Attachment D

National Speleological Society
Operations Vice-President’s Report

March, 2007

Table of Contents and Committee Chairmen:

Operations Vice President

The Department of the Operations Vice President consists of 11 committees plus the NSS headquarters and library in Huntsville, Alabama. Refer to the NSS Current Personnel Web page, in the Business section, for contact information for committee chairmen and office staff.

The department has 12 new volunteers, working on a range of projects and committees:

Alex Sproul, Virginia. NSS IT Committee and new Bookstore Web site

Mike Harrison, Tennessee. Software design for new online NSS Bookstore

Mike Hornung, New York. New credit card approval process for Bookstore and other office needs

Robert Sewell, Tennessee. IT Committee, Finance Web pages

Nathan Williams, Alabama. AV Library and Photo Archives digitizing project

Mindy Goldberg, California. Web site re-design

Kelly Prebil, California. Assist with Web site re-design

Dan Gore, Tennessee. IT committee tasks, and will assist with Web site re-design

Bill Mixon, Texas. Providing cover images and descriptions for books, for the new online Bookstore

Hadley Robinson, Texas. Converting videos to DVDs for the AV Library

Glenn Mills, Tennessee. Exploring options for storage of the NSS Museum collection in Huntsville

David Caudle, Alabama. Writing enhanced descriptions of AV Library programs for the online catalogue

Office visit – first week of November.

I held discussions with our staff on a wide range of subjects, and helped them create a "to-do" list the following few months. It was good to learn more about their work days, ideas, and needs, and I believe the staff appreciated the visit as well. I plan to make at least three a year.

Also met with the chairman of the Huntsville Grotto and the Shelta Cave Preserve Manager, and with the NSS Library Committee Chairman and the NSS Librarian.

I met with the representative of the owner of the lot that was for sale adjacent to the north inset of the Shelta Preserve. We were promised first refusal, however while the Board was voting on a motion to buy it ($25,000) the property sold.

Glenn and Martha Mills met me to discuss options for storing the NSS Museum collection in Huntsville, and to help inspect the Smith House. Glenn is taking the lead in pursuing ideas for housing the NSS Museum collection and repairs to the Smith House roof.

Building Maintenance

Two years ago, the NSS replaced the roof on the Smith House (used for storage of archives and NSS books) when leaks were discovered in he Archives room. Less than a year ago treated the building for a mold infestation. An inspection of the Smith House revealed very rotten rafters and other timbers in the upper level, and gaps between the dormer and the flashing where the roof was not installed well/properly. A pencil can easily be inserted from the outside into the soft wet and rotten wood of the window frames and the dormer’s structure. At a minimum, the whole dormer should be removed, and the roof restructured. The bottom of the building is concrete block and solid. The second floor is condemned because of the rotten wood, and is not used for storage. The outside is covered in asbestos siding. Bill Torode does occasional patch-up work on the roof and flashing.

Last year damage to the office roof from a fallen tree during Hurricane Katrina was repaired. When I visited, a large concave section of the office roof held a puddle of water. Perhaps this is acceptable, or perhaps we would prefer not to have a pool of water over the library. New material was put on the office roof a few years ago. Since we are unable to build a second floor as originally planned due to the way the building has settled (as I understand it) perhaps a peaked roof should be constructed if we plan to remain in the building.

The plumbing in the original church building that forms the library is very old, rotten, and needs to be replaced. Bill Torode has arranged with a caver-plumber to take on the job in the spring. About 100 feet of trench will need to be dug for a new water line from meter to existing pipe on new edition.  All new pipe (copper will replace plastic) will be installed in old edition (two bathrooms downstairs).

The upshot of this is that the Board needs to decide whether to continue to fix, improve, and expand facilities on our property, or build one or more new structures on new property, whether for museum storage or a full office complex, including enhanced library and archival storage space. This is a decision that needs to be made sooner rather than later.

Two trees on our property fence line next to the office building should be removed or branches trimmed, for they lean towards the office and would damage the roof if they fell. However the trees are on the neighbor’s property. Bill Torode will discuss removing the trees with the neighbor, to see if he would share the expense.

Web site

The IT Committee did a heck of a lot of work fixing problems with the Web site. Because of its age, evolvement, and the developments in technology and the number of people contributing to the site over its life, the site is a rather tangled Web. Fortunately, a volunteer has stepped forward to re-vamp the site. We’re also very fortunate to have a dedicated IT Committee chairman and members.

The NSS Web site has been moved to a new server, which provides far better hosting services for 25% of the cost. This was a three month ordeal, which went very smoothly, all things considered. Now Josh and his team are taking steps to improve how IO Web sites are handled, and create a management policy.

Bookstore

The new NSS Bookstore should be in operation by the Board meeting. Caver Mike Harrison generously donated the software for the bookstore and shopping cart, and has worked with us to make many modifications to adapt them to our needs. Mike Hornung has set up the new gateway and merchant accounts for processing credit cards.

Creating the new online NSS Bookstore exposed many ways in which we need to improve the way the Bookstore is managed and marketed. This does not reflect on our staff, for the Bookstore has suffered from not having anyone over the years dedicated to the job of managing the operation as a business. Now it is critical that we continue to make improvements and corrections, and work on making the operation more efficient and profitable.

Phil Winkler and Alex Sproul are devising ways to enhance the database and work around the problems our current system presents us. Bill Torode weighed every item in the Bookstore so weights could be assigned in the on line listing. Kelli Davis is photographing or scanning every symbolic item and outstanding books, so we can include images of these items as well.

Improvements in the new Bookstore include a cover image and meaty description for every book, a photo of every symbolic item, automatic shipping cost calculation, instant credit card approval with significantly lower merchant rates, and ability to log in as an NSS member (number and zip code automatically checked against a membership database) so that member prices will show in the shopping cart. The shopping cart has the capacity to maintain our inventory, but we aren’t able to make use of it without a lot more work on the LM database. The new gateway account will cut our use fees about in half, which should result in a significant savings.

NSS mailing lists

The EVP handed off the job to me of approving the use of the NSS mailing list by grottos. Since then, we have had two requests for digital copies of the snail- and e-mail lists for NSS members in specific states. Because of the ease of passing on digital copies of personal information, and the concern expressed by the Board, I approved providing only actual mailing labels, and for the service fee prescribed by Board Acts. Recipients must agree to one-time-use and confidentiality statement before the labels are released.

Phil Winkler established a way for the office to e-mail notices on behalf of IOs.

Other activities of note

NSS Membership, Bats, and Fragile Underground brochures were updated and reprinted. A new printer was found, saving us considerable money.

NSS Fellow pins were produced and mailed.

One copy of each NSS book and copies of the Journal, Bulletin, and NSS News were shipped to the Ukrainian Institute of Speleology and Karstology to aid in replacing the library destroyed by fire.

A program to digitize the AV Library has begun.

Registration and use of the NSS Discussion Forum continues to grow dramatically, reflecting its growing value to cavers. Membership is up 32% from the fall, to about 1,300. Close to 26,000 messages have been posted.

The Dogwood City Grotto graciously designated their annual donation ($1,000) to the NSS to purchase much-needed computer-related equipment. The cost of new equipment purchased last year also was covered by the DCG.

Four software titles were obtained for minimal cost through a non-profit technology donation service. Adobe InDesign CS2 was forwarded to the Scott Engle for use with the Journal, Acrobat 8 and Illustrator CS2 forwarded to Tom Rea for use with the Special Pubs Committee projects, and Dreamweaver for the NSS Office.

Lease for old credit card terminals was canceled and two new card swipers were purchased for less than the cost of a year’s lease. One terminal is for Conventions. New merchant accounts were established, with lower fees.

E-mail bursting of renewal notices will now be done via caves.org, saving us $240 a year.

Archivist Committee

Continues to review, sort, and integrate Archives material, and has responded to a few requests for information via phone and email. 

Audio-Visual Library Committee

Nathan Williams is heading up the project to digitize the NSS slide programs for the archives, and to produce digital slide programs which can be played via CDs/DVDs.

Hadley Robinson, a caver from El Paso, is converting VHS video tapes to DVD, beginning with the most popular videos first.

Most of the descriptions for the video and slide programs are very terse, and not very helpful. David Caudle of Alabama is viewing the programs and writing enhanced descriptions for the online catalogue.

Chairman Dave Socky is producing the 2009 International Congress promotional video.

AV programs, except for slide shows, will now be sent from the office by US Postal Service, rather than UPS, to reduce postage costs. Once videos and slide programs are converted to DVD format, tracking and loss of programs will be less of a concern. Dave and Stephanie worked together to modify the fee and postage structure, which is now reflected on the AV Library online catalogue. Non-member loan fee was raised from $3 to $5, to help increase the value of NSS membership. (No fee for members.)

A new program order page was added to the site, using an SSL(secure) URL.

Plans:

Publish monthly articles in the NSS News about the AV Library, or notes about some of the different programs available.

Make a DVD compilation of the different NSS Convention promo videos to add to the AV library.

Look into getting NSS Convention session presentations put onto CD and/or DVD and make available to the AV Library.

 

Cave Files Committee

Carrying on as usual.

The Files are now 15 filing cabinets with about 18,000 file folders. There are also several books and pamphlets on caves for several states. All caves in the system are on an Excel file listed by Serial number, Name, County, State, Length, Depth, Map status, Publication dates in Speleodigest, and Remarks. This list has over 49, 500 entries.

Internal Organizations Committee

New charters, Reinstatements, and Inactivations

Summary of IOs

In an effort to obtain the outstanding reports, a notice was placed in the NSS News, and three e-mail notices have been sent to the grottos. In addition, there is a notice on the IO Web site. Some are notified by letter because they don’t have or like email. RASS is always late, and they also receive a letter. If IOs have not submitted by the NSS Members Manual deadline, they will be recorded in the Manual as "No Report".

Consolidation of files:

Evelyn Bradshaw’s daughter, Martha Adams, has been very helpful sorting through boxes and boxes of random files at Evelyn’s to find and preserve IO materials. She has sent four boxes with two more to come. Some of the material will be taken to the NSS Archives in Huntsville. Evelyn has moved to a personal care facility. The Chateau, 3902 Plank Rd. #11, Fredericksburg, VA  22407

Update of IO Reporting Capability:

There have been three new capabilities added to the online IO reporting system maintained by Eric McMaster.

Affinity Groups may update their records online.

IOs can now indicate on the IO Annual Report form if they want to receive the periodic NSS membership report. This way the IO committee now can help Stephanie keep her files updated.

Since some IOs maintain an IO library at a different address from their IO address, we gave the IOs the capability to enter a library address on the report form. As soon as the IO Annual Report process is over, these addresses will be synced with Stephanie’s records. The library address is the address to which the complimentary copies of the NSS News and Journal are sent.

IO Information on the Web:

The IO Web site at www.caves.org/committee/i-o/ is kept up to date. The general information for Regions, Sections, and Surveys on the NSS Web site is updated manually by Gary Bush.

Discussions are ongoing with Phil Winkler to see if it is feasible for most of the IO processing to take place on the NSS computer rather that the personal computer of the IO Committee Chair.

It would be ideal if the IO records were part of the NSS records and resided on the same computer. By allowing IOs the ability to list a library address that is different from their IO address, and have that addressed synced with the NSS office data base, we have taken a necessary step toward the integration of the records.

It would be very helpful if IOs could enter an NSS number and determine online whether the NSS member is active or not, such as to verify that officers are current NSS members for purposes of the Annual Report. Once the NSS Web site migration is complete, the NSS IT Chairman Josh Bailey, Office Automation Chairman Phil Winkler will look at how this can be accomplished via the NSS Web site.

Committee members: Gary Bush, Eric McMaster, and Esty Pape.

 

 Information Technology Committee

Migration of the NSS Web site to the new hosting service provider 1and 1 will be completed by the Board meeting. The monthly cost to the NSS is reduced from $80 to $20. Minor issues cropped up with forms and some grotto Web pages, but were sorted out. (Our previous server,Valueweb.com, did not operate a backup service as claimed; the dedicated server was running an obsolete version of Redhat Linux that was no longer supported and a significant security risk; the dedicated server was aging and failure was anticipated within 12 months; the dedicated server was difficult to administer)

Some Webmasters hosting IO sites on caves.org apparently believed that incremental backups and site troubleshooting were guaranteed as part of the Web hosting service provided by the NSS or our hosting service, and were disappointed when detailed assistance was not available on demand. Greater effort will be taken (issuing a site hosting policy, etc) so future Webmasters will have appropriate expectations.

We now have over 200 FTP accounts on the NSS Web site, most of which are IO sites. A separate administrative domain with its own master password will be set up to host IO Web pages (IO.caves.org), and a volunteer delegated to manage these accounts, including password maintenance. This will reduce the admin load on the IT chairman, and will be more secure in that if the master password for grottos gets out then only grotto content can be compromised, rather than the whole NSS site. There will be an additional cost of $10-$20 per month, however the income from hosting fee charged to grottos ($12/year) will more than cover this, and the total expense to the NSS will be less than in previous years.

New NSS server documentation will be in place in March, replacing that for the old server. This documentation will enable another committee member to fix e-mail alias problems, access any page on the server, etc, in the IT Committee Chairman’s absence.

IMO and Hodag Video commercial sites have been entirely migrated off NSS server onto a private e-commerce system (more appropriate given service level expectation, NSS liability, and support issues).

Doug Marchant resigned from the IT Committee after many years of excellent service.

Alex Sproul has taken over IO accounts and assisting Webmasters in day to day problems and questions, leaving Josh free to work on the major facets of the NSS Web site. In addition, Alex has taken ownership of long neglected areas/pages that sorely were in need of work.

Alex fixed a large number of glitches, table of contents errors, and broken links on the Web site, but the site remains a very tangled web. New pdf forms have been added for membership, renewal, and gift membership. Sponsor banner ads have been updated -- 3 removed, 1 new one added.

Mindy Goldberg was appointed to re-vamp the NSS Web site. The earliest a test site will be completed is mid summer, due to the complexity of our site.

Creating the new NSS Bookstore has been a huge, time-sucking project, headed by Alex Sproul.

Robert Sewell created new financial Web pages, and will continue on as Webmaster.

Discussions continue with Keith Wheeland on ways to transfer some IO functions to the NSS Web site, and using the site in other ways to help grottos and the IO Committee.

Assisted in migrating the new NSS Bookstore Web site onto the new server (and SSL -- Secure Sockets Layer -- needed for the shopping cart), from the site set up to create and test the work.

Dan Gore is putting together a document and sample scripts to show Webmasters how to password protect something in their Web site, and how to set up a counter. These are frequent requests and this document will provide very specific directions.

 

Library

Committee Chairman Chuck Lundquist and Librarian Bill Torode met with the OVP in the fall and discussed the status of the library and plans for the future. The priority for the committee is to work on and update the online database and search engine.

The principal activities of the NSS Library Committee since January 1, 2007 have been a review of the current status of online access to library information and steps to remedy problems identified during the review. Some online services thought previously to be working usefully proved to have problems that needed to be addressed. Some initial modifications have been introduced, but others remain to be implemented.

Bill Torode inventoried the JV slide collection, which is stored at the NSS Library.

Bill continues to file newsletters and books that are received, and assist those doing research.

NSS Forum Subcommittee

The Forum switch to the new server went without a hitch, thanks to Josh Bailey.

On February 21, the NSS Discussion Forum had 1,297 registered forum members, which is an increase of more 32% over the figure reported in the fall. Almost 26,500 messages have been posted since September 1, 2005, an increase of about 53% over the fall figure.

The Cullman Grotto joined the Huntsville, Chattanooga, and Flittermouse Grottos with their own sections on the NSS Forum. The offer is open for other NSS Grottos that may not be able to host their own forum.

The political/religious section of the NSS Forum has been permanently removed. This was done to give the forum more of a caving focus and to alleviate the online name-calling that was taking place.

The NSS Forum continues its relationship with the World Caving News operation that allows caving forums and Web sites worldwide to exchange information. After the WCN news scroller was placed on front page of the Forum, the NSS Forum quickly became the top site in the WCN worldwide network, in terms of network traffic. Many NSS Grottos have joined the WCN network as well. The latest list can be accessed at www.zenas.gr/site/home/wcn_intro.asp

Following on the popularity of the Shoutbox, the Cavechat Chat Room was added to the NSS Forum, for real-time chatting.

The NSS Forum is accessible by computer, cell phone and RSS feed.

Advertisements will continue for the Forum in the NSS News on a space-available basis, in order to attract additional members.

Ways to increase the prominence of the NSS Forum in online search engines, using keywords and relevant descriptions, is being explored and tested.

 

 Market Analysis Committee

Reviewed two new book proposals: Cave of Jaguar Prophets and Coral Cave, and could not recommend either for publication by the NSS.

Office Automation Committee

The Dogwood City Grotto graciously designated their annual donation to the NSS for use to purchase much-needed computer-related equipment (additional monitor, UPS backups, etc). (DCG also funded last year’s purchase of new computers and monitors.) Bill Putnam will purchase and install the equipment before the end of the fiscal year.

Worked with Alex Sproul and Stephanie to update our online Bookstore with our inventory data, and modify our database so one day the inventory can be integrated with the on-line Bookstore. Created a way to incorporate new part numbers for each Bookstore item in a way that doesn’t interfere with the locked-in LedgerMaster item number.

Assisted the Internal Organization Committee in receiving fresh data for verifying NSS membership of IO officers.

Provided technical support for a few data problems experienced by the office staff. Acted on staff suggestions, and made important modifications to elements of NSSTrak to make data entry for family membership renewal much more efficient.

Provided information on alternative software packages for membership management to the Office Software Committee, who is responsible for researching this issue.

Worked with IT Chairman Josh Bailey to set up the capability for the NSS office to do e-mail bursting via our Web server. This will save us $240/year, which we were paying to a third party to e-mail our membership renewal notices. In addition, a system was set up on the NSS server to send notices on behalf of IOs to select sub-sets of the membership database, and guidelines established.

 

NSS Office and Bookstore

Kelli Davis has completed four months of employment with the NSS. She has done a great job serving the membership, learning to use the databases, and thinking of new ways to streamline data entry.

IRS 1099 forms were completed and mailed to our contractors (lawn care service, authors, editors and band from Convention 2006).

Roger Haley (Huntsville Grotto member) kindly rebuilt and upgraded the office laptop.

Newly created Fellow pins were mailed to over 700 Fellows of the NSS on December 19. Mike Dale created the artwork and Bill Torode hand-packed each pin in Styrofoam he cut to fit, before placing it in the envelope. A letter to fellows was included with the pin.

Several years’ worth of awardees names were engraved on the plaques for Outstanding Service, Honorary Member, and Conservation Awards in the NSS office.

The office air conditioning/heating ducts were professionally cleaned, probably for the first time ever, greatly improving the air quality in the office.

One copy of each NSS book and copies of the Journal, Bulletin, and NSS News were shipped to the Ukrainian Institute of Speleology and Karstology to aid in replacing the library destroyed by fire.

Updated reprints were received of the NSS Membership, Fragile Underground, and Bats brochures. Mike Dale produced these again and liaised with the printer -- a new printer who is saving us considerable money.

A safe capable of protecting digital media during a building fire is being purchased to store accounting and database back-up tapes. Previously, back-up tapes were carried off site for protection.

Have arranged a new gateway for processing credit card transactions on the NSS Bookstore (dropping Cart 32 that we had been using). The set monthly fee is a few dollars less, but the significant difference is that our transaction fees will drop by 1.5% - 2% -- about half of what we had charged -- and credit cards will be approved immediately on the new NSS Bookstore. Previously, the office received a notice of Bookstore orders, then had to type in the credit card numbers at a terminal and get authorization. If credit cards did not go though, then they had to contact the customer and/or retry. The automatic system will be significantly more efficient.

Have arranged new merchant accounts for the office and Conventions, and purchased two new credit card swiping processing terminal and printer. These will replace the antiquated ones the NSS has been leasing since at least 1996. We had been paying more in one year to lease the old terminals than the new terminals will cost to own. With the new terminals and new account, our credit card fees are reduced by about 0.5%. The office will now receive three statements (online, office terminal, Convention terminal,) promising to save a heck of a lot of account management and reconciliation time. We are looking at setting up an additional account for online memberships, with immediate credit card authorization.

Based on recent credit card use, these new arrangements (above) are expected to save the NSS office at least $3,500 a year.

Added shipping and privacy policies to Bookstore Web site.

Two dead and dangerously leaning trees close to the office were taken down.

The NSS office addition is 25 years old this year. Phil Winkler is writing an article for the NSS News.

The office is now able to offer a service to IOs, whereby a one page attachment is e-mailed to a subset of the membership database. This system is a replacement for our past practice of occasionally providing e-mail addresses to IOs upon request for specific projects.

A new phone system is being set up in the office.  Multi-line telephones are being purchased, and line that is now dedicated for the fax machine will also be connected to the telephones, for outgoing calls.  This should result in the main line being tied up less often, and callers being able to reach a staff member, rather than the answering machine, more often.

 

Bookstore

Fourth calendar year quarter Bookstore sales:

New NSS Publications Sales

--Cave Conservation and Restoration,

October – December23006: 58 copies sold

October 13, 2006: Placed Cave on Amazon.com. October 17, 2 copies sold.

--Oregon Caves

October – December 2006: 20 copies.

January 10, 2007: Placed on Amazon.com. January 17, 2 copies sold

--The Cave Art of Tom Culverwell

Received in December 2006 – sales report will be issued next report.

January 10, 2007: Placed on Amazon.com. January 17, 2 copies sold

Strategies to increase bookstore sales:

--The 2006 Bookstore Discount Promo Flyer included with membership renewal notices brought in $523.00. A Bookstore Discount Promo Flyer is included the first run of membership renewals for 2007. Books sold through the flier:

--A special bookstore promo for Grottos is on offer December - March. Grotto orders of 10 or more NSS Publications, receive a 40% discount off of the retail price of the books ordered (i.e. wholesale prices.) As of December 2006, this promo brought in total sales of $530.00. The promo was not well received by our vendors, and won’t be repeated. It is interesting that there was not a big rush for books – that even an offer of a 40% discount didn’t encourage many purchases.

Books sold with the promotion thus far:

--Our new Sales Rep, Mel Turner is making progress selling and promoting NSS Publications in the Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia area. As of January 30, 2007 Mel has sold:

* This title no longer included on Mel’s list of books, for it is not an NSS publication.

David McClurg created a series of ads for NSS books for the NSS News, including the Christmas insertion.

Annette and Kelli set up the Bookstore at the one-day SERA Winter Business Meeting in Chattanooga. Sales were excellent: $761.00 for an attendance of 35 people. The only book, besides past Convention Guidebooks, that sold more than one copy was the new Cave Art of Tom Culverwell.

New online NSS Bookstore just could be up and running by the March meeting: Stephanie worked closely with Phil Winkler and Alex Sproul on the details for new online Bookstore and related LedgerMaster requirements. Bill Mixon scanned book covers in his library for images on the Bookstore site, and provided enhanced descriptions for those books. Kelli photographed and scanned symbolic items and outstanding book covers, and Bill weighed every item in the inventory. Bill also created a shipping table, based on weights, rates, and distance zones, as was needed by the new shopping cart. Alex created the bookstore pages: uploaded images and information, created categories and sorted the books, and worked with software creator Mike Harrison on all the design features, functions, and technical requirements. All worked with Mike Hornung to improve our credit card processing system and lower our fees.

The bookstore turned into quite a major undertaking for several reasons, but we expect it to be well worth all the effort. We expect the new bookstore to reduce the staff’s processing time, save the NSS money, and make shopping easier and more inviting for customers. The improved appearance and function of the Bookstore, combined with improved marketing of the books via images and descriptions, should help to boost sales. It will be significantly easier and far less time consuming for the office staff to update pages with new books, than with the old system which required HTML. Additionally, processing orders will require less staff time, particularly if we can eventually integrate the LedgerMaster inventory with the shopping cart.

A process is being set up to regularly notify vendors of NSS books of new titles, and to solicit orders.

NSS Membership

The Gift Membership Form:

--Now listed online www.caves.org/info/membertypes.shtml.

--Enclosed in the January 2007 NSS News.

--As of mid February, the Gift Membership Form promotion has brought in $2,408.00 in 24 new NSS memberships: 19 Regular, 1 Limited, 2 Associate, and 2 Life.

The e-mail renewal notice was amended, corrected, and generally spiffed up.

Important upcoming tasks

Prepare for director election ballot mailing.

Fiscal year closing is scheduled for April 16 – 20.

Prepare Employee Reviews.

Prepare for the 2007 Convention.

 

Photo Archives

Two historic Skeets Miller films (about Floyd Collins and Sand Cave) will be shown at the 2006 Convention in Indiana.

Twenty-four prints from the Archives will be displayed at the 2007 Convention, to solicit help in identifying details about the photographs.  In addition, several black-and-white prints will feature in issues of Flash, the Photography Section¹s newsletter.   If these methods are successful, this will be continued so we can expand the number of useful photos in the archives.

The prints in the archives have been sorted by size and filed in archival quality boxes that are the correct size.  All of the 16 x 20 prints/mattes are in individual protective sleeves.   Work will continue to place protective sleeves on the small- and medium-format prints, then sort and file them

Arrangements have been made to interview a cave photographer over the next couple of months about his photographic materials in the photo archives.  This will allow his work to be catalogued as a separate collection within the archives.   A tape recorder was purchased for this purpose.

Nathan Williams is organizing the equipment and program, which will be based at the NSS office, to digitize and archive the photo archive collection, beginning with the AV Library slide shows.

The Photo Archives' budget is limiting the purchase of sufficient archival storage materials, make copies, and prepare exhibits. A plea for donations of supplies has been sent out to the caving community.

The committee is working with Dave Hughes to select photos for his book about Bill Cuddington.

No new photos have been obtained directly from cave photographers this year due to concerns over copyright issues.

The tasks of cleaning and remounting slides, cleaning negatives, sorting prints, inventorying, and collecting information about the images in the collection will continue.

Speleo Museum

No activity reported

3-3-07