Board of Directors Annual Meeting Report

KWI Conduit

KWI BOARD OF DIRECTORS GATHERS FOR ANNUAL MEETING

John Mylroie

The Karst Waters Institute Board of Directors gathered for the annual meeting of the Board on March 27-29, 1998 at the home of KWI Executive VP Bill Jones, thanks to the hospitality of Lee Elliot. Prior to the Board meeting, in the morning of March 28th, a planning session was held with Mary Jane Hall, the KWI's planning consultant, to finish development of the "case statement" to be used to describe the KWI and its activities during fund-raising efforts. The session was extremely productive, and a final outcome was achieved by the end of the morning.

The KWI Board then met, and received reports from the various departments. The Education Department Vice President, David Culver, reported that a conference on karst management, in cooperation with The Nature Conservancy, would be held April 25th in Lewisburg, West Virginia. The Department is also applying to the Cave Conservancy of the Virginias for support to hold a Biospeleology Camp immediately prior to the NSS Convention in early August. The "Top Ten List of Endangered Karst Areas" will continue this year, with a listing of 10 new endangered karst areas.

Will White, VP for Research, reported the The Karst Atlas of West Virginia was officially delivered on December 3rd, and has received excellent reviews. The KARSTMAP project, and the Geochemistry of Karst Waters project have lain fallow the past six months as other activities have dominated the Department's time. The National Science Foundation proposal "Ecology, Geochemistry, and Hydrology of a Model Karst Basin" is being prepared for a May 1st deadline. The Workshop on Contaminant Transport project has moved ahead as well, with a mid-April presentation set for the U.S. Army. The International Project on Climate Change has been approached by the KWI to use caves and karst as data bases for the research. A preliminary proposal for the measurement of luminescence banding has been submitted.

Ira Sasowsky, VP for Communication, delivered an extensive report. The KWI Conduit is under new management (see editorial, this issue), with John Mylroie stepping down after 6 years and Toby Dogwiler taking over for a three year term. The major change in the Conduit will be continued movement towards electronic publication, with an e-mail listing to alert the karst community of the appearance of a new issue on the KWI home page. Some hard copies will continue to be produced for archival and exchange purposes. KWI publications continue to sell well, there was a lengthy discussion about marketing techniques. The KWI Home page is continually updated. It had 2420 hits in 1997, compared to 1800 in 1996. Many e-mail messages followed these hits, as people requested specific information; these are handled by Ira or forwarded to the appropriate KWI personnel. An operations manual for the Department is being created, which will include procedures, job descriptions, etc. A trade show type display is being considered, and will become a specific fund-raising target. The KWI will be a co-sponsor of the "Karst Processes and Global Carbon Cycle" conference being held by Chris Groves and Joe Meiman at Western Kentucky University in September, 1998; the KWI contributed funds to support a reception at Lost River Cave during the conference. The Karst Modeling Conference is on schedule for late February 1999, under the direction of Art Palmer and Bill Jones. John Mylroie and Art Palmer wrote the "Year in Karst" review for Geotimes magazine.

The Board addressed some internal logistic considerations by creating a staggered term plan for Board membership, so that the three year terms of the Board members do not all change at once. The current Board members will also begin an aggressive talent search to bring more skill and resources to the Board. Fund raising was again an important issue, and specific plans will be presented at the fall Board meeting. An Awards Committee will be formed. The Board elected Dave Culver as KWI President, with the other officers retaining their current positions. Horton "Beep" Hobbs was nominated to fill Dave's position as Education Vice President. The meeting adjourned at 4:30 pm.

KWI Conduit Table of Contents

Please direct comments and/or suggestions to:
Toby Dogwiler (tjd2@ra.msstate.edu )
Editor KWI Conduit
Department of Geosciences
Mississippi State University
Post Office Drawer 5448
Mississippi State, MS 39762
USA

KWI Conduit
(c) 1998 Karst Waters Institute