Press Release
Mississippi Valley Field Naturalists
Press Release: 24 May 2004
Submitted by: Cliff Bennett
MVFN Appoints New President
The Annual General Meeting of the Mississippi Valley Field Naturalists, held at Union Hall on Thursday, May 20, saw the appointment of Michael Macpherson to lead the MVFN. Michael, a Ramsay Ward resident in Mississippi Mills, has served as vice-president for two years and currently serves as the MVFN representative on the newly formed Mississippi Watershed Madawaska Land Trust Conservancy Board of Directors. He has been a member of MVFN for several years.
Michael McPhail, who lives near Blakeney, has moved up from his role as chair of Environmental Issues, to become the new Vice-President and Sandy Atack, president for two years, becomes Past President. Also re-elected was Secretary Billy Wiles, Treasurer Reiner Hollbach and Directors Tine Cuiper, Programme Committee chair; Pip Winters, Ontario Nature representative, Franziska vonRosen, representative on the Community Stewardship Council of Lanark County; Janine deSallaberry, Environmental Education Projects Programme coordinator and Jim Bendell, Chair, Natural Resources Issues Committee.
Also serving in a non-voting capacity is Paul Frigon, Lanark County Trails Issues; Cliff Bennett, representative on the Mississippi Mills Community Official Plan working group; Janet Fytche, Membership Coordinator and e-mail network facilitator, Eileen Hennemann, newsletter publisher, Christine Birkett, Webmaster and Maida Lowe, refreshment coordinator.
Past President Sandy Atack, welcomed the large crowd to the 17th Annual General Meeting and extolled the achievements of the club during the past year. Noteworthy were the large number of members playing specific roles in the life of MVFN, the fine quality of indoor speaker presentations and the addition to Museum in a Suitcase programme units made available to schools in our membership area.
Reports were given by chairs of different committees and treasurer Reiner Hollbach presented the audited financial picture, noting that, while holding a deficit balance last year, the club now is well into the black. Laurie McKay was appointed auditor for the next financial year. Appreciation gifts were presented to retiring members from the BOD Eileen Hennemann and Cliff Bennett.
Guest presenter for the evening was noted photographer, writer and researcher Susan Fisher. Susan’s two part slide presentation included a selection of amazing black and white photos illustrating the power of light on black and some dramatic colour slides of an adventure she had in the mountains of British Columbia. The meeting concluded with refreshments and informal discussion.
The next MVFN event will be the Gala presentation and fundraiser at the Carleton Place Canoe Club on Saturday evening, May 29. Also, MVFN is again offering a summer canoeing programme. For further information on MVFN activities, call up their website at www.mvfn.ca or contact Mike Macpherson at 256-3043.
