User:Vaoverland

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Welcome to the home page for Wikipedian Vaoverland. My vocational background is in bus transportation, tourism, and the hospitality industry. I have enjoyed a variety of perspectives working as both a direct and contract employee and as an independent consultant serving municipal governments, non-profits, and private-sector businesses. I spent the majority of my career to-date as a principal with one of Virginia's more diversified bus companies. We performed privatization contracting of bus transportation and bus fleet maintenance for federal, state, municipal and not-for-profit organizations.

I am currently retired, and work on Wikipedia primarily from my home near Williamsburg, Virginia. I enjoy the small town, collegiate, historical and tourism aspects of the Historic Triangle area.

Many years ago, my parents made a substantial investment in our very own multi-volume copy of the World Book Encyclopedia, with the annual yearbooks added for 30 years. These treasures required hand-washing for a child to use. As I was growing up, the encyclopedias were a window to the world beyond television and closer than the library. Even now, the old year books provide insight and a look back into each of those years. Although both well-used and a bit dated now, those World Books still hold a place of importance in my home.

I will concede that, until after I began working on Wikipedia, I hadn't paid much attention to the World Book's article about an "encyclopedia". Now, I find the words and meaning each truly hit home with me.

"An encyclopedia not only furnishes the reader with information, but also stimulates him to go still further in his search for knowledge."

World Book Encyclopedia, 1960

Of course, the Internet and Wikipedia have opened up much greater access to encyclopedic information in new ways. My interest and participation in Wikipedia began in 2002. Since then, I have learned a lot as I worked on and researched many articles. I feel like I am contributing to others while I enjoy doing so. It is mutually beneficial, or, in our modern abbreviated terminology, one might call it a "win-win" relationship.

My favorite Wikipedia article is Lost counties, cities, and towns of Virginia. Sure, it is interesting to learn about important places like Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg, but I find it is even more interesting to learn the stories of those lesser known, such as Tightsqueeze, Disputanta, Manchester, and Wash Woods, to name but a few. I also find fascinating items such as that Bermuda (yes, the one which is located on an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean) was once part of Virginia, as was the place on the shore of Lake Michigan which became Chicago.

I hope others come to enjoy Wikipedia as much as I do! I try to be helpful to other contributors, especially newbies. I have found that collaboration is one of the best things about Wikipedia, and I have learned more and participated in better article creation as a result. As a fairly-experienced editor and a Wikipedia administrator, I am always glad to assist with tasks such as page moves, renaming articles, etc. However, I feel any requests for mediation of occasional conflicts between Wikipedians, such as edit wars, and other areas of controversy are best presented to other administrators and bureaucrats, however. Any comments or communications you may have are best left on my Talk page (User Talk:Vaoverland), and I will attempt to respond to all, hopefully in a timely fashion.

Thanks, Mark in the Historic Triangle of Virginia. Vaoverland (talk) 07:16, 27 September 2008 (UTC)