159 Fulbrights gathered for our 1993 Reunion in Springfield, Missouri. The Quality Inn and the Super 8 Motels were packed with Fulbrights and soccer players. The soccer tournament was the largest such event in Springfield, Missouri's history, but we were not overwhelmed! Our space was well protected.

Seventeen states were represented. If the figures don't add up to 159 people, it is because there were some persons about whom we were not sure. There were 7 from Arkansas, 2 from Arizona, 8 from California, 3 from Florida, 2 from, Idaho, 2 from Kansas, 52 from Missouri, 3 from Minnesota, 2 from Mississippi, 2 from Montana, 15 from North Carolina, 1 from New York, 3 from Oklahoma, 2 from Oregon, 2 from South Carolina, 16 from Tennessee, and 27 from Texas.

Friday evening, the General Board met in order to act as a committee of the whole to nominate family members to serve as officers and regional representatives of the family association. They also voted to support a proposal to raise funds to have a room in The History Museum for Springfield - Green County designated as the "Fulbright Family Archives". James McClure was asked by the board to present at the Saturday business meeting the slate of persons nominated for office. David Fulbright was instructed to take other nominations from the floor in the business meeting.

We gathered for a luncheon meeting on June 26 at 1:00 p.m. Several presenters spoke about the lines of the family. Bernard Schaper spoke on the Jacob Line, Judy Fulbright spoke on the George Line, Theresa Fulbright spoke on the Andreas or Andrew Line, and David Fulbright spoke on the John Line. Jacob, George, and John were sons of Johan Wilhelm Volprecht (John William Fulbright)

Our business meeting was lively! New officers were elected. An entire list of the new officers is contained at a later place of the newsletter. We thought that all of you might like to have their names, addresses, and telephone numbers.

The family got most involved in the discussion and voting about our next reunion. First, the family decided to have another reunion in two years on the last week end in June. That will be in 1995. It was the location of the next reunion that created a spirited discussion. Although Springfield was chosen again to host the reunion, North Carolina was a close second. After much discussion. it was decided to have an October, 1994 tour of the historic sites associated with our family in North Carolina. It will not be a full scale reunion, as we have had in Springfield, but it will offer Fulbrights from all over the nation the opportunity to see the places in which so much of our history centered. North Carolina Fulbrights of whom there are hundreds will gather to greet the group. The General Board will meet during the tour.

New President, Judy Fulbright, presided over the meeting after her election. Following that session, the family gathered for a family photograph. These photographs are available to those of you who were not at the reunion. A small advertisement with the details of that offer appears in this newsletter.

A wall chart of the family's origin and lines was popular, because everyone could see it! Jean Fulbright had spent hours preparing it. As always, people sat while recalling past relationships, family stories, and asking and answering questions about family lines. It was often hard to persuade people to come to the meetings, because they were engrossed in conversation, looking at each other's pictures, or buying shirts, caps, or other things from the Hawthorne Room's attractions. As always, the T shirts were enormously popular. Of course, Tom Herd's able supervision was evident over the entire operation. He was teased a good bit about being "Vice President In Charge of T Shirts". The new logo printed on the shirts and other articles won many accolades.

David and Patricia Herd interviewed family members and used video tape to record those interviews. A lot of us are anxious to see what is on those tapes!

Ed Stout�s time was taken answering endless genealogical questions, and his two books, The Fulbrigt Family Miscellany and his genealogy of the Fulbright family, sold well. Ed continues to turn over to the family association the proceeds from the sale of these two books. He donated a checkfor two hundred and seventy-five dollars with the promise of more to come.

The Saturday evening dinner meeting was a highlight for all of us. We had a rare treat when James Cathel led the singing table grace and later led us in group singing. His father did a wonderful job in playing the harmonica for us. It as wonderful! The crowd would have happily enjoyed more from this fine musician, but he turned us down. With respect to his 92 years, we reluctantly accepted his decision.

David Fulbright and Judy Fulbright presented a narrated slide presentation on "North Carolina: Retrospect and Prospect". Since so much of it centered on the slides themselves, only an outline of that presentation will appear in this newsletter. It was well received, because so much of it centered on "where we all came from".

Del Bishop, family association archivist, presented an exciting proposal for all of us to consider. Del reported that The History Museum of Springfield and Green County has been acting as an archives for family photographs, papers, and artifacts. The museum offered to name a room in the museum The Fulbright Family Archives. The offer was conditional upon our family making individual pledges totaling at least $15,000 by August l6, 1993. What a challenge! The General Board backed the proposal, and the night before the board contributed pledges in the amount of approximately $3,900. Those persons at the reunion were given forms and envelops to mail pledges to the museum.

Del introduced Maria Holperin, the Executive Director for the Museum who gave us some basic information about the museum and about the ways the Fulbright materials and artifacts are cared for.

The crowd seemed solidly behind the idea. Many of us have lost things such as photographs which cannot be replaced. That doesn't happen to materials which are properly protected and stored. The museum is restoring, protecting, and making available our materials in a responsible way. The board voted to notify all of the family through this mass mailing of this proposal. We need everyone's support to reach the fund raising goal by August 16, 1993.

During the reunion, many Fulbrights went to the museum to view an exhibit about pioneer families of Springfield. The exhibit included a number of items related to the Fulbright family.

On Sunday morning, the General Board met for a breakfast meeting. The rest of the family had breakfast and began to say their good byes or gathered to go to attend worship at St. Paul's United Methodist Church.

By late Sunday afternoon, it was over, but was it really? New relationships had been formed, and old friendships had been rekindled. Family ties which had previously seemed remote seemed fresh and exciting. North Carolina in '94 and Springfield in '95! The museum project is before us. The reunion may be over, but there is a lot more to come!!!

The overall impression of the reunion seemed to be that this reunion was better organized than the 1991 reunion and gave everyone more time to visit and to discuss family concerns. On the other hand, we had fewer people than we had at the 1991 reunion.

Several folks mentioned a desire for more workshops or small group activities on Friday evening. What do you think? Let your regional representatives and officers know your impressions.