[Posted on behalf of Cheryl Jones.]
Incumbent director Lee Florea was, for whatever reason, not included the
NSS ballot that will be arriving in your mailboxes soon. Please write his
name in if you would like to re-elect him to the NSS Board. Below is Lee's
platform.
Please circulate this message widely!
Thanks,
Cheryl
LEE FLOREA, NSS 37909FE/LF
My active caving began in 1991 near my family farm in eastern Kentucky.
Caving was a convenient distraction from my studies. By 1993, I became a
NSS member and an active participant in the Green River Grotto. During my
time as a college student, the goals of my weekend trips changed from
recreation, to
exploration, and eventually survey. Expedition work with the Cave Research
Foundation and participation in summer field courses at Mammoth Cave
completed my transformation from a career in physics to a
life-long passion for geology and caving. Recently I returned to Kentucky
from a six-year tenure in Florida when I accepted an assistant professor of
environmental geoscience position at Western Kentucky
University.
These past fifteen years, I have supported the Society, the community, and
the environment in a number of ways. For example, I served as the first
president of the Kentucky Speleological Survey and
I helped to found the Florida Cave Survey.
Additionally, I have worked in a central role with the 2001 and 2008
conventions and with the 2009 International Congress. I have struggled to
protect cave resources for many years from interstate highways and coal
mines in Kentucky and golf courses and housing developments in Florida.
The NSS has achieved public awareness of caves over the past six
decades, but now the Society must adapt its strategies to remain in a crucial
role of cave research and protection. A coherent vision for a new NSS Office
Headquarters is central to that theme.
During my first term as a NSS Director, I have made progress on a number
of goals. Specific actions that I have sponsored include:
1) A streamlining of our policy regarding scholarships; we are now able to
offer two Ralph Stone Awards
to graduate students each year.
2) A renewal of the NSS Preserves Research Initiative including a line of
funding to support awarded grants. 3) Board Acts that have resulted in the
move and inventory of our NSS Speleo Museum.
If elected to the Board for a second term, I will continue my efforts to see the
Society through the present economy, white nose syndrome, and a move to
a new headquarters. I will make it a priority to seek solutions and bridge the
growing gap between non-scientist cavers and non-caving scientists using
my experience in resource protection, policy research, and grant writing.
