Meanwhile, at the idea pool

This weekend we're setting to work quietly, in our favorite armchairs with our trusty laptops and memo pads and calculators by our side.  Recently, we had a discussion about the USS HORNET Project and how it meshes with the existing 1812 bicentennial programming plans.  Now that those plans are being finalized, a clearer picture of what to expect and how to augment it is available.  But as we really focus on the question of what it all means, and should mean, we're in a great pool of thought processes - each with different origins and objectives but crossing somehow beneath the banner of "1812".  The great challenge is weaving every path into a giant knit onion - where the various layers and sinews compliment and embrace the bigger vegetable.  Served raw in that concentration is bound to make some restaurant-goers cry.  But in the right combination, with some preparation, the flavor comes out with great taste.

It's been some time since we realized that our initial plans for building this coming fall, winter and spring did not accomplish this.  After all, simply building a ship to participate in the existing events - no matter how significant - merely draws attention away from the greater picture and dilutes our mission and message in the great big soup of it all.  (Why am I on such a food fancy today?)  We realized that there is another piece of the pie (nope, still not off of it) that is yet untried, unexplored and undeveloped - 1813.  This was a very significant year in Hornet's history, and in the history of the war, and yet very little is planned for 2013 - between the great bookends of OpSail/Navy Week on Tour 2012 and the Star Spangled 200 in 2014 (which is sure to be awesome with a cherry on top).  But between them is a great opportunity for complimentary programming yet to be realized.  We're not the wine or the pint with the main course, we're in a course all our own.

So, working with our own dream team, Navy 1812 commemorations leaders and going on observations of the various wheels turning around them, we've realigned to begin construction in Spring 2012, build through the Summer and into the Fall, and launch with sufficient time for shakedown, training certification and commissioning by 2013.  The expanded timeline means the processes get cheaper and can be better thought out, and by not detracting from the 2012 plans we allow a new shift in focus that falls squarely on NHS and Hornet.  Everyone can breathe a sigh of relief, step off the treadmill and go grab a sundae.  The Hornet team has certainly earned it, and depending on your location - I'm buying so hit me up this weekend.

BT

Translated into the micro-view, this means that we're hitting our literature hard this weekend, prepping everything from website updates (yes Alex and Dave, gird your loins!) to Project Summaries and promotional material.  More information will be published in next week's issue of The Pennant, so if you're not already on our mailing list, visit us at www.navalheritage.org/contact.html and sign up!

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