Executive Director's Corner

by Royce W. Gibson, Executive Director

Happy Spring, Everyone! First, a huge CONGRATULATIONS to the Apalachee Chapter on the success of this year’s IDIDAHIKE! The event raised over $11,000 and every hike was full. We recently held the Annual Membership Meeting of the Florida Trail Association (FTA). During the meeting, volunteer awards were presented virtually. You can see a full list of the award recipients on page 18 of this issue. Thank you and congratulations to all our award winners. During the Annual Meeting, the results of the election for the FTA Board of Directors were announced. This was the first election conducted under the provisions of the Association’s bylaws as amended in December 2021 and March 2022. All candidates were running for At-Large Director positions. Tom Daniel, Pam Hale, Rick Robbins, and Bill Turman were re-elected to the Board. Joshua Johnson and Sean Spence were elected to their first term. The updated bylaws also changed the titles of board officers and the makeup of the Executive Committee of the Board. The positions of President and 1st Vice-President changed to Chair and Vice-Chair. The other Vice-President positions were eliminated. At the board meeting immediately following the Annual Meeting, officers of the board were nominated and voted on by the members of the board. Bill Turman was elected Chair. Alan Bradshaw, Pam Hale, and Darryl Updegrove were elected Vice-Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary, respectively. Leslie Wheeler was appointed Chair of the Chapter Council. Tom Daniel and James Catalano round out the Executive Committee with the respective appointments as chairs of the Trails Development and Planning Committee and the Advancement Committee. You can see the full committee structure and makeup on our website. Unfortunately, due to personal and professional reasons Alan Bradshaw tendered his resignation from the board on May 9th. The board will now vote to fill Alan's seat for the remainder of his term. This issue is dedicated to thru-hiking the Florida National Scenic Trail (FT). We have seen a significant uptick in the number of thru-hikers in the past few years. This season had the largest number of thru-hikers in FTA history. I hope you enjoy the stories. I am glad to see the increased interest in thru-hiking the FT and the increase in our overall visitors.

Happy Trails,

Warrior Expeditions supports combat veterans transitioning from their military service by thru-hiking America’s National Scenic Trails.