Saturday afternoon was great!  A number of preservationists:  Courtney Mooney repping the City's Office of Historic Preservation, Richard Hooker from City Cultural Affairs, Historic Preservation Commissioner Bob Stoldal, Westside historian Trish Geran, News Bureau curator Brian Paco Alvarez, Ellen Leigh from the Atomic Testing Museum, Mary-Margaret and Cary Stratton from the Atomic Age Alliance, Dennis McBride from the Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas, Jack LeVine and Mary Joy Alderman from VeryVintageVegas, Neighborhood Association leader Pam Hartley, Joel Rosales from LeavingLV.net and yours truly all converged on the Boulder Hotel in beautiful Boulder City to meet for lunch and to talk with Preservation Action director, Heather MacIntosh.

We learned a number of things about how PreservationAction can help us with preservation issues here in Las Vegas. PreservationAction helps with grass-roots efforts and networking.  Heather was quite excited about the possibilities here in Southern Nevada and also very helpful on how we can learn from other western cities that are already ahead of us in terms of historic preservation.

Unfortunately, not all the local groups were there.  Missing were reps from the County Museum, the Neon Museum, the Mob Museum, the Liberace Museum and the Preservation Association of Clark County.

Courtney Mooney is trying to organize an all-day Preservation Summit where all the groups can come together, learn more about what each group is doing and hopefully start working together to pool our energies.  We can't expect the rest of the Valley to take Preservation seriously unless we start talking as one voice.  This will also help us work more effectively with PreservationAction.  Everyone at this meeting plans to be there and we hope the other groups around the Valley will join us.

How can you help?  Get involved.  Join a group like Friends of Classic Las Vegas and help us to continue to bring attention to preservation issues across the Valley.  We have some great ideas for bringing attention to the destruction happening around the old High School and the auto courts on East Fremont among other issues.  Your help is needed and this gives you an opportunity to have a voice in helping to save and preserve our history.

For more information on becoming a member click here.