Hi Everyone,

There are quite a few additions and changes to the list this month. Thanks to those clubs that are adding to your plans for the year and those that are getting corrections back to me. Please look over the list and make sure your walks are correctly listed and let me know if I need to make any changes.

The Evergreen Wanderers' seasonal walk at Nisqually has been moved to March 1st from April 1st, so get out and enjoy it a month earlier.

Our friends from the Surrey Trekkers Volkssport Club had scheduled a walk & picnic in Abbotsford on August 19, 2018. Unfortunately the City requested them to obtain several permits which would have made the walk a significant financial burden to the Club. Therefore, the Club has replaced the originally scheduled event with a walk starting at Peace Arch Park, followed by a picnic in the park. They would welcome their US neighbours to join them. Here are the details for your information.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 19 10:00
SURREY - Peace Arch Park - Special Event, Picnic to follow
START POINT: Peace Arch Park, Beach Rd & Hwy 99 V3S 9N8
DISTANCE: 5, 10K RATING: 1B
SPONSOR: Surrey Trekkers
CONTACT: Sandy & Gord Hartney 604-596-8609
ghartney@gmail.com
PROGRAMS: Community, Murals
DIRECTIONS TO START: Exit Hwy 99 right onto Beach Rd - turn Left into parking lot behind the Duty Free Store. Start point in adjacent Peace Arch Park picnic area.
INFORMATION: Special Event - Walk along the beautiful lawns & amongst the gardens in Peace Arch Park which straddles the Canadian/US Border. Leaving the park, still on the Canadian side, walk toward White Rock where you will walk along the promenade enjoying the views of the Pacific.

Happy Trails!
Tom

NW Regional Director
829 NW 44th Ave
Camas WA  98607
505-298-1256

"Solvitur ambulando, St. Augustine said
It is solved by walking."

"If you seek creative ideas go walking.
Angels whisper to a man when he goes for a walk."

​

From Tom Baltes, NW Regional Director: 

A link developed by Mike Green, the Atlantic Region RD and IT guru,

www.nodegreen.com/olsb

has loads of information regarding the Online Start Box for users and hosts. Having used the OLSB, I find it an excellent step forward to supplement our fixed starting points with mobile capabilities. 

NEW STAMPS REQUIRE NEW STAMPING TECHNIQUE
 
Effective January 1, 2018, all of our events will be using the new stamps which will save us money and provide a stamp with more information in our books. This is a great step forward for AVA. With every improvement/change comes the need to adjust how we do business. These new stamps are no exception. Please be aware that you will need to be careful how you use the new stamps. If you continue to do your stamping like you always have with our old stamps, you could easily end up with just a black mark in your books.
 
In particular, with the old stamps we all tended to press the stamp deeply into the stamp pad and then press the stamp very hard on our books, rocking and rolling the stamp to account for the uneven slugs in the stamp. With the new stamps, this technique could well result in solid black mark since the new stamps do not have letters/numbers as deep as the old stamps, and most of the stamps have smaller letters with less space between the letters.
 
The suggested procedure for the new stamps is to ink the stamp lightly and do a trial stamp on a piece of paper (e.g., the walk directions) to ascertain imprint quality. You may determine that the stamp has too much ink and have to repeat this process to determine the correct amount of force to ink the stamp as well as the correct amount force to use get a good imprint before stamping your book.
 
It is critical that all Volkssporters get the word on changing how they stamp their books. While this is a very positive step forward for AVA, it won't take but one botched stamp in a book to sour that participant on this as an improvement. Clubs might consider putting an instruction sheet in with the stamp in their Walk Box showing both the botched stamp using the old technique and the new improved stamp using the recommended stamping technique.
 
Thanks to Bob Schmick (Maryland Volkssport Assoc., President) for pointing out this "black line" issue and ATRD Mike Green for bringing it to my attention. Thanks also to Chris Zegelin for developing this new improved stamp, to Hector Hernandez for learning how to operate the new stamp cutting equipment and getting all these new stamps produced, and the rest of the folks in the office for working together to get the stamps shipped out to the clubs.