SWCS-NCC Meeting Notes
October 17, 2007

Participants: George Utting, Allison Wiedeman, Ross Braun, Larry Holmes, Michele Laur.

2008 SWCS Elections:
National: The Chapter unanimously decided to nominate Bill Boyer for the SWCS National At-large Board of Directors position. Bill accepted. October 19 is the post-mark deadline for the nomination. Ross will work with Bill and submit the nomination form.

Chapter:
Michele Laur, NRCS National Atmospheric Resource Specialist, will run for council-person (2008-2010)
Larry Holmes, incumbent, will run for 2008 treasurer.
Bill Boyer, incumbent, will run for 2008 secretary.
Tom Hebert, incumbent, will run for 2008 vice-president.
2008 President-elect (2009 president): Officers discussed potential candidates and identified a number of people. Ross will contact the following NCC members about running for president-elect: Michele Gidumb, Suzy Friedman, Leonard Jordan, John Dondero, and Michelle Perez. Allison will contact the following non-members and them to join and consider running for office: Jim Cox, Tom Simpson, Tracy Mehan, and Eugene Lamb. Allison will also contact Don Parrish, who is a member of the National Capital Chapter.

2008 Awards:
Nominations for national awards and the National Capital Chapter's Norman A. Berg Conservation Legacy Award were discussed. It was unanimously decided to nominate Bill Boyer for the Outstanding Service Award and Melvin Womack for the Commendation Award. Ross will put together draft nominations for the officers to review.

Allison recommended Dr. Tom Simpson, professor and coordinator of Chesapeake Bay Programs for the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Maryland, for our chapter award. A brief biography is available at http://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabpeople.nsf/WebPeople/SimpsonThomas%20W.?OpenDocument.

Allison explained that Hank Zygmunt, EPA Region 3, would be a very good candidate for an award. Hank has successfully worked with farmers and farm organizations to improve environmental protection in the Chesapeake Bay and would be. Ross suggested that Hank may be a competitive candidate for the national Harold & Kay Scholl-Excellence in Conservation Award. Allison will gather some information about Hank's work and achievements.

Fall Tour:
Our Fall Tour, co-hosted by the National Capital Chapter of the Society of American Foresters (NCC-SAF) is tomorrow, Oct. 18. Melvin Womack and Bill Boyer worked with Eric Norland and Wilhelmina Bratton, NCC-SAF, on the tour. The tour includes the new LEED certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) office building of Wetland Studies & Solutions, Inc. (WSSI) and two wetland banking sites.

Meeting adjourned at 12:55pm

Next Meeting November 8, 2007 at 11:45 am - 12:45 pm location TBD.

The SWCS-NCC Board meets the first Thursday of each month from 11:45-12:45.
The location will cycle among the organizations represented by Board members and be announced prior to each meeting.

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