A new DPS Management Committee took over May 1 and many of you met all of its members at the annual Banquet. For those who weren't there or couldn't hear because of the festivities, we have Dale Van Dalsem as Vice Chair and Outings Chair, Frank Dobos as Program Chair, Jim Farkas as Secretary, and Randy Bernard as Treasurer. Dale heads the Mountaineering Committee; Gene Olsen and Ron Jones are members of it and so is Bill T. Russell, who will update the List this year. The new Management Committee asked Anna Valkass to continue as editor of The Desert Sage, the Hollemans to continue keeping the mailing list for the Sage, Carolyn West to continue as Council Representative and Sage mailer, Bill Faulkner to continue as Conservation person. All agreed and will continue to do fine work for the section. I have some goals for the year. First, we want to put out the Road and Peaks Guide which Randy Bernard has been assembling with such devotion. A meeting held June 1 moved that project along and the Guide will be ready by October. Second, we want to have a full schedule of trips for the November Schedule and the next climbing season, and Dale has been working on that. Third, we want to have a safe climbing season, and all of our leaders will be working towards that goal. Then I would like us to put out a special issue of the Sage - for this, we will need volunteers to write historical overviews, assemble statistical records, vent their opinions, and produce memoirs, poems, and jokes. Finally, we want to recruit new members and new leaders for the section - I will be working on plans for this. Your ideas are needed too! Members are always welcome at Management Committee meetings, which will be held just prior to the regular 1st Wednesday meetings at our new West L.A. location. Of all of the hiking sections, the DPS has a special place in my heart, and perhaps in most of yours. Peakbagging may structure our activities, but the section offers much more than that. I've tried to express this in a poem, and I'll close with that.

When first we came to DPS, most everything was new, The peaks themselves, the rituals round the fire, the many faces in the flames. Now, countless campfires have turned strangers into friends, and many peaks have passed beneath my feet. I'm grateful to the DPS and proud to be its Chair. We have many special leaders, our frequent desert hosts. They welcome more to follow, so come join us on a hike! And some of us will tell you, though again it doesn't rhyme, we really need the people, though we say we need the peaks.

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