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ISS Meeting Minutes - October 28, 2001
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Illinois Speleological Survey Minutes October 28, 2001 10:00 am Cahokia Mounds Call to Order Introduction of Directors and Officers Reading of the minutes from the previous meeting= People that attended the meeting: John Schirle-rep. Near Normal Grotto, Philip Moss-KCI dir., Kevin Berdak-Stygian dir., Jim Sherrell Rick Haley-MVG proxy for Tony Schimtt, Carl Pierce, Steve Taylor-IDNR dir., Gary Resch-LEG dir.,Aaron Addison-ISS VP, Diane Tecic, ISS Pres, Phillip Newell-guest (Stygian Grotto), Jack White, Lathan Villarreal, John Kessler-MVG, Cathy Kessler, Homer and Loretta Stemler, Jack Wood-WCG, Mona Colburn, Don Coons. The motion was made to go dispense with the reading of the previous minutes, but the motion was not seconded. The minutes were read in an abbreviated form. Old Business 1)letter to Shawnee Forest -The President stated that she wrote a letter to the supervisor. The supervisor responded back and stated that they would be glad to have assistance from the ISS. The President stated that we should have a subcommittee for this issue. The people that volunteered are: Diane Tecic, President, Aaron Addison, Vice-President, Gary Resch, LEG, and Jack White. Jack White was inquiring about the membership of ISS. Members of ISS stated that there are no specific members, but anyone who is cooperating can be a cooperator. 2) ESRI grant for GIS software -Vice President discussed ESRI grants and would like to have some understanding of who or what grottos would like to invest the time to learn Arcview. The discussion was that there should be some goals for the grant and doing something specific with the software. President stated that the software is not easy to run and is not well known. Philip Moss stated that people need training for this program. Aaron Addison offered to train people for this program. Aaron Addison stated that we can request three copies. President stated that we can request one for our database. President talked about getting a grant to hire someone to enter data into Arcview and . Vice- President stated it would be a way to simplify the database. President talked about GIS linking into other systems. The committee decided they will get at least one copy and find a facility to do training program hopefully this year. The people that are interested in this issue are Bob Kramer, Philip Moss, Kevin Berdak, Jim Sherrell, Gary Resch, Jack Wood, Steve Taylor, Rick Haley, Joe Sikorski, Philip Newell, and Tony Schmidt. 3) 2000 Annual Reports/attendance/update member list Annual reports were turned in by John Schirle, Near Normal Grotto Jack Wood, Windy City Grotto, and Gary Resch, Little Egypt Grotto. Reports still needed are Karst Conservancy of Illinois, Mark Twain Grotto, and Meramec Valley Grotto. President brought up matter of how Mississippi Karst Resource Planning Comm. is not in existence at this time. Steve Taylor made motion to remove MKRPC, John Schirle seconded this. Voting was six that were in favor. Philip Moss made a motion that Mid- Mississippi Valley Grotto be removed as a member organization of ISS, because of lack of attendance at meetings and not submitting annual reports. Rick Haley seconded the motion. President stated that she wrote a letter to the representative, Darrol Gasawski, and did not receive a response. Voting was five in favor. President will contact Chair of MMG to see if the grotto would like to be reinstated and perhaps choose another representative that can more easily attend meetings. President suggested offering membership to the Sinkhole Plain Ecosystem Partnership. Philip Moss motioned this, and Steve Taylor seconded this motion. Voting was eight in favor. 4) Status of database Copy of the updated data holdings for the ISS was passed around to see if there were obvious missing items and to encourage submission of additional maps or information. President discussed an offer from the Illinois State Museum, regarding writing grants to help us establish a computer database. President went over the letter from the Illinois State Museum. Steve Taylor made motion that Diane Tecic should be in charge of meeting with ISM to find out how we can work together. Gary Resch and Aaron Addison seconded this motion. Voting was seven in favor. President will meet with ISM to discuss the matter later this year. -President asked about other grants that we can pursue for the purpose of database development and data entry. President will pursue this issue. -Discussion about organization of files, list of holdings, and missing information. Discussion about putting a cave reporting form on the web. Steve Taylor had developed one, but it was never officially agreed upon. He and Aaron Addison will work together to accomplish this. 5) Need more data - everyone should be turning in their data - missing Fogelpole Map, Jug Spring Cave. New Business 1) develop CD with non-sensitive data (maps, aerial photos) -Philip Moss made report. Philip Moss stated that Aaron Addison will create this at cost for the people that are interested in this data. Aaron Addison stated that this was a project that he was working on independently of ISS, but is certainly pertinent to many cooperators. 2) funding sources for management, database development -President stated we can skip over this issue because this horse is dead. 3) data requests -need to streamline process -new forms for requests and tracking. These forms and procedure will be evaluated and adjusted as needed by the data management committee, and brought before the membership again for consensus. -standard confidentiality agreement-is standard but can be adjusted for special circumstances. -President discussed activities of the Data Management Committee. Map of Ava Cave was given to assist with cave clean up. USEPA requested some information, but it was vague to begin with, there were communication problems, and the result was that we did not have the opportunity to cooperate with them. Steve Taylor stated that there was not a chair at the time of that particular data request. President passed out the Proposed Data Request Procedure, ISS Data Request and the ISS Data Request Resoultion. President suggested posting this on the web site. Jim Sherrell made a suggestion of having a meeting to go over all info in our files and database to see if items are missing and what the member organizations can supply. This meeting should be postponed until the President and database custodian can get as complete list of all holdings as possible. President will send out to all the member orgs. copies of the "complete" data holdings. The member orgs should disseminate this info to people they know have turned in data to make sure that what has been submitted in the past is accounted for. President brought up the C2000 grants in regards to the Sinkhole Plain Partnership to put in a request for a grant to help develop database, input data, or transfer paper maps onto Mylar. Digital maps were discussed and it was a consensus that some sort of hard copy is needed also.. 4) Open discussion on topics of interest to ISS - Suspend agenda for 20 minutes. 5) Other matters Discussion about the current ISSxchange and a potential option of using Yahoo Groups as a Forum. It was the consensus that ISSxchge works well enough that there is no compelling reason to change. However, ISSxchge is not a function of ISS but is a function of Philip Moss. Jack Wood made a motion to have ISSxchge become a function of the ISS, but it was not seconded.. 6) Determine next meeting time, date, and place -Next meeting will be on Saturday, April 13, 2002 , possibly at Illinois State Museum in Springfield. We will try to schedule Arcview Training possibly on April 14, 2002, depending on availability of a computer lab. Slide presentation by John Kessler and Cathy Kessler showing formations, etc. in Illinois Caverns, Fogelpole, Stemler, and Jacobs Caves was much appreciated by all attendees. Adjourn dtecic@yahoo.com |
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