Board Members Present: Dan Undersander, Nancy Braker, Thomas Brock, Dave Spatcher; By phone: Susan Lehnhardt, Rolf Utegaard, Tim Gerber, Donna Van Buecken

Guests Present: Bob Wernerehl (Blue Mounds Project), Kelly Kearns, Jason Van Driech, Tim DeMarco, Susan Slocum (both with the Park People)

I. Introductions were made.

II. Administration

Approve Minutes of Last Meeting. Approved with two changes striking the sentence: "It was stated that there is still some time before activity by this committee (education) is needed." and correcting Dave Spatcher's first name.

Treasurers Report (Brock) $12,921.69 in account now including the funds from the 2001 PooP conference. We may get an additional amount depending on final expenses to the RC&D. Report approved.

Membership Report (Van Buecken) 117 members, 4 renewals recently. Report approved.

III. Old Business

Annual Membership Meeting: We are set to meet on March 9 at the Prairie Enthusiasts (TPE) meeting at UW La Crosse; we have 1.5 hours for our meeting during the lunch hour. We would like our meeting to be announced by the TPE host at the beginning of the day and just before the lunch break to welcome people to attend our meeting. Braker can not attend but Lehnhardt has agreed to take notes. Dan will prepare a short handout to be distributed to those attending that will include a financial report, membership report, other committee reports and activities to date. Dave will be contacting committee chairs to get their input on this report. Committee chairs may report verbally if they desire, within the time constraints of the meeting. We will present a slate of candidates for the board (these have been determined by the nominating committee) and ask for additional nominations from the floor. We would like Dan to welcome the group, ask them to join or renew, etc. We will also ask for input from the members on what things they would like to see us working on. Each committee will be asked to prepare a short report as appropriate.

Committee reports:

Communication (Utegaard)

Newsletter was sent to mailing house this week. Should be to members by Monday (3/4). 700 printed, 500 sent out. There are some issues with bad addresses that Rolf is working on in collaboration with Donna. Various outreach projects upcoming this month.

How to handle requests for information from the public? Tom Brock will handle information as it comes to the post office box. Nancy will handle email requests. Braker will write a standard response to go with each letter and provide it to Tom. Tom will include the brochure and newsletter with each one. Kelly provided Tom with a small supply of these.

Nominating (Undersander) No report.

Science committee (Gerber)

Survey went out. Waiting for response. Myles will look at responses and the committee will discuss results. We need to make the decision on how we use this information. The science committee is planning to compile the list and recommend categories based on how the species seem to group naturally. An alternative way to think about this is to have a process in place for how we want to handle the information prior to having the species and issues identified. Should we consider how the list should be used before we establish categories? Kelly has information on how other states have addresses this. Do we need a small group of people to work on this to determine how the results of the science committee will be used? Think about the end product before the information is summarized. Tim will ask the science committee to address this issue. Additionally, several members of the group agreed to meet while in La Crosse at our annual meeting to further discuss this. Dan, Tim, Tom, Susan and Kelly will meet right after our annual meeting at 1:30. Other members of the science committee are welcomed to join this discussion.

Plant Industry Relations (Utegaard)

Susan is ready to send out the meeting announcement and agenda and a short list of proposed dates (earliest is March 29). Kelly urged Susan to act quickly as the upcoming field season will interfere with people being able to attend meetings. Applied Ecological Services has agreed to become a business member. (Editors note: Shortly after the board meeting Susan offered, and Rolf concurred, that Susan would take over as board liaison for this committee).

Conference 2003 (Van Horn/Kearns/Gerber) No report.

Education (Van Horn)

What educational efforts should we start now prior to our weed list being completed? We need someone to take on this effort since Kent does not currently have time to convene this group. The Park People is currently working on getting a book published on invasive species in the region. Tim DeMarco of Weed Out (a project of The Park People) may be interested in helping with getting a IPAW Education committee started.

Governmental Relations (Roark) No report

Fundraising (Braker)

We received word that our grant to Wisconsin Energy Foundation for $5,000 for printing and postage for our newsletter and brochure was successful. The application submitted on behalf of the Sauk County group to the DNR Foundation was also successful, but for $700 instead of $1,000. Braker plans to work with other board members to approach businesses in their areas of expertise for membership, starting with the nurseries.

Regional Groups (Braker) No report.

IV. New Business

Sponsoring/Accepting Grants on behalf of other weed groups (Braker)

Draft guidelines were presented for discussion. They were approved with the following changes and additions.

· The group that is requesting sponsorship will provide all needed matching resources (funds, materials or labor).

· Reports required by the granting entity will be submitted first to IPAW so we can monitor them for quality and completeness (poor results will reflect badly on IPAW)

· We reduced the amount of the grant for which indirect cost reimbursement will be requested (now $3,000 instead of $5,000)

· Each grant sponsorship request will require board approval

Also, we need to address the issue of our comfort level with the group in question. How do we decide if the group is an appropriate risk? The group should clearly have the demonstrated ability to fulfill the terms of the grant. A board member will be identified to manage each partner grant. That board member will represents them in the board discussions, will monitor their progress on completing the grant obligations, and will ensure that all work and reports are completed according to the requirements of the granting entity.

Braker will revise the guidelines and route to board members for final approval. It was suggested that we should have an article in next newsletter about the Sauk County group's successful application and our new guidelines.

Additional matters from Board Members

Invasive plant conference at Chicago Botanic Garden Oct 27-29, 2002; agenda to be determined. Kelly is suggesting that we ask to have a meeting of all the invasive species groups in the region to share information. www.chicagobotanic.org/symposia

There was an organizational meeting in St.Louis of plant industry companies that have put together codes of conduct for dealing with invasive plants. Kelly will forward these to board members.

Shorwood Hills (Dane County) passed a tree ordinance that is very progressive and prohibits landowners from having buckthorn and honeysuckle in their yards.

New publication put out by the Federal Hwy commission is available regarding roadside weeds.

Tim DeMarco announced an event to honor Betty Czarapata and to raise funds to publish her book. To be at Mitchell Park Pavilion in Milwaukee Friday, April 26, 2002. Call 414-273-PARK for more information.

Bob Werhahal: Suggested that the Board should commend the work that Kelly and Nancy did on the radio last week. Board made formal motion to commend their efforts, with unanimous approval. Kelly would like to have additional partners join her on future shows.

Bob also had the suggested that we should consider getting flagging tape made up that mentions exotic species and could be used in areas where control efforts are ongoing as a way to educate the public? One of the companies that distribute this type of product could be approached regarding this tape.

Concern was expressed about Jung's making the decision to sell Buckthorn again. We could promote this issue on our listserve to request comments to be made to the company.

Meeting adjourned at 3:10.

Respectfully submitted by Nancy Braker, Secretary

IPAW - Minutes Feb 02