President's Message

New Schedule for the 2003 Monday Evening Meetings and Forays

Beginning this coming February, the club will operate under a new schedule for its Monday evening meetings. The club will have one Monday evening meeting each month of the year. The meetings will always be on the second Monday of each month. By having meetings in the off season, October through April, we will be able to spend more time devoted to the study of mushrooms, their life cycles, habits and learning the keys for identifying mushrooms. We will on occasion have programs that feature experts on various topics of interest to the members as well as programs on such subjects as the use of mushrooms for dyeing, papermaking and gourmet cooking.

2003 Monday Evening Meetings Schedule

February 10 • March 10 • April 14
May 12 • June 9 • July 14
August 11 • September 8 • October 13
November 10 • December 8

The club will have two Saturday forays each month during the months of May through September. The Monday evening meeting during these months will always follow a Saturday foray. (E.g. Saturday Foray, May 10; Monday Meeting, May 12) The foray itself will be the principal place and time to learn the method of identifying mushroom species. Forayers will be asked to take vouchers with them when they begin their hunt in the morning and to record on the vouchers each specimen and the type of habitat in which it was found. After collecting mushrooms in the morning and having lunch, knowledgeable club members will lead the forayers through the process of identifying the mushrooms discovered earlier in the day. The club is adopting this procedure because it is believed that the foray site is the best-suited location for learning mushroom nomenclature. This system will also permit more time during the summer Monday evening meetings to be spent applying the key system. Every effort will be made to have the foray sites located within an easy driving distance from the Twin Cities, probably less than 50 miles. This way members will be able to spend more time searching for, finding and identifying mushrooms and much less time driving to the foray site. The one exception to this rule will be the annual Morel Foray in early May held near Elba, Minnesota.The 2003 MMS Foray schedule follows:

2003 Foray Schedule

May 10 • May 24
June 7 • June 21
July 12 • July 26
August 9 • August 23
September 6 • September 20