b"C H A P T E R T W E L V EA Congregation of Quick StudentsVery early in the life of the Friends, a situation arose involving the Board of Health: it had no secretary. To cover that gap, Friends Treasurer Sue Wilmot stepped forward. And for a period of months, she sat in as the boards unpaid secretary. In a way, that says something about the make-up of FCW volunteers.They have been a potent crew from the starting gun. When the fate of the Old Mill Boat Yard had gone down to the wire, the new president of FCW, Richard Batchelder, took his concern about it to the selectmen. Chatham simply could not let that crucial landing area fall entirely into commercial hands. The selectmen countered with a challenge of their own: You understand. Why dont you see what you can do? And so Batch did, working pro bono, and through his negotiations, Chatham bought the facility for $600,000. Is there any dispute about what a bargain that was? Then, too, dont forget the persistence that marked Martha Stones pursuit of the septic system inspection requirement back in '85. Not a lot of people applauded, but anyone with a long view on waterway protection should have.Its not hard to pinpoint some of the factors defining the efforts of FCW volunteers over the years. Start with that quality of persistence. Thats been a recurrent theme on these pages. Some folks still remember that moment in October 93 when, as Mrs. Stone stills hears the message, Kurt Hellfach and Dick Miller came to the point where they just about gave up on bringing the Stage Harbor Management Plan into port. Why? Because they were having so muchDeborah Doane, left, and Mary Price draw a sample of water from a Niskin cylinder.It is part of their biweekly duties as volunteers on a Chatham Water Watchers team assigned to test for various factors at their Outer Ryders Cove station.This sample will be analyzed at a lab in New Bedford, along with water taken from 24 other Chatham stations.]im Blankenship214"