Monday Meeting Minutes (alliteration is fun!)

We had an awesome turnout for the meeting today (thanks everyone!), and as promised, here are the subjects we covered that need to be remembered (dates and such).

1. Weekly Meeting time: The decided upon meeting time will remain 12:20 every Monday afternoon.
2. Club dues: We would like to have the dues turned in ASAP (prefferably by next meeting if possible) These dues will go toward SAF application costs as well as T-shirt costs. The cost is just $5 a semester.
3. Club T-shirts: Club T-shirts should be available by next meeting, and will cost $12 for club members or $15 for non-club members.
   
4. Wednesday August 26th: Woodsman team / Forestry Club Cookout starts at 5PM and ends whenever the last folks leave. We are doing this knowing that there are some of you freshmen out there that don't get out of lab until 7pm, and we want you to be there to enjoy a burger and good company. See y'all there.
5. Saturday August 29th: Jammin' on the Mill Pond starts at 10AM and ends at 8PM. We will be running a booth there as well as demonstrating timber sports events for onlookers. We are looking for people to run the booth (selling T-shirts) and demo the events. If you didn't sign up at the meeting, but are interested in supporting the clu, get with a club officer to submit your name.
6. Sunday August 30th: Club rafting trip on the Nantahala River. See previous post for specifics.
7. Saturday September 5th: Timbersports demo at the GSMNP fund raiser in Waynesville. I know that this is during Labor Day, but any help working the booth or doing an event would be very much appreciated.
8. Tuesday September 15th: The ApSAF Pisgah and Nantahala chapters will be leading a tour of the Waynesville watershed. Other chapers involved will include our own HCC student chapter, the student chapter from Warren Wilson College, and hopefully students from the Western Carolina student chapter. Topics discussed will cover silvicultural treatments within the watershed, the status and direction of the watershed project, and much more. We will need volunteers to help cook burgers and represent the college in a positive manner. This is a great opportunity to meet forestry professionals in the area, so keep this tour in mind. The tour should run from approximately 4:15 to 5:30 or 6:00 with a cookout following. More details will follow.
   
9. Saturday October 3rd: John G Palmer Intercollegiate Timbersports Meet at the Cradle of Forestry. Practice at the shed began today, remember, practice makes perfect while making you eligible to compete. We discussed requirements for competition, and have determined that a couple of hours (3-4) a week is necessary to be competitive against Penn State Mont-Alto. Team Captains, Daniel Jones and Jeremy Graves, will be watching who shows up and is actually practicing and will ultimately judge who can and can't qualify to compete. BE THERE!
10. FIREWOOD!!!! We are looking for volunteers to chop and haul firewood. Seek out Rance Rogers or Boomer for more details.

Well, That's all for now folks!
~Billy

Welcome back!!!!!!

Hello my fellow foresters, and welcome back to yet another exciting semester at Haywood Community College. I also want to welcome the newest additions to the HCC Forest Management Program, we are all happy to have you with us. We're starting this semester at full throttle with an event packed second week.
They are as follows:

1. Monday Aug 24th: First Forestry Club meeting of the semester to be held in room 310 at 12:20 (please be there)
2. Wednesday Aug 26th: FC/Woodsmen Team cookout and timber sports demo to be held at the woodsmen shed at 5:00.This is a great time for freshmen to meet the sophomore class and mingle in a fun-filled and laid-back environment. Come enjoy the burgers and hotdogs, chips and drinks provided by the club. (anyone unsure of where the woodsmen shed is, ask a sophomore or an advisor)
3. Saturday Aug 29th: Join us at the millpond for "Jammin' on the Millpond"
4. Sunday Aug 30th: The FC will be rafting the Nantahala River. We will meet in the parking lot of the old Wal-Mart at 11:45AM to be at the rafting site by 2:30PM. The trip down the river is estimated to be a 2 hour trip, so the return time should be around 6:30 - 7:00pm. The cost is $19 and we have a limit of 24 seats available, so if you are interested look for the sign up sheet on the FC bulletin board.

That's all for now, I look forward to seeing you all at the meeting!
~Billy

Website Wins Third Place in SAF Competition!

Just received word from the Society of American Foresters that our website (yes, THIS ONE) placed third in the SAF Student Chapter Website Award contest! From Claire Kovacs, Advertising Manager for SAF:

We have tallied the final scores of the SAF Student Chapter Website Award contest and congratulations are in order for you and your SAF Student Chapter - the Haywood Community College Student Chapter has won Third Place in the SAF Student Chapter Website Award! A huge congratulations goes out to your chapter members for a job well done.Comments from the judges were unanimous in thinking that the future of the forestry profession is in very good hands. Details for receiving the award in Orlando at the National Convention will be forthcoming. Congratulations again for all of your hard work!

Kudos to Bill on all the great photo posts from this summer!!

Forest Recreation

Here's a look at the many activities enjoyed by the HCC Forest Management students during their three week course in forest recreation (yes, it really is a class!).

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Aside from hiking and generally just enjoying the outdoors, the students learned the history of forest recreation in America; Discussion topics included the history of National Park creation, important figures in history that pushed for the protection of wilderness like John Muir and Aldo Leopold, and which government components control and manage the different aspects of recreation. Enjoy the pictures!

Billy

Club VP Selected to Serve as SAF Student Congress APSAF Chair

This article was recently posted on the college homepage:

Haywood Community College Forestry student Bill Sweeney was recently elected as the national Society of American Foresters Student Congress Chair. Student from any college represented in the Appalachian Society of American Foresters were eligible to apply for this position including those from two and four-year schools. As Student Congress Chair, Sweeney will lead other student delegates from across the nation representing their respective forestry programs at the 2009 Annual SAF Conference to be held in Orlando, Florida in September.

Sweeney will graduate from HCC next spring. He is vice president of the school’s Forestry Club and has a 4.0 grade point average. He was a marshal at this year’s graduation ceremony. On the HCC Woodsmen’s Team, he competes in the bolt split, axe throw, dendrology, and pulp toss events. This past year, he came in second place in the dendrology and axe throw events. As the Student Congress Chair, Sweeney will serve as liaison between the Appalachian SAF and colleges. He plans to create a network of forestry club presidents in hopes to get students more interested. Most of HCC Forestry students are already very active in the SAF.

“This position is a great networking tool,” Sweeney says. “It is a great way to obtain knowledge on jobs, a career, and for mentorship.” Sweeney says he will participate once a month in phone conferences and consistently through email with the SAF and Student Congress.

Sweeney is a native of Asheville and graduated from Asheville High School in 1992. He spent two years in the Army as a mechanic and two years in the active Reserves. He was worked in retail automotive managing various commercial automotive stores. In addition to attending HCC full-time, he also works full-time at O’Reilly Auto Parts. Sweeney says pursuing a career in forestry is something he’s always wanted to do. “Growing up, I took regular trips hiking, camping, and picnicking in the Pisgah National Forest.” He believes that the role of a forester is to be right in the middle of preservation and conservation.

After graduation, Sweeney plans to pursue a Bachelor’s degree at either Virginia Tech or the University of Idaho. “HCC is really hands-on,” he explains. “HCC definitely gives you the experience of doing the work, doing the job you will be doing when you finish school. They have a great staff that is interested in helping you succeed. Every teacher has gone out of the way to help. There’s no excuse not to do well.”

Mt. Lyn Lowery Mensuration Hike

As a reward to the students who worked so hard to achieve and maintain the high HCC Forestry standards in the Summer 2009 Mensuration Class, instructor Bob Pinkston led a 15 mile hike to and from the summit of Mt. Lyn Lowery. Though long and arduous, the vistas and feelings of accomplishment shared by the class made the trek more than worthwhile. The students came to see why Lyn so dearly loved these mountains. Posted below are some shots of the trip taken by the students with hopes that you too will enjoy the beauty of Mt. Lyn Lowery as we did.

~Billy

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SummerMensuration Class 2009

Forestry juices are a-flowin' as students put their gained knowledge into practice during week two's systematic cruise on the Beaty Forest.

Pictured: Jessi Bowen
Picture by: Ryan Hyman