Meeting
Tuesday, June 25 2002
9:00 am
Camden, Maine

Minutes -- DRAFT

I. Roll Call

Present:

Jim Kennedy Jim Goodbar Rane Curl Ron Kerbo Roger McClure Jim Miller   Absent: Dave Foster Gary C. Berdeaux Heather Garland Bob Currie

BCI BLM KWI NPS CRF USFS     ACCA NCA TNC USF&WS

A. Acceptance of proxy(ies)

For Bob Currie: Lindsay McClelland (NPS)
For Gary Berdeaux: Gordon Smith (NCA)
After 10am for Ron Kerbo: Lindsay McClelland (NPS)

B. Recognition of guests

Hazel Medville - NSS
Steve Ormeroid - Co-Chairman of the 2003 NCKMS
Jerry Trout - USFS/2001 NCKMS Chair
Sandy Trout - USFS/2001 NCKMS Co-Chair
Ransom Turner - USFS
Eugene Vale - Missouri DNR/Division of State Parks
Carol Zokaites - Project Underground

II. Minutes of the October 16, 2001 meeting, approved as read.

III. Reports

A. Cheryl Jones: Chairman's report --

1. NCKMS Logo
a) Seven new designs were presented and discussed.

2. Web site
a) Doug Marchant is the web master
b) The site is up, however design and content continues to develop
c) Suggestion: A paragraph be included to explain how each Steering Committee organization/agency is involved in cave and karst management. The chairman will follow up.

3. Financial Report
a) The current balance with the Foundation is approximately $9500. This is an increase of about $2,000 over last year
b) Income resulted from the return of 1999 NCKMS seed money ($2K) and sales of Proceedings ($700).
c) Primary expenses: sponsorship of Bat Gate Forum ($1K) and web hosting fees ($227).
d) We expect to receive approximately $4500 surplus funds from the 1999 and 2001 Symposia this quarter.
e) The surplus from the 1997 symposium is still outstanding.
f) Withdrawals expected this year:
(1) $2,000 seed money for 2003 NCKMS
(2) Scholarship funds for 2003 NCKMS
(3) Float for Chairman ($100)
g) It is encouraging that we were able to provide $1800 of scholarship funds, sponsor the bat gate forum, and not sacrifice our net worth. The surplus funds from 1999 and 2001 will allow us to provide more towards scholarships in 2003.

B. Albert Krause: Enhancing symposium attendance (attached)

1. Comments:
a) The regional themes of symposia may restrict interest by national groups
b) Info on 2003 (and future) NCKMS should be sent to state geological surveys, and a request made to circulate this to members, and include it on web sites (a source for this is the Association of American State Geologists)

C. 1999 NCKMS:

1. Proceedings:
a) These have been printed and mailed to participants. A CD was also developed and included in the mailings. Both are available for sale through Speleobooks and the NSS Bookstore.
b) The Committee appreciates Tom Rea taking over as Editor, and his excellent job.

2. Finance Report (attached)
a) A surplus of

D. Jerry Trout: 2001 NCKMS status

1. 150 paid attendees, 202 total attendance
2. Comp registrations included people from USFS, AZ Game and Fish, SWCA, Kartchner Caverns
3. Information and records were passed on to Steve Ormeroid
4. Proceedings: Expected out soon.
5. Finance Report - not attached. The treasurer has had serious health problems. In-kind contributions should be included in the report.

E. Mike Poucher/Steve Omeroid: 2003 NCKMS

1. Plans are progressing well.

F. 2005 NCKMS:

1. Ron Kerbo: Hawaii
a) 2005 is not dead, however there has been no action or progress.

2. Other ideas for hosts?
a) Missouri, Indiana

G. George Huppert Scholarship Program Committee:

Ron Kerbo, Vice Chairman
Bob Currie, Chairman
Jim Goodbar
Jim Kennedy
Jim Miller

The committee will review the scholarship application, , and approval procedure, and submit final copies to the Steering Committee Chairman by September 1. This information will be included on the NCKMS web site, and forwarded to the chairmen of the 2003 NCKMS.

H. Jim Kennedy: Cave Gating Workshop (NCKMS sponsored this event)

1. The event proved to be a good forum for sharing ideas and creating a cave gating manual. The proceedings are due out soon.

IV. Old Business

1. NCKMS Logo: New designs for discussion.
a) The committee selected 3 designs of the 7 presented, and discussed possible design revisions that would make them more appropriate for our use.
b) The Chairman was instructed to communicate these revision requests to the artists and ask that they submit revised designs.
c) The Committee agreed to further discussion and decisions on the revised designs via email via email.

V. New Business

A. None

VI. Next Meeting

A. Tuesday, August 5, 2003
NSS Convention
Porterville, California

VII. The meeting was adjourned at 11:00 am.

Prepared by:
Albert A. Krause
1721 SW 76th Terrace
Gainesville, FL 32607-3418
Res.352-332-2276
Ofc.352-392-7396
Fax.352-392-3044
Email: aakrause@ufl.edu

1. Tasking (per NCKMS Steering Committee Minutes of October 16, 2001)
Efforts should be made to increase symposium attendance by drawing in professionals who encounter, manage, or contend with cave and karst resource in their jobs.

a. Certification Credits: Al Krause will look into the possibility of the NCKMS linking with the state and federal agencies and organizations requiring symposium attendance for certification of professionals. First step will be the EPA and Florida state certification of professionals linked to karst management.

b. Marketing through organization web sites. Al Krause will also focus on marketing the 2003 NCKMS through University, and hydrological organizations web sites. Information and links to the NCKMS sites will be provided to these organizations, and visa versa.

2. Final Status on Certification Credits.

Actual tasking to me as I recall was that I would look into possibility of obtaining continuing education or comparable credits for NCKMS attendees which would hopefully increase the opportunity for attendees to obtain professional benefits and, perhaps, contributory expense/travel funding for their attendance at the NCKMS.

After investigating various educational and professional channels, it appears impractical to pursue advance certification approval or specific continuing education credits for the NCKMS. Investigation indicates that each and every college, university, county school board and national/state professional certification board has different standards, criteria, evaluation procedures, documentation requirements and submission procedures (and, usually, processing fees). Preparing individual applications for guaranteed advance acceptance/award of credit to hundreds of individual agencies would be an enormous undertaking and, given the relatively open format and broad spectrum of presenters at NCKMS, probably would be impossible to arrange in advance due to short time available between publication of final agenda and date of conference. Even if a University or College were to willing to sponsor the event and agree (for sizable fees) to register the applicants and award continuing education credits, the credits themselves would still be have to go through after-the-fact review and acceptance everywhere else.

The following procedure (suggested by the University of Florida's Division of Continuing Education) is therefore recommended based on common practice nationwide:

Provide formal Certificates of Attendance to attendees [or to a defined class of attendees as the committee may decide]. A formal signed Certificate including the information described below, can be submitted by any professional to their university, college, school board or certification authority along with a copy of the schedule, agenda and/or proceedings, for evaluation and award of credits as may be applicable.

2002 National Cave and Karst Management Symposium
Sheraton Hotel
Gainesville, Florida
[Dates]
[Names of Sponsors/Organizers]
Certificate of Attendance

I herewith certify that the following attended the 2002 National Cave and Karst Management Symposium in Gainesville, Florida.

Name ____________________________
Date(s)___________________________
Contact/s/ _______________________
Hours _____________________
Conference Organizer Representative [Name, title, date]

Certificate can take various forms as long as the critical information is included along with an official, original signature. Should be fairly fancy and on good heavy stock. Can be readily printed on home/office Laser printers for economy of production.

3. Current Status on Marketing Initiatives.

No notable progress to date; will work issue this summer in time for Fall, when most activities/agencies begin their new academic/fiscal year.

-- End of Report ---

Email the webmaster