History of WCTS

The first issue of What Canst Thou Say? was published by Jean Roberts and Jim Flory in October 1994.  That first issue was accompanied by a cover letter that began, “This is an invitation for you to become a participating member in a new newsletter.  If we get a positive response from you and the others receiving this mailing the newsletter will become a reality, if not we will lay it to rest with no regrets. It is like launching a kite: Jean and Jim will run down the beach to get it airborne, but lacking the breeze of your contributions of articles, responses, questions, and quotes it will not fly.”

Marcelle Martin, Carol Roth, and Patricia McBee took over the responsibility from Jean Roberts and Jim Flory in May of 1997 and started the practice of having themes for each issue. Then Kathryn Gordon joined and Carol's daughter, Morgan Roth, helped Carol with layout. When we advertised for new team members in February of 1999, Linda Lee, Mariellen Gilpin, Roena Oesting, and Lissa Field responded. Soon after that Linda brought in Amy Perry as subscription manager and Lieselotte Heil began sending renewal reminders. Kathy Tapp agreed to be a guest editor and stayed on the team. Mariellen brought in Grayce Mesner when Roena went to New Zealand in 2001. Sue Kern began managing subscriptions with Earlham College facilites when Amy resigned in 2002 and Margaret Willits came on as Treasurer. When Linda needed to minimize her involvement in 2002, we got the guest editor idea again and that brought in Judy Lumb, Eleanor Warnock, Jennifer Elam, and Ellen Michaud. Judith Detert-Moriarty designed a completely new look for What Canst Thou Say? that was launched with the November 2003 issue. Chris Johns joined in 2005 after Mariellen Gilpin appealed for her help in finishing the August issue. Richard Himmer and Wayne Yarnall responded in 2006 to our request for a new subscriptions manager and Joan Johnston became our new bookeeper. Mike Resman joined the editorial team in 2008, and Earl Smith and Rhonda Pfaltzgraff-Carlson joined the editorial team in 2013. In 2015 Muriel Dimock became our Treasurer. In 2017 Rhonda Ashurst joined the editorial team. In 2020 George Hebben became our Subscription Manager.