Chair Dr. Jennifer Allcock, members John Anderson and Bill Adamsen comprised the Nominating Committee. They respectfully present the following for your consideration.
Slate of Directors
A slate of members for election by the membership to the Board of Directors was agreed as follows:
- Six members whose terms expire and have agreed to be nominated for another term:
- Bill Adamsen,
- John Anderson,
- Gayle Kida,
- Will Kies,
- Michael McGee,
- Ellery Sinclair
- Three new members:
- Bill Moorhead,
- Jack Ostroff and
- Jane Harris.
Electing these nine (9) persons to the six existing members whose terms have yet to expire bring the total Board membership to fifteen (15). The new Bylaws makes provision for the election of ten (10) Directors to two (2) year terms.
Slate of Officers
Presentation of a slate of Officers for election by the membership:
- President: Bill Adamsen
- Vice President: John P. Anderson
- Secretary: Dr. Philip Arnold
- Treasurer: Jim Gage
Nominating Committee
Presentation of candidates for this year's Nominating Committee for confirmation by the general membership:
- Member, Chair: Dr. Jennifer Allcock
- Member: Ellery “Woods” Sinclair
- Member: Dr. Robert Gregg
Review and approval of the Bylaws, and election of Directors, Offices, and Members of the Nominating Committee take place at the Annual Meeting.
| Dr. Jack Ostroff has been a member of TACF for eight years, having been intrigued by a display at one of our local agricultural fairs. He received his BS from Yale University, MD from Rutgers Medical School, and MS in Computer Science from Rutgers University. Dr. Ostroff has attempted to use his medical knowledge to make better use of computers in the pharmaceutical industry. He has lived in Connecticut for fifteen years, is a member of a number of environmental groups, and has participated in several CT-TACF work parties, and now wishes to take a more active role as a member of the CT- TACF Board of Directors. |
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| Bill Moorhead is an independent consulting field botanist based in western Connecticut. He has specialized for 20 years in the search for populations of rare plants and their habitats, and the study of plant communities and the factors determining their species composition and distribution. He has worked in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia. His clients include the Farmington River Watershed Association, Connecticut Dept. of Environmental Protection, The Nature Conservancy, National Audubon Society, Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife, Northeast Utilities, and various local land trusts. Highlights of his work include the rediscovery of 26 plants species resumed extirpated in CT, and the discovery of over 600 new populations of rare plants. |
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| Jane Harris is a Connecticut licensed arborist, specializing in plant health care, landscape consultation and appraisals. She has worked for Allan's Tree Service in Middlefield, CT for the past five years. Jane is an active member of the Middletown Garden Club, Garden Club of America and the Federated Garden Clubs of Connecticut. Jane serves on the boards of The Rockfall Foundation, the Connecticut Tree Protective Association and the Middletown Urban Forestry Commission. |
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| Michael Mcgee enjoys the outdoors, and is an avid hiker and bicyclist. He became aware of theAmerican chestnut blight when researching the lumber used to frame his 1819 house. Like most structures built in the area before the chestnut blight, it was framed with chestnut. Since becoming aware of the tale of the American chestnut Mike became a member of the Ct chapter of TACF and was then elected to the board. While exploring the Tolland area he has identified a number of American Chestnut specimens for pollination. Chestnut was once plentiful in the area so there are still many small sprouts and trees to be found. Mike is currently works as an Electrical Engineer and he holds a Masters in Management Degree from Albertus Magnus. He has been accepted to the UConn School of Law and will begin his studies there this fall. |
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| Ellery (Woods) Sinclair has lived in Falls Village for sixty-two years and is a retired English teacher of the Housatonic Valley Regional High School where he became Department Chairman. Presently he is Chairman of the Inland Wetlands/ Conserva-tion Commission, past-president on the library board, Housatonic River Commissioner, Zoning Board of Appeals member, and HVRHS Arboretum Committee member. For the past two years he has helped establish and manages the Canaan Mountain TACF Chestnut Orchard of about 250 backcross trees in Falls Village. He has engaged the Vocational Agricultural Educa-tion students from HVRHS as partners through their curric-ulum, and helped implement a chapter summer-internship. Grateful to be re-nominated, Woods looks forward to serving another term with the dedicated folks on the Connecticut Chapter Board. |
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| Bill Adamsen has been President of the CT Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation for the past three years and served previously as Chapter Treasurer . Bill received a BA from SUNY Purchase in Terrestrial Ecology and has had papers published on plant population ecology. Bill has worked in Information Technology and Computer Consulting for more than twenty years specializing in user experience and interactive web application development. Bill enjoys hiking and boating and spending time with his daughters and their many activities. Bill looks forward to serving another term with the CT Chapter Board of Directors. |
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| Gayle Kida majored in Art at Smith College, but science and nature have been equally strong interests since childhood. She eagerly completed a two semester Horticulture lab and ecology-related courses at Smith, and Hampshire College. She joined TACF in 2003 after finding a nearly dead 10.5 inch DBH American chestnut with burs. After supervising one of CT-TACF's first backcross pollinations in 2005, she agreed to serve as Tree Breeding Coordinator. Along with self-directed study of chestnut literature, she has recorded observations of a native chestnut population over five years as individuals have grown, became blighted and re-sprouted. Gayle is employed in advertising insert printing and is a member of local land trusts and a birding club. |
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| John P. Anderson, Jr. Is the Executive Director of the Aton Forest, a scientific conservation non-profit organization and 1100 acre research station in northwestern Connecticut. John received his BS in Natural Resources Conservation and his MS in Geography from the University of Connecticut. He has served on the Norfolk Conservation and Inland Wetlands Agency, the town's Open Space Committee and the Norfolk GIS work group. He has volunteered for the Norfolk Land Trust and Norfolk Coalition for Sound Growth, and serves on the board of the Connecticut Conservation Association. His research interests include vegetation management, plant community dynamics, wildlife ecology and GIS (geographic information systems). |
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| Will Kies is the Director of Education at the Stamford Museum and Nature Center and believes strongly in the importance of teaching environmental stewardship and sustainability to both children and adults to help people appreciate the natural world around us. He also runs the maple sugaring operations at the Museum. Will received his undergraduate and Masters degrees from the University of Vermont, where he worked with the US Forest Service looking at conservation easements throughout the Northern Forest. |
