Press Release
Mississippi Valley Field Naturalists
Submitted by Cliff Bennett
May 20, 2003
Moon Eclipse Featured at Field Naturalists’ Annual Meeting
The night of the Mississippi Valley Field Naturalists’ Annual General meeting,Thursday, May 15, coincided with a full eclipse of the moon. To place members in the mood for watching the details later in the night, MVFN member Al Seaman presented a series of slides on the 2000 winter full eclipse of the moon. His presentation was introduced by MVFN member Joel Byrne through a series of his haiku poems on the eclipse as well as conoeing. As it turned out, the recent eclipse was not nearly as spectacular as the blood red moon of the millennium year.
The annual meeting of MVFN was held at Union Hall, corner of County Roads 16 and 9 in Ramsay. After an earlier reception, the meeting was opened by Acting President Cliff Bennett, who outlined several features of the previous year. MVFN is represented on several Boards involving rural clean water, forestry management, municipal official plan creation, development of a regional land trust and two municipal Environmental Advisory Committees. Bennett also expresses satisfaction with a substantial increase in memberships.
Reports of the year’s successes were presented by various BOD members. Financially, the year ended up with a deficit balance but MVFN will have a balanced budget for the new year. Proceedings of this meeting can be found on the website www.mvfn.ca.
Two members of the BOD, secretary Karen Richter and Susan Fisher, who chaired the Environmental Issues Committee, have retired. Acting President Cliff presented both with a well-earned gift of appreciation.
Two new Board members were elected;
Elizabeth Wiles, Carp, as secretary and Michael McPhail, Ramsay, to chair the Environmental Issues Committee.
They will join the following slate:
President, Sandy Atack, Ramsay;
Vice-President and chair of the Financial Committee, Michael MacPherson,
Ramsay;
Past-President Cliff Bennett, Ramsay;
Treasurer, Reiner Hollbach, Ramsay and
Directors Pip Winters, Almonte, Federation of Ontario Naturalists (FON)
representative;
Tine Kuiper, Ramsay, Programme Committee chair;
Jim Bendell, Lanark Highlands, Natural Resources Issues chair;
Franziska VonRosen, Lanark Highlands, Stewardship Council representative;
Eileen Hennemann, Ramsay, Publicity, Publications and Public Relations chair
Yvonne Bendell, Lanark Highlands, Social Convenor.
The final MVFN spring event will be a members only visit to the Duncan’s Organic Farm, Appleton Side Road, on June 8th. Informal canoeing trips are available for members and friends, by contacting Cliff or watching our website. For further information, contact Cliff Bennett at 256-5013 or at cliff@mvfn.ca.
