Board of Directors Meeting
Monday, December 6th, 2004, 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Moore Hall, Room 364, UW-Madison Campus
Madison, WI
Board members present: Dan Undersander, David Hamel, Tom Boos, Nancy Braker, Gene Roark
Members joining via conference call: Steve Strachota, Donna Van Buecken, Patrick Goggin, Jim Reinartz, Rolf Utegaard
Also present: Kelly Kearns, Amy Staffen, Tom Brock, Angie Ashley
President, Dan Undersander, called the meeting to order.
I. Introductions
II. Administration
- Minutes of the October board meeting were approved as submitted.
- Treasurer’s report was approved as submitted.
- Membership report as of December 3rd, 2004: 207 active members, of which 7 are organizations.
III. Old Business
- Director’s and Officer’s Insurance (Roark, Utegaard) – Appears there isn’t much interest by the board. If IPAW gets to the point of hosting field days, then the board will consider obtaining liability insurance.
- Status of newsletter articles – Dave Beckman started working on the newsletter this week and will take articles through Monday, December 13th.
- Science committee (Boos) – Will meet in January
- Impact statements (Strachota) – Strachota will send an email to Ashley with all statements attached and direction as to what the board should do. Ashley will forward to entire board.
- Field day at the UWM Field Station in Saukville (Van Buecken, Reinartz, Strachota) – Great day. Every time IPAW meets with Nurserymen and Seedsmen there is great cooperation. Much was learned from the impressive group that attended. Ashley will follow up with Susan Lehnhardt about a summary for next IPAW newsletter, including a list of attendees. Board should be thinking of ideas for another field day at other infested sites, such as infestations of reed canary grass, and crown vetch infested prairies.
- Weed law update (Kearns) – The 2001 budget repair bill gives some authority to DNR and Governor’s Council on Invasive Species. The DNR must develop a classification system for all invasive species in the state with the assistance and advice of the Governor’s Council on Invasive Species. DNR and DATCP staff will be presenting a draft classification system to the council at their January 31st meeting. The Weed Law Technical Advisory Committee met in November to discuss how to incorporate their proposal into the classification system and associated rules. It’s apparent that statutory revisions will need to be developed along with the administrative rules. The public is invited to take part in the Council sub committees that will be working on these revisions. IPAW members may also get involved by joining the IPAW Legislative Committee. Contact Gene Roark at 608-238-5349 or Kelly Kearns at 608-267-5066.
IV. New Business:
- Invasive Species Awareness Month (ISAM) – Amy Staffen, chair of the IPAW education committee, presented on ISAM. Amy is finalizing a proclamation that the governor will sign to designate June as the official month. Amy is also composing a spreadsheet of potential partners who could do some type of function in June. A motion was approved to host a single page of ISAM info on the IPAW website. Amy will put together an announcement and contact info in MS Word and send to Marsha for posting. The first planning committee will be at The Nature Conservancy (TNC) Wednesday, December 8th from 8:30 – 10:30 a.m. Amy will send an email to partners to update and ask for ideas. Her office is located at TNC, (608) 251-8140 x162, astaffen@tnc.org.
- Nominations for new board members (Undersander) – Election will be this spring. Get nominees to Braker and Undersander. A message should be put out to the list serv to ask for board member nominees. Ballots should be sent out within the next 30 days. Braker and Undersander will be stepping down.
- 2005 IPAW Conference (Kearns) – Money is budgeted for a conference. Kearns gave a summary of possible groups to tag on to. The two that would work best are the Weed Science Society of America December 2006 in Milwaukee and the WI Wetlands Association January 2006. WI Wetlands Association picks a different focus for each annual two-day conference. A proposal to consider joining with the WI Wetlands Association was made. The IPAW annual meeting may be held separately from the conference, possibly in October 2005. Board members are to brainstorm and come up with some fun, creative ideas for the annual meeting – field trip, picnic, evening lecture, etc. The annual meeting should be held at a different location of the state each year.
- Spam on IPAW list serve – Some people are receiving a lot of Spam through the IPAW list serve. The fix is to have moderators approve messages or approve members before they join the list serve. Braker and Dave Beckman are the moderators and they will pursue this. They’ll ask in a few months how it’s going. During lulls, interesting tidbits could be posted to get people communicating. It was suggested that a message be sent out to the list serve that it’s out there and to use it. An introduction request of new members could also be sent which could trigger more messages. Braker will ask Mark Verhagen to consider becoming more involved in the list serve by providing useful information. Jessie Bennett would also be good. Ashley will send list serve info to Dave Beckman for inclusion in the next newsletter.
- National Association of Exotic Pest Plant Councils (NAEPPC) representative and proxy – Annual meeting will be held in February in Washington D.C. Ideally the NAEPPC would like to have a member or proxy attend the annual meetings. Motion approved to ask Carmen Chapin to act as IPAW representative to NAEPPC meetings. Undersander will ask Chapin. Kearns agreed to be proxy.
- Additional matters from members – Fundraising committee needs to maintain and grow membership. It’s proposed that board members will be asked to go through the member list and initial who they know. When members don’t renew, the appropriate board member will be asked to call the member and get feedback from them as to why they didn’t renew. Grants are also a great opportunity for IPAW, but need to have specific projects in mind. The committee should work with the education and science committee to come up with projects.
Utegaard will have generic IPAW business cards made for board members to hand out at conferences. Price is $21.50 per 1,000.
Next IPAW board meeting will be Thursday, January 20th – location to be determined.
Meeting adjourned at 1:00 p.m.
Minutes prepared by Angie Ashley, IPAW Program Assistant
