May 2026 Newsletter
We are looking forward to our upcoming programs, including the June 13 workshop at Wyck House!
At our Annual General Meeting in February, the APT Delaware Valley Chapter welcomed five new board members and reviewed the past year of successful events. Since then, our new board has selected Lori Aument as vice chair and streamlined operations, merging programming and social events planning into an Events Committee co-chaired by Michael Falstad, Tara Rasheed, and Sara Gdula. That group has already planned two sold-out Insider’s Tours and an upcoming workshop on linseed oil paint systems at the Wyck Historic House and Garden on June 13.
The Symposium Committee, chaired by Kathy Dowdell, is hard at work co-organizing a two-day gathering, entitled Building Resilience, with the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design’s Department of Historic Preservation for October 2–3. Mark your calendars and look for a call for case study presentations and an event website with more information in the coming weeks.
Our Communications Committee, now led by Cameron Moon and including chapter secretary Kara Smith and IT coordinator Liz Trumbull, has been maintaining our social media presence, bringing you email blasts about once a week, and keeping the website up to date. You can review a list of all APT-DVC committees and their chairs on the About page.
For those who attended the Annual General Meeting, my completely unrehearsed phone call to the president of APT Texas during the event was a reminder that APT-DVC is one among twenty-one regional chapters of the Association for Preservation Technology International (APTI). Chapter officers are also members of APTI and we encourage everyone to consider the benefits of belonging to the international organization as well.
Whereas the chapter board meets about once a month, the APTI board meets quarterly, with the spring meeting including a preview of the conference host city for the following year (2027 in Birmingham, Alabama). I could not attend in person, but joined virtually and participated in breakout groups to help shape APTI’s 2027–2032 Strategic Plan. The clarity obtained from setting an organization’s direction for the next five years is likewise apparent to the APT-DVC board, and at the end of this month, we will have a weekend retreat to write our own plan to guide the chapter beyond the end of my term as chair.
I am excited by the potential for our chapter and APTI to continue learning from and inspiring each other, through the growing number of preservation professionals who are involved in both. To facilitate that collaboration, we have scheduled our symposium in early October to provide some down time before the 2026 APT Indianapolis conference on October 26–30 (registration opens today, May 6). Three chapter members (Anne Weber, Jacqui Hogans, and I) have already signed up as session chairs—so 20 percent of presentation sessions will be led by APT-DVC members!
As there is much more in store over the coming months, our communications team will keep you informed by email, Instagram, LinkedIn, and the website about offerings from APTI and partner organizations in addition to upcoming APT-DVC events.
Justin M. Spivey, PE, FAPT, APT RP
Chair, APT Delaware Valley Chapter