350TH SOCIETY MEMBERSHIP

The numbers are climbing rapidly, but there is still time to join the 350th Society before the membership rolls close.

The society, founded at New Year's, comprises supporters of East Hampton Town's 350th anniversary celebration, each of whom has donated $350 toward underwriting the year's events. The first 350 persons to join will receive, in addition to all other membership privileges, a numbered, signed copy of the coffee-table-size volume of photographs and text that will commemorate the tricentquinquagenary. Averill Dayton Geus is writing the book, which is scheduled for publication in October.

As of the weekend, the 350th Society had 220 members, according to its chairwoman, Carolyn Lester Snyder. That means that $77,000 out of a goal of $122,500 is in hand. Ms. Snyder, who runs Round Swamp Farm in East Hampton, intends to put a sign-up sheet there, and "once Round Swamp is open," she predicted this week, "I guarantee you we'll [go over the top]."

A mailing to prospective members went out this week, the second since the year began. Privileges of society membership include admission for two to all lectures, copies of the celebration-year calendar (listing the many events on tap) and the East Hampton Town historical map (being published any minute), admission for two to Guild Hall's major exhibit of historic art and artifacts, which opens in October, a copy of the lecture series anthology, and a series of framable reproduction prints from a venerable volume called "Picturesque America."

I.S.