Board of Trustees 2009-2010

Officers:
David Doherty, President
Chas. A. Murphy, Jr., Vice President
Roy B. Meservey, Jr., Treasurer
Carol Odell, Clerk

Trustees
Robert G. Abbott, Jr.
William Appleyard
Kay Cima
Robert V. Clem
George C. Dillon
Eugene Doggett
Charles S. Foresman
Catherine Laurent
Chas. A. Murphy, Jr.
William Schweizer
Jason C. Stone
Jonathan B. Vaughan
Coleman C. Yeaw
Andrew P. Young

Honorary Trustees
Norman A. Clark (dec.)
Edward “Ned” Jacob
Joseph A. Nickerson (dec.)

Trustees are elected at the Annual Meeting to serve a three year term. A Trustee may serve three consecutive terms. The officers, President, Vice President and Treasurer are elected for one year terms by the Board of Trustees at their meeting immediately following the annual meeting of members. The Clerk is elected for a one year term by members of the Corporation at the annual meeting. All Trustees and Officers shall be members of the Corporation.

INTERVIEWS WITH TRUSTEES ROY MESERVEY AND COLIE YEAW

Colie Yeaw:

"It took us 60 years to get here fulltime, so why would we want to go away?"

Chatham writer Tim Weller interviewed Coleman “Colie” Yeaw for the Foundation’s 2010 Summer Bulletin. What follows are parts of the interview not included in the newsletter article.

On CCF’s executive committee:
“It’s a big group with a variety of experiences, backgrounds, abilities and interests, although there’s no doubt there’s a common interest in preserving open space. I have noticed, however, a divergence of opinion regarding the level of management of open spaces.”

On managing versus not managing Foundation parcels:
“Some parcels lend themselves to trails and public involvement, and some less so. Land Bank parcels are owned by the town, and therefore the public’s right to access and use the property is better understood. But the Foundation is a private organization and some of the property it owns contains deed restrictions that limit public access. There are significant differences between Land Bank purchases and Foundation purchases, but I believe the need for public access depends mostly on the property itself; some of our purchases have no legal access. We’ve recently established a Land Stewardship Committee which is attempting to address these issues.”

On key board members:
“Having people like (Treasurer) Roy Meservey on the board is so useful because they know a lot of the history. Having (President) David Doherty is very beneficial because he’s a realtor and knows about people’s plans before just about anyone else.”

On his Chatham roots:
“My grandparents started coming here in the 1890s, and my grandfather finally built a house on Bridge Street in 1910. I first started coming in 1934, when I was six months old, and I’ve been here every year except when I was in the Army. When I asked my wife (Nancy) to marry me, I posed the question this way: ‘Will you marry me…and retire to Chatham?’ In the 1980s, we started looking for a year-round house, and in 1992, I bought this house (a former Chatham Bars Inn cottage and boathouse on Mill Pond Lane). People often ask us if we go away in the winter, and I tell them, ‘It took us 60 years to get here fulltime, so why would we want to go away?”

On his service to Chatham:
After serving on the Land Bank, the CPA and the Conservation Commission, Colie resigned “from everything. I thought to myself, OK, now I’ll have some time to do the things I want to be doing. But then (town moderator) Bill Litchfield called and asked if I would serve on the Finance Committee. That had some appeal because if you served on that, you couldn’t serve on any other town committee. So I chaired that and now I’m vice chairman. I’ve never run for selectman; (Nancy and I) have talked about running, but that’s the extent of it. Although sometimes, when I watch their performance, I sometimes wish I were on the board – but that’s a lot of hard work, too. I have tried to offer other groups, other organizations, my opinion on how town works, but only if they ask.”

On his low-key style:
“Occasionally, I do offer advice to selectmen, but it’s usually by e-mail or a phone call. I’d rather do it that way than by standing up in a public forum. I think it’s easier to get things done if you talk to people individually, and don’t do it on television. I think sometimes you can accomplish more by working individually."

On Chatham’s future:
“I would like to see more financial planning. It seems that we’re producing year-to-year budgets, but we’re not really looking that far out. Economically, it’s certainly been overcast, if not raining. It’s going to be interesting to see how we’re going to come out of this thing. I don’t think home building will turn around very quickly and tourism may not grow. And fishing, well, that’s a major problem. Also, losing all the young people in town is a major concern of mine. We’re just not producing enough jobs where they can earn enough to live here. So much of the economy here is tourist related, and that doesn’t produce the income you need to stay here. Nancy’s impressions of her husband: “What impresses me is the fact that he connects with so many different people. So many people call him for advice, or ask him what’s going on in town or who they should talk to – and that includes some of the selectmen. He has a way of reaching people. The other thing about him is that he just loves Chatham. He has this willingness to work hard, and to put his heart into it. He really gets into the hard stuff because he loves Chatham so much.”

Roy Meservey:

"The Foundation has gotten a lot of goodwill from local residents."

Chatham writer Tim Weller interviewed Treasurer Roy B. Meservey Jr. for the Foundation’s 2010 summer Bulletin. What follows are parts of the interview not included in the newsletter article.

On the early days:
“Since the group (executive committee) was so small, for our annual meeting we’d take two boats and go out to (then President) John Manson’s camp on Monomy. We’d fish, swim, and Kenny Eldridge would cook steaks. And that’s where we had our meeting.”

On what makes the Foundation special:
“The Foundation has gotten a lot of goodwill from local residents. There’s a lot of support there. And that’s given me a lot of satisfaction. People take a real interest; they stop in and ask about the Foundation and what it does. It’s nice meeting new people; it’s been rewarding that way.”

On the Foundation’s leadership:
“David Doherty has been a tremendous president. We didn’t think he would blossom like he did, but he’s been great. He still doesn’t think that he’s doing a good job, but he’s excellent and we all support him. He’s got good contacts in town, and because he’s in real estate, he can make connections very quickly. He can jump on the board very quickly to resolve problems.”

On the S.C. Johnson property along Bridge Street:
“Family members are talking with us about what they – or we – should do to make it more attractive for people to walk through it. It’s going to take some re-doing and it’s not going to be easy. If we’re going to open it up to the public, we’ve got to know it’s safe. We’ll have to put up some signs and fix some of the walks. We can’t have people going in there and wandering around getting lost, and ending up in someone else’s back yard.”