President's Message

2002 NAMA Foray, Diamond Lake Resort, Oregon

About 250 enthusiastic NAMA members attended the annual NAMA Foray. The Minnesota Mycological Society was well represented at the meeting, held this year at Diamond Lake Resort in Oregon, by members Adele Mehta, Peggy Laine, Ralph Engel, Pat Leacock, Tom Volk, Dean Abel and me.

Photos from the 2002 NAMA Foray held in Dimond Lake, Oregon (click the photo to see the photo and a gallery of other 2002 NAMA Foray photos)

Peggy and Ralph flew to Oregon, although not together, and Adele, Pat and I made the trip by automobile, allowing us to visit a good many national parks and see spectacular mountain, river valley and desert scenes. The most outstanding parks were Crater Lake and Yellowstone. The weather during the entire trip to Oregon and back to the Twin Cities, which took a couple of weeks, was exceptionally good. We arrived at Diamond Lake on Wednesday evening, October 16. The resort was located on a lake with an impressive view of the nearby mountains.

After checking into the lodge, we had dinner with the trustees. Thursday morning, beginning at 8:30 AM, Adele, Peggy, Pat, Dean and I joined the other trustees for the annual Trustee 's Meeting. Adele is our club 's NAMA Trustee, Peggy is the NAMA Regional Trustee for Minnesota, Iowa, North and South Dakota, Dean is the Chair of the NAMA Photography Committee, Pat represents the Voucher Committee and I am the NAMA Secretary.

There were several changes in the officers of NAMA, and as a result I become the First Vice President of NAMA. Judith McCandless decided to resign from that position as of December 31 because of other commitments. Maggie Rogers will replace Jay Justice, whose term expired, as the Second Vice President and Hanna Tschekunow will replace me as Secretary. I must say that I am looking forward to my new job, as being Secretary at the Trustees Meeting is a demanding task best suited to someone who can take good notes accurately and quickly. Luckily I had a tape recorder with me to help, but it was still a trying experience to later listen to several hours of tape recordings and review many pages of hastily written notes in order to prepare the meeting 's extensive minutes.

In addition to the officer changes, many important challenges facing NAMA with respect to the organization 's website, publications, financing and committees, of which there are 15 including, but not limited to, those dealing with such subjects as mycophagy, photography and cultivation, were discussed extensively and for the most part resolved satisfactorily. One exciting announcement made at the meeting that everyone applauded was the confirmation that the 2003 NAMA Foray will be held in Montreal over the Labor Day weekend. On that note and at 4:30 PM the Trustees Meeting was adjourned until next year in Canada.

Once the Trustee 's Meeting was finally concluded Thursday afternoon, the foray fun started in earnest. The activities began that evening with the arrival at the resort of the rest of the foray attendees. There was a wonderful trout dinner that night followed by the usual reception and social activities. Friday morning was cool and sunny, a beautiful day for a hike in the woods. Soon after breakfast the foray, groups headed into the nearby mountain forests in search of the elusive mushrooms. Many were found under small mounds of earth. This manner of locating mushrooms was a new experience for me, but I soon got the hang of looking for such manifestations and at once started to discover a large number of species, including several White Matsutake (Tricholoma magnivelare )and White Chanterelle (Cantharellus subalbidus )both very good eatables.

Over the two days of forays, Friday and Saturday, the various groups brought into the resort 's Activity Center, where the professional mycologists had set up their equipment, hundreds of mushrooms for identification. Ultimately, about 250 different species were identified. A good many of the mushrooms were new to us Midwesterners, especially the truffles that are much sought after in Oregon.

After another great meal Saturday evening, followed by a viewing of the photo contest winning slides, raffle and the last social gathering, the festivities of the foray slowly came to a close. Sunday morning there was a final viewing of the display of mushrooms found during the course of the foray followed by the packing up of equipment and cleaning of the Activity Center. Upon completion of these tasks and the saying of many happy good-byes everyone headed home thus bringing to an end another unique, memorable and, as always, enjoyable NAMA Foray.

Another Great Year for the Club

It has been a busy and successful year for the club, starting with the annual Awards Banquet in January and ending with the Potluck Dinner in late October and all the other programs in between those two events. I hope all our members have thoroughly enjoyed our many and varied activities this year and in the process have managed to learn a good deal more about mushrooms, nature and the importance of good fellowship and shared experiences, but most importantly that they have had a good time during these difficult times for our country.

I wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and an especially wonderful holiday season.

Bob Fulgency