NRO Meetings & Events

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NRO Old Business:
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1. Introduction of Spring 2001 NRO Event Organizers
Congratulations went out to Niagara Frontier Grotto for hosting the Spring 2001 NRO.

2. Chairman's Report & Vice-Chair's Report
Both officers were absent. Emily Davis ran the meeting in the absence of board officers.

3. Treasurer's Report
Officer was absent, but it was reported the NRO had approximately $1900.

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NRO New Business:
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1. Nomination and election of new NSS officers
New officers were elected. Chairman, Scott Sala from Met Grotto; Vice-chair, Mark Skove from NNJG; and Secretary-Treasurer, Mike Nardacci was re-elected.

2. Mother's Day Weekend -- should the NRO be held on a different weekend if it conflicts with Mother's Day
Those in attendance voted to have the officers address the issue of conflicts with MAR in both Spring and Fall, taking into consideration Cave openings/closings, and Mother's Day.

3. NRO Website
Nigel Dyson-Hudson donated the cost of the domain name www.theNRO.org for a period of 10 years. He will assist in getting name redirects for all member organizations such as metgrotto.theNRO.org and email redirects such as chairman@theNRO.org.

4. Howe Caverns donation
John Sagendorf, general manager of Howe Caverns, was introduced and after a short speech about local conservation efforts, donated $500 to the NCC to be put towards the Selleck's Cave acquisition.

5. Fall NRO (Vermont Cavers report)
Representatives from Vermont Caver's Association announced the site had been picked and preparations are underway.

6. Spring 2002 NRO
Site proposals were requested as alternates from Cobleskill. The Watertown area was mentioned but may have issues with bats in many caves and access dates. The issue of a joint MAR-NRO was raised, and although a straw-vote indicated by a tight margin that we do not pursue an event like this at this time, officers were instructed at a minimum to open dialogue with MAR.

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Other Business:
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1. 2002 NSS Convention
Maine is the site. Check the website (linked off www.caves.org) for up-to-date information.

2. NCC Update
Emily announced that the NRO dinner netted over $500 for the purchase of Selleck's Cave. Actual numbers are $533.27. Profit from the 50/50 raffle is $168.50. This, with the NRO contributions and Howe Caverns contributions brought over $2000 to the fund.

3. John Foster introduced himself as heading a private, for-profit project in Massachusetts that would create a bat hibernaculum in an abandoned ore transportation tunnel. It is 1900 feet long, in the town of Cheshire in Berkshire County. He thinks it could hold over 15,000 bats and become the largest in our region. It was voted and passed that we donate $200 towards his project and submit the money to Bat Conservation International (BCI) to be earmarked for his project.

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