It was at the Captain's bidding that the defunct Museum Curator Search Committee should now be merged with the defunct former New Directions Committee. Association President Wallace "Wheel" Barrow appointed Carla Spagnoli to be chairwoman of this new Committe, the Planning Committee. The first meeting of the Planning Committee went poorly, with some of those present miffed because certain other people present had also showed up. Carla Spagnoli gave an ultimatum: certain members of this committee simply would not be staying in the committee if certain other members of the committee also remained..

Upon reading a statement concerning the committee that Neil had written ("One of the priorities of the planning Committee will be to consider not only short-range plans for making the best of the existing museum, but also to imagine and to formulate guidelines and long-range plans, as the population of Camperdene continues growing and as the populace becomes more diverse, toward expanding the museum"), an incensed Carla Spagnoli announced, nostrils flaring, "This is ludicrous." Spagnoli told the committee it was not to give any consideration to expanding the present museum facility.

A substantial portion of the committee's original membership did not show up at the second committee meeting. The fate of the "Museum Renovations Funding & Publicity Team" (Ben Mulvane, Julia Seymour-Stanton, and Veronica Pillsbury)was similar: dissolved at the outset ("Committees can be formed only by the authority of the Executive Committee, and we don't want this").

In the meantime, Nicholas Wentworth of The Friends of the Museum, in cahoots with Julia Seymour-Stanton, with the financial assistance of the Camperdene Arts Lottery Council, had organized what would turn out to be one of the Museum's most successful programs: "Movies based on 1912 Events." The six-part program would include viewings, readings, and discussions of both books and films. The first gathering, eager to discuss the theme "Men Aboard the Titanic Who, Dressed in Women's Garb, Jumped Into Lifeboats," came at the tail end of a cold, hazardous, stormy, snowy day.

That same evening, the first House Committee (or "Buildings and Grounds Committee") met. A "special guest" at this initial meeting -- by virtue of Neil's having invited him to be at it -- was the eagle-eyed, kindly old former curator of the Holyoke, Massachusetts Arts and Science Center. Early on in the evening, Carla Spagnoli took Neil aside and communicated to him in no uncertain terms that she was miffed by the old man's presence. Mid-way through the meeting, Carla asked Veronica Pillsbury, "Isn't there anything you'd like to tell the committee, Veronica?" She graciously bowed out: silence. Steely, persistent Carla Spagnoli: "Come on, Veronica, tell them. Tell them what you told me." Ms Spagnoli plowed ahead, "She told me she did not understanding what a Planning Committee was expected to do. Mr. Wright, will you inform us as to what a Planning Committee is supposed to do?"

Neil explained that the Planning Process was a process through which libraries identified and recorded short-range and long-range goals, and attempted to determine specific situations and problems that demanded attention, and then set objectives and a time-line for implementing goals and remedying problems.

"In order to help museums from floundering in this, Planning Proceess models have been created to help libraries guide themselves through the process," Neil said. "We can either use one of the existing models, adapt an existing model to our own needs, or create an altogether new plan."

Upon that, Carla Spagnoli informed her colleagues, "This Committee is not to be concerned with long-range plans at all, but rather with practical matters -- where the photocopy machine should go, and what to do about handicapped access."

At the end of the meeting, Carla Spagnoli took Neil aside. She gave him her dire warning: if the old man was going to be on the Planning Committee, Neil could be sure that she, Carla Spagnoli, and Veronica Pillsbury, would not. "He's just an old fusspot who goes around in circles and can't get anything done."

The next day, Neil got a phone call from Carla Spagnoli. She had donated some random objects d'art a few days before and had, in turn, received a thank you note from librarian Audrey Morris.

"I would expect to get a nice letter -- from the curator," she declared.

"Sorry," Neil said.

"You're not sorry," she said. "You have no idea what sorry is. You don't have a clue! You have no clue who you are dealing with here, Mister Neil Hoffenhoser Wrong! I will damage you! I will bring harm to you! I will damage you so bad you will not know up from down or sideways from a hole in the ground!"

Neil put his ear away from the phone.

"Well?"

"I don't know how I should respond," Neil said. "I said I'm sorry."

"I will injure you!" she screamed, and must have slammed the phone down -- which was only heard by Neil, at his end, as a soft "click."

Carla Spagnoli refused to speak with Neil when next she saw him. She spoke to him only to say that another member of the committee had been dismissed. The committee's two remaining members -- Carla Spagnoli and Captain Cunningham -- drafted the final version of the Mission Statement: "The Museum of the Year 1912 will primarily illuminate, through the display of appropriate artifacts and art objects, the highlights of the year 1912 while secondarily functioning to supply informational and entertainment offerings to the community."

"There's nothing I hate more," Neil overheard Carla Spagnoli tell the Captain that night, "than group editing."

The next day, Wheel Barrow crossed the street from his home and place of business, the Barrow Family Funeral Home, to the library, and he took Neil aside.

"You know," he said, "I've got a lot of troubles. The last thing I need are more troubles. The last thing I need is troubles at the museum. You know, I have to deal with a lot of women. In my profession, I'm not dealing with men, I'm usually dealing with the wives, I'm dealing with the daughters. In any case, I always deal with the women. You have to know how to deal with women. You have to learn how to get along. I know how to take care of women! It's something you have to learn."

When the House Committee -- that is, Captain Cunningham and Wallace Barrow's Neanderthal look-alike son Reggie -- met, focusing on possible renovations, Reggie, before leaving, confided, "Don'cha tell no one about no renovations. We may not get to that this year. You understand?"

Neil understood -- but he'd already told Daily Journal reporter Alice Armour Armstrong of the fund drive. Three days later, here was the headline: "Well-traveled curator settles in Camperdene." Under the photograph of an uncomfortable, officious- looking Neil squinting in raw winter sunlight out front of The Museum of the Year 1912 ran the story:

"It was a long road that took Museum Curator Neil Wright to Europe and eventually back again. "New England is the middle -- Ralph Waldo Emerson called it "The Hub of the Universe" -- and that's where I like to be," said Wright as he sat in his office at The Museum of the Year 1912, which stands like a stone fortress in the town of Camperdene."

The article detailed Neil's assorted museum-related experiences, his travels in Europe, his meeting Minna, their winding up a while in Boston, his having started work in September, and Minna's having begun working part-time in December as a waitress downtown at the Mill Wheel restaurant.

"The library plans for the year," the article closed, "include starting a fund raising drive to create more interactive children's exhibits and activities."

Neil was invited over to Wallace Barrow's home that day. Captain Cunningham was there. Wallace intoned half cheerfully, half ominously, "I like that article, Neil. Gave us a lot of leeway. 'Starting a fund raising drive to create more interactive children's exhibits and activities.' Yea, that gives us a lot of leeway. You think I'm kidding. No, it's just great. Really good. Gives uis a lot of leeway."

It was dark in the mortician's back room. Wheel drew in closer and laid his cards on the table: "Neil, we need to know: who do you feel closer to, the Association, or... your staff?"

This struck him immediately as being the least good question ever put to him. Neil said he felt his role was to be in the middle. Wallace said he needed to know this information -- Neil's allegiance -- so that he'd know whether or not to include him for the duration of each Executive Committee meeting, or whether he ought better simply to report to the committee at the beginning of each meeting, then be dismissed. Neil responded awkwardly, saying this conversation they were having seemed strange to him -- secretive -- Masonic.

"I am a Mason," Barrow said ominously. (In fact, as Neil would later learn, he was then at the helm of a mysterious ancient sect, The Ordo Templi Anodopetalum.)

The next day Neil wrote Barrow a letter, asking who the conductor of a symphony orchestra should feel closer to when conducting -- to the Philharmonic Orchestra Association or to the musicians? Neil insisted this was, at root, a bad question. He said he felt strongly he ought to feel closer to the music, and ought to play for the audience -- they who had come to hear the music. Neil said he ought to feel a responsibility and commitment to doing a good job of conducting, to getting the music right, thus serving everyone appropriately, in particular those who had come to listen and to enjoy.

When next Neil saw Wallace Barrow, the mortician pierced him with a look. "You puzzle me, Wright," he said. "I still can't figure out what the hell a railroad conductor has to do with anything we're doing here."