PRESIDENT’S REPORT

At the January 18, 2003 Board meeting I was elected as your President for 2003. I appreciate the encouragement of Board members to support me in this position. We had an excellent winter meeting in Clare and we were honored with two out of state guest speakers.

A special thanks to George Cook from the University of Vermont, their Extension Maple Specialist, for his general session presentation. An outline of his program appears as a separate article in the Newsletter. It is great to see so many members pitch in and make the winter meeting a success. Russ Kidd and his staff from the MSU Extension kick things off with their fall registration and information packet. All the Board members do a great job in each area assigned and a special thanks to Roger VandeBunte for handling membership; Roger and Craig Arnold for registration; Steve Youdes for the syrup contest and Ron Kistler for vendors.

Our honored members this year are Mary and Bob Gibbs. We were sorry that Mary could not attend the meeting, but Bob drove from Okemos and accepted the award.

The newly elected Board members are Fred Bates, Ludington; Tom Cook, Niles; and Joyce Ross, Rudyard. We welcome the new blood. The officers for this year are:

President-Jean Maday
Vice President-Craig Arnold
Secretary-Tim Boonstra
Treasurer-Steve Youdes

Numerous committees are established to handle the business of the Association. Board members, as well as Association members, chair these committees. We also look for volunteers so if you would like to chair or serve on a committee, please feel free to contact any Board member. The committees are:

Nominations-Fred Bates
Annual Meeting-Jean Maday
Membership-Roger VandeBunte and Joyce Ross
Web Site-Roger VandeBunte and Larry Haigh
Honorary Member-Ron Kistler
Newsletter-Cathi Bates
Sale Items-Cathi Bates
Vendor Display-Ron Kistler
NAMSC/IMSI tour-Deb Thomas

The fall tour this year is scheduled for two days in the Upper Peninsula. Due to travel arrangements, the dates will be September 27th and 28th

This year three Board members did not run for re-election Mary Douglass Larry Haigh and Roger VandeBunte On behalf of the Association, I wish to extend special thanks and appreciation for all the work and time these people devoted to MMSA. Although Roger only served on the Board for three years he served as Vice President one year and then as Membership Chair. As membership chair, he also handled registration for the January winter meetings. Roger has also been instrumental in the establishment of our current web-site. He will continue in this capacity until the completion of the initial project specifications.

Mary Douglass was elected to the Board in 1994. She served as President in 1996 and 1997. She served on several committees and chaired many; By-Laws, Promotion and Legislative. During her tenure, she also was elected to the Board of IMSI and served as President. Mary has always given 110% to MMSA and IMSI. We will miss her as a Board member.

Larry Haigh was elected to the Board in 1991. He served as Treasurer for five years. During this time the Treasurer’s responsibilities included membership and sale items. He was President for three years and during this time the assignments of membership and sale items were broken off into separate committees. Larry says he’s glad to pass on his assignment to new Board members.

Everyone is looking forward to the break in the cold weather and hopefully by the time you read this everyone will be busy making syrup.

Jean Maday, President