Hello Everone!

It has been a whirlwind few months since taking over as President from Wm. I wanted to spend a few minutes to introduce myself and ask for your help. First, let me personally thank you for your continued service to the NSS. The NSS is an amazing organization that is run by volunteers all working toward a common goal. As leaders of the NSS, it is our job to further the goals and objectives of the Board, to provide leadership to your committees, serve our membership, develop new volunteers, pass on the culture of the NSS, make sure your committees are working, etc

A little about me, I started caving in the early 70’s in Maryland and West Virginia and joined the NSS around 1974 when I turned 17 (15827F) As an undergraduate, I studied Geology at West Virginia University and obtained an MS from Western Kentucky University. I’ve been a practicing karst hydrologist since the early 80’s and have held numerous jobs working for the National Park Service, Kentucky Division of Water, ATEC Associates, Eckenfelder Inc. Most of my work has involved environmental and water resource work. I’ve been the Chief Technical Officer for the Edwards Aquifer Authority in San Antonio, Texas for the last 18 years. Before serving at the NSS President, I served as the Administrative Vice President for five years.

I want to announce three new initiatives: I’ve formed three ad hoc committees to try an address some critical problems the NSS is facing. These include our decline in membership, organization of our NSS Conventions (what can we do to make them better), and Education and Museum initiative. We were recently given a $400,000 donation to develop an education and museum for the NSS.

Our new Membership Ad Hoc Committee is chaired by Kristine Ebrey, the Convention Ad Hoc Committee is chaired by Julie Schenck-Brown, and the Education and Museum Ad Hoc Committee is chaired by Pat Seiser. These committees are off to a good start and we’re expecting recommendations from the committees this Fall.

On another note, the NSS was able to refinance the loan for the headquarters which has dropped our monthly payments in half. We received two large donations, one from an anonymous donor of $400,000 and the second donation was from the Estate of Roger Sperka and is over $500,000. This allowed us to pay down the amount that we owed when we refinanced. We now owe approximately $261,000 on the headquarters and are on schedule to pay it off in 7 years. We were also able to take a loan against the Life Membership fund so we are actually paying ourselves back and the interest is going to the NSS.

I believe we’ve turned a corner financially and have become much more solvent. Hopefully, we’ll be able to increase our funding for education, conservation and exploration programs.

My intent is to focus on a few issues – how do we grow and retain our members and provide them with value for their dues and how do we place the NSS on secure financial footing.

That is all I have for now.

Geary Schindel, P.G.

President@caves.org