I have been in contact with Diane and quite a few more of you in the past few days. I still have some of your messages marked to answer as soon as I can. I ask that you please give us a little time to try to find a solution to this stalemate over the Leslie Brown Collection. We have already had excellent suggestions come in from some and they are appreciated very much. Below is a copy of the message I sent to Diane about this problem yesterday. Best wishes, Horace Diane, I am sorry that I did not see the e-mail you sent me on Mar. 3rd until you sent the message to the list on the 4th. When I started replying to the message on the 4th, I first wrote that I had not received a message from you. Luckily, I went back to check all my incoming mail and found it. At least I did not embarress myself further by telling the list that I had not received it. I sincerely regret that I did not contact you personally about the matter before going to the list. We might have reached some solution to our difficulty. I said a couple of things that I should never have mentioned and I really regret that now. I want to apologize to you for saying them and for not going directly to you at the beginning. In the heat of the moment, it just did not even occur to me to do that. I have responded to several of your friends on the Duplin list - and you have plenty - most of whom expressed hope that this could all be worked out. I had already planned to call a meeting of the foundation board to consider how we could make the material on the cards available to researchers, no matter how far away they live, and still protect the integrity of the collection and keep it offline. Dee Thompson praised your work and then suggested possible ways of handling the cards. You might want to check with her off the list for details about her suggestions. The subject will be discussed whenever I can get the board together. It might take a while for the board to decide what path to take. I hope this will all come to a speedy resolution and that we can both just go back to helping others. Horace