Cousins: It has been a good past weekend, seeing all of you. Our program was great. I owe many thanks to the following: Donna Prosser, Sherry Finchum, Carolyn Crowley and Alice Parks for putting things together. Donna, Sherry and Carolyn worked together to see that things went well in the communication end of things. Ms. Alice Parks did a great job on the Fayetteville end. It was great walking down the streets of Fayetteville and seeing the store front signs welcoming the Chestnut Ridge Cousins. The assembly hall at the church building fit our needs. John Foster worked on the Petersburg end and finding an alternative site for us to meet was most appreciative. Polly Dodson worked hard on getting the monies and registrations in to take care of all the financial needs. Thanks to Billy Joe Prosser for getting the copier that was used at the church building. Janice are copies of the tape going to be available should a cousin desire a copy? Our speakers were great with Dr. Bradley on Saturday evening. The Saturday day speakers were most informative. It was great to have Mr. Jack Towry and his wife; Ms. Dora M. Whisenant and Ms. Mable Tucker all from the Lincoln County Genealogical Society. We appreciated their presentation and their being at the society building on Saturday afternoon. I appreciated Alben Simmons's presentation from the Bedford County side of "The Ridge." I am excited about Moore and Lincoln County putting out a heritage book. Hopefully we can get something together for both counties from our Ridge. Maybe we need to put together a committee and put some of our material together for a book corner if these counties will allow it. It would be good to have as many surnames that were of our pioneers that settled in the area and the names that we are researching today. Sherry: I got home and checked the registration book and found that we had 11 states represented again. They being this time: Arkansas, California, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Florida, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Virginia, Tennessee, Texas. NOW FROM OUR MEETING LET'S GET BUSY ON SOME OF THE ISSUES THAT FACE US. I think our number one priority is the destroyed and the abandoned cemeteries. What can and may we do about these? Billy Joe Prosser tells me that the idea that was put out last year about the scouts is not permissible. I do not know if the Sheriffs Department's of the four counties have inmate work crews that would do this or not. There was mention that one of the school's history club had taken on a project of working on one of the local cemeteries. Do we try to set up workings during the cold weather months [snakes, ticks, and chiggers are not the best friends in the world] or do we start some type of restoration fund [for hiring people to work on them] or do we have a combination of both? Carolyn has mentioned that there is some grant money also available, do we meet the criteria for these monies? Any thoughts are appreciated. I would like to see the King / Harkins cemeteries worked on. I see one pro! blem with the Harkins Cemetery and that is the large trees that are in the middle of it. Thanks to all and it was enjoyable. Fayetteville was a great host. Bobby Prosser prossergenealogy@comcast.net