1. Next meeting will take place on Tuesday, October 2, 2001 at 6:00 pm, location to be announced.

- Charlie volunteered to take minutes at the next meeting.

- Meeting minutes of February 03, 2001 approved

2. Report of Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Jim Crisp:

- Our taxes for this year are complete. Jim filed taxes to declare our activities in line with our non-profit status.

- Jim will vacate his position as CFO and Elizabeth Farnsworth, currently board Member-at-large for Education, will assume his responsibilities.

3. The terms of the President (Lisa) and Secretary (Lelia) are soon to expire.

- Lelia will send out a call for nominations on the web site and to our mailing list, as well as electronic ballots to dues-paying members. No butterfly ballots will be used.

- Elizabeth will accept ballots electronically and via snail-mail and will keep a tally of results.

- Lelia was nominated and seconded for Secretary.

- Lisa was nominated and seconded for President.

- Our positions for Government, Media, and Student Representatives are also open and nominees were solicited from the Board. Charlie will contact the individuals mentioned for the Government and Media positions to determine their potential interest.

- Sarah Rhodes, a student at Salem State College, was unanimously elected to the board to fill the Student Representative position. Sarah grew up in central Massachusetts near the Quabbin Reservoir and is majoring in Biology at Salem State. She brings to us considerable experience, including service as Chapter Chair and Board member of MassPIRG. Sarah will send Lelia a short biographical sketch for posting on our web site. Sarah will also be informally polling fellow students to determine what services and events MassSCB can offer to maximize benefits to students.

4. The multiplicity of email lists currently being used for the Board and membership was discussed.

5. Membership update - Summaries of our current membership were circulated by Lelia and Jim.

6. Recent progress and accomplishments

- A Dialogue on bat conservation was recently held at Boston University, sponsored by MassSCB, and was a success. Twenty people attended, and three new members joined after that event. The unifying theme of having two complementary speakers, one describing global perspectives and the other focused on local perspectives to an issue, appears to be working very well.

- The MassSCB e-magazine, Conservation Perspectives, is a cornerstone of our mission and our web site. Ideas to increase submissions and readership were discussed.

7. Further defining our objectives.

- Charlie described his recent efforts to initiate the "Conservation Science Network," in which MassSCB cultivates a cadre of 15 to 30 mid-career professionals who are willing to provide basic scientific information on conservation issues to conservation NGO's, policy-makers, and the media (modeled loosely on the Union of Concerned Scientists' "Sound Science Initiative"). Charlie has met with Board member, Robert Buchsbaum, of Massachusetts Audubon Society, and the two plan to introduce this idea to an upcoming meetings of the Coastal Advocacy Network in July, 2001.

8. Logos, Posters, Pamphlets, Stationery, and Web Site

- Jose has been producing a new design for the MassSCB logo, and he debuted the draft logo to the group. He has produced designs for envelopes, stationery, and a logo that can be placed on posters and other publicity. We discussed a few modifications and additions, including a brief slogan that could accompany the logo (Charlie and Jose will brainstorm via email on this).

- Lelia reports that there have been over 13,700 hits on our web site total, an impressive number. We are also getting excellent referrals from search engines. We have had 3321 hits on Conservation Perspectives alone since November, 2000. We discussed the possibility of using a bit of web space for paying sponsors.

9. Plans for upcoming events:

- Global Climate Change Dialogue

- Wildflower Conservation Dialogue

- Media Workshops

- Shellfish Restoration through Aquaculture Dialogue

- Conservation Biology Career Event

- Funding Ideas and Grant-writing