Compliled by the ISS President - April 18, 2006 and updated June 18, 2009 A .pdf of this page is available here ISMS Contract – 11/4/95 The contract between the ISS, Inc. and the Illinois State Museum Society to store the ISS database was amended to have a fee of $200 per year paid to the ISMS stipulated. The contract approval motion was passed unanimously. The contract will take effect on the date signed. Dr. Graham said that the fee would be waived by the ISMS and that we would receive a letter to that effect with the signed contract. ********************************************************************** This contract between the Illinois Speleological Survey, Inc. (ISS) and the Illinois State Museum Society (ISMS) sets out provisions and conditions for the ISMS to store and maintain data that the ISS has and will collect. I. The ISMS agrees to store and maintain data gathered by the ISS for $200 per year to be paid on the anniversary of the signing of this contract. The data will be stored and maintained at ISMS facilities in Springfield , Illinois beginning on 1 December 1995 until the contract is terminated. II. The data remains the property of the ISS at all times, and copyrights to maps are held by the author(s). III. The ISMS, as bailee, agrees to use reasonable care in storing and maintaining the data, and in making sure that unauthorized use of the data or release of any information contained in, or pertaining to the data will not occur. The ISMS acknowledges that release of the data would result in the loss of knowledge and damage to resources that cannot be replaced. IV. The access and use of the data shall be governed by the constitution and bylaws of the ISS. V. All oral agreements made prior to the signing of this contract merge into this document, and all subsequent modifications must be made in writing, and have to be signed by both parties. VI. Either the ISS or the ISMS can terminate this contract by written notice with at least thirty (30) days notice. Signature Signature Printed name Printed name Title, Organization Title, Organization ************************************************************ Email Communications – 10/5/97 E-mail will be substituted, with organization permission, for US Mail for distribution of minutes, agendas, and meeting announcements. Publication of Cave Locations – 10/5/97 The ISS does not support the publication of any information that could lead to the location of a specific cave entrance. Meeting Attendees – 4/22/01 All attendees will be recorded in the minutes. IDNR Representation – 4/22/01 IDNR will be represented by a single director. Data Custodian – 4/22/01 Mona Colburn is named database custodian. colburn@museum.state.il.us Index of Holdings – 4/13/02 An index in Excel/Access of the ISS holdings will be distributed to the Data Management Committee. Constitution and Bylaws Revisions – 9/6/03 http://www.caves.org/iss/constitution.html Co-Data Custodian – 9/6/03 Diane Tecic is made a co-Data Custodian. ArcView Licenses – 9/6/03 One ArcView license is issued to the Shawnee Forest project and one to Diane Tecic. ArcView License – 3/28/04 Tony Schmitt is issued one ISS-held license for ArcGIS to manage information on Monroe County until further notice. Data Request Procedures – 11/8/03 •  Data requests may be submitted to any member of the Data Request Committee (DRC) or to any Officer or Director of the ISS. Requests not made to a member of the DRC shall be forwarded to a member of the DRC. •  The member of the DRC first receiving the data request shall first determine if the data request involves sensitive data (information that could easily lead to the location of a cave entrance) or if it comes from an entity that has a relevant Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the ISS. If the request does not involve sensitive data, then the request should be immediately granted. The DRC member making the determination of non-sensitive data shall notify a Data Custodian to release the requested data. No confidentiality agreement is required, although the ISS would like acknowledgement in reports or presentations incorporating data provided. •  If the request comes from an entity with an MOU that addresses data access, the terms of the MOU take precedence over these procedures. Data requests made under the terms of an MOU shall be reported to the President along with all other data requests. •  The DRC may wish to determine whether the data requested is held by the ISS. Requests for data not held by the ISS do not require deliberation. If it becomes known that the ISS does not hold all the requested data, then the requestor shall be notified as soon as possible. •  If the data is deemed sensitive, then all material supporting the request shall be distributed to the rest of the DRC. The request shall not be granted by the DRC without unanimous approval by the DRC. If any member of the DRC believes that it is inappropriate for DRC to make a determination (absent members, conflict of interest, or a request for substantial quantities of data), then the request shall be referred to the Board of Directors for consideration. •  If the DRC approves the request, but it includes data restricted by the data donor, the request and supporting materials shall be forwarded to the restricting person(s) for their consideration along with notification of the DRC's unanimous support of the request. •  If the person restricting the data approves the request, the restrictor shall notify the DRC and the Data Custodian and sign the confidentiality agreement. The confidentiality agreement language must be satisfactory to any person releasing restricted data. •  If any member of the DRC disapproves of the data request, then the Chair of the DRC or his designee shall notify the requestor and inform the requestor that the decision may be appealed to the Board of Directors. If an appeal is desired, the DRC Chair will notify the President and forward the supporting material. The President will then place the request on the next meeting agenda. •  A simple majority is required to approve a data request brought before the Board of Directors. The results of the vote shall be recorded in the minutes. If passed, the President will notify the Data Custodian to release the data with an appropriate confidentiality agreement to be signed by the President. The DRC does not need to sign confidentiality agreements for data releases approved by the Board of Directors. •  If a DRC member is requesting sensitive data, then that member should abstain from voting on the request. If two or more DRC members are involved with the data request, then the request shall be referred to the Board of Directors. •  The DRC shall appoint one of its members as Chair. The Chair shall report on the activity of the DRC to the President each month. The report will include a record of who voted how and a description of materials provided by and requested from the data requestor. These records will be made available to ISS members and anyone making a data request. •  The DRC Chair or his designee shall draft a Confidentiality Agreement that is appropriate for each approved data request. The DRC Chair shall obtain each DRC member's signature on each confidentiality agreement for sensitive data released. The signatures document their approval of the request. •  If a data request involves both sensitive and non-sensitive data, the DRC will indicate only the sensitive data on the confidentiality agreement. The non-sensitive data may be released prior to a decision on sensitive data. •  If the DRC or the Board of Directors approves a grant request for data not held by the ISS, the approval is moot. If and when the data is submitted to the ISS, the requestor must make a new request. ISS Annual Dues – 11/8/03 Annual dues to ISS will be $5 per year. For members to remain in good standing dues must be received by Jan 31, 2004. Dues will not be prorated for partial year. E-mail shall be method of communication Shawnee Forest Project Operations Protocol –9/19/04 Click here for the file and signed protocol - .pdf file Registered Agent –2/27/05 The President of the ISS is authorized to appoint a volunteer member to be Registered Agent for the ISS. Membership List –2/27/05 The ISS shall publish the membership list annually following the spring meeting. The list will contain contact information for distribution only to the members of the ISS. Bylaw Amendment – Directors 6/24/06 Chapter II – Directors is amended by deleting B. 3. Bylaw Amendment - Voting 6/24/06 Chapter X – Voting is amended. A. The Vice President shall have responsibility and oversight of all member general elections. A. 2. Tally votes prior to a general meeting and announce results to the President, the director-elects, and the members at least 30 days prior to the next general meeting. If the Vice President is a candidate for director, the Vice President will appoint an independent person to tally the votes. That independent person will be identified to the members prior to the vote tally. Bylaw Amendment – Meetings 6/24/06 Chapter XII – Meetings is amended. There shall be a minimum of one general meeting per calendar year. A special meeting may only be scheduled with a minimum of thirty days notice to the Board. Printer Supplies 6/24/06 The Treasurer is authorized to purchase or reimburse up to $70 per calendar year for printer supplies (including paper) for ISS use. Bylaw Amendment 2/18/07 Chapter XI - Loss Of Representation & Membership is amended: C. Elected Directors shall be removed for failure to attend or send a proxy for two consecutive meetings, including meetings adjourned due to a lack of a quorum . Removal shall be automatic. The position shall be filled by appointment by the board until the next regular election. ISS Patches 2/18/07 Richard Raber is authorized to have an Illinois Speleological Survey patch made by the manufacturer of his choice. He is authorized to use the ISS logo. Any other design requires approval of the ISS Board. He is entitled to recoup his costs, but all sales after the breakeven will accrue to the ISS. He or his designees will be responsible for inventory and sales of the patches. Mail Ballot Procedure 3/9/08 Mail balloting-running an election via U.S. mail 120 days prior to seating of new directors (meeting): Put out call for candidates via ISS listserv. Set a deadline for nominations-30 days at maximum. Send out weekly notices prior to nomination deadline. 90 days prior to meeting: Post list of candidates on ISS listserv for informational purposes. Election coordinator should obtain mailing address list of ALL ISS members. Assemble simple ballot package: Printed ballot. Election coordinator should sign or stamp each ballot in a discrete, unique manner-written initials and a small hand stamp in a corner of the page. The ballot should indicate how many candidates the vote may choose, and the deadline for returning the ballot. Self addressed stamped envelope. The SASE is addressed to the election coordinator, and the voter’s address appears as the return. Each ballot and SASE are placed in a third envelope, addressed to the ISS voter. The election coordinator should send out an email notice, via the ISS listserv, that the ballots are being mailed. The slate of candidates, voting rules, and deadlines can also be included in the email. Weekly ballot deadline reminders can be sent out via email. 60 days prior to meeting: Compile all received ballots. Keep all ballots with their return envelopes. Note the ballot return addresses against the member’s list used for the mailing. Count all ballots-multiple times. After tallying the results, ship the ballots (via a trackable service) to an appropriate independent person, who will conduct a second count of the ballots. 45 days prior to meeting: After the ballot count is finalized, announce the results to all ISS members, officers, and directors-elect Data Custodian 12/19/08 Diane Tecic's resignation as ISS Data Custodian is accepted. Frank Wilhelm is appointed ISS Custodian. Agenda 12/19/08 The President will send an agenda to the Board of Directors no less than thirty days prior the next meeting. The President shall also attempt to make it publicly available via email or posted on the Web. Camp Vandeventer Project 12/19/08 The Camp Vandeventer karst inventory is a project of the ISS. Camp Vandeventer Karst Inventory Proposal The Illinois Speleological Survey, Inc. (ISS), an Illinois not-for-profit corporation dedicated to promoting the study of caves and karst in Illinois, proposes to inventory the karst features located on Camp Vandeventer. In particular, we propose to locate all of the cave entrances, match existing cave maps to their cave entrances, complete any incomplete cave maps, list the known fauna of each cave, and provide a description of the resources required to search each cave and the potential hazards found within each. The latter could prove invaluable in the event that missing campers need to have a full-scale search done for them. We would expect the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) to provide the following: • Use of roadside tent sites • Use of toilets • Parking for volunteers’ vehicles In return, the ISS would provide to BSA the following data in a digital format: • Latitude and longitude location data for each cave entrance • Area maps showing the location of all of the cave entrances on a topographic or aerial photo base • A map of each cave • A list of known fauna for each cave along with an assessment of its rarity • A description of the resources required to search each cave for missing campers • An evaluation of the fragility of each cave that could be used if BSA considered offering on-site cave trips to campers Points of Contact For purposes of this project, John Nelzén will represent the BSA and Philip Moss will represent the ISS. Schedule The ISS anticipates that the cave entrance location task would be completed in two weekends beginning in the Fall of 2008. We cannot know how much cave mapping there is to be done and that has the potential to take several weekends that would need to be scheduled at the mutual convenience of the BSA and ISS. Methods The land would be walked methodically searching each sinkhole and walking each streambed for cave entrances. Location coordinates would then be recorded by GPS. The cave would have a short reconnaissance trip into it to compare the cave to existing cave maps from Roy Milner’s report on Camp Vandeventer. If need be, subsequent trips may be made to given caves to check the map for completeness or to map the cave. On each trip into a cave, the fauna that can be identified without collecting will be recorded. These data will augment the cave bioinventories performed by Dr. Julian Lewis and his team in 1999. A copy of all data derived from this project will be stored in ISS files and may be made available to researchers according to ISS Bylaws and Acts. Bylaw Amendment – Number of Directors 5/17/09 CHAPTER II – DIRECTORS D. The number of Elected Directors will be greater than the number of Organizational Directors. 1. There shall be six five elected directors. White Nose Syndrome Resolution 5/17/09 The ISS shall encourage all Illinois cavers to abide by and support cave access restrictions or closures put in place to slow the spread of White Nose Syndrome. The ISS will encourage all cavers to follow the best available decontamination procedures between all cave trips.

ISS main page Please email webmaster with web page comments and corrections. All other correspondence should be addressed to the ISS via the president. Page created 16 May 2006 and revised on 1 September 2009.