Folks,
Please note that Bill Putnam is running as a write in candidate for the
NSS Board. I have known Bill for more than 15 years and can attest to
his willingness to work hard for the NSS and cavers in general. I know
him best for his work at the Southeastern Cave Conservancy.
I would recommend that you also consider Bill for the board. Below is
Bill's statement. I'll send his platform an another eamil
Geary Schindel
5) Bill Putnam Write-In candidacy for NSS Board
By: Bill Putnam (Lawrenceville, Georgia)
[email protected]
Fellow cavers,
I have reached my limit with the foolishness and lack of leadership of
the NSS officers and board of governors. I have decided to try to do
something about it. I have declared my candidacy as a write-in candidate
for the Board of Directors Election now in progress. I would appreciate
your votes and support. I need about 1,000 votes to get seated, and
there are many more cavers on TAG-Net than that. I would appreciate it
if you could take the time to read the following statement and pass it
along to your fellow cavers who may not be on TAG-Net. Feel free to post
any comment or questions in this forum or to email them to me or to call
me. I am mad a hell and I am going to do something about it.
Bill
---
William O. (Bill) Putnam, NSS 21117LF Lawrenceville, Georgia Write-In
candidate for the NSS Board of Directors
Background
I am a Life Member and Fellow of the Society, having joined in 1980,
shortly after I began organized caving. Before that I was an occasional
spelunker and flashlight caver in the caves around Birmingham, Alabama,
having been bitten by the caving bug while on a family vacation visit to
Ruby Falls and a school trip to Rickwood Caverns.
I have served the NSS most recently as the IT and network support person
for the NSS office since 2005 and as the Editor of American Caving
Accidents (from 1996 to 2007). I am an Instructor for the National Cave
Rescue Commission, and just finished teaching at the South Central
Regional Seminar in Arkansas last week and at a special training weekend
for the Dogwood City Grotto last month. I have also served as the editor
of the Georgia Underground, the publication of the Dogwood City Grotto,
of which I have been a member since 1980. I was the editor and principal
author of the 1989 NSS Convention Guidebook, Caves and Caving in TAG, as
well as two TAG Cave-In guidebooks. I have written and given
presentations extensively on caving, cave surveying, safety and
techniques, and cave rescue.
I cave actively in the TAG region, but have also been active in Kentucky
(at Mammoth Cave with the CRF), New Mexico (Lechuguilla expeditions,
including one last year and one this year), Wyoming (Tetons, Gros
Ventres, and Bighorns), Mexico (primarily as a pit-bopping speleo-
tourist to date, but I hope to get one a deep cave survey expedition
soon). I will be an active caver and NSS member until the day I die. I
love to survey and make maps. I am an aspiring cave photographer. I am a
member of the Chattanooga Hamilton County Cave and Cliff Rescue Team,
and have participated in many cave rescues over the years, including my
own in 1987. My only regret in caving is that I did not find the NSS
until I was 19.
I am a founding member (SCCi #6), incorporator, past Chairman (1994-
1999), and the only director of the Southeastern Cave Conservancy who
has served continuously on the board since its founding in 1991. The
first organizational meeting was held in my living room. I currently
serve as Acquisitions Chairman, and in that capacity just completed the
acquisition by the SCCi of Surprise Pit and the majority of Fern Cave.
I have participated in or directed the acquisition of almost every one
of the SCCi's 26 cave acquisitions. I am a sustaining member of the SCCi
at the highest level. In 1998 I was honored to accept a Certificate of
Merit presented to the SCCi by the NSS for the acquisition of Neversink,
which was negotiated by then Acquisitions Chair Mark Wolinsky and
myself.
I am an Information Technology Consultant in private practice in the
Atlanta, Georgia area. I received a BS degree in Physics from Georgia
Tech in 1981, and the MS degree in Computer Science, also from Georgia
Tech, in 1984. I have also done a substantial amount of graduate study
in geophysics. I married a caver 26 years ago, and am still married to
her (at least until she finds out about this) and my two children are
cavers.
