Well, we are into a new year. This time of year it seems we all reflect back to review our past and analyze what our future might be and it is amazing how we have evolved. With our IAA elections coming up I have taken a look at what my part has been in the past years with the Iowa Arborist Association.

My real association with the IAA started during Linda Wright’s term as President. Coming from a media background before getting hooked by Arboriculture, I was asked if I would be willing to document on film anything that might be of interest to our organization. I spent a year taking photos of climbers, job site setups, interesting trees and etc .. I printed out a couple of rolls of film and have a dozen or more undeveloped rolls floating around who knows where. I discovered that with new staff coming and the old staff leaving some projects seem to fall into oblivion. In the last several years we seem to be more focused and this has happened with the introduction of the internet.

I since have served in several capacities on and off our IAA board. During Mindy Charion’s term as President I was asked to become our Sergeant of Arms, so to speak, to manage our inventory of competition gear. I borrowed the finances to purchase our first trailer dedicated to housing our equipment. This trailer was used by our organization for several years prior to the IAA purchasing our own. I have served two terms on the Board of Directors, one as Rep at Large and another as SW Rep. I have been fortunate to serve two terms as President. I have also served 8 years as our ISA Component Executive and 10 years as our ISA Representative for COR, now termed as Component Counsel.

Prior to my first term as President, our Board initiated the process to become our own ISA Chapter. During this process we studied other chapter documentation and then submitted our own versions of this documentation which allowed us to be considered an ISA Affiliate Chapter. As President my first term one of my first goals was to establish a few new committees and ask for volunteers of Board Members to Chairman these positions. The next task I had was to have the IAA established as an ISA chapter with full status. To achieve this status I worked with ISA through numerous conferences and emails to provide the exact documentation needed. The most difficult part u of this task for me was to rewrite or MOU to become accepted by the ISA. Other documentation needed was a list of the Board of Directors, Copy of our By Laws, a statement of Termination written by me and included in our By Laws. There were eleven different documents we worked on that I had to review, rewrite, and submit as enclosures to become a Full Status Chapter. This took the majority of my time my first term. It was gratifying to learn of our acceptance via an email to me from the ISA on Oct. 21, 2019. Several goals accomplished.

Another goal I had during my first term was to show appreciation to our Board Members and Committee Chairs for all their long hours of work and dedication by reimbursing them their IAA dues. This was voted on by our board and past, but had not been put out to our membership until my second term. It passed by membership vote during my second term, but only so far as Board Member dues. I would like to pursue the inclusion of all Committee Chairman that are not current Board Members.

One of my first goals for the IAA was to increase membership and membership participation at our events. Before running a full blown climb competition, we brought in help from the Mid West Chapter to help us setup and hold climb seminars. We started giving out a prize or two to the top Competitor. The problem was that we didn’t really get much participation and the same competitors seemed to always win the prize. I had heard from potential competitors that this discouraged participation. So in 2009 or 2010 Bette (my wife) and I came up with the idea giving a Spirit Award to any new competitor that made an effort with a good attitude in competing or volunteering at our event.

It was an unexpected Prize. The first time I gave it away it seemed to have a positive impact as it was given to one of our Utility Arborist that bragged it up to the crews he worked with. The following year Bette and I gave out three awards as we had more competitors; a men, women and volunteer prizes were given out. We continued to provide the Spirit Award until I physically could not attend one year. I was very happy to see that the award continued. The number of participants and volunteers has had tremendous growth. I’m glad I was able to be a part of it again and able to donate prizes to it this last year. Another goal accomplished and the Spirit Award seems alive and I’m sure will live on.

I received an email sent on 1-11-25 stating that I had been nominated to run for a Board position again. I informed them that I would be honored to sit in any position available. I still have a few goals I would like to see our organization achieve in the areas of organization, acquisition and allocation of our finances, just to name a couple. Regardless of election outcome, I want our Board, Committees and membership so far has been one of the best experiences I have had. I have met a lot of really great dedicated people that have been fun to work and hang with. I have been able to experience and learn new things things thru my association with this organization. I will be around and look forward to the opportunity of exchange and sharing of experiences, knowledge and learning we have to give to one another.

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