Greetings from your new president!
WMC currently has over 600 members in several states. Over the past couple of years the Board of Directors has struggled with several issues. We have put some of these to rest by contracting with the University of California Water Resources Center to do much of the leg-work that keeps the organization running. Other issues continue to nag us. We hope to deal with these over the next couple of years but we need your help.
One important concern is the very newsletter you are reading. The Networker is the primary means of continuous communication among our members. It is actually the main service that WMC currently provides. We have had problems producing the newsletter on a quartery basis for a variety of reasons, chiefly a lack of sufficient contributions. We need more participation in contributing things and in soliciting contributions. Finding guest editors for future issues is one means of improving our scheduling. We welcome your suggestions for newsletter themes and your articles. Letters to the editor will be published. Finally, if any of you want to be guest editor on a topic of your interest, we welcome your proposals. Our intent is to publish on a quarterly basis. Eventually, with your support, we may build the Networker into a professional-class journal. What do you think about that?
A second concern is the stability of our membership. Our membership tends to increase and diminish in waves related to the timing of our biennial conference. This is because when the conference is held, two years' membership dues are included in the registration fee. Some members do not renew when their membership expires. This concerns the Board greatly and over the next two years we plan to take steps to retain members and recruit new members. In addition to improving the delivery of the newsletter, we plan to expand WMC's services to its members in other ways. The website is one example of our expanded services to members. Some other proposals include offering cash awards of $200 each for innovative research in the field of watershed science and demonstrated application of watershed management on the ground; offering reduced rates or scholarships for needy individuals (not just students) to attend conferences; and establishment of a "speakers list" of members (not limited to Board members) for referral to other organizations. We welcome your suggestions on these and other services we should provide. We also encourage you to renew your membership if it has expired so that you may be a beneficiary of the improved services.
A third concern is the composition and size of the WMC Board of Directors.
On the next column, we are polling members about increasing the size of the Board. I presently am proposing other changes related to the composition of the Board. Since the nomination process for Board members is presently random, I propose that we establish some criteria for Board composition as follows: assuming eleven (proposed) Board members there should be three representatives from state agencies (hopefully encompassing at least California, Oregon and Nevada); one each from the US Forest Service, Natural Resource Conservation Service, a university, and a federal research organization; two representatives from the consulting sector; and two representatives from environmental or watershed groups. In seeking to fill vacancies we should strive for representing the geographical range of our membership, ethnic and gender diversity and the range of disciplines involved in watershed science. Institutional representation may be relaxed in order to achieve these other representation goals. These parameters as well as job descriptions for Board members will be the basis for soliciting candidates for vacancies. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on this proposal prior to our next Board meeting in May.
Finally, we know that one of the most enjoyable things about membership in WMC is attending our biennial symposium and annual field meetings. In the past, field meetings have not been all that well-attended. Beginning this year, we hope to hold at least two fall field meetings. One will be in Idaho, focusing on long-term watershed research. We plan to hold another in California but have not yet chosen a location or theme. We welcome your suggestions on location and topics for a fall meeting in California or elsewhere.
I hope to serve you well as president of WMC over the next two years. There are many new and challenging opportunities which a diverse professional organization like ours can exploit. Lend me your enthusiasm for the efforts ahead.
