National Speleological Society
Executive Vice President's Report

6/08/05

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION/SUMMARY
(1) AMERICAN CAVING ACCIDENTS COMMITTEE
(2) AAAS REP- BIOLOGY
(3) AAAS REP-GEOLOGY & GEOGRAPHY
(4) American Geological Institute DELEGATE
(5) U.S. EXPLORATION COMMITTEE
(6) INTERNATIONAL EXPLORATION COMMITTEE
(7) RESEARCH ADVISORY COMMITTEE
(8) SPELEO DIGEST
(9) SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE
(10) JOURNAL OF CAVE AND KARST STUDIES
(11) NSS NEWS
(12) MEMBERS MANUAL
(13) BIENNIAL REPORT
(14) PERMISSION TO REPRINT

INTRODUCTION / SUMMARY

There are fourteen committees in the NSS Department of the Executive Vice President (EVP).

Progress:
Bill Putnam reports he expects to deliver the American Caving Accidents manuscript to the printer by June 24. He has requested updated quotes for the printing and distribution, and expects the cost to be within budget. Printing and mailing should take about two weeks. Kathleen Lavoie worked to develop a Special Symposium called, "The Sulfurous Underground: Recent Advances in Cave and Karst Systems," for the 2005 AAAS Annual Meeting in St. Louis. In February 2005, Daniel Chess attended the AAAS Annual meeting and the Geology business meeting in Washington, DC. Harvey DuChene and George Veni have been working together with AGI to translate "Living with Karst: A Fragile Foundation," into Spanish and Arabic. Bill Steele has awarded two grants from the Sara Corrie Fund. Joel Despain issued one grant for an expedition to New Zealand led by Dave Bunnell, and he is a new Daddy. Donald McFarlane reports that Since Study Groups have been eliminated and will be included in the listing of Projects he needs to verify the accuracy of the Project information listed on the NSS Web site. Scott Fee reports the 2003 Speleo Digest Editorial Team has completed probably 95 percent of the requesting of newsletter articles. Most of the editors have been happy to help, although some have been slow. They are still waiting for a couple of newsletters to come through electronically. Tom Rea has completed Dunbar Cave and it is available for purchase. Tom has reviewed Bibliography of Saltpeter Mining and is presently copy editing the NCRC Training Manual for the NCRC. I have had to assume responsibility for the two remaining special publication projects. I have hired Gus Frederick with an honorarium to complete Cave Conservation and Restoration. After initially struggling with some of the files he is now on track to complete his task in August. And, Norm Thompson has completed editing and has sent On Caves and Camera to the printer for production. Volume 67, number 1 (April 2005) of the Journal of Caves and Karst Studies was completed by Editor Malcolm Field and mailed in April 2005. It included an editorial by Malcolm proposing a new "Forum" section where full M.S. and Ph.D. thesis abstracts, some important announcements, and interesting discussions and/or reports may be published. Dave Bunnell has just upgraded the page layout from Pagemaker to the new Adobe InDesign, which offers a lot of new features that will help in layout and will also facilitate placement of issues in the NSS online library. I have initiated the process of gathering current information for the 2005 Members Manual and I believe we are on target. Bert Ashbrook compiled the NSS Biennial Report for fiscal years 2001-02 and 2002-03 completed in April, 2005. Tom Rea did the layout and arranged for the Biennial Report printing. I processed and approved eleven requests for reprinting of NSS copyrighted materials and release of NSS Member information.

Plans:
Bill Putnam states that members should be receiving their issue of the ACA by mid-July, if not sooner. Kathleen Lavoie is planning a symposium for the next AAAS Annual Meeting. She will also work on the AAAS/NSS article for the Newsletter, and on possible web enhancements. Daniel Chess attended the AAAS annual meeting in Washington DC from February 17th to 19th, 2005. Harvey DuChene will not attend the AGI meeting in Calgary (June 19-20, 2005) because of business commitments. However, he does expect to attend the meeting in October, 2005, which will be held in Salt Lake City in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America. The RAC will place a "reminder" in the NSS News and use e-mail and telephone in an attempt to improve the response of NSS Projects to the annual reporting requirement. The 2003 Speleo Digest Editorial Team plans to have all editing finished by mid-June. This will give the layout folks two months to complete the layout and hopefully still leave time for the proofreader and Series Editor to do their jobs at looking over the near-finished product and having corrections made. Tom Rea is planning for a Fourth edition of Caving Basics and has recruited authors for chapters on LED cave lights and GPS. When Gus completes Conservation and Restoration I plan on enlisting Bob Hoke to work with the printer as the program manager to complete printing production in October or November 2005. I have hired Gus Frederick with an honorarium to complete Cave Conservation and Restoration. And, Norm Thompson has estimated On Caves and Camera may possibly be completed by Convention or shortly thereafter. Malcolm Field plans to produce special issues of the Journal on Floridian Karst hydrology, Vietnam Karst, and Mystery Cave. Dave Bunnell has Features planned on caving in New Zealand caving with material from my trip there this Spring as well as one on California’s Black Chasm Cavern. It is my intention to initiate the process of annually publishing the ACA part of a NSS News issue each year. The ACA is actually a special issue of the News; it just gets mailed separately, which is expensive. An annual ACA, as part of the News, will be easier to produce, more timely, and cheaper to deliver than the current system of a two or three year combined issue. I recommend targeting the same specific issue, or month, each year for continuity and consistency. I am advocating the ACA as an "add-on" for that particular News issue, perhaps even a whole self-contained insert section stapled into the middle. The ACA editor will provides a PageMaker file in timely fashion to the News Editor, who will prepare it for printing and distribution. If we can get the Members Manual to the printer by early August, I anticipate a delivery date to the Membership in September or October 2006.

Problems:
Harvey would like to step down as AGI Representative. I need to find an NSS member to work with him and eventually step into his position to insure a smooth transition. The 2003 Speleo Digest Editorial Team has finally conceded that it will not be ready for printing before Convention. If we had not procrastinated so much in the beginning, it could have happened. Norm has experienced some problems with the proofs and reports that On Caves and Camera may not be available during convention. He is looking at the possibility of requesting some copies be shipped via air if they are completed in time. At the very least, a few samples (5) would be good to show potential customers. Bert has let me know his preference that I find someone else to chair the Biennial Report Committee.

Respectfully submitted,
Gordon Birkhimer, Executive Vice President, NSS

(1) AMERICAN CAVING ACCIDENTS COMMITTEE

Bill Putnam (Chairman)
1865 Eagle Summit Ct
Lawrenceville GA 30043-6669
Phone: 678-371-4517
Fax: 770-682-5536
e-mail: putnam@scci.org

Progress:
I am making a few final adjustments to the manuscript for ACA 2002-2003 and will be releasing it to the review committee on June 12. After incorporating feedback from the reviewers, I expect to deliver the manuscript to the printer by June 24. I have requested updated quotes for the printing and distribution, and expect the costs to be within budget. Printing and mailing should take about two weeks. Members should be receiving the issue by mid-July, if not sooner.

Plans:
Provide downloadable copy of manuscript to review committee on June 12. Incorporate comments and feedback from reviewers by June 23. Deliver ACA manuscript to printer on or before June 24.

Problems:
None

(2) AAAS REP- BIOLOGY

Kathleen Lavoie
101 Hudson Hall
Plattsburgh State University of New York
Plattsburgh, NY 12901
518-564-3150 (w)
518-562-1154 (h)
518-564-3152 (fax)
lavoiekh@plattsburgh.edu

Progress:
I worked to develop a Special Symposium for the 2005 AAAS Annual Meeting in St. Louis. The working title: "The Sulfurous Underground: Recent Advances in Cave and Karst Systems." I sent out invitations to speak, but only received two acceptances and one decline due to a prior commitment. I admit to being surprised at the low response rate. I will be presenting two papers at the NSS Convention this summer, and discussing the next planned symposium with attendees.

Plans:
I will get an earlier start on planning a symposium for the next AAAS Annual Meeting. I do still need to work on the AAAS/NSS article for the Newsletter, and on possible web enhancements.

Problems:
Low response to symposium invitations. The response might have been higher if I was able to offer participants some travel money.

(3) AAAS REP-GEOLOGY & GEOGRAPHY

Daniel L Chess
19 Tavano Road
Ossining, NY 10562
Home: 914-945-2479
E-mail: DLCHESS@us.ibm.com

Progress:
Highlights from the AAAS Geology Chair in 2005 were as follows: In February 2005, I attended the AAAS Annual meeting and the Geology business meeting in Washington DC. The number of Geology sessions at the annual meeting is down from years past and the AAAS Geology staff would like to see more participation. At the Geology business meeting I volunteered to evaluate the geology/environmental related proposals for the 2006 Annual Meeting. Typically I receive about 20 proposals to review.

An interesting fact at the Geology business meeting was the continuing decline of advanced Geosciences degrees being conferred at Colleges and Universities. Geology does not seem to have the allure it once had in the peak days of the 1970's. (Ref.) http://www.geotimes.org/dec04/column.htmlMany colleges and universities are closing down dwindling Geology Departments. It was stated the Earth Sciences in general are in a decline. Some states such as Texas, no longer require students to pass Earth Science as a prerequisite for High School graduation. The budget for the AAAS Geology representative continues to be zero.

Plans:
The goal for the coming year is to work with Kathy Lavoie on a half day symposium for the 2007 Annual meeting in San Francisco. The working symposium title is "The Sulfurous Underground: Sulfidic

Problems:
No Problems

(4) AMERICAN GELEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE DELEGATE

Harvey R. DuChene
7216 East Bentley Circle
Englewood, CO. 80112
Home 303 694-3472
Work 303 885-1707
Fax 303 694-3472 (call HD before sending Fax)
E-mail: hduchene@comcast.net

Progress:
George Veni has been working with me and AGI to translate Living with Karst: A Fragile Foundation into Spanish and Arabic.

Plans:
I do not plan to attend the AGI meeting in Calgary (June 19-20, 2005) because of business commitments. However, I do expect to attend the meeting in October, 2005, which will be held in Salt Lake City in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America.

Problems:
Veni has been trying to work with AGI to arrange for Living with Karst: A Fragile Foundation to be translated into Spanish and Arabic. Although George has found translators for the text and possible funding, AGI has been slow to respond to his requests for information, and seems to be dragging its feet. I believe that the main issues are how revenue will be shared with AGI, and gaining access to the illustration and graphic layout. I will be contacting AGI to try and expedite this process on behalf of George Veni and the NSS.

I wish to inform the EVP and the BOG that I plan to step down as AGI representative after the October, 2005, meeting. I have taken on another cave and karst related position that will consume my available time. I recommend that NSS identify a replacement for this position as soon as possible so that I can introduce her/him to AGI and insure continuity of the projects currently in progress.

(5) U.S. EXPLORATION COMMITTEE

Bill Steele, Chairman
PO Box 166332
Irving, Texas 65016-6332
Cell: 214-770-4712
Work: 972-580-2538
E-mail: speleosteele@aol.com

Committee members:
Don Broussard – Texas
Dave Black – Indiana
Jim Chester – Montana
Scott Davis – Arizona
Tom Shifflett – Virginia
Jim Smith – Georgia

Progress:
Members continue to be of assistance when requested. Two grants from the Sara Corrie Fund have been awarded since the last report of the committee:

A grant in the amount of $250 was awarded last October to the Scapegoat Wilderness Smoking Entrance Project, and sent to Joe Oliphant, chairman of the Northern Rocky Mountain Grotto of Montana.  The grant was for the purchase of stell quick links, a bear-proof container, and a GPS unit.

A grant in the amount of $250 was awarded last November to the Tony Groves Project, for exploration related expenses.  The check was sent to Jon Jasper, project coordinator.  The Tony Grove Project is exploring a deep cave in Utah.

Plans:
Plans are to continue as have been.

Problems:
None

(6) INTERNATIONAL EXPLORATION COMMITTEE

Joel Despain
HCR 89 Box 211
Three Rivers, CA 93271
559 565-3717 (day)
559 561-4972 (evening)
joeldespain@wildmail.com

Committee members:
Carol Vesely
Kevin Downey
Cyndie Walck
Rebecca Jones

Progress:
One grant for an expedition to New Zealand led by Dave Bunnell was issued.

Plans:
More giving of grants and fund raising to bolster the endowment.

Problems:
None

(7) RESEARCH ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Donald A. McFarlane
Associate Professor,
W. M. Keck Science Center, the Claremont Colleges
925 N Mills Ave
Claremont, CA 91711-5916
USA
Ph: 909-607-2564
e-mail: dmcfarla@jsd.claremont.edu
Web page: http://jsd.claremont.edu/faculty/mcfarlane/index.htm

Extinct Mammals of the West Indies Website:
http://jsd.claremont.edu/bio/extinct/extinctmammals/

National Speleological Society Research Advisory Committee:
http://jsd.claremont.edu/bio/nss/

Committee Members:
Joyce Lundberg, (Assoc. Prof, Carleton University)
William White (Prof. Emeritus, Penn State U.)
Joseph Troester (USGS)
Donald Davis

Progress:
Since Study Groups have been eliminated and will be included in the listing of Projects I need to verify the accuracy of the Project information listed on the NSS Web site. I will attempt to correct these as soon as possible.

Plans:
RAC will place a "reminder" in the NSS News and use e-mail and telephone in an attempt to improve the response of NSS Projects to the annual reporting requirement.

Problems:
None

(8) SPELEO DIGEST

Scott Fee
PO Box 380473
Birmingham AL 35235-2012
205-856-9177
E-mail: scottfee@caves.org

Progress:
2005 Newsletters are coming in daily.

Plans:
Find a qualified volunteer to lead the 2004 team

Problems:
Not enough experienced or qualified volunteers.

2003 Speleo Digest (Submitted by Meredith Hall Johnson)

Editorial Team
Kelsea Johnson and Meredith Hall Johnson (Editors)
George Jaegers and Eric Weaver’s Dad (with help from Eric) (Layout)
Sarah Richards (Proofreader)

Progress:
We have completed probably 95 percent of the requesting of newsletter articles. Most editors have been happy to help, although some have been slow. We are still waiting for a couple of newsletters to come through electronically.

The editing continues. We have much left to complete but it should go pretty quickly, once .PDF articles are converted. I anticipate finishing up the entire edit process by mid-June. Hopefully this will include any items that are currently outstanding.

Plans:
Since our last report, we have asked for help with the layout. Two people volunteered. We plan to let the one who has previous Speleo Digest experience do the layout for the U.S. Exploration sections since that is the bulk of the book. The one with little Digest experience will do the layout for the other sections. We have had initial contact with both and will be sending style guidelines and instructions soon. We will begin sending article files soon too.

We still hope to have all editing finished by mid-June. This will give the layout folks two months to complete the layout and hopefully still leave time for the proofreader and Series Editor to do their jobs at looking over the near-finished product and having corrections made.

Problems:
The Committee has finally conceded that there is no way that this will be ready for printing before Convention. If we had not procrastinated so much in the beginning, it could have happened. We have, however, realized that if the book is to be the best product it can be, then we need the extra time.

(9) SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE

Tom Rea
8677 S State Road 243
Cloverdale IN 46120-9696
(home) 765-653-4423
(cellular) 317-691-2051
(E-mail) ovp@caves.org

Progress:
Dunbar Cave

Production of this book was started in late December and was in stock in the Bookstore in mid May. Most of the participants in the exploration and mapping of this cave are still active cavers and many of them carefully read the manuscript and offered corrections and additions.

Bibliography of Saltpeter Mining

This book, by Gary O'Dell, was suggested for reprinting by the NSS.

The book was originally published by Ohio Valley Historical Archaeology in 2001. The book is still in print and for sale in their bookstore. I wrote to the President of OVHA inquiring about availability of the copyright. They are reluctant to release it and are thinking about an update. Frankly I believe the market for this book among cavers would be about 25. I have forwarded my copy of the book to Larry Matthews, who is interested in writing a real history book about saltpeter mining in caves.

NCRC Training Manual

I am presently copy editing the training manual for the NCRC. They intend to publish this manual in loose-leaf format to make it easy to update.

Plans: Caving Basics

The bookstore stock of Caving Basics will last for about 12 to 18 months. The book is also a little "long in the tooth." I am planning for a fourth edition and have recruited authors for chapters on LED cave lights and GPS. Other chapters will be updated by the present authors or new ones as necessary.

I have heard that there is an unpublished manuscript of a book on Big Bone Cave, Tennessee, floating around. I will attempt to shake it loose.

There is also a biography of Bill Cuddington in preparation but it is nowhere near ready for our ministrations.

Problems: None

These books are being produced without any assistance from the Special Publications Committee.

Progress:
Cave Conservation and Restoration reported by Gus Frederick

After a week of wrestling with these files, I ran into a MAJOR roadblock. Turns out the files, (or rather the ones with pictures in them - meaning MOST) refuse to print out due to several reasons:

1. McClurg embedded them all within the actual documents

2. Being an Apple user, he used LONG filenames (with spaces, periods, etc.)

3. When converted to WinTel, the image links get truncated at the first period or space, so the PDF Distiller chokes, even though the pictures are there and display fine.

It took me several days of frustration, re-installing Adobe Acrobat, Distiller, PageMaker, etc. before I discovered the cause, (there was no specific error - just a cryptic "Distiller Failed to Initialize"). We have all the pictures. But they all need to be renamed and re-placed.

And then there are the fonts. The document style sheets were excessively long, and redundant. For example, there were five different entries for Body Text alone, calling for Times in some case and Times New Roman elsewhere. Apparently what happened is that every time McClurg imported a file from Word, the Word style sheet came in and latched itself to the PageMaker one, resulting in an annoying build-up of various styles.

Plans:
1. Re-creating a new, fresh template with a basic Style Sheet

2. Renaming ALL the images to something more compatible & logical

3. Re-place all the text, chapter by chapter, by first 'sanitizing' them through Notepad to remove hidden styles & character codes

4. Re-place all the pictures

Problems:
No way will this be done by the end of the month, never mind the Convention. Val and I already talked about this. I'll give you a better ETA when I get a handle on this.

Progress:
On Caves and Camera reported by Norm Thompson

There have been some problems with the proofs.

(1) On sharpness of proofs: I think we are going to be fine on that. I added some unsharp masks to a couple of shots where, upon closer examination, I decided the original photo was not quite sharp. Others will be fine as-is I think. If you examine them with a loupe, you can see evidence that the inkjet printing method produces soft edges and I pointed this out in one of the post-its I stuck on the proofs. For example, the black line around the photos looks soft when examined with the loupe, as does the text, so I think it is just in the nature of the printer.

(2) On contrast of proofs: As noted in a previous e-mail, most photos do not have true, solid blacks. A distinct color difference can be seen between the black line around each photo (which IS truly black) and the blacks in the photos (when viewed through a loupe). I suspect this is due to the C&C profile and how it converts RGB to your preferred CMYK profile. This one is still a mystery to me--and Dave Bunnell; neither he nor I have ever really gotten any information from C&C to explain this. The CMYK histogram in Photoshop has a mysteriously wide gap at the black end of the curve. Or, put another way, the blacks are typically at 60% to 80% in each of the 4 colors if they are sampled with the eyedropper tool. Maybe that needs to be done for reasons of dot gain while maintaining shadow detail or some such, in which case I will just live with it to avoid other ills. When viewed from a normal reading distance they look black. But I think the photos would look even better if they had true black in them. (And the same applies to the black-only images!!! I can't overemphasize that. The factory has to do whatever is necessary in the press room to get solid blacks in the one-color parts of the book. Dark gray does not cut it. Please do whatever is necessary to communicate this to the factory. This has been repeatedly emphasized to me by a friend who has extensive experience working with various printers and he is also one of the world's best cave photographers. He says they may have to slow the press down or whatever to get good blacks.) As noted in the post-its that I stuck in the proofs, in a few cases I adjusted the levels to give deeper blacks -- hopefully I haven't screwed things up by going too far or something. I also adjusted a couple of photos to have brighter whites.
- On saturation: I'm still hoping that you will get word from the factory that the printed images will be a bit more saturated than the proofs. Here is what I did: I reviewed each photo and those that looked especially under saturated I increased the saturation; these should be fine after my adjustments; that is, they won't be oversaturated even if the actual printing is a bit higher saturation. I did not adjust the saturation on the majority of the images, even though the vast majority looks under saturated a bit. Of course, I realize that the gamut of the printed image is different from what I see on my monitor, but I don't think I am looking for colors beyond what the press is capable of. Indeed, I tend to like slightly less-saturated colors than what is popular right now with all the super-saturated films and super-saturated printing.
- Notes on the small pink post its point out which images I did corrections on. My comments on these notes are probably of little interest to the factory, but they tell pretty exactly what I did. In the end, I edited 21 of the 68 images in the color section.
- I never got an answer on whether the slight stripy-ness in the front cover image (scan lines) will show up in the final image or not; I believe you asked the factory to take a look at that on my request.
- New proofs: I'd love to get new proofs of all the images I adjusted, but I seem to recall the factory quoting some outrageously high price for proofs after the first set. I never really understood that and I recall you and me exchanging an e-mail or two on the subject and leaving it up in the air. I don't have much money in my budget for re-proofs, so I am hoping we can keep it down to something reasonable.

The pages that I think are critical to getting new proofs, because of the nature or extent of my changes, are these: 116, 121, 123, 130, 134, 136, 139, 145

The other pages that have changes, but which I think the changes are minor enough that we should be able to get away without redoing the proofs are these: 117, 118, 120, 122, 128, 131, 133, 141, 142, 147

A new proof of the dust jacket would probably be in order too, because of the changes David Anderson is doing.

Plans:
The due date that I quoted in previous e-mails was 1 July.  That would be so that books are available from the beginning of the convention, but even if we got them part way through the week, that would be OK.  The absolutely last time that they would be any use to us is receipt in Huntsville Friday, July 8^th (everyone will be going home over the weekend of the 9th and 10th).  If you can't get any books to us by then, then there would be no point in air shipping any copies to us.

It looks to me like that leaves only approximately 2 weeks to print the books (assuming second set of proofs look good as-is).  Previously, I had been told the factory takes about 4 weeks, so where does that leave us?  Are we kidding ourselves to think that we might get books to the convention?  I would hate to see us rush the factory and have the quality suffer in some way because of that.

Problems:
The book may not be available during convention. I have requested a number of copies to ship via air if they are completed in time. At the very least, a few samples (5) would be good to show potential customers. If they are completed in time approximately 150 or 200 copies would be good to air ship.  I'm working on getting a more exact number for a quote if it looks like it is realistic to actually ship if it’s possible that they will arrive by 8 July at the absolute latest.

(10) JOURNAL OF CAVE AND KARST STUDIES

Malcolm Field (Editor)
National Center for Environmental Assessment (8623D)
Office of Research and Development
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20460-0001
Work: 202-564-3279
Home: 301-349-5712
E-Mail: field.malcolm@epa.gov

James A. Pisarowicz (Production Editor)
Wind Cave National Park
South Dakota, SD 57747
Home: 605-673-5582(h)
Work: 605-745-4600(w)
E-Mail: pisarowi@gwtc.net

BOARD OF EDITORS (current)
Julian & Salisa Lewis (Life Sciences/Conservation)
Paul Burger (Exploration)
Greg McDonald (Paleontology)
Ira D. Sasowsky (Earth Sciences/Journal Index)
Joseph C. Douglas (Social Sciences)
Patty Jo Watson (Anthropology)
Arthur N. Palmer & Margaret V. Palmer (Book Reviews)
Donald G. Davis (Proof Reader)

ADVISORY BOARD
Hazel Barton
Barbara am Ende
Chris Groves
Carol Hill
Horton Hobbs III
Dave Jagnow
Julia James
Kathy Lavoie
Joyce Lundberg

Progress:
Volume 67, number 1 (April 2005) was sent in April 2005. This issue was not delayed — all of us involved worked at a fairly frenetic pace, especially Jim Pisarowicz, Don Davis, and me to correct print problems related to the number of manuscripts from foreign authors. Apparently, foreign versions of MS Word are not entirely compatible with American versions of MS Word.

Art and Peg Palmer are now joint Associate Editors for Book Reviews. This change was formally reflected in the April 2005 issue of the Journal.

The April issue of the Journal included an editorial by the Editor, Malcolm Field, proposing a new "Forum" section where full M.S. and Ph.D. thesis abstracts, some important announcements, and interesting discussions and/or reports may be published. Announcements more appropriate for the News will still be directed to the News and not published in the Forum. Discussions material is intended to foster thought-provoking discussions among karst cognoscenti.

This issue was larger than usual and included a significant number of color figures. Because of the cost of including color in this issue, the Journal appears a somewhat oddly organized. The odd organization was necessary to keep costs down as was explained to me by Jim Pisarowicz. For example, most magazines print a few pages and refer the reader to some group of pages towards the back of the magazine which is done to avoid setting up the color printing. This operation can’t be done with a scientific journal so we needed to arrange things in a specific manner. In particular, we wanted to publish the Pengelly excavations map in the very center of the Journal so that it would appear at a readable size.

As with the last issue, several foreign authors chose to publish their research in the Journal. The fact these authors chose the Journal of Cave and Karst Studies to publish their work is a tribute to the wide-range of readership that the Journal enjoys.

Plans:
Volume 67 number 2 (August 2005) is not yet being worked on. To date (5/19/’05) several (three) manuscripts have already been received from the Associate Editors with the recommendation that they be published in the Journal. A few articles have been rejected by the Associate Editors which is an indication that the quality of the Journal is being maintained. In addition, at least one interesting Forum piece has been received and one PH.D. thesis has also been received.

I am attempting to prepare a manuscript for publication in the Journal that will be a detailed discussion of how to write a paper for publication in the Journal. This has been slow going to due to competing demands on my time and to difficulties in determining how to structure the manuscript.

Several book reviews will likely be ready for this issue. Some have already been received but there were problems with the reviews so the Associate Editor for Book Reviews, Arthur Palmer, is revising the reviews.

Special Issues:
A special issue on a portion of the Floridian karst hydrology is still being planned. Some very new and interesting work is being conducted and it is very likely that we may be able to get a full issue packed with articles on the topic.

A special issue on Vietnam Karst is being worked on. It will be an outgrowth of the "International Transdisciplinary Conference on Development and Conservation of Karst Regions" that took place in Ha Noi, Vietnam. There is a significant amount of both pure and applied karst research going on in Vietnam, primarily by Vietnamese and Belgian scientists, and until the meeting proceedings, very little had been published in English. I think that although it will take considerable effort, there is plenty of material to make an interesting and valuable Journal issue that could become one of the most important reference works in English for Vietnamese karst. This project is being coordinated by Chris Groves of Western Kentucky Univ.

A special issue on Mystery Cave is also being developed. Calvin Alexander of the Univ. of Minnesota is taking the lead on developing this issue. A number of people have been working on a variety of scientific projects in Mystery Cave, Fillmore County, Minnesota for several decades. A major effort involving the Palmers, several of the UMINN people, Rich Lively of the Minnesota Geological Survey, Gerta Nordquist the Mammalogist for the MnDNR, did projects on geology and speleogensis (Art and Peg Palmer), hydrogeology (UMINN group), radon (Lively), and bats (Gerta). Very little of this has ever been systematically published. Lively had earlier done a lot of work on the U/Th chronology of the cave using alpha counting techniques. That work has been expanded enormously in the last decade using Larry Edwards' high precision TIMS U/Th techniques. People from the UMINN Geology Department, along with the Univ. of Iowa and other places have been involved. The DNR just moved into a magnificent new Visitor's center at the cave and has been doing all sorts of cave management science.

Issues:
A prospectus to join with GeoScienceWorld.org (GSW) has been received. It is free to join and looks to be beneficial to the Journal in terms of recognition. Although I have not received responses from all of the members of the Advisory Board and Associate Editors, those that I have heard from are in favor of joining with GSW. I now strongly recommend our joining with GSW.

Since the above paragraph was prepared for the last EVP, I have been in contact with GSW and have begun the process to have them consider including the Journal of Cave and Karst Studies which is a fairly long and involved review process.

Barbara am Ende has been added to the Advisory Board for a three-year term.

Problems:
None

(11) NSS NEWS

Dave Bunnell
PO Box 879
Angels Camp, CA 95222
dbunnell@caltel.com

Conservation
Jim & Val Hildreth-Werker
PO Box 207
Hillsboro, NM 88042-0207
505-895-5050
werks@zianet.com

Technology Reviews
Mike Fraley
cheshire@prairienet.org

Newsletter Review
Bernie Szukalski
1224 Mira Monte Dr
Redlands, CA 92373-6542
909-798-5986
bszukalski@esri.com

Spelean Spotlight
Bill Steele
oksteele@aol.com

Safety & Techniques
Anmar Mirza
sseg@kiva.net
812-388-6917

In the Media
Sharon Faulkner
1311 2nd Ave NE
Culman, AL 35055
sfaulknr@bellshouth.net

Progress:
I have just upgraded my page layout from Pagemaker to the new Adobe InDesign, which offers a lot of new features that will help in layout. Most important is preflight capabilities to check for color space, missing images, etc. With it I got the full Acrobat Professional, useful since recently the News has been submitted as a PDF file. See below for more on this. With PDF as the output format of choice for the News, I’ve archived all the issues for this year in that format. For future printing, this may be a better choice than native pagemaker files I’ve archived with in the past. This also facilitates placement of issues in the NSS online library. After a period when submissions were down, I have had a steady supply of feature articles for the News, many of them not even requiring twisting someone’s arm to produce them.

Plans:
Continue as usual and troll for more articles, hopefully more on domestic caves. Other foreign expeditions supported by the international exploration grants will lead to articles as well. Features are planned on caving in New Zealand caving with material from my trip there this Spring as well as one on California’s Black Chasm Cavern. I may institute some changes in the News look now that I have the more powerful InDesign program, as it has more control over text and graphic elements.

Problems:
Since switching over to full computer-to-plate several months ago we’d not had any problems until recently. The May issue inexplicably had all of its grayscale values reduced to 85% black, something the service bureau was unable to explain adequately but appears to be a problem that can occur with PDF (Bill Mixon had the same problem recently with an AMCs Newsletter). Unfortunately Terry did not catch it in time, so many of the photos in that issue printed too light. In the June issue we had a different problem, with the color insert coming out excessively dark. In this case, Terry sent it to me to ask if I thought he should reprint it and I decided we should do so, at a cost of about $300 (he only charged for the materials). In any event, Terry promises to keep a better check on the printing plates before going to press. My acquisition of Acrobat Professional should allow me to make a better check on these things, although in the latter case the service bureau had made the PDFs. As a result the June issue will probably be out a week later than usual, but at least it will look right.

(12) MEMBERS MANUAL

Gordon Birkhimer, NSS 42778
2807 Hogan Court
Falls Church VA 22043-3525
(home) 703-573-4653
(e-mail) birkhimer@cox.net

Committee Members:
Meredith Johnson - Proofreader
Bob Hoke - Database Manager
Scott Parvin - Layout and Design

Progress:
The process of gathering current information for the 2005 Members Manual has been initiated. Although the date for submission has passed, we continue to receive late segments from individuals. I believe I have built enough slippage time into the process to allow for some of the late entries.

Plans:
My goal is to complete the collection of segments that will make up the 2005 Members Manual by June 15, which will allow 45 days for Scott Parvin to actually create the document. If we can get the manual to the printer by early August, I anticipate a delivery date to the Membership in September or October 2006.

Problems:
None.

(13) BIENNIAL REPORT

Bert Ashbrook
107 Avonbrook Rd
Wallingford, PA 19086-6001
610-627-2378
caveman@craftech.com

Progress:
The NSS Biennial Report for fiscal years 2001-02 and 2002-03 was completed in April, 2005. Tom Rea did the layout and arranged for the printing. I understand the printing was less expensive this year because it was done by a print-on-demand process that allows us to print only the number of copies we need, although each copy costs more to print.

Note: The Biennial report was not done by print-on-demand because it is full color. It was cheaper this year because we printed 300 (received 500) instead of 2,000.—Tom Rea

The chronology of the production of this report was as follows: The reporting period ended in April, 2003. I completed a first draft of the text in March, 2004. After comments from board members and others, I completed a second draft in June, 2004. The audited financials for 02/03 did not come out until July, 2004, but I uncovered an error in them. After more comments, the final draft of the text was done in October, 2004. The error in the financials was corrected in early 2005. The layout and the printing were completed in April 2005.

Plans:
The reporting period for the next biennial report has just ended (fiscal years 2003-04 and 2004-05). I have let Gordon Birkhimer know my preference that someone else chair this committee.

Problems:
The delay in producing the finished report for fiscal years 2001-02 and 2002-03 was primarily my fault; I did not timely complete the text. The delay in the NSS audit also contributed to the problem, but we could have avoided that problem by putting out the biennial report out with unaudited financials or with the prior year's financials. I also think some new ideas regarding organization and content, from a new author/editor, would help the report.

(14) PERMISSION TO REPRINT

Gordon Birkhimer, NSS 42778
2807 Hogan Court
Falls Church VA 22043-3525
(home) 703-573-4653
(e-mail) birkhimer@cox.net

The following actions were accomplished regarding reprinting NSS copyrighted materials and release of NSS Member information:

6/14/05