Blue: Motion
Red: Responsibilities 

1. President Lloyd Owens called the meeting to order.

2. Dennis DeWeese, Council Member-at-Large read the minutes from the summer meeting held at Furnace Run Metro Park in Summit County on July 22, 2002.

John Clark moved that the minutes be accepted. Jim Bennett seconded this motion. The motion passed.

3. Jim Bennett, Treasurer, provided the treasurers report. The report is attached. Balances for the three accounts are as follows: Operating (as of 02/26/03) $3,268.85; Scholarship (as of 03/01/03) $13,743.03); Envirothon (as of (02/14/03) $5,309.42.

Norm Fausey made a motion to accept the treasurer’s report. Dave Libben seconded this motion. The motion passed.

4. Brian Slater provided a report on the GIS Conference that is being held March 24-26, 2003 at the Worthington Holiday Inn. This conference is being co-sponsored by the All Ohio Chapter. Brochures on this conference have been sent to the AOC membership.

5. Committee Reports:

·         Membership: No report

·         Awards: Norm Fausey, is chairman of this committee. The awards luncheon was held prior to the business meeting. Roger Wolf was name outstanding member for 2002.

·         Newsletter: Sean Browning, Newsletter editor reported that 5 newsletters went out over the last year and that the state of the newsletter was strong.

·         Archives: Tim Gerber, Chairman stated that archives are being well maintained. He encouraged new officers to provide items to him.

·         Jennifer Fish provided results of a membership survey (58 respondents). A copy of the summary of this survey is attached. This survey will provide information on areas where members are interested to serve. The top three areas that members who completed the survey felt were the most critical natural resource issues to address are 1) Land Use/ Farmland Preservation 2) Agricultural Water Quality and 3) Public Education on Conservation. The results of this survey will be used in conjunction with the Long-Range Plan.

6. Rebecca Fletcher, East North Central Regional Director for SWCS provided a report from the Society.

She stated that the next annual meeting is being held July 26-30, 2003 in Spokane, Washington. Ms. Fletcher stated that membership in the Society was approximately 6,500 with 631 members in the East North Central Region. This is significantly down from 10-13 years ago when total membership was approximately 12,000. Rebecca encouraged members to ask others to join. She stressed the importance that the Society places on conservation advocacy. She stated that the Society’s Executive Director, Craig Cox and Washington D.C. Representative Norm Berg are making a difference. Rebecca said that the Society’s web-site is averaging 3,000 “hits” a month and that this is a very high amount. The Society continues to send out the “Conservo-gram” electronically and encouraged members who are receiving it to forward it to a non-member. Rebecca also stated that the Society is becoming more project oriented and that there will be three areas of emphasis in 2003. The three areas being targeted: 1) Policy and Programs (analysis is beginning on the next farm bill); 2) Conservation Science and practice implementation; and 3) Professional development. Rebecca stated that she is planning coordination of a Chapter Development workshop to be held later this year, possibly around Richmond Indiana.

7. Lloyd Owens stated that the All Ohio Chapter summer meeting would be held on September 11, 2003 at the Coshocton Agricultural Research Service Station. Lloyd encouraged members to provide input on this and future meetings that the Chapter will be holding. He stated that evaluation forms for this meeting have been provided. Lloyd recognized new members and members who have provided voluntary contributions.

8. Lloyd then provided gavels to past presidents who had not been provided a gavel in the past. Provided gavels were Ed Everman (1993 President) and Doug Deardorff (2000 President). Lloyd then recognized the 2002 All Ohio Chapter Executive Council.

9. The 2003 Executive Council officers were installed by Adrian Achtermann and Rebecca Fletcher. Members of the 2003 Executive Council are:

President: Jennifer Fish

Past President: Lloyd Owens

President Elect: Mark Wilson

Secretary: Brent Sohngen

Treasurer: Jim Bennett

At-Large: David Libben

At-Large: Doug Zehner

10. Lloyd Owens then presented a gavel to President Jennifer Fish. Jennifer stated that she would stress increasing membership in 2003 and she encouraged every member to recruit at least one new member.

Adrian Achtermann made a motion to adjourn. John Clark seconded the motion. The motion passed and the meeting adjourned.