National Speleological Society
Executive Vice President's Report

10/7/05

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) BIENNUAL REPORT
(14) PERMISSION TO REPRINT

INTRODUCTION / SUMMARY

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

Progress: ACA 2002-2003 was mailed to the membership on September 28, 2005. The issue is 48 pages long, and contains reports on 76 caving incidents, 9 cave diving incidents, and 13 caving-related incidents, along with the customary overview, statistical tables, and incident lists. The budget for this ACA issue was $10,695.00. Kathleen Lavoie participated in the Biology section presentations and section meeting at the NSS Convention. Harvey DuChene mentioned he has been working with George Veni and AGI to translate Living with Karst: A Fragile Foundation into Spanish and Arabic. Bill Steele has awarded one grant in the amount of $250 awarded to the Real County Water Cave Project, Texas for survey gear. During the past quarter Don McFarlane has reviewed a record number of applicants for NSS research Grants. Eleven applicants applied for the June competition, with requests totaling approximately $11,000. Scott Fee reports Meredith Hall anticipates having the 2003 Speleo Digest editing finally finished by Columbus Day weekend. The layout guys are both working away and she hopes that they can have their layouts finished by the end of October. A realistic guess as to when they can actually send this project to the printer would be middle to late November. Tom Rea reports the production of the Dunbar Cave book was started in late December and was in stock at the NSS Bookstore in mid May. He initially ordered 300 books, which were sold by the end of the convention. He has ordered 500 more. On Caves and Camera has been completed and is available at the NSS Bookstore. Malcolm Field has completed Volume 67, number 2 (August 2005) was sent to the printer at the end of August 2005 and it was mailed out in mid September. Dave Bunell says the NSS News is running more smoothly with the new computer-to-plate system that uses native Adobe InDesign files and no longer using PDF. It also allows layout of the News in one single file, facilitating making PDFs for the library. The 2004 NSS Members Manual was printed in September and mailed October 3, 2005.

Plans: The Board needs to decide whether to plan the next ACA issue as a combined 2004-2005 issue, or whether it should contain only 2004 incidents. I recommend combining this two-year issue so we can deliver the 2004-05 reports to the membership in 2006. Allowing for expected increases in printing costs, a budget of $12,000 should be adequate for a 48-page issue, to be published in the summer of 2006. After 2006, I would like to see the ACA produced each year. Kathleen Lavoie will develop the call for a special session at the next American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting. Kathy and Dan Chess hope to organize a symposium on, "The Sulfurous Underground: Sulfidic Cave and Karst Systems." Harvey DuChene expects to attend the American Geological Institute meeting in October, 2005, which will be held in Salt Lake City in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America. Bill Steele plans to submit a blurb for the NSS News to make NSS members aware of the availability of funds to aid exploration costs from the Sara Corrie Fund. Don McFarlane and the Research Advisory Committee have made efforts to contact all current NSS Projects, reminding them of their obligation to submit an annual report by the close of the calendar year. The Special Publications Committee is currently working on Caving Basics, Big Bone Cave, Cave Conservation and Restoration, and a biography of Bill Cuddington. Malcolm Field says efforts are underway to produce a special Anniversary Issue next year (December 2006). January 2006 will mark the 65^th Anniversary of the National Speleological Society. Dave Bunnell has NSS News features planned on New Zealand caving with material from his trip there this spring as well as one on California’s Black Chasm Cavern. Domestic articles will include a Germany Valley issue coordinated by Gordon Brace and a series on Woodville Plains caves by Michael Wisenbaker. Dave is making arrangements to include NSS Bookstore Advertising in every issue of the News. I plan on beginning the process of gathering the information that will make up the 2006 NSS Members Manual in December 2005 and anticipate a firm delivery date to the Membership of June 2006.

Problems: Harvey R. DuChene would like to step down as AGI Representative. I would like to find an NSS member to work with him and step into his position to insure a smooth transition. Meredith Hall notes that many of the Speleo Digest newsletter editors have been chronic procrastinators. There is a big problem obtaining their material electronically, despite the recentness of the data. Malcolm Field says access to the Journal Cave and Karst Studies PDFs from the NSS web site is no longer possible. Apparently, the NSS experienced a hard drive crash that corrupted our web site. This should be corrected because we are receiving requests from authors for PDFs of their articles. Dave Bunnell reports the News convention issue got delayed two weeks because the promised feature wrap-up article arrived much later than promised. The Convention organizers should appoint someone to write something for the News and that it should be completed with a month after the end of the convention. Bert Ashbrook has the impression that neither of the two biennial reports have lived up to the original expectations we had for the project (which included using it for fundraising, winning grants, and public relations). The reporting period for the next biennial report (2003-04 and 2004-05) ended on April 30, 2005. Bert is stepping down and I currently have no plans to replace him.

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
Email: putnam@scci.org

Progress: ACA 2002-2003 was mailed to the membership on September 28, 2005. The issue is 48 pages long, and contains reports on 76 caving incidents, 9 cave diving incidents, and 13 caving-related incidents, along with the customary overview, statistical tables, and incident lists, as well as an editorial by John Gookin. It took some very tight editing and quite a bit of re-writing to squeeze everything into 48 pages and avoid the expense of overrunning the 16-page signature boundary. As always, the comments from the review committee were invaluable, and I can't thank the committee members enough for their time and effort. Many improvements to the content and clarity resulted from their input.

A press run of 10,000 copies was ordered. Approximately 8,800 copies are being mailed to NSS members in the U.S. and 360 are being mailed to members in foreign countries. Fifty copies were sent to me for distribution to authors, photographers, and other contributors, and for use as promotional copies that I send to cave rescue teams, state and national parks containing caves, and other organizations from whom we solicit incident reports and information. The remaining copies were shipped to the NSS office for sale through the bookstore. The suggested price for the issue is $5.00, plus postage.

Printing and mailing were handled by EBSCO Media in Birmingham, Alabama. The printing expense was quoted at $6,470 and the estimated postage expense was $3,580 for a total price of $10,050 as agreed upon and stated in the purchase order. I am awaiting the final statement from EBSCO. There will be a few additional charges for various items including shipping the extras to Huntsville and mailing the color proof, but I do not expect these to total more than $150. The budget for this issue was $10,695.00. I expect to come in under that by about $500.

There is usually an overrun of several hundred copies from the printing. Our agreement with EBSCO allows us to buy these extra copies for $0.67 each. We usually buy the entire overrun, and I plan to do so unless the cost would exceed the budgeted amount for this issue.

I have updated the ACA web page on the NSS site with information about the latest issue, and have emailed a PDF copy of the issue to Stephanie for storage.

Plans: Obtain final expense statement from EBSCO and see that bills are paid. Submit final report on ACA 2002-2003 expenses to EVP and Treasurer. Send courtesy copies of ACA 2002-2003 to authors and photographers. Send promotional copies to selected parks, agencies, and organizations. Prepare budget for next issue based on size and schedule information provided. Continue working on 2004 reports for the next issue. Continue compiling incident reports for 2005, and for prior-year incidents.

In August, after the current issue was delivered to the printer, I began preparing the 2004 reports for publication. There are currently 23 caving incidents, 8 cave diving incidents, and 16 caving-related incidents reports on file for 2004. The 2005 file contains 15 caving incidents, 2 cave diving incidents, and 5 caving-related incidents.

I need to know whether to plan the next issue as a combined 2004-2005 issue, or whether it should contain only 2004 incidents. I recommend the combined two-year issue, since the cost of a two-year issue, including both printing and mailing, is only about 20% more than a single-year issue. This will also deliver the 2005 reports to the membership in 2006. Allowing for expected increases in printing costs, I believe that a budget of $12,000 should be adequate for a 48-page issue covering 2004 and 2005, to be published in the summer of 2006.

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)
lavoekh@plattsburgh.edu

Progress: I attended NSS Convention, and participated in the Biology section presentations and section meeting. I continue to work with Malcolm Field on the journal advisory board.

Plans: Will develop the call for a special session at the next American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting. Last year Dan Chess and I tried to organize a symposium on "The Sulfurous Underground: Sulfidic Cave and Karst Systems", but did not get enough speakers. We'll send the call out sooner to a broader range of suggested speakers. I am working with Louise Hose of NCKRI on development of a book on the work done in Mexico on Cueva de Villa Luz. The book is anticipated to

support a Friends of Karst trip to the cave. I will also be participating in the November Cave Management Symposium.

Problems: None.

(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: Kathy Lavoie, Penny Boston, Diana Northrup and others are planning a conference for the AAAS annual meeting in February 2007 in San Francisco. The tentative title was "The Sulfurous Underground: Sulfidic Cave and Karst Systems".    

Plans: I also was working with George Crothers and Jan Simek to sponsor a half day session on Cave Anthropology "Present doorways to windows of the past" Kind of a working title. The goal would be to get both proposals into a completed shape for the Geology Section meeting on February 2006 in St. Louis.

Problems: None

(4) American Geological 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 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.

I wish to inform you and the Board 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 them to AGI and insure continuity of the projects currently in progress.

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.

(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: One grant in the amount of $250 awarded to the Real County Water Cave Project, Texas for survey gear.

Plans: To continue as have been, with the exception to submit a blurb for the NSS News to make NSS members aware of the availability of funds to aid exploration costs from the Sara Corrie Fund.

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: No activity this quarter. I received no requests for grants.

Plans: There are no specific plans at this time.

Problems: None.

(7) RESEARCH ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Donald A. McFarlane
Associate Professor,
W. M. Keck Science Center, the Claremont Colleges
925 North Mills Avenue
Claremont, CA 91711-5916 USA
Ph: 909-607-2564
Fax: 909-621-8588
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: During the past quarter, the Committee has reviewed a record number of applicants for NSS research Grants. Eleven applicants applied for the June competition, with requests totaling approximately $11,000. The committee allocated approximately two thirds of its annual budget (retaining one third for the January competition) in 4 awards, as follows:

Kenneth P. Cannon Paleontology of Stinking Springs Rock shelter David Levy Glacial cave hydrology Keith A. Milam Chemistry of Lechuguilla Jason Gulley Impact crater cave studies.

Plans: Additionally, the RAC has made efforts to contact all current NSS Projects, reminding them of their obligation to submit an annual report by the close of the calendar year.

Problems: None

(8) SPELEO DIGEST

Scott Fee
PO Box 380473
Birmingham AL 35
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

2003 Speleo Digest (Submitted by Meredith Hall Johnson)

Editorial Team
Kelsea Johnson and Meredith Hall Johnson (Editors)
George Jaegers and Bob Weaver (Layout)
Sarah Richards (Proofreader)

Progress: We have finished requesting newsletter articles. Most editors have been happy to help, although some have been slow. While we have praised the group as a whole throughout this process, I have come to realize that trying to get articles and maps from many editors is a painful ordeal; one even refused to send anything, after stringing us along for six weeks.

The editing continues. We have fewer than 10 newsletters left to finish, but the process is slow. I sincerely do not think that one year is enough time to do a thorough and good job at putting together a Speleo Digest.

Plans: We hope to finish up the editing within a few weeks. It seems, sometimes, like it will never be finished. This has truly become an albatross. Both of our layout guys have completed laying out what we sent through July and have since gotten another package of material to work on. The sections look good, but will need some revision. Meanwhile our proofreader is working on her part, though both the editors will be serving as proofreaders as well. I anticipate having the editing finally finished by Columbus Day weekend, but am hoping sooner. The layout guys are both working away and I would hope that they can have their layouts finished by the end of October. A realistic guess as to when we can actually send this project to the printer would be mid- to late November. This seems rather late, especially if you want to sell a lot of books for the holiday season, but I think it is a more realistic timeframe than I’ve made in the past.

Problems: Many newsletter editors have been worse procrastinators than we have been. Some have not had the material electronically, despite the recentness of the data. Hopefully this will not prove to be a problem for future Digest editors.

Having two different layout people using two different kinds of software has not been a problem so far, but I mention it here for something to think about in the future. Both are sending PDFs and I don’t anticipate a problem with combining the two sets of PDFs into one publication. However, we have had minor problems like point size being slightly off, but nothing that wasn’t easily fixed.

I fear, as we near the end, that 600 pages total will not be enough. It seems to me that more cavers are writing trip reports and more are submitting completed cave maps and the accompanying cave descriptions. It is so easy now in the electronic age. I belong to several grottos and see more quality material than ever before. So it is both a problem and a good thing for the editor(s) to have to limit the book to approximately 600 pages.

(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. We initially ordered 300 books, which were sold by the end of the convention. We ordered 500 more. Larry Matthews did a book signing at the cave at the end of July In cooperation with "Friends of Dunbar Cave" and sold 121 books in four hours. The financial picture at the end of September is: the total cost for Dunbar $3,863.41 ($1,592.71 first run and $2,270.70 reprint); total sales, May to date, total $3,687.92; inventory is about 310 copies. So the book is within $175 of being all paid for and we have much more than that available for sale. I have heard from Larry Matthews that "Friends of Dunbar Cave" plan to order 100 more books ($800 wholesale) and the Southern Festival of Books is expected to place an order. The state does not do any kind of selling at the cave but they have a sign on the bulletin board saying that the book can be purchased at Borders in Clarksville.

NCRC Training Manual: I finished copy editing the training manual for the NCRC. They intend to publish this manual in loose-leaf format to make it easy to update. Anmar has sent the book out for technical review and is waiting for the copies to be returned. He is also preparing the illustrations.

Plans: Caving Basics: The bookstore stock of Caving Basics will last for about 12 more months. The book is also a little "long in the tooth." I have started work on a fourth edition and have recruited authors for chapters on LED cave lights and GPS. The chapters I am responsible for have been updated and several of the other authors have agreed to do theirs.

Big Bone Cave, Tennessee: Larry Matthews is very encouraged by the success of Dunbar Cave and is beginning work on a book on Big Bone Cave. Big Bone Cave is a large cave and was a major source of saltpeter. There are many artifacts existing in the cave. I have visited it only once but I was properly impressed.

Cave Conservation and Restoration: Gus has completed linking the photos into the layout and he is now performing the text layout. Val is currently working on the indexing of the book doing the "how to index" reading, selectively cleaning up other NSS odds 'n ends, and clearing the path toward spending time with the index. Val has never done a book index and may require help. We're moving along and progress is being made. We really want to get this thing published and in the hands of cavers during 2005.

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

Problems: None

(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 2 (August 2005) was sent to the printer at the end of August 2005. This issue was delayed — all of us involved worked at a fairly frenetic pace, especially Jim Pisarowicz, Don Davis, and me to correct problems author-generated problems. One author had considerable difficulty preparing figures of acceptable quality for the Journal. In addition, some manuscripts required last minute corrections which further delayed sending the issue to the printer. This issue was mailed out by mid September.

Plans: Volume 67 number 3 (December 2005) is not yet being worked on. To date (9/13/’05) only one manuscript has been received from the Associate Editors with the recommendation that it 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.

Convention abstracts are being reviewed/revised for publication in the December issue. Nearly all acceptable abstracts have been received to date (9/19/05) and will be forwarded to our Production Editor, Jim Pisarowicz within the next few weeks.

Progress on the development of a journal manuscript on how to prepare a manuscript for publication in the Journal of Cave and Karst Studies and an MS Word template to facilitate manuscript are progressing.

Special Issues: Efforts are underway to produce a special Anniversary Issue next year (December 2006). January 2006 will mark the 65^th Anniversary of the National Speleological Society. The last time an Anniversary Issue was published by the NSS, it occurred as the Bulletin of the National Speleological Society in January 1966 so it is high time that a new Anniversary Issue be developed. It will focus on various aspects of the caves and karst, but as the subject matter reflects the work of the NSS.

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 University.

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.

Problems: Access to Journal PDFs from the NSS web site is no longer possible. Apparently, the NSS experienced a hard drive crash that corrupted our web site. This should be corrected; we are receiving requests from authors for PDFs of their articles. Jim Pisarowicz has discovered that his password no longer works on the NSS web site. This will need to be corrected so that Jim may be able to update the web site. The NSS offices received 11 boxes of the August 2005 issue which is considerably more than usual. This overly large printing should be looked into, especially as we are trying to save money. We do not want to end-up like the journal Cave and Karst Science (CKS) published by the British Cave Association (formerly the British Cave Research Association). CKS will only be published on a CDROM in the future for subscribers; printed copies will be produced only for libraries and individuals willing to pay a premium for a print copy (the NSS library should be sure to receive print copies and CDROMs).

(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
Dave Bunnell
dbunnell@caltel.com

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: Things are running more smoothly with the new computer-to-plate making now that we are just dealing in native Adobe InDesign files and no longer using PDF. It also allows layout of the News in one single file, facilitating making PDFs for the library. Features are rolling in fairly regularly these days.

For each month I am now making a low and high rez PDF to archive for the office. For the future I think that high rez would allow reproduction of an issue better than the native ID files.

I’ve noted that the changes implemented earlier this year (thicker covers, flood varnish) make for issues that survive the mails better without cover damage.

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 New Zealand caving with material from my trip there this spring as well as one on California’s Black Chasm Cavern. Domestic articles will include a Germany Valley issue coordinated by Gordon Brace and a series on Woodville Plains caves by Michael Wisenbaker.

Problems: The convention issue got delayed two weeks because the promised feature wrap-up article arrived much later than promised. I don’t know if the convention guidelines touch on this, but they ought to mention that they should appoint someone to write something for the News and that it should be completed with a month of the end of the convention. The writer said it would have been easier and faster if she’d written it right after…but she didn’t know she’d be the one doing it.

(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 2004 Members Manual was printed and mailed in September 2005.

Plans: I plan on beginning the process of gathering the information that will make up the 2006 Members Manual in December 2005 and anticipate a firm delivery date to the Membership of June 2006.

Problems: None.

(13) BIENNUAL REPORT

Bert Ashbrook
107 Avonbrook Rd
Wallingford, PA 19086-6001
610-627-2378
caving.ashbrook@comcast.net

Progress: The previous biennial report (1999-00 and 2000-01) has been removed from the NSS website. I have suggested to Tom Rea that the most recent biennial report (2001-02 and 2002-03) and be posted on the NSS website in its place. The reporting period for the next biennial report (2003-04 and 2004-05) ended on April 30, 2005, but I just don't have the time to do the project justice (and it could probably stand some new blood, anyway).

Plans: I say "if" above because I have gotten the impression that neither of the two biennial reports have lived up to the original expectations we had for the project (which included using it for fundraising, winning grants, and public relations). Perhaps the persons in those jobs would say differently, but I am not aware that they have found the biennial report to be particularly useful for those purposes. I have copied Tom Rea, Jay Jorden, Donna Knobe Cobb, Eve Proper, and Hazel and Doug Medville on this e-mail to get their feedback, too.

Problems: If the Board wants to continue the project, it will need a new committee chairman.

(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:

10/19/05