ISS Meeting Minutes - 1998/04/26
Health Department, Waterloo, IL

 Call to Order at 10:10am.

 Introduction of Directors and Officers

 Officers: 

    President: Philip Moss 
    Vice-President: Joel Laws 
    Treasurer: none 
    Recording Secretary: Jessica Sutter 

 Member Organizations and Directors: 

    Illinois Natural History Survey - Dr. Steve Taylor 
    Illinois State Museum - Dr. Rickard Toomey 
    Little Egypt Grotto - Cindy Lee 
    Mark Twain Grotto - Patty Daw for David Mahon 
    Meramec Valley Grotto - Joel Laws proxy for Jim Sherrell 
    Mid-Mississippi Valley Grotto - Darrol Gasawski 
    Mississippi Karst Resource Planning Committee - Joan 
Bade 
    Near-Normal Grotto - Dr. John Marquart 
    Stygian Grotto - Kevin Berdak 
    Windy City Grotto - Sue O'Shields proxy for David 
Anderson 

 Reading of Minutes from 05 October 1997 meeting was 
waived by unanimous consent.

 Old Business

     1.Database: Joel Laws reported that the database is ready 
for data entry. A zip drive was donated by the hosts of the 
last MVOR. 
     2.NSS Affiliation: Darrol Gasawski and Philip Moss 
reported that Darrol Gasawski is going to file papers to make 
us an NSS Project. 
     3.Research Community Awareness: John Marquart has a 
one page flier explaining the ISS and it will be made 
available to Directors to distribute to research institutions and 
concerned agencies after some minor corrections are made. 
     4.ISS Web Page: Philip Moss reports that the Web Page 
is still under construction and still has not been moved to the 
ISM. 
     5.Report Form and Data Management Committee: Rick 
Toomey reports that a few maps and locations have been 
turned in since the last meeting and no data requests have 
been resolved in that time. 
     6.Reports on ISS Correspondence (IL Caverns & 
TWW): Philip Moss says that replies have been received 
from several members of the Illinois delegation to Congress 
on TWW. We were thanked for expressing our concerns to 
IDNR. 

 New Business

     1.Submission of Annual Reports: Reports were received 
from NNG, MKRPC, MTG, Stygian, INHS, WCG, and 
MMV. The Illinois Nature Preserves Commission also 
reported their activities. Reports have yet to be received from 
LEG, ISM and MVG. 
     2.Election of Vice-President: Joel Laws and Rick 
Toomey were nominated. Joel removed himself from 
consideration. Rick was elected by acclamation. 
     3.Election of Data Management Committee: Rick 
Toomey, Philip Moss, Steve Taylor, and Joel Laws were 
nominated for the Data Management Committee; Rick, 
Philip, and Steve were elected with Steve to serve as Chair 
of the Committee. 
     4.Motion by Rick Toomey: The ISS grants approval of 
Dr. Julian Lewis' request for Monroe and St. Clair County 
cave data in principle and empowers the Data Management 
Committee to administer data access. Seconded by Dave 
Mahon. Passed unanimously after much discussion. 
     5.Report on IDNR C2000 program: Joan Bade reported 
that C2000 is an IDNR program that funds research and 
conservation programs through Ecosystem Partnerships. 
There is a Sinkhole Plain Ecosystem Partnership and grants 
are available for appropriate efforts within the sinkhole plain. 
     6.Motion by Philip Moss: A new not-for-profit 
corporation will be formed to own and manage karst lands. 
The corporation to be named "K&C Land Corporation dba 
the Karst Conservancy of Illinois". Seconded by Sue 
O'Shields. Much discussion leading to the suggestion that 
this is not ISS business and should be handled outside of the 
meeting. Voted down unanimously. 
     7.Report on acquisition of Fogelpole Cave: Philip Moss 
says that the asking price is $45,600. He has a verbal 
agreement with the land owner to sell it to "us" for $30,000. 
He has raised $22,800 (note: as of 5/7/98, the amount is 
$25,495) in pledges and would like ISS cooperators to find 
some more people to pledge about $8,000 more so that we 
can acquire and protect the entrance. A possible option of 
having the entrance with one or two acres donated to IDNR 
was also discussed. 
     8.Motion by Philip Moss: The agenda be suspended for 
20 minutes for open discussion on topics of general interest 
to the ISS and its cooperators to include the audience. Rick 
Toomey informed us that it is not clear that cave waters are 
ground water by definition in the State of Illinois. There is 
going to be an opportunity for reclassification soon. IDNR is 
working on getting the language into law that would classify 
cave waters as ground water. Please track down existing 
cave maps and get them turned in to Rick Toomey. willing to 
continue being the cartographer. Diane Tecic (IDNR) wants 
help cleaning up a sinkhole on the Stemler Woods Nature 
Preserve. Date to be announced (watch the issxchng). It was 
suggested that November 7, 1998 would be a convenient 
date. There will be a Project Wet education program for 
teachers at Illinois Caverns on June 24, 1998. Cavers are 
being sought by Rick Toomey to help with the program. He 
can be reached at his work number: (217)524-7908 or at 
toomey@museum.state.il.us. 
     9.Next meeting: Sue O'Shields moves that the next 
meeting of the ISS shall be held on November 8, 1998, 
10:00am at the Waterloo Health Department. Seconded by 
Steve Taylor. Passed unanimously. 

 Meeting Adjourned at 1:03pm

Return to ISS main page

As of April 2000, this page is maintained by Steve Taylor. Please email sjtaylor@inhs.uiuc.edu with web page comments and corrections. All other correspondence should be addressed to the ISS via the president.
Page last modified 3 January 2002