The Central New York Watercolor Society was formed in February 1982 with fourteen charter members from the central New York region. Today the Society boasts a membership of over one hundred eighty artists from throughout the United States. The Society was organized with the assistance of Mario Cooper and his wife, Dale Myers, both past presidents of the American
Watercolor Society, as well as Clarence Say and Dan Meyers, past presidents of the Niagara Frontier Watercolor Society. The first president of the Society was Willard J. Sauter of Utica, NY.