One of the constants of the Roebling Chapter has been its annual symposium held every Fall in Drew University's Hall of Sciences. This symposium consists of approximately half-hour illustrated presentations featuring the industrial archeology of the New York - Northern New Jersey region.

The first annual Symposium was organized by Thorwald Torgerson, who was president of the Roebling Chapter and then the national SIA, and a tireless advocate for industrial archeology. It was co-sponsored by the Anthropology Department of Drew University (as it has been ever since). The date was Sept. 12, 1981 and it featured the first of many presentations by Edward Rutsch and also one by Abba Lichtenstein on historic bridges, plus presentations of slides showing past field trips of the chapter. The presentations were heavily illustrated with slides, setting a precedent that is still followed. Lunch was at the student center, and was included in the charge of $10.

The success of this symposium, and the hard work of Thorwald, set the pattern for years to come. The second annual symposium was held October 16, 1982, and included a movie on the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railroad shown by Lance Metz, a presentation by Ed Rutsch on a site at which he was then working, and seven other talks. This left no time for showing slides of past chapter trips, and it was decided to have these instead at the annual meeting in January, another tradition that we have kept.

For the third annual symposium (Oct. 19, 1983), lunch was served in the seminar room outside the auditorium, which has been the practice ever since. The food for this lunch was prepared under the direction of Nanci Batchelor, who (with her family) cooked much of it herself, a huge job for a large group like this; the typical audience is 100 to 150 people. Jim Lee gave a presentation on the Plane 9W Turbine of the Morris Canal, Lance showed another great film, Ed Rutsch was on again also, and Ed Lenik gave his first talk on an IA site in the region. We heard a presentation on the Baltimore Museum of Industry from Dennis Zembala: but this was very relevant because it was presented to give us some guidance in creating a museum of industry in our region. This of course has not yet come about.

In the fourth symposium I gave my first full talk, on Bush Terminal, which I was then documenting for the Army Corps of Engineers. Brian Morrell and Bill McKelvey gave their first Drew presentations also, and Ed Rutsch and Lance Metz were back again.

It is interesting to note that Lance and Bill went on to create their own annual symposiums, inspired in part by Thorwald's creation. Lance's Canal Symposium takes place at Lafayette University in Easton, PA, under the auspices of the Canal Museum. Its presentations are somewhat longer, and always accompanied by a published version of every talk. McKelvey's symposium takes place at Drew also, in the spring, under the auspices of the Friends of the New Jersey Transportation Museum. The presentations here are generally more brisk at about 15 minutes long, and there are more of them. So Thorwald's efforts have resulted in three annual symposiums, each with its own distinctive character and tradition.

Thorwald decided to bow out after the fifth annual symposium, and the sixth was organized by Terry Karschner, of the state Office of New Jersey Heritage, which has co-sponsored the symposium ever since.

Terry's many duties with the New Jersey office made it difficult for him to find the time to devote to the Symposium, so the eighth one (Nov. 5, 1988) was handed off to me, Tom Flagg, who had just ended four years as president of the chapter, and who has been the symposium coordinator ever since. I have had generous assistance from other chapter members. Nanci Batchelor continues to supervise the food part of the symposium. For about the past ten years we have been required by Drew to use a designated caterer to provide the lunch, which raises costs some but means that Nanci and her family do not have to cook it! Of course she and her crew still arrange it, set it out, and clean up afterward, and we are very grateful for her work there. We are also grateful to Charles Scott, who has handled the financial and registration work.

Even with the caterer, we have held the cost to $18 pre-registered ($20 at the door), which may be the least expensive all-day lunch-included symposium around. The fee is set to break even, not to bring in money to the chapter's treasury. And anyone may attend, not just SIA or chapter members; we have found this helps to recruit new members.

Our 25th annual symposium was held on October 29, 2005. We did not arrange any special celebration of the 25th; after all, this audience comes for the meat of technical talks, not self-congratulation. That said, all those involved with this series of symposia can rightly feel some pride in an unbroken record of 25 years of full symposia that brings people together to share their interest in this broad range of topics. As coordinator I can say it is very rewarding to be in touch with so many dedicated workers in this field, willing to present talks. That said, would anyone like to become a co-coordinator, with future takeover in mind?