Hello, folks. My name is Linda Russell and I'm your new president. I've spent 20 years doing the route as volunteer, board member, exec member, board member and back to volunteer, and I officially retired from the council two years ago. When Rick West, our esteemed past-president, first asked me to run, I told him, "Only if you get me a whip instead of a gavel." So he offered me a whip…with tiny barbs embedded in it. What can I say?

Let me tell you a little -- a very little - about the 2001-2002 board of directors. Executive members: Jean Hewson, musician, teacher and heckler supreme, is our vice-president; Stan Pickett, bon vivant and retired teacher, is the treasurer; that accordion-playin' fool Dave Penny, an engineering teckie, is again serving as secretary.

Those re-elected include mandolin-player Andrew Lang, a dentist with a strong belief in anesthetic; Metrobus general manager Janet Bradshaw; Rod Shea, co-stage manager for the festival, who can really take you to the cleaners; instrumentalist and Folk Night sound man, Rob Brown, a research engineer at C-CORE; and Erin McArthur, a visual artist and potter who was for 17 years a volunteer at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival.

Newly-elected are Michelle Brophy, furniture-maker and co-organizer (with Rob) of the traditional workshops at the festival; Harry Ingram, who works with an offshore supply company, and Jean Knowles, a tour planner and operator who's an NBC -- Newfoundlander By Choice.

Bridget Noonan is, of course, the festival co-ordinator, Folk Night boss, and repository of all the little details that all of the rest of us need to know.

We have a couple of interesting projects in mind for the coming year, but our immediate focus is on the 25th annual festival. Info has been sent to the appropriate electronic news groups and has been posted on several festival Web sites. Check it out at http://www.sjfac.nf.net

The Festival Organizing Committee consists of the same group of people you've seen there for several years; they must be insane: Ford Elms, Judy Stamp, Lyvonne Fulford, Merie Windsor, Michelle Spencer, Marie and Denise Riggs, Denise Ryan, Janet Bishop, Pat Hapgood, Carol Ann Hennenbury, Tonya Kearley and Pat Stamp. We have an army of dedicated volunteers, some of whom live out-of-province and actually plan their vacations around the festival.

I want to toss a few special bouquets to the people who work on The Broadside. Stephanie Fleming has done a lot of interviewing and writing for the special anniversary issue, and Dawne Brown and Delf Hohmann have been doing a remarkable job of pulling together the past several issues on their own initiative. We have some new plans for the year, in terms of content and distribution, but definitely not in terms of the producers. Thank you, all three.

If you have any kind of item for the newsletter - upcoming concerts, tours, releases (whether music or books) - send it along to bridget@sjfac.nf.net or to lindar@mun.ca and we will forward it to Delf and Dawne (what's that flower you have on...). The newsletter will be posted on our Web site, so include your e-address and it should make a hyperlink automatically. If it doesn't, Rick will force it to.

One highlight: The Royal Canadian Mint has issued a 50-cent coin celebrating the festival's 25th anniversary - one of only 13 events in all of Canada to get this sort of recognition. The coin won't be in general circulation, but you can get yours at the Post Office or directly from the Mint.

That's about it for this issue. Support local music, support your local Folk Arts Council and the festival, support our sponsors, and learn all the words of The Ode to Newfoundland. Oh, and about that whip: Bridget's has sharper barbs than mine. Onward and upward.