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Chair: Donald Dickmann called the meeting to order at 1700 hours.
Approximately 28 people in attendance.

Agenda: Dickmann
Meeting agenda was presented by Don. Discussion about the Legislative Tour was added. Motion to pass as changed - motion passed.

Minutes: Mittlestat
Presented last meeting's minutes. Corrections needed to be made to Dickmann's name. Need to add who submitted the minutes at the end of the last page. Minutes were approved and seconded.

Awards: Houghton
There is a new Awards Chair. Craig Kasmer.

Treasurers Report: McNichols
Regular report was passed around. $9241.53 in the SAF account. There was a question if any MSAF Education Fund (Foresters Fund) dollars have been allocated. Yes, but none of the allocated money has been spent yet. Motion to approve and the motion was 2nd.

National SAF Foresters Fund: Bernie Hubbard
We will have to change the name of the Foresters Fund because it is trademarked by National. Discussion on what the new name might be. "MSAF Education Fund" was settled upon during the Executive Team Meeting. We need to make it clear that we still submit 2/3rds of the money to National when we sell raffle tickets. This all stems from budget woes with the National Foresters Fund being used to help balance the General Fund.

Council Report: Bernie Hubbard
National Membership decline. There has been movement to want to provide members more services to try to increase membership and retain members. More journals will be posted on the SAF webpage including copies of the entire Journal's of Forestry.

A new "Candidate Certified Forester" has been created. Now, students when hey graduate can get this endorsement and wait the 5 years and become a "CF"

The next council meeting is in December. Mostly to be based on the VOS. Most structural changes were shot down in Council. Some things that may be brought up are how to increase student involvement and changes to the "Fellow" applications.

It was announced at the last meeting that SAF would be in the Black this year nationally.

UP Chapter Report: Ferris
Currently the UP Chapter is absent of a Secretary position.
The Membership crisis was brought up and discussed
UP Auto Tour - Glenn Moll has some contributors and we ware looking to continue working on updating Tour materials.
Spring Meeting - Ontario Professional Foresters have approached the UP Chapter for a joint meeting. The UP Chapter will pursue the idea with the thought that travel across the border may be problematic. Topic ideas are still in flux at this time. One idea is "Variations in Management Philosophies"

LP Chapter Report: McNichols
Fall 2006 meeting will be a joint venture with the Michigan Prescribed Fire Council near Cadillac.
March 3rd there will be Stewardship Training - see Huff if you are interested.
LP Chapter passed a motion to pay for rooms for MSU and U of M students at State Meetings.

MTU Chapter: Nobody Present

MSU Chapter: One Student Present - no report was given.

Executive Team Report: Dickmann
The name of the Michigan Foresters Fund has been changed to Michigan Forest Education Fund to reflect changes within the National Organization.

Nominations for Vice Chair: Dickmann
Steve Ruddell and Doug Heym are nominated.
Both candidates spoke a little about themselves.

There was a final call for nominations and then a motion to close nominations, it was 2nd and passed. Nominations are closed.

Michigan Forester: Peterson
Deadline is the 30th of Nov for the next edition. Things have been going good and the articles from the last conference were a welcome addition to the newsletter.

Legislative Tour: Huff
It will be happening this year to familiarize Legislators and hopefully the Forest Advisory Committee members. They are looking for people to form a committee to work on details for the tour. Dickmann, Huff, Doug Lee and O'Neill were nominated.

Nominations: Grossman
Doug Heym and Steve Ruddell were nominated for State Vice Chair. John Hamel and Tom Seabolm are running for UP Chapter Vice Chair.

Legislative Tour: Huff
Nothing is going on with it right now. Looking for direction on where to go this coming spring. Looking for a committee to help. Peterson and Dickmann will help.

Communications: Cook
Copies of the main web pages were passed around and Bill is looking for comments on how to improve it. CFEs are now going up on the web page once again. Some discussion on the Michigan's Forests Forever website. Bill is looking for volunteers to write "a day in a forester" blurb to be put up on that page. Volunteers are welcome or they will be tracked down. Bill would like the Executive Team to review the web page once he has some people up on it. Any ideas - contact Bill.

The website is back up! The website has been receiving approximately 14,000 hits a month. Copies of "30 second" forestry radio blurbs were passed around. They will be recorded in Escanaba in December. If anyone has contacts at radio stations Bill will be able to get copies of the blurbs to be spread around. Bill is looking into what it would take to create a DVD set of the last State meeting. Proceedings from the last meeting are available on CD, see Bill if you did not receive a copy and would like one.

Governor's Conference: Boucher
Next October (2006) Michigan will have a Governor's Conference held in the state. Topics will include the future of forestry in the Great Lakes Area. This will be with the Great Lakes Forestry Alliance.

Student Incentives: Dickmann
LP Chapter will put up to $500 towards State Meetings for students.

In the past the State Chapter covered registration and chapters covered rooms for students. Need to rejuvenate student involvement in MSAF. There was talk about needing a budget cap for students, it was mentioned that the LP Chapter used $500. Dickmann asked if there was a motion to "waive" student registration? There was a motion pass it. It was 2nd and the motion passed with none opposed.

Membership Crisis: Dickmann
We need to be thinking about how to retain and recruit members. Chapter chairs have purge lists and will be doing phone calls soon.

Other Old Business: Dickmann
None

New Business: Dickmann
Mac Smith put out an invitation for everyone to join the Michigan Forest Association.
Peterson made an announcement that after the banquet there was going to be a discussion group about new forestry issues and how they are affecting different people.

MI DNR Forest Advisory Council: Boucher
The next meeting will be December 7th. Currently there are 19 members. They are beginning to work on the Right to Forest laws. Eventually there will be a link off the MDNR webpage for the group.

See Andrea for raffle tickets.

Motion to adjourn, 2nd and passed.
Meeting was adjourned at 17:50 hours: Dickmann

Submitted by Jason Mittlestat 5/9/2006