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WSCO life member and board member Stacy Evans was selected as the new Executive Director of the Welsh National Gymanfa Ganu Association (WNGGA) on August 28, 2008, by the Board of Trustees of the Association. This action took place on the eve of the 2008 North American Festival of Wales (NAFOW) at the Double Tree Hotel in Oak Brook, IL. Stacy, like the very first WNGGA Executive Director, WSCO life member Nelson Llewelyn, is an Ohio resident.
Stacy's three-year term as Executive Director began on the evening of August 31 at the close of NAFOW. The office of the WNGGA will be moving from Hartland, MI, to Granville, OH, after the first of next year. In the meantime, Stacy will be working with the officers and trustees of the Association via e-mail and telephone. The Executive Director is the major "behind the scenes" person who helps the Board and the committees appointed by the President of the Board prepare for and carry out the North American Festival of Wales each year. The 2009 NAFOW will be held in Pittsburgh, PA, over Labor Day weekend.
Stacy is a retired United Methodist clergy, having served full-time in the West Ohio Conference (which includes Columbus and surrounding counties) for over 35 years. He retired from the annual conference on July 1, 2007. After a year of relaxation, Stacy began pastoring part-time for a church in Circleville and will continue this while serving the WNGGA in his new post.
On Sunday, September 28, Stacy will be one of two preachers at the annual Gymanfa Pregethu in southeast Ohio. This year's day-long event will be held at the Welsh-American Heritage Museum in Oak Hill. (article on bottom of page 3)
Stacy's Welsh affiliations include (in addition to WSCO): life member of the WNGGA, member of the Advisory Board of the Madog Center for Welsh Studies at the University of Rio Grande (Rio Grande, OH), the Columbus Welsh Singing Society, and the North American Welsh Choir. Stacy will join approximately 60 other choristers of the North American Welsh Choir on a tour of the Welsh settlements in Argentina in October of this year. In addition to the choir members, the trip to Argentina will include other tour members from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Board meetings are held on the second Tuesday of each month, except for July, August and December, from 7 to 9 pm and usually take place at the Glenwood United Methodist Church, 2833 Valleyview Dr. (at Hague Ave.) Columbus, Ohio, in room 4.
Meetings are open to all adult WSCO members. Anyone wishing to put an item on the agenda should contact a board member in advance of the meeting.
For board member information, call (614) 470-4999 and leave your name and number for a call back, or email centralohiowelsh[at]aol[dot]com.
Gwendolyn Baxter, Donna Boyce (Corresponding Secretary), Myron Cherry, Bob Donaldson, Ken Evans (President), Stacy Evans, Bill Ewing, Jeanne Jones Jindra (Madog Center for Welsh Studies), Evan Jones (Membership Chair), Tegwyn Lantz (Treasurer, Webmaster), Shirley McKee, Mary Ellen Morgan, Charlotte Prior, Stanton Prior, Beth Ransopher, David Shelby, Diana Wafe (Recording Secretary), Dianne Williams, and Homer Williams (Immediate Past President).
Was one of your parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents a member during the early years of WSCO? On the board? Did they save things? Meeting notes, event programs, newspaper articles about the Society? Have you not thrown those things away?
We are searching for information about the early years of WSCO, especially the names of all the founding members. We know about Floe Jones, David E. Morgan and Howard I. Powell, and a man named Evans -- possibly E. I. “Ike” Evans, Hayden Evans, or someone else altogether.
We have a copy of a newspaper article from August 16, 1952, naming the “executive committee and the various committee chairmen” who were planning the 1952 National in Columbus but it doesn’t identify the founders.
We would also like to know if anyone has gymanfa ganu programs for: 1st gymanfa, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 38th, 39th, 40th, 43rd through 52nd, 54th through 58 th.
If you’d prefer to not donate items permanently to the “historical file,” would you loan them to be read and photocopied?
Please contact the WSCO corresponding secretary: Donna Boyce, email centralohiowelsh[at]aol[dot]com or (614) 470-4999.