From the Board - August 2025

The Board has been busy preparing the upcoming Conference in Oaxaca. There are a few important announcements to share:

The Triennial Meeting of Members will be held at the 11th IOS Conference in Oaxaca. It will take place on Monday, October 6 at 6.30 pm, immediately following the Group Photo. All Conference attendees are encouraged to attend. We hope to be able to arrange for members not at the Conference to attend the Meeting of Members via Zoom. Instructions will be sent out via email. You can review the minutes of the previous Meeting of Members held at the 10th IOS Conference by following the link below: bit.ly/IOSMoM2022

At the Meeting of Members, the New Board of Directors will be proposed for confirmation. Dan Kostka, who has done a magnificent job as Secretary for the past term, will be standing down. Dirk Giseburt, equally outstanding as Treasurer since 2018, will retire from that role but will be standing for reelection as a Director, as will all other current Board Members.  In addition, four new candidates have volunteered to serve on the Board. As the total number of candidates (11) is below the total allowed in the Bylaws (12), we do not require an election by mail, and instead the proposed Board can be confirmed by members at the Meeting of Members, as we have done since 2018. You can review Candidate Statements on our website here: bit.ly/IOSBrdCands

The Board has approved the Financial Committee’s report for Fiscal Year 2024. You can view it here: bit.ly/IOSFinReps. Thanks to dynamic growth in membership numbers and to contributions from Supporting and Institutional Members, income from membership fees has increased, but our unrestricted funds continue to decline. Our expenses, the largest being the cost of printing and shipping our Journal, which has risen over the past few years, are not covered by our current membership fee structure. On the Finance Committee’s recommendation, the Board has resolved to increase membership dues, which have remained constant since the last rise in 2016, despite significant inflation. The Board is studying options and new membership dues effective October 1 will be announced in due course.

Finally, a point regarding collection of acorns during the Conference Tours and Field Trips. We will obtain relevant permission from landowners etc. so that we can collect seed in some of the locations we will visit. However, it will be the individual responsibility of each participant to obtain required permissions to take seeds to their country of residence. We encourage members to abide by regulations in this regard.

This is my final “From the Board” message as President before a new President takes over for the next term. I would like to thank the Directors who have volunteered their time and work since the last Conference in Las Cruces. There is much we have achieved and there are challenges that lie ahead, as will be discussed at the Meeting of Members. I look forward to seeing many of you in Oaxaca, and we will continue to share with members the Society’s developments as we grow and flourish.

Roderick Cameron
President
International Oak Society