TWS Minutes
Below are minutes from past meetings. 

2008-2009 Secretary: Rachel Schnaitman
TWS Minutes - 5/12/08

 The past meeting marks the final one for the year, so thanks to all of those who were able to come.

We re-voted for Vice President to break the tie from the last meeting. Congratulations to the new V.P. Addison, who finished ahead of Adam by a single vote.

The End of Semester Party is planned for Saturday, May 24th at 1:00pm at Dr. Bowman's house. We will be having BBQ chicken, as well as vegetarian options if requested. If you would like to come and didn't sign up, let an officer know sometime before then.

We have more hats for sale, if you haven't purchased one yet. They are gray with the "UD" logo and "The Wildlife Society" written below it. The are only $15 and are being sold on a first-come first-serve basis, so make sure you get yours soon.

We wrapped up the meeting by filling out a brief survey to help your officers make the club better. If you weren't able to attend the last meeting but still would like to fill out the survey, it is attached to this e-mail. You can either drop it in the WCC/TWS mailbox in 104 Townsend or send it to Sarah Stapely (sstapley@udel.edu).

To wrap up this school year Alli, Bekka, Matt, and Laura would like to thank all of you who came to the meetings and participated in our Saturday events.  We also want to congratulate all of the new officers for their achievements and we know you guys will do a great job of leading the club.

TWS Minutes - 4/21/08

We first want to thank all of those who came to the last two events, you we really were able to get a lot done.  Last weekend we planted and caged over 100 trees before we got rained out, and last Saturday we were able to fill countless trashbags at the River Clean-up at White Clay Creek. 

Ag Day is this Saturday, and we hope to see you all out there.  We will be selling cotton candy, shirts, and Bluebird boxes like last year.  We will also be having a poster set-up educating the public on backyard habitats, as well as having cut-outs for children to color.  If you are available to help out for an hour or two anytime between 9am and 4pm, we would love to have you.  If you have not yet signed up, feel free to email one of the officers.  We will also have the clubs T-shirts available before Sat., or during Ag Day at the latest.  These will be available for $10 so make sure you bring some extra money if you wanted one. 

To give everyone a heads up, the End-of-Semester Party will be on Sat., May 24th at Dr. Bowmans house.  We wanted to tell you all now so you can mark it on your calendars, so don't plan anything else for then :)

We are also thinking about having one more Grottos Night, probably on the last day of classes (May 21st), so expect an email about that in the future.

Finally, we held elections for next years officers.  Congratulations to the new officers: Sarah Stapley (President), Rachel Schnaitman (Secretary), and Amanda Dunbar  (Treasurer).  As for the new Vice President, we had an unprecedented tie between Adam Mitchel and Addison Reid.  To settle this we will be voting again, and we urge everyone to come to the next meeting and vote, this is very important and if the same people come again we will have another tie.  If you were unable to come this week I attached each of the candidates speeches outlining why they feel like they are best for this position.  Please look over these and come to the next meeting ready to vote again. 

Speaking of the next meeting, it is scheduled for May 12th, so expect a reminder email sometime before then.  Thanks
TWS Minutes - 4/7/08

 We didn't have a guest speaker lined up for this weeks meeting, so we took the time to catch up on planning and signing up for upcoming events.
Speaking of t-shirts, we tossed around a few ideas about what design we want for this years shirts.  We are hoping to incorporate a famous wildlife-related quote into a design for the shirt.  If you have a great quote that you know, feel free to share it with us soon so we can ! ge! ! t some shirts made before Ag Day.

As we hope you already know, AG DAY, is on Saturday, April 26th, which is less than 3 weeks away.  For this years booth we plan to make a poster illustrating different backyard habitats and what animals you may expect to find there.  We will also make it interactive so children can stick the correct animal to its habitat and win a prize.  We plan on designing and making the poster next Sunday (April 20th) at 1pm at Townsend commons, so if you are free and would like to help, we would love to have you.

Finally we nominated officers for the club next year, and are still accepting nominations up until the next meeting.  The positions available are President, Vice-president, Secretary, and Treasurer.  If you would like to run for a position, we ask that you come to the next meeting and tell the club a little about yourself so we know who we are voting for.

The next meeting is scheduled for April 21st and again you can expect free pizza, soda, and snacks, so we hope to see you there.
TWS Minutes - 3/24/08

We started off this weeks meeting by thanking all of those who were able to make it out for the birding trip this weekend with Dr. Bowman. We traveled down to Indian River and worked our way back up the state. We had a lot of fun and hope to do it again in years to come.

Suggestions for Ag Day activities were written down during the meeting also, so expect another email in the future with a list of possible educational themes that we can choose from.

Our guest speaker for the week was Kevin Kalasz, a Wildlife Biologist for DNREC and acts as the project coordinator for the Delaware Shorebird Project.  Kevin spoke to us about the Red Knot, a shorebird species facing a population decline.  Anyone interested in helping to capture and band shorebirds are encouraged to contact Kevin; this is a great way to meet potential employers and gain valuable experience for your resume.  Training will be held on April 5th and April 19th, so contact him before then. 
His contact info is:
Kevin.kalasz@state.de.us
(302) 653-2883

Our next meeting is scheduled for April 7th, during which we will be signing up for the Middle Run Tree Planting Day and the Christina River Cleanup.  We will also be announcing nominations for officers of The Wildlife Society, so think about what position you may be interested in running for.  And like always... free pizza, cookies and soda.


TWS Minutes - 3/3/08

 We started this meeting off with a few logistical items. We also passed around a sign-up sheet for the birding trip scheduled for March 22nd.  Dr. Bowman will be leading the trip to Bombay Hook in Smyrna, DE, and if you would like to come and were unable to sign-up, feel free to email one of the officers for more details.

Another Fundraiser Night at Grotto Pizza scheduled for this Thursday.  Laura sent out the voucher that you would need to bring to ensure that the club receives 20% of your bill, so be sure to bring it.  Also feel free to invite everyone you know... the more people that come, the better.  We had a lot of fun last year and hope more of you can make it out there this time.

We rounded out this weeks meeting with a guest speaker.  Regional Fish & Wildlife Manager Craig Rhoads (former UD grad student) put together a presentation on how he got to where he is, the work that he does, and possible projects we could get involved in.  Some volunteer oportunities are:
He also suggested some potential research projects that the state may be willing to fund:
If any of this sounds interesting to you, you can email or call Craig Rhoads at:
    Regional Fish & Wildlife Manager
    Augustine Wildlife Area
    DE Division of Fish & Wildlife
    (302) 834-8433
    Craig.Rhoads@state.de.us

The club will hopefully be getting involve in some of these activities, so expect emails in the future as dates near.  The next meeting is scheduled for March 24th and we hope to see you there (there will be free food also).

TWS Minutes - 2/18/08

 I'd like to start off by welcoming everyone back for Spring semester and thank all of those who showed up, we had a great turnout and hope it stays that way.  If you have not paid dues yet this year, they are only $6 for the semester and can be given to Laura during the next meeting.  Paying dues will ensure costs stay low (or free!) for events, as well as save you money on T-shirts or hats.  We also need to remind those of you who have not yet filled out the University Liability Form (R6) to please do so.  You only need to do it once while in college, so get it out of the way soon.  The form can be found at: http://www.udel.edu/student-centers/AandP/forms/index.html

We are also interested in anyone helping out with events planned for the semester.  This includes:
If you are interested in any of the above, please let one of the officers know.

During this weeks meeting we also presented a tentative schedule of events planned for this semester, but keep in mind that dates may change and new activities may pop up.
Like usual more emails will be sent as events near, so make sure to check your mail often.

We also encourage you guys to check out our knew website for plenty more information:
http://copland.udel.edu/stu-org/tws

Again thanks to all of you that made it out this week and we look forward to seeing you all at the March 3rd meeting, which will also include more free food and drinks!!


TWS Minutes - 10/22/07

This Monday marked our first meeting as the Student Chapter of The Wildlife Society at the University of Delaware!!!  To celebrate we had lots of pizza, sorry if you couldn't make it.  Speaking of The Wildlife Society, though you don't have to, students are encouraged to join the national chapter.  This is a professional organization and being a member would look great on your resume, not to mention they give you nice magazines.  Students have a decreased membership rate of $33 so acting now would be smart, the price will double as a non-student.  For more information, check out www.wildlife.org.

This Saturday we have Tree Planting scheduled from 9am-12pm at Middle Run Natural Area.  If you signed up expect another e-mail later in the week, and if you have not yet signed up and would like to, email Bekka and let us know.

For our next meeting (Nov. 5th) we are planning on having a pot-luck dinner at Alli’s house; if you are interested we will be sending out an email later detailing what foods to bring.

We are having a Grotto's Community Night scheduled for Nov. 12th.  For every customer that goes that night, the club will receive 20% of their bill, so tell all your friends, neighbors, parents, and that awkward kid that sits behind you to go to Grotto's on Main St. on Nov. 12th!!  Patrons will have to present a piece of paper having our club name on it, and we plan on distributing them later and also making a Facebook notice.

Check your email for more notices and we look forward to seeing you guys at the next meeting.

WCC Minutes - 10/8/07 
Thanks to all of those who participated this year in the Ag Carnival. Our two teams finished 6th and 7th out of 13 teams, so that's a lot better than last year. We had a lot 
of fun cheering each other on and 
watching the guys have to dress up like girls!

The *Acorn Collection* to assist DNREC with a reforestation project is scheduled for *Saturday October 20th*. We will be meeting at 9am at Perkins and it should 
run until about noon. If you have not yet signed up and would like to participate, email Alli or Bekka and let us know. This is a great opportunity to meet people and possibly talk about 
summer jobs with DNREC. If you have already signed up, expect an email when the date gets closer.

Speaking about signing up, if you do sign up for an event, please try to come to it. We understand that things come up unexpectedly, but the officers put a lot of time, effort and money 
into every event. So if you aren’t sure about the date for an activity, just let us know ahead of time.

To raise more money and keep events free for our members, we are forming a *fundraising committee* within the club. If anyone has any good ideas on how to raise money and help 
the club we would love to hear them so email All or Bekka.

To round out the meeting we watched an interesting and amusing slide how of pictures from the recent camping trip to Trap Pond and Ag Carnival.

We hope to see you all at our next meeting on October 22!

 
WCC Minutes - 9/24/07 

Thank you to all of those who were able to make it down to Townsend Hall for the meeting on Monday.

Please be aware that the *Middle Run Tree Planting date has been changed* to Saturday, Oct. 27th from 9am-12pm.  We will be signing up for this at our meeting in October.

The *camping trip* scheduled for this weekend is at Trap Pond, so keep checking your emails if you signed up or let us know if you are interested, there are still available spaces.

The University of Delaware's annual *Ag Carnival* is scheduled for *Oct. 6th at Webb Farm *located on Rt. 72 (behind Townsend Hall).  We are hoping to have two teams compete this year so if you 
are interested in  helping us beat FFA, the Animal Science Club, and the rest of the Ag School let us know.  We also have to sponsor two games and we need ideas (so far we have a kangaroo race 
and an elephant ring-toss), so let us know if you have any good ideas for a fun game.  We will also be making T-shirts for the competition so if you signed up we need to know what size you wear 
and if you are available to help us make them.

On another note, the club is in its finishing stages of becoming at a *student chapter of The Wildlife Society*.  This is a nationally recognized organization and having this opportunity is a major privilege 
for the club and each student.  If you would like more information on The Wildlife Society or would like to join the National chapter (looks good on resumes), you can visit the website at www.wildlife.org. 
The club's website will also be updated in the coming weeks so keep checking for a brand new design!

Like always, dues can be paid to Laura if you are not yet a member ($10 per year or $6 per semester).  The next meeting is scheduled for Oct. 8th, hope to see you there.

WCC Minutes - 9/10/07

Thanks to all of you who came to the first meeting of the year, the turnout was great.  This year the clubs officers are:

Co-Presidents:
    Alli - asussman@udel.edu
    Bekka - bschultz@udel.edu
Treasurer:
    Laura - lrawest@udel.edu
Secretary:
    Matt - ponycar@udel.edu
Historian:
    Vicki - vixsun@udel.edu
Advisor:
    Dr. Bowman - jlbowman@udel.edu


The first activity that we have planned for this semester is a hike at White Clay Creek, scheduled for this Sunday.  We will all be meeting at Perkins at 9:30am; if you would like to go and did not sign up on Monday, email Alli by 5pm Thursday.  We plan on hiking, looking for reptiles and amphibians with professor Jim White and having a picnic lunch!


The tentative schedule we have planned for this semester is as follows:

Sunday 9/16   Hike at White Clay Creek

Monday 9/24   Meeting @ 6pm

Saturday 9/29 - Sunday 9/30   Camping Trip

Saturday 10/6   Ag Carnival

Monday 10/8   Meeting @ 6pm with a guest speaker

Saturday 10/20   Acorn Collection

Monday 10/22   Meeting @ 6pm with a guest speaker

Saturday 11/3   Tree planting at Middle Run

Monday 11/5   Meeting @ 6pm (Pot Luck Dinner)

Saturday 11/17   Deer Check Stations

Monday 11/19   Meeting @ 6pm

 Dec. 2nd or 3rd   End of Semester Party



If you have any suggestions or would like to participate in any of the above and haven't already signed up yet, email Alli or Bekka and let us know.

If you plan on being an active member in the WCC, we highly recommend paying your dues:  it is only $6 for a semester or $10 for the entire year.  Paying dues will save you money on club events and t-shirts.
In closing, we would like to thank all of you who came to our first meeting and we expect to see you (and your friends) at the next meeting!!




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