Melissa Hale-Spencer, editor of The Altamont Enterprise, will be the speaker at the Thursday, March 20 meeting of the Guilderland Historical Society when we begin celebration of the newspaper’s longevity with program “Celebrating 30 years of The Enterprise: Then and Now.”

First published as The Knowersville Enterprise in 1884, the weekly newspaper has been recording happenings in Guilderland and nearby towns ever since, serving as an unofficial repository of local history through war times, prosperous times, economically hard times, and recent times of growth and development.

Over those 130 years, drastic changes have occurred in news gathering and writing information, what constitutes news, printing technology, and strategies for a print publication to deal with the Internet, challenges that have faced the editors over the decades.

An experienced journalist and long-time editor of The Enterprise, Hale-Spencer has personally won many New York State Press Association Awards and has guided the newspaper to win many others. While referring back to the past decades, she will emphasize recent years in putting out a local weekly paper.

Everyone is invited to come to the Historical Society meeting, meet Hale-Spencer and learn about our town’s venerable local weekly. The Thursday, March 20, meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Mynderse-Frederick House, 451 Route 146, in Guilderland Center. Parking is available next door at the church.

Refreshments and a social hour follow the program. For further information, or in case of a question of possible cancellation of the meeting due to inclement weather, call 861-8582 after 4 p.m.