We have seen some changes over the past few years and I hope these have been viewed as positive as well as innovative. One of my goals was to have a web site for the VSWGA. I worked closely with Cindy Paquet to set things up, and thanks to her expertise and generosity, we have one of the best sites I have seen, and it just continues to improve each year. If you haven't looked at it, you are really missing something. Our women get tremendous exposure from this site - check it out at vswga.org.

We are served by a very dedicated Board of Directors and Committee Chairs who volunteer their time to work for all of you and the VSWGA to make everything happen. I am not sure people realize how much time and effort these individuals put into the VSWGA as either board members or committee chairs. They are the behind the scenes strength of this organization and I would like to ask all the board members and committee chairs to stand up and be recognized. As Predident, I want you to know how much I appreciate you because without everyone of you, my job would have been impossible. Thanks.

We would be remiss if we didn't say thank you to all the courses who have supported women's golf by hosting our state days, and especially those courses who have willingly and graciously given up their courses for two or three days to host our major tournaments. It has been great working with all of you.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the winners of our 2000 tournaments. As you may know we came in second (for the second year in a row) to New Hampshire in the Tri-State Tournament held in Maine with two of our players scoring the maximum number of points available- Sally Bridges from Rutland and Elizabeth Walker from Haystack. Let's bring the trophy back to Vermont next year.

The Seniors Tournament was held in July at Manchester Country Club with Joan Rizio from Stratton defending her title from 1999 as the gross winner, and Ute Frankenstein from Lake Morey winning low net.

The State Amateur Tournament was held in August at Newport Country Club with another defending champion Libby Smith taking home the gross title and Cheryl Hoar from Burlington capturing the top net prize. The Buxton Cup was won by Rocky Ridge.

The Mid-Amateur was held in September at Neshobe Golf Course and saw two first-time players to this tournament take home the top prizes. Margie Mather-Bowes from Mt. Anthony was the gross winner with Lori Drumm from Rocky Ridge capturing the top net prize.

The Final State Day and Awards event was held at the Quechee Club and Woodstock Country Club in September with Jeanne Morrissey from Williston earning the most points of all competitors with 130. Williston was also the Division I club to earn the most points in their division and another Williston golfer Lauren Groff was the individual winner for lowering her handicap the most. The Division II club winner for most points was Cedar Knoll with Division III being won by Lake St. Catherine.

Congratulations to Putzy Pinto for her hole-in-one at state day at Mount Anthony.

There has been much discussion both pro and con associated with the decision last year to charge a State Day Participation Fee. It was hoped that by charging this fee, we would discourage people who only play in one state day a year from taking a spot from others who play on a regular basis. In some cases this seems to have worked as many people have said they were able to get into most of the courses they wanted. I know this was not the case for everyone. Another reason for the fee was to allow us to donate more to the VGA Scholarship fund since our gross income would be higher and thus the percentage amount donated would be higher. We accomplished this goal. We had hoped to help defray some of the expenses of the web site with this fee as well. And, of course, we promised to mail the state day books to everyone individually and to increase the prize money for state days which we accomplished. The money raised from this fee plus additional VSWGA monies were certainly returned to you by way of mailings, postage, and prize money. I hope you all understand that the majority of our work with the VSWGA is spent on state days. Each of the other tournaments, Seniors, State Amateur, Mid-Amateur have entry fees to offset the cost of running them. In speaking with other organizations, prior to instituting this fee, they could not believe that we did not charge a fee and it was interesting that almost all of their fees were considerably higher. Whatever you decide this year relative to this fee is certainly up to you as a group, but I do feel the advantages to continuing it outweigh the disadvantages.

Finally, I would like to once again thank all of you for your cooperation and understanding during my term as President. I made every effort to respond to your concerns, to your calls, to your letters, and to listen to you when you had something to say and hope you feel I have given you the best possible service I could. The VSWGA should be proud of its organization and I am grateful to have been able to play a small part in its continued success.

Thanks,