Thneed Digest – Week 2014 – 46

The Forest Biometrics Research Institute (FBRI) Annual meeting.

World Forestry Center – Cheatham Hall
Portland, Oregon
November 11, 2014   10am – 2:30pm

What did we learn and what did we get and where is FBRI going…

Full Disclosure… Free State Drivers is contracted with FBRI to perform technical support services as well as other tasks.  However, this is just statement of facts discussed at the latest annual meeting.

5 handouts were provided as well as a 2gb USB memory stick.

Handouts:

  1. Agenda
  2. Participant List
  3. Permanent Research Plot – Database Statistics
  4. Printed version of highlights from the FBRI website distributed at the 2014 SAF / CIF / IUFRO
  5. Comparison of Forest Management Software Suites

USB Contents:

  1. FBRI A New Paradigm.pdf
  2. FBRI Eight Basic Forest Mgmt Steps.pdf
  3. FBRI Forest Projection and Planning System.pdf
  4. FBRI Mathematics of Trees.pdf
  5. FBRI Regional Libraries.pdf
  6. FBRI SAF Exhibit Booth 1007.pdf
  7. FBRI SAF Handout.pdf
  8. FBRI Software Comparisons.pdf
  9. FBRI Western Libraries.pdf
  10. Why FBRI.jpg

An estimated 42 people attended this event.

The Agenda:

  • Introductions
    • Board and Staff were introduced and all attendees gave brief introductions
      • Chairman of the Board, Dan Opalach (2015)
      • Jim McWhorter
      • Ken Borchert
      • Marc Vomocil
      • Rob Taylor
      • President, James Arney (2015)
      • Secretary and Treasurer, Richard Zabel (2015)
      • Support, FSD
  • Welcoming statement by the Chairman of the Board
    • An excellent summary of FBRI events and priorities from the past year and the upcoming year
    • Succession and strategic planning to be a priority.  So much so that Board Meetings will be 2 days with 1 entire day devoted to that planning for the foreseeable future.
  • Summary of March 2014 FBRI Survey
    • Review of excellent survey results.  Shows that Contributors feel that FBRI is on the right path.
    • Plans to send out another survey in the coming weeks to gauge progress.
    • Some suggestion that the current FBRI Manual (released 2014) will be edited and re-released at an unknown time
  • Biometric Updates
    • The FBRI Biometician presented an abbreviated set of results from the draft calibrated library
    • The new library number will be 100 while maintaining the smaller re-calibrated region libraries.
    • The calibration is not done and is expected in the first quarter of 2015
    • No updates to the software were distributed
    • No updates to the library were distributed
    • Documentation is a priority.  A current beta project trying to have a 3rd party calibration is being reviewed and the feedback has been vital to the documentation process.
  • Lunch
    • Ceaser salad
    • Texas Toast
    • Lasagna (Meat and Veggie)
    • Cannolis
  • SAF / CIF / IUFRO Convention Summary
    • An abbreviated summary by the president of the 3 presentations at the event.  Quickly moving over topics covered at past annual meetings.
    • Discussion on expansion and contacts made at the event.
  • Five year plan
    • OOPS!!  Well sort of.  There was no formal presentation here.  But that stemmed from the Q&A following the convention summary.  Many of the questions asked answered these plans.
  • Q&A
    • More communications was a big comment made by several
    • More money was suggested by some with suggestions where to get grants for that income

All in all it was a great meeting and i look forward to seeing the Chairman’s report when it comes out.  Dr. Opalach always does a splendid job with a detailed summary.

One common theme heard through out was the excellent job the entire board is doing and while we here at FSD sometimes hear that on our tech support calls it isn’t possible to overstate the superb job the board members and the amount of work that they volunteer for to make the FBRI happen.  Thank you all!!!