Membership

Stephanie Wright

November 2021

















 

---

After the demise of Yahoo groups, MSSF investigated replacement choices. 
We settled on groups.io.     Many of you probably are already a member of one or more groups using that platform.

This is a private group for MSSF member's only (because the newsletter archive is available to the public, I will not include the subscription information for groups.io member talk group in this newsletter).
When you are logged in to the MSSF Members-Only part of mssf.org website, the link to join is there. When you request to join the group, please include your name (not just email address) - we have to manually check new subscribers against the MSSF member database; having your name will make it much easier for the group moderators to do so. Thank you.
 

---

I miss seeing friends at the general meetings, Culinary dinners and camping forays, but MSSF has been active since February 2020 in spite of the need to curtail or modify in-person activities.
While we haven't had in-person meetings since February 2020, we have conducted our general meetings via Zoom. We have had smaller-group member-only forays, although not the large gatherings such as Mendocino Woodlands or the large spring forays in the Sierras.
The Fungus Fair generates a significant portion of the annual MSSF income, members dues are most of the rest of our income, and there was no Fungus Fair in 2020, thus your member dues became the primary source of income for the club.
Some expenses, such as renting space at the Randall Museum for meetings have been absent these past months, but many expenses have continued unchanged.
You might wonder what your dues go towards, here are some of the budget items:

• Speaker honorariums for our diverse general meeting presenters
• Insurance
• Scholarships
• The cost of our web presence, member-database services, groups.io member-talk group service...
• Banking fees, merchant fees (for credit card processing), and so on...
• Group permits for foray locations that require that
• We had already rented the facility and acquired permits for Mendo Camp 2020. Camp was canceled for both 2020 & 2021, and the fees will be applied to a future camp, but they were already paid last year.
• Space rental for meetings & events - this is an expense that we haven't had since March 2020.
• We have food & beverages during hospitality hour before general meetings - this is an expense that we haven't had since March 2020
• Materials for educational programs & events

This fall MSSF has been adding more member-only forays and some classes. We continue to have interesting speakers each month that a general meeting takes place. The Culinary Group had small, outdoor, potlucks Sept-Nov, and will resume meeting next spring. The Fungus Fair planning is in progress.
More forays and events will take place.

I hope you will renew your membership to the Mycological Society of San Francisco.
- stephanie