This year has not been a good one, in many ways, not the great and wonderful one people here hoped for at the ending of 2008, but because we are optimists we still hope that 2010 will be better than this year was.

There are several new people here, and several important lessons were learned. So saying, we toss our pinecone in the fire to burn away the negative of the past year and in so doing provide room for new hope to grow.