[Iesaf_selkirk] HSD update

[lynn kaney]

HSD - A short synopsis

By Theresa Jain, Chair, Inland Empire SAF

Hi everyone, the weather is great as usual in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I just finished attending the HSD meeting and rather than waiting until our next meeting. I thought I would just send you an update for two reasons, it is best to get out information as soon as possible and also I do not forget points, which  as time goes by, memories tend to diminish, particularly with all the other things that I do get mixed in with those memories.

HSD (House of Society Delegates) for those unfamiliar consists of all the Chairs from all the State and Multi-state Societies. It is our opportunity to provide recommendations to Council and SAF leadership. We meet every year in person prior to the National Convention. This year we had 1 ½ day meeting full of many different subjects. Myself and Lloyd McGee both attended HSD this year. Lloyd's role this year was to learn and listen and help with some of the decisions  I had to make while representing Inland Empire.

First:  We received first place (HSD National Award) for the success story I submitted of our Annual Meeting: 1910 Fires: A Century Later.  Thanks to those members who suggested it as one to submit. I am so proud of the members of Inland Empire and it has shown we can do some awesome things and it is nice to get recognized for it. We received a nice plaque that states; Society of American Foresters Herby Presents to Inland Empire SAF, The House of Society Delegates 1st Place, National Recognition Award: 1910 Fires: A Century Later, October 2010. Signed by Michael Lester and Michael Goergen. This combined with the Forest Science Award and the Field Forester of the Year gives the members of the Inland Empire a great reputation.

The informative discussions

I will begin with the presentations that provide information concerning what SAF has to offer. Liability Insurance: We had a nice presentation from our Liability Insurance lead. The two most important points: 1) All meetings that we have in a building - chapter meetings, IC meetings are automatically covered by SAF liability. 2) However, anytime we are outside a building such as in tours, fieldtrips, outdoor workshops we need to work with the Insurance people to get liability coverage. They also need to be contacted a minimum of 45 days prior to the event. Ideally, it was best if at the beginning of each year if we have an idea of these we may have within Inland Empire we could set up a calendar with some details and we can get overall liability coverage for all outdoor meetings at once. Something we can discuss at our next meeting. 

Accounting: Jorge Esguerra (SAF contract accountant) gave us a presentation on ways that their group could provide accounting duties for States and Chapters. Personally, I think we are not so large that we need an accountant but I did suggest to Jorge that a training module would be nice specific to SAF. He said his goal is to do just that; but would like some input from the field as to what elements would be good to put into the training module. So Ann would you be able to identify some items that would be good in a training module? Also, other treasurer's in the Chapters or if you have past experiences as one of Inland Empire's Treasurers in the past, please chime in.

Educational DVD: A working Forest, Bob Williams from Allegheny SAF has made a $100,000 video that talks about the good things about forestry.  It is 1-hour long, has national elements, some from the Northwest. I am going to buy one copy to show at our next meeting. I think it may be a great educational tool to use for the general public. To teach them what we do in forest management and science.

Update from Michael Georgen (Executive Vice President and CEO of SAF): Michael gave an outstanding and enthusiastic presentation on what SAF does at the National Level. He always impresses upon me how much leverage SAF has concerning National Forest Management and Science Policy. Every time I listen to him speak, I recognize how much SAF influences forest management at all levels within the U.S. We are definitely a part of a top notch professional organization.  

Candidates for Vice-President: Each of the Vice-President Candidates gave a 5 minute speech on their views. They are Mary Coulombe, and William Rockwell.  Each has a facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=118578704858732. 

Please look it over, they have two very diverse views on some critical things.  So I urge each of you to take a look and vote. 

 

Dues issue: First the proposed dues, is not a final decision, and if decided to increase dues it will not occur until 2012. Decision will be made in December.

 

We spent considerable time discussing dues, value for the cost, and the total operating budget for SAF and other sources of income. The result of this discussion is that we requested Council and SAF leadership to provide a business plan. Basically a list of all the benefits we get from SAF for our investment of dues and what they plan to do with this increase.  Currently SAF is functioning in deficit by $300,000.00 and have dropped from 26 employees 16.5; and basically at the minimal level to actually get all the work accomplished and simultaneously maintain the stature SAF has as a top notch professional organization.

 

Currently the Dues provide 35 to 40% of the operations; other sources of income come from outside sources.  In order to discuss this with our members: I have asked our Council Representative, Chuck Lorenz to: 1) for each item to give its relevance, scope and impact, 2) to provide a table comparing SAF dues with other organizations that operate at the same caliber as we do, such as Ecological Society of America, Wildlife Society, Association of Wildland Fire, Fire Ecology Association, Sierra Club, including the number of members, 3) to provide context, in the opening paragraph describe SAF's role in local, regional, national and international influence; and 4) the other sources of income.   I think we as Inland Empire need to engage in a discussion of the value versus the dues discussion. 

 

We also brought a motion concerning ways to help with economic hardship in relation to paying dues. Currently SAF gives a hardship break of $25.00 and provides different payment methods and does not require dues to be all paid at once and are willing to work with the individuals to make paying dues as painless as possible. At HSD there was a motion, that if a hardship was indicated, that state dues could be waved.  However, I think within Inland Empire we should discuss other options. We still have costs with IE that cannot be waived thus if State/Chapter dues are waved, we still have to come up with the funds to cover our fixed costs. One option I would like to discuss is should IE have a hardship fund where we can add $25.00 (IE would cover this cost) to the 25.00 break National provides. This would give an individual a $50.00 discount.  I know some chapters within IE have paid dues for our active members during these economic hard times; this could also be another discussion point, which could be discussed at chapter meetings. 

 

SAF's relationship with Universities that offer ecological centric curriculum or may no longer have forestry accredited programs There is a task force that are discussing SAF's role in these schools, possibly developing an ecology accreditation programs. We had a break out session to discuss this and came up with some options. Other breakout groups address alternative funding sources, dues, membership recruitment and retention, and forester involvement in non-industrial private forest lands. I cannot remember the results from these groups, so I will pass on the results of these sessions, when I get the HSD notes.

 

That pretty much covers the main points. 

 

Respectfully,

 

Terrie Jain

Inland Empire Chair