EXECUTIVE WASHROOM
It seems that many of the world's decisions are made in far more unofficial places
than the boardroom --- thus the name. After all, we do not want to become TOO wrapped up in our own importance.
The following is a brief chronological history of the group as people have
drifted back together over more recent times. It covers items such as the
development of the web site and the appointment of people to various tasks.
On the weekend of the 4th of July, 1997, Ed Maycen started
up a web site dedicated to the aviation unit of the Headquarters &
Headquarters Company of the 1st Brigade of the 1st Air Cavalry Division. This
unit had become known as the FLYING CIRCUS. Ed started looking in the Vietnam
Helicopter Pilots' Association directory for names of people he knew. Jon Harris
helped Ed collect names in those early days, and soon the numbers began to grow
as people started contacting others that they knew.
In 1998, the group held its first reunion. At this first
gathering, a couple of decisions were made regarding some administrative items:
1. Jon Harris will maintain the Circus database. It
is requested that anyone with any information please forward it to Jon so that
he can compile it into a database for our Circus history.
2. Ed Maycen will maintain the Circus homepage and email
list server. Anyone wishing to have anything posted on the web page should
contact Ed.
In early 2000, it became necessary for the group to move its web site to
another web server. Ed Maycen organized a site for the group on the Military.com
system, and many of the files were transferred to that site. The group then
decided that they would like to take advantage of another web server that would
allow them to have their own site, so Ed organized this change, and the new site
became operational by mid year.
As the group now had its own web site, it was put forward that there should
be two people that have access to the site. This would take some of the load off
Ed Maycen, who had been doing the behind the scenes work on the site on his own
all this time. Frank Vanatta was nominated as this second person. People
wishing to add things to the web site can now contact Frank as well as Ed.
To get some practical experience with working on the web site, Frank started
into a project of sorting through the ever increasing collection of data and
photos and began reorganizing many of the internal files on the web site to
make them easier to work with and edit in the future. Frank soon became the main
webmaster for the site and has carried on the work started by Ed.
In March, 2002, the web server made
some changes that again forced the group to moved to a new server. Ed organized
the move, and Frank began the task of uploading the files to the new site.
In late June, 2004, the web site
ceased to function. After trying to get a reply from the server for some time,
Ed Maycen was again forced to find a new server for the site. This was
accomplished in early July. Fortunately, Frank Vanatta had saved the whole web
site on his computer plus a back-up copy on CD, so he again started the process
of uploading the whole web site to the new server.
In late 2004, the server's program for
the webmail system began to give the group a lot of problems. Yet again, Ed had to
go in search of a new server. The move was made in February, 2005.
When plans got underway for the 2006
reunion, it was discovered that a more complete listing of addresses for the
members needed to be compiled. W. Sullivan volunteered to produce such a
listing, and has taken over that responsibility from Jon. Anyone wishing to
update any snail-mail address can send it to Frank Vanatta or Ed Maycen, and
they will forward that to Sullivan.
In August, 2007, the server we were
using sent notice that they were closing down. With this advanced notification
in hand, Ed Maycen was able to move the web site to a new server much more
easily than in the past. Both the web site and the webmail list were moved to
new hosts with no interruption to our use.