Executive Committee Minutes, Montana SAF
August 3, 2000

Lolo Forest Supervisors Office, Missoula, Montana

Attendees: John Casselli, Scott Kuehn, Gordy Sanders, Steve Hayes, Dave Stack, Dale Kerkvliet, Jane Kollmeyer, Ken Brewer, Lars Halstrom, Rick Franke

Gordy called the meeting to order at 9:45 am.

Gordy reviewed the minutes from the last meeting in June. Dale made a motion to accept the minutes, Jane seconded the motion. Those members present accepted the minutes as written.

Steve gave the treasurer’s report. We have $4284.44 in the checking account. This amount represents money earmarked for different accounts; $279.66 Dick Guth Memorial fund, $500 Membership Grant, $2607 Forester Fund Grant, for the Forests for Humanity Project. This leaves $897.78 in the general operations budget. All other bills and distributions current. There is approximately $2200 in the University of Montana Scholarship Fund. Steve will ask Carl Fiedler to write an article for the next newsletter on the Scholarship fund.

Flathead: Jane gave the report. The Chapter held a summer field trip July 13, to John Alrich’s Tree Farm, 22 people attended co-hosted by Stoltze Lumber. Lorrie Woods and Jane are planning a Legislative field trip in late September, also inviting the media. They will check with Bev on who the media contacts are in the Flathead.

Libby: No report.

Eastside: Lars; There is $3000 in the Chapter account, mostly from the Brewery Flat project. The chapter hasn’t meet lately; most of the agency people are on fire detail. Planning for the 2001 annual meeting is underway. Lars delivered videotape PSAs to the TV stations on the Eastside.

Missoula: Rick; the Chapter has not met since May. Busy planning for the state meeting. Sponsored two ½ scholarships for the MNRYC, will have the students make a presentation at a chapter meeting this fall. The time capsule for Fort Missoula was sent off last week to be prepared for burying during the annual meeting. The Plaque for the big rock on top of the time capsule has been purchased and is on its way. The Missoula Chamber of Commerce has a Timber Tour the Friday after the annual meeting September 22, there is a woods tour-mill tour and dinner, and SAF is invited to participate.

Student: No report, gone for the summer.

Committee Reports:

Science and Technology: Ken Brewer; Bob Pfister, and Peter Kolb are working on a poster session for the annual meeting. Plan to have it at the UC and maybe move it to Lubrecht on Saturday. The committee provided highlights on the current state of the forest pertaining to insect and disease for inclusion in the time capsule. Ken will be attending a NASA satellite applications workshop this fall and is looking for ideas on needs for forestry and natural resource uses for the new technology. If any one has ideas contact Ken.

Centennial Committee: Continuing to work on the time capsule received predictions on the state of forestry in 2100 from numerous sources for the time capsule. The group has produced biographies of the early foresters in a booklet for sale at the annual meeting. A new (old) skidding arch has been acquired for the Fort Missoula historical museum.

Mentor Program. Tara emailed Steve nothing new to report but getting ready for school and another year.

Policy: Gordy gave the report for Tim Love. Developing Montana position statement on TMDL. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) revisited the draft of their certification requirements, but has not made anything available, when it does SAF will comment. A group will meet with the Missoulian editorial board Aug. 29^th. This includes Gordy, Tim, Bev, Chuck Keegan, Carl Fiedler, and Tom Schultz, the meeting objective is to let the media know how to contact SAF and what kind of information they are looking for. Other ideas are to set up a regular scheduled ¼ page op-ed piece- or publish position papers when we put one out. We got responses from the Governor, Bacus, Burns, and Hill on our Roadless Issue letters.

Newsletter: Next issue in October. Any errors or omissions in the last issue let Cait know.

CFE/CF: See new business.

Montana Natural Resources Youth Camp: Dale Kerkvliet; 29 students attended, two were sent home for behavior reasons. Other wise another successful camp. No campfires allowed because of the fire danger. A high point this year was Peter Kolb has come up with a Monopoly type Land Use game to let the students show off what they learned. The winning team got folding knifes from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. The next board meeting is in September. The camp is scheduled for Lubrecht next year but may try a camp near Big Timber in 2002.

Cultural Diversity: Scholarships are available to attend the National Convention.

Membership: John Casselli reported we currently have about 400 members statewide. A list of members was produced for the time capsule. A letter to prospective members will be sent out inviting them to the state meeting. John and Ed Stoots plan to set up a membership table in conjunction with CFE/CF at the annual meeting.

Communications: A meeting with the Missoulian editorial board is scheduled. Get pictures (digital format) to Bev or Cait for publication. Bev is working with the Tree Farmers, KPAX and the Missoulian to get media coverage for the Habitat home; the media will be present throughout the week. Bev is working on setting up a press conference for the Annual meeting with the speakers from out of the area.

BLM Advisory Council: No Report.

Old Business:

Forests for Humanity: Gordy; a building lot at 4707 Orchard St. south of Wal-Mart has been purchased. A family has been selected-a single mother with 3 teenagers. The groundbreaking ceremony will be held on Saturday August 19^th at 3:30 p.m. with Lieutenant Governor Judy Martz as the special guest. The plan is to start the "blitz build" Wednesday September 13^th at 8:00 am, have the walls up by Thursday and paint the house Saturday. Each chapter has a member organizing their building crew.

Update on State Meeting 2000: The planning group has been meeting regularly, the agenda is set and the speakers have been lined up. A follow-up registration mailing to members will be sent out next week. Dates for the meeting are September 13 through 16 and the location will be the third floor of University Center. There will be some overlap of activities with the National Tree Farmers Association meeting; Thursday night at Fort Missoula, Habitat Home, and the Saturday field trip to Lubrecht.

Awards: Ed Lieser is the awards chair, he is working on this year’s awards with Frank Cuff.

New Business:

Forester Certification and CFE: The process for becoming a Certified Forester (CF) is straightforward. Send a Card to the National Office and they will send you a packet with all the information. To qualify you must have a certain level of education in the right subjects and work experience. The packet explains all the requirements. Certified Foresters need 60 hours of continuing education in three years, to remain certified. National will track these hours. The Cost for certification is $75 for SAF members $150 for non-members with a $15 annual fee. There is currently 14 CFs in Montana. CFE or the Continuing Forestry Education certificate is awarded for 160 contact hours of continuing education over a three-year period. Members track the contact hours on their own with the hours needing to be split between different education categories. The categories are professional training; technical training and then a couple of catch all categories. Agendas from meetings and seminars can be submitted and rated for contact hour credit. A brochure is available that details this program, and can be gotten from Dale Kerkvliet. Information on both programs will be available at a table at the annual meeting.

Field Forester Award: SAF President Fred Ebel has established a Field Forester Award for 2000. There will be one award for each Council District. Because of the short notice and difficulty getting chapters together this time of year the decision was made to have the Chapter Chairs either be the chapter’s nominating committee or find someone that would be. Each chapter should submit a name and brief write-up to the selection committee comprised of the State Executive Officers for the selection of Montana’s nomination to be submitted to Bob Sturtevant District 4 Councilperson. Results and awards will be announced at the State meeting.

Next Meeting: The next executive committee meeting will be held on Wednesday September 13, 2000, 5:00pm board Room UC Center, University of Montana in conjunction with Annual State Meeting.

Gordy adjourned the meeting at 12:10 p.m.