CHATHAM MARCONI MARITIME CENTER NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 2012
Business Community and Tour Groups Discover Visitor Potential in CMMC
CMMC SUBMITS ONLY BID ON HOTEL
Restored RCA Site Hotel 2009--click on image above to see same Hotel circa 1940.
CHATHAM Feb. 9, 2012-
The town recently advertised for proposals for use of the Hotel building, which once housed bachelors working at the ship-to shore wireless station that occupied the site for more than seven decades. Although several groups looked at the large brick building, when the deadline for opening the proposals came last Thursday, the only submission was from the Marconi Center. Read the complete article. . .
CMMC Kicking Off
the Chatham 300th Celebration
CMMC Free Open House: Saturday, March 10, 2012, 10:00am - 4:00pm
Greetings!
January was the beginning of an active outreach reach effort to broaden the visibility of CMMC. As we considered our achievements and the welcoming over 3000 visitors during the past year, our review suggested there were opportunities to reach more visitors, especially those taking formalized tours to Cape Cod and surprisingly, local and summer Chatham residents.
Peter Cocolis speaking to Tour Guide members.
Looking to increase awareness and value of CMMC with the Chatham Business community, CMMC invited the Chatham Chamber of Commerce and Chatham Merchants Association to hold their January meeting at the Center. CMMC also hosted the January meeting of the Cape and Islands Tour Guide Association responding to their request to have more information on the history and purpose of CMMC, as well as any "interesting stories" they could share with their tour groups.
It was indeed a pleasure to introduce these important groups to the many roles played by the Chatham Wireless Station throughout most of the 20th century. We discussed and demonstrated sending ship to shore Morse code using Marconi wireless to communicate with ships at sea and the critical role of intercepting coded messages from German U-boats during WWII - all of this happened in Marconi's operations center from 1922 to 1993. And special thanks to many of the Board members, who volunteered their time and knowledge to make these two events a success.
Peter Cocolis,
Peter Cocolis
Director of Marketing and Board Member of CMMC
CMMC Hosts Chatham Chamber, Chatham Merchant's and Tour Group Associations in January
Chatham Chamber of Commerce (CCC) and the Chatham Merchant's Association (CMA) visit CMMC January 19th.
Lisa Franz (left), Executive Director for the Chatham Chamber, and Roz Coleman (right), Board member CMMC
About sixty members of the Chatham Chamber of Commerce and the CMA attended an early evening event on January 19 focused on telling and demonstrating the Chatham Marconi wireless story. A large number of the CMMC Board was available to discuss each of the exhibits, provide demonstrations and show the videos of Chatham Radio WCC: The Untold Story, narrated by the late Walter Cronkite and Chatham Radio Goes to War produced and narrated by Ed Fouhy. Their interest and enthusiasm made for an outstanding evening that went by quickly. We are encouraged by their vocal support for CMMC and Chatham based museums.
Cape and Islands Tour Guide Association (CITGA) Gather at CMMC on January 26th.
Chuck Bartlett showing Cape and Islands Tour Guide member exhibit of RCA Site.
A week later on January 26, the CITGA held their morning meeting at CMMC. CITGA members are the expert guides for the formalized tours visiting Cape Cod, especially the many bus tours. The visit followed the same format as the previous week and the 25 plus attendees were very highly motivated to learn the history of CMMC. Many of the Board supplied anecdotes and personal stories directly associated with the Chatham site which could be used by the guides. We are very appreciative of the strong support and advice offered by the CITGA members and look forward to continuing our relationship.
