Thought I would put my two cents worth in about book publishing by the Society. Having worked on the committee to publish all three of the books the Society put out during the 1990s, I can tell you of at least two main reasons why the Society doesn't jump on those projects. First, the cost of printing has skyrocketed in the last few years. By the time we printed Volume 3, the basic cost of each book from the printer had nearly tripled from the cost of Volume 1. When the Society ran its recent specials on the books, the Volume 3s were selling at or near cost, meaning no profit to the Society. The Research Room in Vienna has boxes of books which have not been sold. Many of the other projects they have printed have been slow to sell. In addition to the cost of printing, is the problem of where to store the unsold volumes. Secondly, unless you have worked on such a project you have no idea how much time and effort are involved. It is difficult to get volunteers to donate that volume of time. I stepped in to be a co-leader with Kathryn Geisler on volume 3 when Carol Miller had to bow out. I spent a mininum of 6 hours a day, 5-6 days a week for a year getting that ready. Kathryn and the other volunteers spent equal amounts of time. We typed copy for people without typewriters or who were unable to handwrite their stories, visited people to encourage them to submit, researched different aspects of the county history to add those stories to the family stories, went door to door for photos, in addition to working with the printer on the day to day steps that accompany this type of project. Folks, those books are a labor of love by the Society. Having done 3 books in 10 years, I think that the Society felt it had done a great deal to preserve the history of Maries County. We all wish that the time and resources were available to print more, but it just isn't always feasible. I personally would like to see many of the old volumes of Wills, estates, etc put on line, but again, time is the culprit. Judy