The finale of the awards banquet comes when there are presentations that the National Insulator Association makes to those nominated for outstanding service to the hobby. This year's deserving winner of the 1997 N.I.A. OUTSTANDING SERVICE AWARD was Bill Meier of Carlisle, Massachusetts. Currently serving as Eastern Region Vice-President, Bill has been actively involved in the hobby for eight years. He and his wife Jill are aggressive collectors of Hemingray insulators. Currently they have one of the largest and most complete collections in the hobby. They have shared their enthusiasm for the hobby through high caliber displays of their collection at National, Regional and Local Shows. Bill has also assisted many of the authors in the hobby with his computer skills. He has maintained an active role in the Yankee Pole Cat Insulator Club, holding offices and helping to host local club shows. He also was a co-host of the 1995 national in Marlborough, Massachusetts. With twenty years of software engineering experience in the computer industry, Bill's mind is constantly trying to design something new for the insulator community. He has even been known to miss meals while he "just spends a couple more minutes" at the computer keyboard. And, for that reason, he is recognized for his outstanding service to the N.I.A. He is "the Webmaster!" Bill has constructed an "insulator home" on the World Wide Web. http://www.insulators.com is the address. Since its inception two years ago, hundreds of people with these "insulator things" who have access to the Web can get on-line and search for "glass insulators" and find out that there IS something about these items, and that a whole network of resources (books, magazines, clubs, NIA, shows, etc.) is now available to them. Associated with the web pages is an insulator mailing list (ICON - Insulator Collectors on the Net) whose membership is approaching 400 people. And, who are these people? They are "new people" who may or may not be members of the NIA or subscribe to magazines, or ever read any of the reference books. These are people who are being "reached out to and touched" by our hobby through the efforts of Bill Meier and contributors to the web site. Certainly worthy of outstanding service!