7:00 p.m.: Welcome and Introductions

Approximately 17 people attended representing a range of agencies, universities, and NGOs, including: USGS-BRD, Virginia Tech, Univ. of Missouri, USFWS, Ducks Unlimited, USFS, UNLV, Univ. of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Texas A&M, Moorhead State, and Mississippi State.

• Chairperson: Dave Morton introduced himself as the new chairperson, welcomed everyone, and urged participation in the working group. The Objectives and Goals of the working group were read from the Charter.
• Secretary/Treasurer: Darren Divine gave the sec/treas. report for Chris Dwyer. We have $1337 in the bank. Our membership stands at 155. Our only expense for last year was the poster session and working group at the annual meeting in Snowmass, which was $828. Questions arose from the membership about how we obtain and use our money. The TWS National office sends us $4 of every $5 from each member. Our main expenses are meetings and the newsletter. An audit is conducted every year. Tom Sklebar will conduct this year’s audit.
• Publications/Nominations: Jacqui Frair reported on the recent election of chairperson. Our regular submissions to the Wildlifer are going nicely, but she needs someone to help, especially with deadlines.
• FWIM-L Listserver: Stacy McNulty announced that there are approximately 850 subscribers to FWIM-L. She encouraged all members of the working group to subscribe to FWIM-L, as announcements and even the election was reported across the listserver. Instructions on subscribing to FWIM-L were posted and are on our website and the TWS website.

The chairperson reviewed the charter as it pertains to executive committee (excom) members. There are four excom members, chairperson, chairperson-elect, past-chairperson, and secretary/treasurer, which are elected to 2-year terms by the membership (i.e, chairperson is a 6-year track). Currently we do not have a chairperson-elect and the current secretary/treasurer has finished his term. According to our charter, there should be a 3-person Nominating and Elections Committee which provides names of 2 candidates for each position. Thirty days after publicly announcing the candidates, the votes from members are tallied and the positions are filled. Since we lack this Nominating and Elections committee, nominees were solicited from members attending this meeting. In the spirit of volunteerism, attendees were also asked to participate in one or more other standing committees including: Meetings, Publications, Education, Nominations & Elections, and Membership. The results, including current committee members, are as follows:

New Business

• Computer Applications Conference: Scott Klopfer announced a planned Computer Applications in Fisheries and Wildlife Conference in Tahoe 2000. The Organization of Fish and Wildlife Information Managers (OFWIM) is coordinating the event. They have brought on the American Fisheries Society - Computer Users Section (AFS CUS) and want to bring in our working group and the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies as co-sponsors. This conference was last held in 1988. Glen Gravatt, who was at the 1988 conference, remarked that it was an exceptional conference with about 200 attendees. This next event is expected to be much bigger. OFWIM wants $500 for start-up expenses. This would allow us equal footing in deciding the program. Dave Morton stated that the TWS council has a conference support fund, to which we should apply for money. It was agreed that this effort would be beneficial to the working group. Scott Klopfer will continue to lead this project.
• Newsletter: The working group did not put out a newsletter in the last year. The chairperson emphasized that this is one of our immediate needs. The Publication Committee will work on getting a mailing out around November 1^st. Stacy McNulty will put the newsletter on the website. Dave Morton proposed a future joint newsletter with OFWIM and AFS CUS. This would include several feature articles and then a section devoted to each group’s news. This endeavor will require some work initially, but it should streamline communication and conserve time and money for each group in the long run. A joint newsletter would also solve the constant problem of not having enough news items and also expose our group to a new audience. Everyone present agreed to the benefits of this plan. Dave will continue to work with OFWIM and AFS to see if they are interested and it is feasible. The Fish and Wildlife Information Exchange (FWIE) of Virginia Tech, the organization that several of our active members and members of OFWIM work for, has applied for a grant to create a system for producing electronic newsletters. Stacy McNulty of FWIE will pursue this development for the working group.
• Symposium for TWS 6^th Annual Conference in Austin, TX 1999: The working group did not put on a symposium, workshop, or poster session at the TWS national conference for the first time in several years. This is an important activity in fulfilling our charter objectives. A symposium with the topic of "Innovations in Home Range Analysis" was proposed and agreed upon for next year. Darren Divine will lead this effort. The deadline for submission of symposium proposals is October 15^th. It was suggested that we cooperate with other working groups, such as Biometrics, in putting on symposium in the future.
• Training: Education was stressed as another objective of our working group. Dave Morton reported on the shortcourse he teaches twice yearly with others at the Smithsonian’s Conservation and Research Center. Brochures were made available. Glenn Gravatt outlined the various courses offered at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services’ National Conservation Training Center. Videotapes and other materials were made available. A listing of these courses can be found at http://www.fws.gov/r9nctc/nctc.html.
• Web Site and Expertise Database: Scott Klopfer presented the working group’s new website at http://fwie.fw.vt.edu/tws-gis/index.htm. This site lists current officers, training opportunities, information about relevant listservers (including FWIM-L), and contains a glossary of GIS, remote sensing, and telemetry terms. Future items will include the newsletter and the charter. Attached to the website will be the Database of Expertise. This tool will allow TWS members to locate experts in specific areas of GIS, GPS, remote sensing, landscape modeling, and telemetry. All working group members are encouraged to include their address, phone, and e-mail. This database will continue to grow and improve over the next few months. Scott Klopfer will continue with this project.

The business side of the meeting was concluded by thanking two individual members of the group for their outstanding contributions to the working group over the last year. Scott Klopfer deserves praise for his work setting up this meeting and establishing the website. Jacqui Frair, through her submissions to the Wildlifer, communication with other members, and running of the election for chairperson, almost single-handedly keeps this group together through a tough year. Both of these members received a round of applause and the gratitude of the entire working group.

A social and several informal presentations concluded the meeting. Garrett Schairer presented his landscape analyses on bobwhite quail habitat. Julie McClafferty discussed her work with modeling potential elk habitat in Virginia. Aerial videography interpretation techniques were outlined by Stacy McNulty. During this social time several of the newly formed committees got acquainted and made future plans. The meeting ended around 9:20 p.m.