New Mexico Mycological Society
- January 1999
January Meeting - Speaker: Robert Chapman
Our first meeting for 1999 will be on January 5th,
7:30pm, at the Natural History
Museum. At our November
meeting, Bob
Chapman offered to present a talk on Introductory Books and basic Mushroom
Taxonomy. I contacted Bob to ask if he might elaborate, to which he
responded, "The working title is 'Books in My So-Called Life' a
metaphysical (had to throw that in, I live in Santa Fe now) or just
disjointed diatribe containing at least a few vague references to the vast
body of mycological literature."
December Potluck
Thank You MaryLee and John Sparks for opening your house to us and hosting
a wonderful Holiday Potluck. Thanks also to all those who brought the
great food and good cheer. During my few years with NMMS,
the
Sparks, as well as Ellen & Bill Reed, have very generously welcomed us
into their homes on several occasions.
Some ramblings from your new president - Larry Weingarten
I would like to wish all Happy Holidays and thank everyone for your
vote of confidence in me as your new president. I know that I will be able
to count on our members to volunteer and help out as needed on all of the
club projects and activities this coming year.
As the new year approaches, I can't help but wonder what mushrooms we will
find in our fields and forests in the upcoming warmer months? Will they be
edible? Or will they be unknown? If most of you are like me, I know how to
ID some of the edibles, but when it comes to that pretty little gilled job
that I just picked, I have no clue as to where to start looking in one of
my many ID books. But thanks to Ruth Bronson's wonderful idea to have some
ID classes for our group, we will not be asking ourselves what the @#%@ is
this thing.
The first class will start with the first meeting of the year, January
5th, and others will be conducted during the winter and spring. I do hope
all will be able to make it to all of the classes so when the mushrooms
pop up we will be ready to ID them.
Next we have been talking about making a slide show of the mushrooms of
New Mexico. A list of 40-some
mushrooms has been compiled by Ted Stampfer, and more have been asked for.
I would like to get started on this project NOW! Hopefully by year's end
we will at least have something to show. If you have any slides of
mushrooms that you would like to summit, please send them to me or Ted and
we will have them duplicated and get them back to you. You will receive
credit as the photographer if we use your photo. Also if you enjoy taking
pictures of mushrooms, the club can supply some slide film for you to use
on your field trips and at our Annual Foray.
Now that the subject of the Foray has been brought up, if you know of a
new and/or interesting location where we might hold our Foray, let me
know, so we will all be able to work with the not-as-yet-decided-on Foray
Chairman to make it happen. I also have one more project that I would like
to see happen this upcoming year, but I have rambled on enough for now;
come to the January meeting to find out what I have in mind.
Dues
We're still collecting dues for 1999 membership. Sharon and I would
like to express our appreciation to all who have paid already. We are
asking those who have not paid to submit payment no later than the January
Meeting. Those who cannot attend the meeting can send a check for
$25, payable to NMMS, to Sharon Chong.