Attendees: Faith Campbell, Jil Swearingen, Carole Bergman, Kerrie Kyde, Larry Hurley, John Peter Thompson, Louisa Thompson, Lisa Smith.

I. IRS exemption and corporate status

A. Incorporation date: 9/20/2000, We're legal (Kerrie)

State of MD confirmed that they received our letter and have given us confirmation barring any misinformation on application. Kerrie reported that principal address needs to be corrected which requires a board resolution. We will request certified copy of our A of I which will be included as an attachment to our tax exempt application since it will take 6 to 9 months to get the original back from the state and we cannot wait.

Resolution approved by founding board. Motion made by John, seconded by Carole, all approved.

B. Trade name application: name, cost and submission (Kerrie)

Discussion postponed until next full meeting

C. 501(c)(3) application (Betsy - absent) - Questions for Board (Answers in italics)

Question - Are we O.K. to have Betsy and Marshall Hamilton be contact? - YES.

Question - Do we have to file Form 990? - NO

Question - What do we want to include as a narrative description? - Proposal to use mission statement and objectives as set out in the By-laws as narrative. Assign a time percentage to each objective based on what is projected.

The mission statement of this organization is as follows:

The purpose of the Mid Atlantic Exotic Pest Plant Council (MA-EPPC) is to address the problem of invasive exotic plants and their threat to the Mid-Atlantic region's economy, environment, and human health by providing leadership, facilitating information development and exchange, and coordinating regional efforts.

The object of this organization shall be:

1. To provide a focus for issues and concerns regarding exotic pest plants impacting native plant communities in the Mid-Atlantic region; 10%
2. To facilitate communication and the exchange of information regarding all aspects of exotic pest plant control and management; 15%
3. To provide a forum where all interested parties may participate in meetings and share in the benefits from the information generated by this Council; 15%
4. To promote public understanding regarding exotic pest plants and their control; 15%
5. To serve as an advisory council regarding funding, research, management, and control of exotic pest plants; 15%
6. To facilitate action campaigns to monitor and control exotic pest plants in the Mid-Atlantic region; 15%
7. To review incipient and potential pest plant management problems and activities and provide relevant information to interested parties. 15%

Motion to accept the above as stated made by Carole and seconded by John, all in favor.

1. Question - Sources of financial support, in order of size? - membership dues, conference/symposia proceeds, grants, donations, bequests, sale of publications, promotional and educational materials.
2. Question - Fundraising Programs? - We are considering or our activities may include:(everything listed as possibilities on the application).
3. Question - What are the names/addresses of all founding board members? - Existing founding board will be identified as the acting board for purposes of application. In order to identify officers on the application, the founding board will present a nominated list to the next full meeting for a vote. These officers and board will be identified for purposes of the application and for purposes of carrying the organization forward and will serve until officers and board are elected at the first annual business meeting, expected to take place in August 2001.
4. Question - Of the founding board, who are public officials? - Joe Demko (sp.) (PA Dept. of Transportation), Jil Swearingen (National Park Service), Carole Bergman (Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission), Art Gover (PSU Extension????).
5. Question - Are any members of the Founding Board "disqualified"? NO.
6. Questions - Do we have any benefits to offer members? How about a discount to the conference? Educational materials, potential discounts to organizational sponsored activities.
7. Questions - Besides conference as benefit, which must be paid for, any other services, products, etc. requiring payment? - Cost plus overhead
8. Question - Will we influence legislation? YES,within the limits imposed by law. Amount of time and organizational funds committed to advocacy/policy work = < 15% (or whatever the maximum amount is).
9. Question - Indicate public charity classification that we fit into ?

D.Question - current year and proposed budget for next two years? - Need to postpone until members of FB can get together to develop a budget. We will have a break-out session of the Founding Board at the next full meeting on Nov. 27 to develop a two – year budget. Kerrie will email Board members the lists from past minutes of potential budget items. The FB members will attach estimated figures to each item and forward directly to Betsy Lyman, who will distill a working budget from them for purposes of the 501(c)(3) application.

E.Banking Report (Faith) - app. $240 in account.  Faith gave Kerrie a check for $18 made out to the State of Maryland Dept. of Assessments and Taxation for certified copies of the Articles of Incorporation. Upon final word on incorporation, Faith will change name of account to our incorporated name.

II. 2001 Conference Action (Betsy, Faith)

A. Conference Update - Subject matter areas have generally been finalized, speakers identified (continuing to be identified). Scheduling and spacing has been proposed and is being refined. Conference plans are proceeding ahead. Minutes of these planning meetings can be obtained from Jan McFarlan or any of the conference planning committee members.

B.Mailing List for Brochure - MA-EPPC will be sharing this with Jan McFarlan soon.

C.MA-EPPC sponsorship of opening negotiations with nursery industry (Louisa)

• Louisa had formerly proposed that the conference committee and MA-EPPC consider a session on dispute resolution at the Swarthmore conference using Alternative Dispute Resolution, to broach discussions with the nursery industry about our concerns about invasive species. It was decided that the conference would not be an appropriate place to try this technique for the first time. The question on the table is whether MA-EPPC would be willing to consider supporting or hosting such an effort.
• Kerrie, Faith, Jil and Carole and others commented that something of this nature is premature for MA-EPPC to consider considering that we haven't take a position on many of the issues that may be disputed.
• Louisa questions whether the EPPC wants to be the forum where such discussions take place or an advocacy group that participates in such a forum, but not the host. This raises questions about the eventual makeup of the EPPC membership. The group has hoped to provide a venue where all the stakeholders in invasive plant issues could be represented. To that end, we have encouraged representatives of the nursery, retail and wholesale plant sellers, and seed trades as well as natural area land managers, scientists and policy shapers to become involved in the group. It may be more appropriate to have discussions of the science and public policy issues of invasive plants between MA-EPPC (and other EPPCs) and those holding differing viewpoints rather than within the EPPC.
• John Peter noted that this distinction affected his position on the Founding Board, as ultimately, the EPPC would want him to provide the Maryland Nurserymans Association views and function as an advisor rather than a Board member. He mentioned that the MNA agrees with the EPPC generally about the problems raised by invasives, but would take issue with those the EPPC if it worked to create a list and limit plants deemed exotic or alien. Dispute resolution might be a useful and necessary tool in the future..
• Lisa raised the point that if this becomes an issue it will become an issue when "the list" is developed and since that is a ways off yet then perhaps we should consider keeping this issue in our heads, but not pursue until we think that it might be necessary.
• Louisa added that she feels that the sooner we begin to move on this, the better position we will be in to address the problem when it occurs. If MA-EPPC is not willing to take this on now, then Louisa will begin to pursue other organization's that might be interested in hosting such a program if a grant or funding source to support a facilitator were identified.
• Summary: Louisa would like to explore ADF as a possible tool for use in discussions with the nursery and landscaping industries. We agreed that we all support this idea and would like to pursue this when/if the time comes, but it is probably premature. In terms of moving forward, Louisa needs to know if MA-EPPC would be willing to support a grant application to fund a dispute mediator. All agreed that MA-EPPC cannot apply for grant funds until it attains exempt status. In the meantime, Louisa will continue to do research, and we will consider the best way to sponsor some type of forum around this issue.
• John Peter Thompson did share his thoughts on short-term activities that could take place to begin to create additional dialogue around lists with the industry.

III. Brochure production (Kerrie, Carol)

A. Draft for approval - approved with a few minor changes to Latin names.

B. Finish dates/availability - the completed brochure should be available within three weeks after submission to the printer, probably by the end of November.

IV. MA-EPPC Public Presence

1. National Invasive Species Council draft management plan - MA-EPPC comments drafting and submission.
   Faith - likely that deadline will be extended until Dec. 1.
   Kerrie proposed that each person on committee write comments and e-mail to one another directly. Send out by Nov. 10 and then Kerrie will take comments, draft a letter and send back out for comment to the full list for approval.
2. Weed Awareness Week - dates and participation (Faith)
   End of Feb. beginning of March. Field trip is not happening.
   Kerrie reported that she heard that group is trying to organize workshops for this summer that would involve field trips. Offered MA-EPPC's assistance.
   Jil suggested that we could consider doing some activities on our own if working within the parameters of the Weed Awareness Week organization is difficult.
3. Web site planning/production (Carol J., Jil)
   Postponed until Carol Jelich was present.

V. Reports on other fronts

A. National EPPC meeting in St. Louis (Jil, Lisa, Kerrie)

Jil gave a general overview and suggested that folks should look forward to the minutes from the meeting which she will be distributing soon. These minutes will be posted to the SE-EPPC website.

Some discussion occurred regarding the letter that Jil will draft with Nelroy Jackson and Brian Bowen's assistance that is intended to be sent to the National Invasive Species Council in an attempt to direct attention to the NA-EPPC and other working EPPCs.

B. National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Pulling Together Initiative

Commitment level from MA-EPPC - MA-EPPC was asked to become a minor partner in a public-private partnership application for PTI funds for an invasive plant inventory monitoring and control project in the Delaware River watershed. We commited $1,000.00 of in-kind donation to the initiative (called Delaware River Invasive Plant Partnership), and drafted a letter of support for the proposal. This could be in the form of volunteer hours committed by members of MA-EPPC.

Draft letter of support - Lisa made a motion to approve the letter and Louisa seconded. All in favor. Kerrie will send the letter of support to Betsy, who is preparing the proposal documents.

C. USGS State Partnerships Program grant (Kerrie)

Kerrie - last meeting we decided that we were not in a position to apply for this funding. The Delaware Invasive Species Council is, having already drafted (but not submitted) a grant proposal to fund a person within the DE Heritage Program to create a database, design a GIS system, and implement an invasive species tracking and control program in Delaware. Donnelle Keech and Kerrie brought the Delaware Heritage Information Director, Karen Bennett, together with GIS scientists from USGS Leetown Science Center. They expect to apply for an USGS SPP grant. Their plan is to involve all regional players in meetings on designing such a system, with the idea of developing a database and information storage system that would be available for all of us to use and supply information to.

VI. List Committee

A. Art Gover (reporting thru Kerrie) reported that activity to date has been focused on Jil's efforts at developing a list. Things haven't moved forward given that Art has been unable to get the committee together, but feels that his time this winter should be freed up so that he can get back to it.

VII. Future Meeting Dates

A. Full Council - 11/27/00 - Jil will host at NPS - Center for Urban Ecology in D.C. from 10:00 am to 3:30 pm.

B. Full Council - 1/18/00 - John Thompson will host at Behnke Nurseries in Beltsville, MD.

C. Founding Board Mtg. - Kerrie proposes that we have the next FB meeting on the afternoon of 11/27/00. Budget will be the topic for that meeting.

D. Founding Board Mtg. - 1/18/00 and 2/15/01 (third Thursday in the month).

VIII. Last Minute Items

A. Budget Discussion - Suggestions for next steps. Revisit the minutes from August of 2000. Spend some time thinking about budget items in preparation for meeting on 1/27/00.

John suggested that a Kerrie create a prototype budget that can be posted for FB members can contribute to. Minutes from two meetings where budget was discussed will be referred to compile numbers for prototype.

B. Lisa reported on the first Western Pennsylvania Invasive Species Meeting that took place on Nov. 1, 2000. MA-EPPC was introduced and memberships solicited. The contact list created as a result of this meeting will be forwarded to MA-EPPC and the conference committee for future mailings.

C. Discussion around calendar that was put together by Illinois Natural History Survey and made available at the Natural Areas Association Meeting. Kerrie proposed and the group agreed that we could pursue the creation of Mid Atlantic Region invasive species calender as a fundraiser. Lisa will pursue costs associated with creating a calender.

IX. Old Business

A. Minutes from last FB Meeting - Approved by John, seconded by Carole. All approved.

X. Homework

A. Carole - review budget, contact Carol Jelich to inquire about board secretary position,

B. Jil - contact Emily Grafton regarding representation from West Virginia, contact Rod Hedberg re: Weed Awareness Week and follow-up with Kerrie and Faith, contact Kathi Bilton re: website, work on ranking for list committee, work on comments for national management plan, will send Kerrie directions for CUE, review budget.

C. Faith - review budget, work with Jil and Kerrie on Weed Awareness Week. Recommended agenda item: Send comments out regarding management plan comments and encourage follow-up with members of congress.

D. Lisa - review budget, get calendar figures and contact Illinois folks to get calendar cost information, minutes to everyone for review and final, contact Jan re: Behnkes offer.

E. Louisa - review budget . Recommended agenda item: calendar as a fundraiser

F. Larry/John - review budget, reserve meeting room for 1/18/00, John will outline highpoints for getting MA-EPPC together with MD Nurseryman's Ass.

G.Kerrie - review budget, write a slate of Board members and officers for discussion/vote at full Council 11/27 meeting, contact Karen Bennett to ask if she is willing to serve on the Board as Delaware rep, check with Art Gover re his public official status re 501(c)(3) appl., call accountant/Mark Kell re EPPC status as 9h or 9i in 501(c)(3) appl., draft comments on NISC draft management plan, send Rob Hedberg's number to Jil, distribute sections concerning budget of last several minutes to Board so they can assign $ figures, draft and send out full Council agenda for 11/27.