· Treasurers Report (Brock) Brief report by Braker, several checks have been written in Tom’s absence to cover costs of displays at events, several memberships have come in as well. We will accept $800 as a pass through for the spotted knapweed wildcard being paid for by WE Energies.

· Membership Report (provided by Utegaard) A few more members came in this month, and some new complimentary memberships were added to the list for the plant industry relations.

II. Old Business

Committee reports:

1. Science: Invasive Plant List Publication Update: Being printed now, will be mailed shortly. Question on the current activities of the science committee. Mostly have been focused on publication of the list.

2. Communications:

-Approve cost of Web service (Brock/Braker). Our web site has been moved off of the UW Extension server onto Marsha Vomastic’s server. Expense approved at not more then $200 per year for web service. Marsha is authorized to get this service established.

-Native Landscaping conference volunteers needed (March 22): Amy Staffen and Mike Engle will cover this for us as reported by Kearns.

3. Nominations Committee report (Braker)

Several potential board members were discussed and assignments made to contact those people. Susan will continue to work to identify a Plant Industry representative and Lauren has made contact with the Adopt-a-lake program. Nancy will contact several people who could represent a northern viewpoint.

New board members will be voted on by the membership sometime in the next 6-8 weeks through a separate first class mailing

4. Symposium 2003 Planning (Braker and Kearns)

No additional news at this time. We are working on getting speakers confirmed and abstracts submitted. Funding proposals are out.

5. Legislative: Status of legislation (Roark) No news at this point. Legislation is inching along slowly. Bill still being drafted. Illinois has is trying to add buckthorn to their noxious weed list, Kudzu was just added. Very piecemeal approach. Our legislation would be a better process then what Illinois currently has to use.

Wisconsin aquatic plant law rule is under consideration through the legislative committee. IPAW (or the science committee) could provide comments to this effort. Comments need to be made soon. We are unsure of the deadline. One idea is to send a copy of the pending newsletter to the DNR staff person (Jeff Bode) (Braker to get contact information from Kelly) with a cover letter that points out that reed canary is a considered a serious invader statewide and should be addressed. Motion made and seconded to send this communication. A modification was made by Kent Van Horn that we make sure that Dan Undersander know of this action before the letter gets sent out and in our letter we should point out that our publication is still out for comment. Suggested language from Kent: “Based on our survey, information indicates that reed canary grass needs to be considered under this rule.” Motion carried. It is unlikely that changes will be made at this point, but we should get our comments in for future discussion.

6. Assistance with the publishing of Betty Czarapata’s book: discussion and decision on role IPAW should take.

Tom Brock suggests that a regular publisher is found to work on this publication. He does not think we should consider self-publishing. Feels that this would be too big a project for IPAW at this point.

Betty and Kelly have approached many publishers including the University presses in all the upper mid-west states and have been turned down primarily due to concern about the small market. Tom suggested that there may be other options such as Trails Press (does Wisconsin Trails Magazine). Betty has concerns about the cost being reasonable for landowners, etc.

What is the range of possibilities for getting this book published, and what is IPAW comfortable with? We could do aspects of publication, or we could just provide some advertising.

Kelly: DNR is willing to publish, but funding is lacking. Need $30-40 K to do project, but this does not provide any compensation to Betty for her work on the book. There may be some concerns within DNR about the publication, but it is thought these could be overcome.

Motion made that IPAW provides support by assisting DNR with fundraising and holding funds if needed as well as publicizing the book through all our available means. We also want to assure that the book has appropriate scientific review and we agree that we will help find appropriate professionals to help with review.

Question about what IPAW would like for recognition? If we are able to bring in significant funds then we would like to have our logo and contact information provided in the book. If we only help with reviewing and have only a minor fundraising role then we should just be in the acknowledgements.

Science and Education committees will be asked to help find reviewers. Kelly will work with the fundraising committee (Braker and Ebbecke) on this project.

Seconded and motion carried.

III. New Business

· Round table on plant production being hosted by the UW-College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (Roark): Gene is planning to attend as IPAW representative and will call to get a specific invitation. Plant industry and nurseries were invited.

· Tri-state forestry conference held last week. 640 registered. Eunice Padley (WDNR) gave a good talk on invasives, mentioned IPAW and our brochures were there. We should get a copy of the PowerPoint presentation for our use or on web site. Kelly will get a copy of this to Marsha.

· Our brochures will be distributed to the attendees at the Wisconsin Lakes Conference

· Tom Brock mentioned his web site that includes good information on restoration of prairies and savannas. We agreed that this link should be on our web site. Tom will provide this info to Marsha.

· Sauk County Earth Day invitation: Braker to contact Sauk County group to see if they can hand out and if they want Kelly’s display

· Wild Parsnip poster: Agree to purchase 150 posters to be distributed as a membership perk.

· Wildcard funding proposal (Kearns): Kelly is putting together proposals to the EPA for several invasives projects. The first is the publication of potential invader wildcards. The other proposal is to have training sessions on these potential invaders, creating a database on the occurrences, training on how to submit data to the herbarium, and getting groups out to do control on these populations as early intervention. Kelly would like to have IPAW listed as a collaborator and provider of in kind services. How much match would we be expected to provide through in kind services, and how would it be accounted for? Required match is only 5% and DNR will provide all this. IPAW web site might be involved in some way, publicizing the project, how people can be involved, etc. Motion made that IPAW will collaborate on the grant providing in-kind services and general support and publicity of the project.

Agenda items at the next meeting: A request was made to put all committees on agenda regardless of if they have submitted a committee report ahead of time.

Next meeting is Tuesday, April 8, 11:30 – 1:30, location to be determined, but likely at TNC

Meeting adjourned at 1:15

Respectfully submitted,

Nancy Braker, Secretary