The Annual General Meeting of the Friends of Ecological Reserves was on February 23, 2001, at the University of Victoria.

President Lynne Milnes welcomed members and guests and reported briefly on the highlights of 2000:

"The year 2000 has been a busy year for the Friends. We have made a concerted effort to reach out to wardens throughout the province and they are writing back! Gail Ross, a former warden and now Assistant Manager of Extension Services in the Parks Branch, Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks, has been very helpful in bridging the gap between the Friends and Parks. She asked me for a wish list and I supplied requests for fencing, funding, signage and transportation assistance on behalf of the wardens of the many Ecological Reserves throughout the province.

"We managed to produce 3 newsletters which appeared as a minor miracle each time it happened. Thanks to Tom Mace-our sometime editor, Cheryl Borris, manager Nichola Walken, Denise-our design person, volunteer Tom Gillespic-our address supplier-and all the wardens who contributed to The Log.

"On the funding end we continued our support of Dr. Jane Watson's sea otter research, Dr. Tom Reimchen's fish-forestry interaction on the coast and Pam Janszen's mushroom studies on Saturna Island (ER #15). This year we assisted Pearson College's superb website with a contribution towards their purchase of an underwater camera for the Race Rocks Ecological Reserve. We also provided a small grant to Kimberlee Chambers who is commencing her Masters degree studies on Balsam Root in the interior of the province.

"Kimberly works under the direction of Dr. Nancy Turner. Dr. Turner was on the Environmental Studies panel that chose this year's recipient of the Friends of Ecological Reserves Vicky Husband Scholarship, given annually to a student who volunteers in the environmental community. The winner for 2000 was Elizabeth Ferguson who, in addition to her studies, volunteered at the Sierra Club of BC preparing educational materials on climate change and working in a daycare centre in Cuba. Elizabeth is off to Oxford next year on a Rotary scholarship and we congratulate her.

"We had one field trip to Trial Island Ecological Reserve under the leadership of Adolf Ceska. We were part of the Pitch-In Canada annual shoreline clean up and, with the help of warden Marilyn Lambert, we picked up debris on the beaches of Alpha and Griffin Island (Oak Bay Islets Ecological Reserve). We sat at the table for the Marine Protected Area Strategy, resulting in Race Rocks being BC's first marine protected area and participated in the University of Victoria Native Plant Conference for the 6th consecutive year.

Our main fundraiser this year was the raffle of the meadowlark painting by Fenwick Lansdowne and the limited edition prints, which we carried over from last year. This project raised over $4000. Nichola Walkden, who handled this complicated event and all things organizational within the Friends, deserves a great round of applause for all her work-including our funding application to the Eden Conservation Trust which increased their annual grant to us by $5000, for a total of $15,000, in acknowledgment of our work with wardens. Nichola has resigned as manager of FER, due to the demands of her full-time job as Deputy Executive Director of the Land Conservancy of BC and so a huge vote of thanks for the work she has done for the past 5 years goes out to her. As well, I would like to thank her and our new manager, Daphne Munroc, for putting this AGM together. In conclusion, I would like to thank the out-going Board of Directors for their contributions and dedication to the society. Onward to 2001!"

Lynne then made a presentation to past-president Cheryl Borris, who did not stand for re-election. Lynne thanked Cheryl for her dedication and hard work during the past several years and announced that Cheryl will continue as editor of The Log for 2 00 1. Lynne also announced that Cheryl will be developing a website for FER during the coming months.

Treasurer Evelyn Hamilton reported on the society's finances, saying that the total operations expense for 2000 was $41,489, of which $4,955 was allocated to the completion of the Grasslands Project. Fundraising revenues from lecture admissions, field trip fees, placemat sales and raffle tickets increased from $4,100 in 1999 to $5,200.

The Nominating Committee presented the election slate for the 2001 Board of Directors. Nine directors stood for re-election. Three additional candidates-Sue Carr, Marilyn Lambert and Nichola Walkdenwere nominated. All were elected by acclamation.