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Dear docents,

Maybe not officially, but it is fall.  Everyone is back in school.  The consistently hot days have given way to variable weather.

While I know many who say fall is their favorite season, it is not my favorite.  Yes, I love the generally great weather.  It’s fun to drag back out the sweatshirts.  It’s nice to enjoy the yard work without having to plan around the shade because now it’s comfortable to work in the sunshine!  But a cold, gray winter, and worse, a cold gray spring will be coming soon.

For docents, tours continue as if fall has not come.  Our walking tours remain on the same schedule.  The River Cruise will cut back a bit, but Friday through Monday will continue to be a robust schedule.  And from my experience, there are still a lot of vacationers in town through the first half of September.

So, fall is a time of transition as we head toward winter.  The CAC, of course, is deep in a transitory period as we continue the search for a new President and CEO.  I am on the presidential search committee, along with a handful of board of trustee members.  Ann Thompson, the Board Chair, is heading the search committee.  It is no easy task for her to walk into the role of board chair and immediately need to find a new President, but her leadership has been extremely important and effective through this process.

As I write this, we are in the midst of second interviews for the position.  We had a wonderful group of people in our first round of interviews.  We engaged the search firm Koya Partners to help identify an excellent group of candidates.  The group was so good it was difficult to narrow the field for our second round.  From here, we will continue to narrow down the field to the absolute best person to lead us into the future.

I want to take a moment to tell you just how impressed I have been with the process and the board members on the search committee.  As president of Docent Council I am a board member, but  I rarely work this much and this closely with other board members.  The interest and dedication this group of people have for the CAC is inspiring.  It is a reminder that so many care deeply about what we do….not just docents, but board members, staff, and volunteers.   A special shoutout to Juanna and all the staff who have worked so hard to keep the organization moving forward as we wait for our new leader.

So, fall is here.  I bought a hay bale to put on my porch…seemed like a good fall decoration.  My wife, Janet, insisted I put it in the garage.  She will not allow “fall” things until the official start of fall (do not look for Christmas lights on my house until after Thanksgiving).  There are a lot of decorating rules in my life.  Sigh.

I hope your fall is one of happiness, health….and lots of tour giving!

Kent.