This is a quick post to cover the results of this years election and also highlight a change made to the Constitution and Bylaws that was made at a recent board meeting.

At the October 20 monthly meeting of the WPMC, the following Officers were elected for next year:

President – Richard Jacob
Vice President – Cecily Franklin
Recording Secretary – Ann ‘Fluff’ Berger
Corresponding Secretary – Adam Haritan
Treasurer – Barbara DeRiso

Read more about this years committee in Novembers newsletter. We would like to thank Jim Wasik, a past President and this years Vice President for his work over the years in running the Club and keeping us on an even keel. We also thank Scott Pavelle for his help and advice over the last two years as Recording Secretary. I am sure that you will continue to see both members at club meetings and walks in the future.

The elected board is looking forward to building on the current strengths of the club and bringing new ideas to 2016.

Now on to the administrative change. As you may be aware the Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club is part of the North American Mycological Association (NAMA), you can read more about the relationship here. Recent changes to the NAMA organization now mean that clubs prepare a short report about their activities every year. Clubs can also be represented at NAMA meetings by a club Trustee.  Up until the recent board meeting we had no official NAMA Trustee. Rather than making the position a committee we wanted to formalize the position and make it part of the board.  To this end the board made the following bylaws amendments:

  1. NAMA Trustee to replace Corresponding Secretary on Board of Directors
  2. NAMA Trustee to be elected to 2 year term to start in 2017
  3. Two consecutive term limit.
  4. NAMA Trustee duties to include:
    1. Report to Board of Club activities each year before submission to NAMA
    2. Attend NAMA Trustee meetings
    3. Report to Board and Club on NAMA meeting and actives
  5. Consolidate Recording and Corresponding Secretary into one office: Secretary

The changes will occur in 2017 with board members elected for the positions in 2016.

The Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club is also a member of another mycology organization, the Northeastern Mycological Foray or NEMF. NEMF as the name suggests, holds an annual foray in the north east of America including Canada. Each year the hosts rotate through the member clubs and provide a larger foray opportunity with a gathering of local and national experts in one of the regions. As there was no formal NEMF trustee for the club the board has added a NEMF Trustee to Appointed Committees.

You can see both of these changes in the online copy of the Constitution and Bylaws. If you have any questions about the changes please let us know.