Program Details:

The 2008 Annual Meeting of the society was held on October 20, 2008, in Concord, NH, at the Conservation Center of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. The members and guests enjoyed a varied program in a unique modern facility. NHAS President Betty Hall opened the meeting with a welcome to all attendees.

Dick Boisvert, NH State Archaeologist, presented a report on the 2008 SCRAP field school in Jefferson and Randolph. He described the work at both sites, and offered the audience an update on the Potter site: its size (more than two acres), the progress of the fieldwork since 2003, and the site’s place in the local landscape.

Craig Brown followed with a talk on the 2008 SCRAP historic field school at the Field-Bickford site, Durham, NH. He described the finds uncovered in the search for evidence of the Field- Bickford Garrison House. Peter Sablock of Salem State College, Salem MA, spoke about his work on the same site, offering results of subsurface testing using equipment sensitive to ground penetrating radar and electro-magnetism.

Daniel Lynch, of Soil Sight, Inc., spoke on methods of using magnetism levels in soil layers or in features as a method of mapping and understanding archeological features and sites.

After lunch, the business meeting was convened at 1:15 pm By President Betty Hall. There was no secretary’s report, since the minutes of the 2007 Annual Meeting had been approved by the Executive Board on November 15, 2007. The treasurer’s report was given by Mark Greenly. [Editor’s note: The treasurer’s report given at the meeting was for the year to date. Rather than include that intermediate report here, a treasurer’s report for all of 2008 appears elsewhere in this newsletter.]

A slate of names for officers and members of the Executive Board was presented by Dick Boisvert: President: Sheila Charles; 1st Vice President: Jon Edsall; 2nd Vice President: Dick Boisvert; Secretary: Laura Jefferson; Treasurer: Mark Greenly; Editor: David Starbuck; Curator: Don Foster; Executive Board: Karl Roenke and Mike Malburne for terms ending in 2011; Betty Hall for the remainder of Sheila Charles’s term ending in 2010. A motion to direct the Secretary to cast one vote in favor of the slate of names was made by Betty Hall and seconded by Deb Duranceau. The motion passed on a unanimous voice vote. The business meeting was adjourned at 1:40 pm.

Edna Feighner and Tanya Kress, both of the NH Division of Historical Resources, then presented the results of their SCRAP historic field school at the site of the Broad Brook Community in Pisgah State Park in southwestern New Hampshire, aimed at finding and mapping historic features of an old logging settlement.

Following the program, a number of attendees enjoyed a tour of the Forest Society’s award-winning building, noted for its use of solar power, renewable energy, and low-energy lighting and heating.