't seem to come to the Forums as much as others, and we don't want to leave anyone out of this worthy project. I will do more reminder posting and announcements and write up the final lighthouse history to accompany the pin. Lamar will again research all of the nominated lights to be sure they have active and registered non-profit groups at work; take your pin orders; and ship them out to you.

It will be another busy year for us. We will strive to get these pins out to you this time right after the new year. Now that we have done it once and learned the pit falls and time frames , the second time should go smoother. Our final goal for 2002 is to back up even further and get all of the nominations and voting done in winter so that it does not intrude into summer activities when most of us are busy and many are gone traveling.

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Please read the following criteria and directions very carefully, with accompanying reasons.

1.You may send in a list of up to 10 nominated United States lighthouses.
2. These lighthouses must have been made into a sculpture by Harbour Lights. (Reason: Our wacko pins will continue in this distinctive photo style, and we can more easily use existing HL artwork and photos by Paul Brady. This makes our pins different from any others, and also shows our interest in HL products per se as well as the real lighthouse we are helping).
3. The lighthouses you nominate MUST have a registered and active non-profit group in place which is going about restoration work at this time or this year,in order for them to legally give us permission to use the name and image of their light. If you aren't sure, Lamar will be automatically checking on all nominated lights. We want the money to be put to real and current use.
4. The committee reserves the right to choose the runner-up after the election for the pin IF the first place winner does not get back to us within a reasonable time frame with written legal permissions for us to use their lighthouse name and image for this project (We were delayed by more than a month last time because Morris Island just did not get back to us in any timely manner). So when you make your nominations, keep this in mind.
5. Any of the lighthouses you nominated last year may be nominated again, exclusive of Morris Island, just as long as HL has made a sculpture of them.
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Deadline: Your nominations must be received by BOTH Lamar and myself via e-mail by July 2. You can start immediately to send them in. They must be sent e-mail, NOT posted on the Forum. That will create more individualistic thinking on your part as to which ones YOU want to see on the list.

E-mail addresses. Send to:

Lamar at Lamar@gs.verio.net

Send to Ladylightkeeper Barbara at her SPECIAL e-mail address only, for this project Keeptheflame@webtv.net

*** Remember, you need to send the same list of nominees to BOTH of these addresses.
**************
Lamar will then post the top nominees on the General Forum in mid-July after he has done his tally and checked out the non-profit status of each. Then he and Darlene will conduct the final voting procedures.

If you have any questions, please e-mail me at my REGULAR address of
ladylightkeeper@webtv.net

Thank you for all your enthusiasm and let's make this pin an even bigger pot of gold for the next lucky winning lighthouse. Do your part and help Keep the Flame burning.

Barbara


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ladylightkeeper

[This message has been edited by ladylightkeeper (edited 06-16-2000).]

For those of you who may missed this posting. Note that the due date is JULY 2, and that the list of nominees must be lighthouses that have been made into sculptures by HL's. I need help on a few more choices for my list. Any suggestions out there? I have come up with:

St. George's Reef, CA
Round Island, MS
Round Island, MI
Esopus Meadows, NY

Joanne

[This message has been edited by Joanne (edited 06-19-2000).]

Joanne
A couple on the west coast that have been made into HL's and have preservation societies that could use some help are the Mukilteo Light Station in Washington and Coquille River in Oregon.
LADYBUG

Remember also that you must e-mail your choices to Lamar at Lamar@gs.verio.net t and to ladylightkeepr at Keeptheflame@webtv.net . Posting your choices on the forum will not count towards the tally. If anyone's interested, my choices are: 1. St. Georges Reef, CA 2. Cockspur Island, GA

[This message has been edited by digitalman (edited 06-20-2000).]

Thank you for reminding wackos that they need to officially send their nominations to both Lamar and myself via e-mail. It is much faster and accurate for us to be able to do our tallies from personal e-mails rather than having to scroll through a thread.

But that is not to say we don't enjoy seeing your comments here on what lights you are thinking about. We look forward to getting a good selection from all parts of the U.S. So don your thinking caps and start sending e-mail lists our way. The deadline is early July, so please don't wait til the last minute.

We have raised a very respectable amount from the first pin, and Lamar will be posting that soon; so let's DO IT AGAIN.
Thanks for all your wonderful enthusiasm and help, on behalf of needy lighthouses.

Barbara

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ladylightkeeper

Congratulations Wackos! We did well! It now looks like the Wacko 2000 Pin project will raise approximately $1,200 for the Morris Island Light. Thanks to all who participated.

There are five pins remaining to be purchased. If you'd like to have one or two email me for an order form.

Please note that I will be offline and unavailable from Saturday, June 24th at around noon Central time until Tuesday, July 4th. If I don't receive your email before then I won't answer until I'm 'reconnected'.

Thanks again to all who participated: those who purchased pin(s) and those who worked on the committee. Together we've significantly helped a sentinel in danger.

Congratulations to the fine group who spearheaded this effort and to all the Wackos who bought a pin! I will certainly look forward to the next version.

Dave

p.s. Lamar, have a great trip. Enjoy Split Rock!

After reading about the tragedy a few months ago with St Georges Reef, I am leaning toward giving it my vote too. I'm still trying to educate myself a little about the plight of other lighthouses before making my decision.

Doc John

PS There was a post on here a few months ago about what happened...can someone help me find it? I did a search with "St. Georges Reef" but it didn't appear. The situation as I recall is that the lantern was being transported to the mainland by helicopter for refurbishing. On its way, the altitude of the helicopter was too low and the lantern struck a cliff and was badly damaged if not destroyed.

[This message has been edited by DocJ44 (edited 06-22-2000).]

PSS I found the previous thread...go here if you want to know more: http://www.lighthousekeepers.com/forums/Forum5/HTML/000218.html

[This message has been edited by DocJ44 (edited 06-22-2000).]

I read about the lantern room of St. George's being damaged in the newsletter which just came out from from the Shore Village Museum, Rockland, ME, written by owner Ken Black. It said that they are selling a message block, which will be used to build a pedestal for a future National Register Plaque for St. G. which will be built in a local cemetery. Cost $50. mail to St. George Reef Lighthouse Preservation Society, PO Box 577, Crescent City, CA 95531.

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ladylightkeeper

I would like to add St. Marks, FL to the list.

Very Important - please read carefully.

I have received an e-mail nomination and accompanying message on KeeptheFlame address which leads me to believe I need to clarify the nomination procedures. The message mentioned that one of the lights this wacko wanted to nominate had already been put on the post and the wacko believed it could not be nominated again by anyone else.

This is NOT true. The very reason for asking you to send your nominations via e-mail was so everyone would be sending us the lights THEY really wanted on the list, and not be influenced by what was posted.

Think of this nomination procedure sort of like a regular primary election. Everyone sends up to 10 nominations. Those lights which are nominated the MOST times will end up being in the final list. No final light for the pin will be chosen based ONLY on your nominations.

The list of the lights receiving the most nominations will eventually be posted by Lamar in July. Then the final election will take place, just like we did last year (I guess it has been so long that we have all forgotten how we did it). Each wacko will get to cast ONE vote for a lighthouse on that final list. The lighthouse getting the most votes will then be the winner. Lamar, with Darlene's help, will be conducting that final vote later in July (as I will be gone).

So if you know that a fellow wacko has already nominated say St. George, or you see that a wacko has put it on a post, and YOU also want St. G on the list, then YOU need to add it to YOUR list. Remember, the more times it is nominated by more wackos (via the e-mail procedure ONLY), the more likely that lighthouse will appear on the final list for the whole voting activity. ( I have used St. G here only as an example to explain the reasoning for the procedure)

Please go back to the beginning of this thread and read my original post with the instructions, if you are not sure of what to do. We need all of you to send in ALL of your nominations, regardless if they have been sent in or posted already, or we won't end up with enough "tally marks on individual lighthouses to precede with the final election. (think primary and national election procedures as a comparison basis here).

If you still have questions, e-mail me please. If the question applies to all in general, I will post an answer.

Many thanks and need to hear from all of you soon. The deadline will be approaching in the not too distant future.

Barbara

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ladylightkeeper

It seems a lot of us Wackos were confused about the voting procedures.

In view of Barbara's clarifying post above, we've decided to extend the voting deadline to July 8th at midnight EST.

If you've already voted you may certainly amend your vote.

Thanks again to all you Wackos who helped raise $1,200 for Morris Island. Let's do it again for another of our beloved sentinels.

I've sent our vote in via e-mail. I want to thank everyone for the great job they did on the first Wacko pins. We love them! We voted for St. George's Reef. They sure need lots of help since their accident.

Kathy

Just putting this back up so you will remember to send in your nominations. Please read my reply towards the end of this post with an IMPORTANT clarification on nominations --- you need to send in as many as you wish, up to 10, even though someone else has already said they sent in "your lighthouses". The more nominations a light gets, the better chance it will be in the final list for the big VOTE in August.

KTF

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ladylightkeeper

Tomorrow (July 8) is the deadline for the 2001 Wacko pin nomination.

Joanne

Thanks for the information for us that are not Wackos yet. Nice to know the way things work. Maybe it will not take us non-wacko's a real long time to become a Wacko.

Jo Ann/Texas