ON JULY I7-19, 1998 IN RALEIGH, NC

It was a great weekend. The number of attendees was not as great as last year, but there was a strong consensus that this was a very enjoyable and informative gathering.  -- Cec 7/20/98

A Trip Report

Uncle Jim Cloud and I arrived in Raleigh Thursday afternoon after enduring a closure of interstate highway 75 north of Chattanooga and a driving thunderstorm on Interstate 40 just outside Raleigh. On checking into the Holiday Inn we immediately ran into the deClouding crew (Taylor Cloud, Jan Cloud, Hal Cloud, Linda Boose, Naomi Huckabay, and Catherine Templeton) returning from the North Carolina State Archives. We joined some of them for dinner at Chili's Restaurant down Highway 70. 

We spent Friday morning finding our way around Raleigh's Capitol area and Friday afternoon making our own modest attempts to gather information at the State Archives and Library. We got back to the Holiday Inn in time to register, visit a bit, and join some of the others for dinner at the hotel. We then gathered in our conference room for a briefing by CFA Historian Jan Cloud on the CFA, its historical files, and some interesting Cloud Family anecdotes. The exchange of ideas and family data continued, but some of us had some resting to do.

We rolled out early Saturday morning for a 9:00 a.m. Business Meeting of the Cloud Family Association. Association President Taylor Cloud presided at the meeting, first getting approval of the Minutes of the 1997 meeting as published in the Journal. Linda Boose described the financial condition of the Association (solvent, expenses paid, and about $9,000 in the bank). Taylor then talked about activities, trends, challenges, and his Vision for the Association. He noted that the meeting this year was drawing fewer than half the number of the previous year and wondered whether annual meetings were too frequent. He addressed "reasons for attending" and suggested that people attend for 1) socializing with cousins and old friends, 2) gaining genialogical and historical information, and 3) enjoying or learning from the city where the meeting is held. A show of hands for each confirmed this trio of motivations.

A motion was made to defer the next meeting to the year 2000. There was discussion of the cost of annual travel, the challenge of having interesting presentations this often, the potential loss of interest with meetings so often, the potential loss of interest and momentum without annual meetings, the possibility of alternating between large national meetings and multiple regional meetings, the potential for economical videoteleconferences,  the flexibility of arrangements for Atlanta, and the need to change the by-laws if we are to depart from having annual meetings.  Leanord Cloud made a motion that the Atlanta meeting be held in 1999 as previously planned and that a study be made of biannual (national) meetings and regional meetings during the off years for consideration at the Atlanta meeting. The motion was seconded (unlike the previous motion) and passed 20 to 14.

Taylor said that he had only agreed to serve as Vice President to facilitate organization of the 1997 meeting, that he quickly and unintentionaly became president, that he has enjoyed good support over the past two years,  that his two-year term of office has expired, and that he is not elligible to succeed himself. He asked for nominations. Leanard Cloud and Jane Ellison were nominated. Leanord was elected President and Jane was elected Vice President.

Attendees introduced themselves and their family research interests. A question about whether to continue the exploratory web page and photographs was answered with positive expressions. Jan Cloud alerted the attendees to the "Cloud family books" being sold with the promotion that "You are in it."  This is considered to be a rip-off being offered to many surname mailing lists with no genealogical or family-history value. "You are in it" if you have a phone listing. In response to a question of the Association sponsoring a legitimate book by her, Jan said that she was considering a book or book series, but cannot commit to it because of other activities.

Jan Cloud, CFA Historian, talked with the group about Cloud history.

Saturday Luncheon

We enjoyed a delicious lunch and then heard an informative presentation by the director of the North Carolina State Archives. Several of us were particularly interested in his discussion of the efforts to put the archives on-line and accessable through the internet.

Saturday Afternoon & Evening

Informal discussions and exchange of Cloud information in the hospitality suite, with time to review various research materials and published Cloud data on display.

Individual arrangements were made for dinner. I had the pleasure of dining with the Lamb family at the Holiday Inn, but we concluded that the staff was not expecting a big crowd of us for dinner.

We returned to the meeting room to hear a guest speaker describe the Quakers, including Clouds, who moved from the PA/DE area to the Carolinas and then to other states.

Some of us took a look at night-time Raleigh and the riddle of the beltline freeway.

Sunday, July 19, 1998

Jan Cloud, CFA Historian, provided tips on doing Cloud research during an informal discussion from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m.

The group boarded busses and private vehicles for the drive to Hillsborough, a small historic city northwest of Raleigh. Some of us took a detour enroute to see the new home being built by DeAnne and Wilson Lamb near Hillsborough. We had a great luncheon of good American country cooking at the historic Hillsborough Colonial Inn, North America’s oldest continuously-operating inn. We then toured historic Hillsborough by bus. Many of us departed for home at this point, while others rode the busses back to Raleigh.

We had a smooth trip home, satisfied that it had been a great weekend. We hit the downpour this time as we approached  the highest point on I-40 in the Smokey Mountains, but it was not much of a delay. We had expected to overnight in the Knoxville area, but the engine smelled home and we felt compelled to complete the trip without stopping.