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The meeting opened at 6:30pm with 34 people in attendance. Pat Thomas opened the meeting with a few announcements. Muriel sent our chapter a thank you card for sending her our get well wishes. Pat is working on the first edition of a chapter newsletter. If we have anything we want included in the newsletter let her know before the end of December, which is when she would like to get it out. The January 2003 meeting, which will be our chapter's first birthday, will be a talk by Cathy Leece on milkweeds. Pat welcomed our evening speaker, Bob DuBois, Aquatic Ecologist with the Wisconsin DNR, Douglas County. Besides his research, Bob spends time educating the public about dragonflies and wetlands issues by speaking at schools and leading dragonfly walks for the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin. Bob has been working on a Wisconsin Odonota inventory for the past 6 years. 110 Odonata species have been documented in Douglas County so far; a new species was even discovered in 1999. Bob showed his slide presentation, Biology and Identification of Wisconsin Dragonflies. Bob also discussed methods of capturing specimens for the purposes of identification, preservation techniques for the adults (using acetone), and nymphs and exuvia (shed nymph skins) using alcohol, and he discussed how to make a net. Afterwards he entertained questions from the group. Bob brought 3 handouts for interested persons: Checklist of WI Dragonflies, a list of resources, and a Guide for Surveying Dragonflies for the Wisconsin inventory. The latter pertained to an effort by the DNR to engage volunteers to participate in the inventory. He had various books on display (included on his resource list), as well as some field gear and a mount case of various preserved adult specimens. He also passed around vials containing preserved larval specimens and clear envelopes containing preserved adult specimens. Publisher Sparky Stensaas was present at the meeting and he announced that there will be a book forthcoming from Kurt Mead as part of the North Woods nature series, to be titled Dragonflies of the North Woods. This book will contain 110 Odonata species and the expected release date is May 2003. Kurt Mead is currently working on a dragonfly inventory for Minnesota out of Finland, MN. Meeting adjourned at 7:40pm. I would like to add the following information pertaining to this meeting: The Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin has a web page at http://www.nrfwis.org Submitted by:
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