KT-SAF Winter 2002 Executive Committee Meeting Minutes

 

KT-SAF Executive Committee meeting called to order at 4:25 p.m., January 23, 2002 by Chair Jeff Stringer in the conference room at the Pineville State Resort Park Hotel, Pineville, Kentucky. 

 

Those in attendance were:  Jeff Stringer, Chair; Gary Schneider, Chair-Elect; Jerry Crow, Secretary; Pam Snyder, Jeff Piatt, David Mercker, Rick Wilcox, Doug McClaren, John Rennie, Mark Young, Wayne Clatterbuck, Kerry Schell, Ron Taylor, Laurie Smith, Pete Kovalik, Tim French, and Brian, the University of Tennessee Student Chapter Chair.

 

Gary Schneider opened the meeting with a discussion of the House of Society Delegates meeting held at the national meeting in Denver in 2001.  Highlights from his report are as follows:

·         Even after the tragedy on September 11, there was 100% attendance at the HSD meeting.

·         Gary presented the three main missions of the HSD

1)      communications between states, students, and national office

2)      exchange of ideas to improve forestry profession

3)      form partnerships to improve forestry policy

 

·         HSD Action Items Discussed

Ø      Membership, diversity, finances, professional education, leadership development

 

I.                   Membership continues to decline.  Intermountain Society did a survey and found the following reasons:

1)      dues too high,                                  4) lack of activity on the local level

2)   no benefits in being a member          5) don’t understand the mission of SAF

3)   involvement in other interests                      

 

Membership Action Items Presented:

1)      explore how SAF dues are scheduled (No action will be taken following discussion,

      basically leave as is.)

2)      SAF should look at separate membership categories

3)      Better membership recognition (currently only after 50 years membership)

 

II.                Finances

Ø       Big issue is how do we fund HSD’s annual meeting and committee functions

Ø       Currently every SAF member is charged $0.34, but it is not working now.

Ø       Council members have been making up the shortfalls out of general treasury, and charging state societies $100 each.  This makes an inequality between charges and number of members as state society size (number of members) varies.

Ø       It has been proposed to place a $7,000 cap on monies needed to run HSD for one year.

 

 

III.             Professional Education

Ø       There is a move to make “Urban Forester” a separate category of membership.

Ø       The discussion on further specialization has been dropped for now.

 

 

IV.              Leadership Development

Ø      Costs were again discussed.

 

V.                 National Resource Policy

Ø       The emphasis is on SAF making strong statements regarding lack of  harvesting on public lands.

Ø       Tree Energy:  suggested that SAF develop a policy statement on the use of trees for energy.  (National SAF has already addressed this item in a Congressional hearing.)

Ø       Threatened & Endangered Species: suggested that SAF should push for legislation to help private landowners manage for T&E species.

Ø       Dispersed Recreation: SAF in California pushing this concept of less recreation over a larger physical area to reduce consumptive use.

 

·         External Communications

Ø       A discussion item was the use of the SAF logo over and above the Forest Stewardship

Council and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative logos.  Bill Banzhaf’s reply is that SAF is in no position to certify any landowner’s forestland and management plans.

 

·         Mike Lester is the new chair of the HSD.  Mike is the Assistant State Forester in Pennsylvania. 

 

·         Dave Smith is the new SAF Chair and is a retired forestry professor from VPI.  Dave is pushing the platform of SAF “Core Values”, that forests are priceless, and that of duty by members and service to the forestry profession. 

 

·         Jason Kutac will be the National Chair in 2003.

 

·         The next National Leadership Academy will be May 4-7 in Nebraska.

 

Non-Action Items Discussed in the HSD

1.       How do you see the use of the Forester’s Fund? 

·         Current amount in account is $1.1 million.  The original purpose of the Forester’s Fund was to promote forestry to legislators, students, etc.  Working Groups are not eligible to receive Forester’s Fund funds.

2.       CARA (Conservation and Reinvestment Act)

·         These are  federal monies available to “buy out” forest landowners and eliminate forestry activities.

3.       Forester Credentialing, Licensing, and Registration

·         A study was done in Missouri to examine licensing, but no requirement was passed.

·         States with mandatory licensing include:  AL, CA, CT, ME, MA

·         States with registration include:  AR, GA, MS, NC, SC

·         States with voluntary registration include:  MI, NJ, OK, WV

 

This ended Gary’s HSD report.

 

KT-SAF current membership was reported at 430 members.

 

Minutes for the Winter 2001 Executive Committee meeting were passed out.  Rick Wilcox made a motion to accept the minutes.  Pam Snyder seconded.  Discussion pointed out one correction to be made.  Minutes were accepted unanimously.

Minutes for the Summer 2001 Executive Committee Meeting were passed out.  Gary Schneider made motion to accept the minutes.  Doug McClaren seconded the motion.  Discussion ensued to make a correction to the title as a quorum was not present at the meeting and a motion was made by Kerry Schell to accept the minutes with the corrected title.  Jeff Stringer seconded the motion.

 

Minutes for the Winter and Summer 2001 Business Meetings were also passed out.  A brief discussion developed on electing officers from alternating states, and on the donation of $200 to the FFA convention.

 

Kerry commended David Mercker and the west Tenn. Chapter for their efforts to use Forester’s Fund monies to attract new members.

 

Jeff Stringer commented on the difficulty of getting further involvement from Kentucky Division of Forestry and Tennessee Division of Forestry personnel due to internal policies which discourage personnel from attending SAF meetings.

 

Gary mentioned that there was discussion at the national level to base SAF dues on salary, but that the suggestion received very little support.

 

Ron Taylor, program chair for the winter meeting gave a status report.  Fifty persons were pre-registered, 28 students were expected, and the final attendance was predicted at 100 attendees.  One special offering for the meeting was the Mentor/Shadowing program where members and students signed up for interaction to benefit the career decisions of the student.

 

Tim French, National Councilman for Voting District IX gave the following report:

1.       The National Office is working on the “Core Values” program, which is a statement adopted last year containing short basic principles that all foresters value in common, i.e. gut-level messages which provide unity for foresters.  The state societies were asked to distribute the draft values to their membership to review and develop a final list to present at the annual meeting this year in Winston-Salem, NC.

2.       The Presidential Field Forester Award will continue in 2002, and each state society is asked to produce one nominee.

3.       Tim suggested that KT-SAF develop a formal student mentoring program.  The mentoring program is very successful in the Missouri society.  It is designed to develop new members, and to facilitate membership retention.

 

Kerry commended East KY Chapter on the new mentoring program.  Further discussion was held on the failure of the mentoring program in the East TN Chapter.

 

Gary Schneider will pursue getting mentoring information from Missouri.

 

Jeff Stringer reported on Chapter Chairs, Committee Chairs, and officer changes for 2002.  Laurie Smith, the incoming Secretary was asked to update the officer list information for Gary and the Exec. Committee.

 

Review of the Committee Reports

 

Web-Site:  Mark Young reported an increase in use of the KT web site, but that he was receiving very limited information from the membership to put on it.  Mark will ask chapter and committee chairs to submit information to him.  Following was a discussion of how to improve getting information to the web-site. 

Rick Wilcox recommended that the secretary of each chapter send their chapter meeting minutes to Mark. 

 

Kerry asked if a new membership directory could be published on the web-site.  He also asked that the question be asked of attendees of how many of them had and used computers.

 

Mark commented that he could easily put a form on the web-site which automatically contacted members through their e-mail addresses.  Jeff recommended that this be done.

 

Newsletter:  Nothing to report.

 

Memorial Scholarship:  will e-mail report.

 

Teller:  Richard Evans was not present, but it was reported that J.R. “Red” Anderson was the new

             Chair-Elect for 2002, and that Laurie Smith was the new Secretary for 2002. 

 

Auditing:  Grant Curry not present, Pat Cleary will be contacted for assistance.

 

Program:  Summer 2002 meeting will be July 25th and 26th in western KY.  MeadWestvaco will

     provide a day tour of their fiber farm and alluvial cottonwood plantations.  Jeff Piatt

     reported that Southeast TN will host the winter 2003 meeting, tentatively Jan. 29 – 31,

     in Chattanooga with a them of Forestry Laws and Regulations.

 

Awards:  Pam Snyder is the new committee chair.

 

History:  Rick Wilcox passed out a sequencing document.

 

Education:   Laurie Smith provided a written report.

 

Chapter Reports:

·         East TN, Southeast TN, West TN, East KY all provided written reports. 

·         No report from Middle TN. 

·         West KY reports there are no officers elected for 2002. 

·         West TN will host a field day for deaf children in April, 2002.

 

Treasurer’s Report

Red Anderson was not present for the Executive Committee meeting, so Gary Schneider reviewed the budget in Red’s absence.  Prior to the audit, the 2001 books indicate that actual receipts were $8,100 vs. an estimated $9,800, and actual expenditures were $7,900 vs. an estimated $9,800 leaving KT-SAF $200 in the black.  

 

For 2002, Red projected $5,600 in income vs. and estimated $8,200 in expenses leaving a deficit of $2,600.

 

Discussion continued on why the deficit, and the legality of approving a deficit budget.  Meeting income was projected to be down.  In the past, meetings have provided a significant segment of the income on the budget.

 

It was decided to table budget issues and not bring them up in the business meeting.

 

Policy:

Dave Walters not present but provided a written report.

 

Items for discussion included:

1)      A request for reinstatement of a policy on surface mining on the University of Kentucky Forest.  Jeff Stringer will find the policy report and revisit.

 

2)      Rick Wilcox discussed the Forest Management Plan process for the Daniel Boone National

      Forest.  The plan is completed and the public comment period ran from the end of November

      to the middle of December 2001.  Comments were received from a variety of groups, and

      comments were heavy to the goals and desired future condition.  Much of the emphasis was

      on letting nature take its course with minimal human interference.  The projected draft date to

      printer is Oct. 1, 2002; copies to the public 1 to 2 months later.

 

Rick mentioned that KT-SAF can make comments at any time before or after the draft.  He suggested that KT-SAF should make comments at the present time encouraging good, sound professional forest management.  

 

Jeff asked how an SAF policy statement would help.  Rick replied that a good, sound policy statement with management recommendations by an outside forestry organization will help support USFS desired directions.

 

Wayne Clatterbuck said the same thing will happen on the Cherokee N.F., and that previously Richard Evans acted as an intervener on the past Cherokee plan.

 

Jeff said that we can incorporate the National SAF policy on National Forest management into a KT-SAF policy statement regarding the Daniel Boone and Cherokee National Forests.

 

Rick added that when the policy statement is prepared, it needs to include good solid comments and proposed directions.  One way to accomplish this is to make specific points for SAF to support, and membership support via comment cards from the KT-SAF Policy Committee.

 

Tim French was to try and get the SAF policy relating to National Forest management approved on December 9th fax’ed to the meeting.  He also suggested calling Michael Goergen, SAF’s policy analyst in Washington, D.C.

 

Jeff suggested a Policy Task Force be created for this action item, and that it be engaged in development of the policy by the summer meeting.

 

Wayne recommended that anyone interested should be able to participate in developing this policy.  Once developed, the policy should be put on the web-site.

 

Rick reinforced that there is a need for a sound, professional statement.  The USFS already receives too many unprofessional statements. 

 

Memorial Scholarship

 

Jeff reported that no formal decision had been made about the scholarship funds.  The University of the South had petitioned KT-SAF to give a memorial scholarship to one of their graduate

students or interns.  

The charter does not specify what student level is eligible to participate.  Jeff made the executive decision to go ahead and give the money to the graduate student at Univiversity of the South.

 

Jeff asked for clarification on what student level it be given to.

 

Kerry stated that past tradition specified it be given to a rising senior, and that its purpose was to be an incentive for an undergraduate student to continue in the profession.

 

Laurie read the current written policy.  The policy does not specify what level of scholarship or year of school the student is in.

 

Wayne suggested that as long as the person was registered as a student and they were taking classes, there should be no problem giving a scholarship to a graduate student.

 

Gary commented on conversations with Doug Boardman in the 1980’s in which it was discussed that there was a difference in scholarship between undergraduate and graduate students.  Grad students had already gone through a selection process whereby their graduate school status demonstrated they were a quality student.

 

Further discussion dealt with specific language for future selections.  The two issues in the discussion were:

1)Who qualifies for a scholarship – undergraduates only, or to include graduate students?, and

2)Must the candidate be enrolled in a formally accredited forestry program?

 

John Rennie pointed out that there is no forestry program at The University of the South only a Natural Resources degree, and the only graduate program at University of the South is in Theology.

 

Rick Wilcox made a motion to amend the existing charter to say that the Memorial Scholarship be given to an undergraduate student in a forestry program.

 

Kerry Schell seconded the motion.

 

Further discussion ensued regarding adding language that the student be a member of an SAF Student Chapter.

 

The vote was taken and the motion carried unanimously.  The charter for the Memorial Scholarship will be amended to read that “the Memorial Scholarship will be given to an undergraduate student in a forestry program."

 

Jeff and Laurie will amend the charter to the language specified in the motion. Rick Wilcox pointed out that the Executive Committee members should review the charters each year.

 

Kerry added that he will trace the development of the Memorial Scholarship Fund to determine the original intent.

 

West Kentucky Chapter/West Tennessee Chapter Merger Proposal

 

Jeff explained the situation that both the West Kentucky and West Tennessee chapters have a small membership number and cover large geographic areas. 

Tom Cunningham said that the West TN chapter has had an ongoing problem with low attendance and lack of volunteers for officers. 

 

Pam Snyder, the current West KY chair concurred that West KY has the same problem and that officers must be coerced into office.  West KY currently has no officers other than Pam who is on her second year as Chair.

 

Dave Mercker, West TN Chair, challenged that if the intent on merging the two chapters is to get more people to a meeting, that it won’t work because of the large distance between the boundaries of the two area.  Suggested making phone calls to get members.  David said he was not in favor of merging the two chapters.

 

Pam asked that if no merger would take place, then she needed guidance on what to do with chapter assets and functions.

 

Tim French cited the dissolution of the Southeast Missouri Chapter after 8-10 years of similar lack of interest and participation.  It did not affect statewide participation.

 

Jeff proposed waiting until the summer meeting and encouraging participation of West KY members to see the level of interest and commitment.  He also suggested dropping voting and turning to appointments for officers.

 

Kerry suggested putting an article into the newsletter citing the problem.

 

FFA Convention Report

 

Rick Wilcox reported on the SAF manned booth at the National Future Farmers of America Convention held in Louisville, KY in October.  Normally, over 50,000 FFA students attend the convention.  It gives SAF a valuable opportunity to make contact with future farmers, land managers, and agricultural leaders and expose them to the forestry profession.

 

Rick Wilcox made a motion that KT-SAF agree to support the Forester’s Fund request when it comes in from Ken Negray.  It will most likely be a request for a $1,000 grant.

 

Rick’s motion is for the Executive Committee to expedite the approval of a Forester’s Fund request to fund a KT-SAF booth at the FFA Convention.

 

Wayne Clatterbuck seconded.  Motion carried unanimously.

 

Jeff Piatt made a motion to adjourn the meeting.

 

Wayne seconded.  Motion carried unanimously.

 

The meeting adjourned at 9:35 p.m. EST.