Anthracite. Chartered 1980.

CHAPTER HISTORIAN
Walt Janus
c/o Greenman-Pedersen Inc.
50 Glenmaura National Blvd, Suite 301 
Scranton, PA 18505
[email protected]
(570)  342-3700 Ext. 286 

A History of the Anthracite Chapter   by Kerry Freeman (1990)

The formation of our chapter began at the 1979 CRC in Williamsburg, Virginia, hosted by the Richmond Chapter. Lee Garing and Kerry Freeman, members of the Lehigh Valley Chapter, attended this CRC and held preliminary discussions with Kenneth Wicks, Region III Chairman, and Hugh McMillan, Jr., Society President about forming a new chapter in the northern part of the area then served by the Lehigh Valley Chapter.  Discussions had previously taken place among the members of the Lehigh Valley Chapter about the formation of a separate chapter due to the fact that the chapter membership was split 50-50 between the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton-Reading area and the Wilkes-Barre-Scranton-Pocono area. Several other facts that entered these discussions were the policy of alternating meeting locations between the two areas and a dwindling attendance at these meetings due in part to the distance needed to be traveled between the two areas.

After the 1979 CRC, several members met with the officers and directors of the Lehigh Valley Chapter to discuss and formulate a policy for separation.  (It was agreed) that a separation could and should take place to provide the impetus to  make two better chapters out of one that was currently weak. A steering committee consisting of Kerry Freeman, Lee Garing, Don Brandt, John Dolph and Mike Dick was formed to begin the process of chartering a new chapter.

The “new” chapter was to operate independently of the parent Lehigh Valley Chapter until a charter could be established. During this period of time, the membership became the Northern Division – Lehigh Valley Chapter.

Steering Committee members met on Lee Garing’s sailboat on Lake  Wallenpaupak on October 6, 1979 to begin the organization. At this meeting the third Tuesday of the month was established as our regular meeting day with November 20, 1979 to be set as our first meeting. Meeting dates were determined through April and tentative speaker topics were assigned to each member of the steering committee who would act as program chairman. Kerry Freeman was selected as acting Chairman: John Dolph, acting Secretary, and Don Brandt, acting Treasurer.

A petition was prepared and circulated at the November 20, 1979 meeting where 16 signatures were obtained. The name suggested by the Steering Committee, Pocono Chapter, was not well received by the majority of those present, so another name, Anthracite Chapter, was presented and approved thereby linking our chapter to the coal mining history that is so much a part of our geographic and economic heritage.

 Through the balance of 1979 and early 1980, the new unchartered chapter continued to hold regular meetings while the process of chartering continued. On December 11, 1979, the chapter sponsored a Department of Energy seminar at Penn State, Worthington Campus, on the topic of complying with emergency building temperature restrictions per D.O.E. Regulation 10 CFR part 490. Also, since 25 signatures were required for our petition, it was again circulated at several more meetings.

 Finally on January 29, 1980, a completed petition listing the counties of Sullivan, Wyoming, Luzerne, Monroe, Lackawanna, Wayne and Pike as our territory was submitted to Ken Wicks, Regional Chairman. On February 13, 1980 a completed chapter questionnaire was mailed to Society Headquarters requesting that a constitution and bylaws be prepared for the Anthracite Chapter. The steering committee selected a nominating committee consisting of John Lloyd, Peynton Lee and Lee Garing to begin a search for candidates to hold offices and serve as directors.