Hello fellow IMA members. My name is Maria Speer and I have accepted the task of the Denver Chapter Historian. The first IMA Conference I attended was the 75th anniversary of the IMA, and since that time I have been reading up on the history of our organization. Of course that history is well documented, so they don’t need me. However, I’ll bet that our Denver chapter also has a long and interesting history, and I am just the person needed to document that!

I would like to document this history and in a couple of years (that is my estimation of how big this project is) I will have a book put together for all of us to read and enjoy.

Here is one tidbit I heard a few years ago from I believe Helene Harrill (at least I think it was Helene if it wasn’t please refresh my memory). She was telling me about what it was like to do the roster when she had that duty (although she didn’t tell me what year it was). Back then your employer did not give you paid time off to work for the IMA, so you had to take your own vacation time to do some of your duties. There were no word processors then so all of the pages had to be typed, and if you remember those days no spell checker, if you made a mistake you had to start completely over. You could not use your company equipment either so you had to use your own typewriter and pay someone to type the pages, or do it yourself. Once the pages were typed they were taken to the printer for typesetting and printing. Helene related that they spent a couple of days and nights at the printer’s shop proof reading and binding the rosters. Makes today’s roster seem like a breeze, doesn’t it??