The following is a lists a summary of the visions of the Board (where we want the organization to grow and go in the next ten years) drafted by the NALMS Board of Directors at the November 1996 planning session in Minneapolis. These statements are undergoing revision and will be updated and approved by the Board at the time of the 1999 International Symposium in Reno, Nevada.

• Become THE base/source of knowledge sought by all engaged in lake protection, management and education throughout the world.
• Provide technical information/bridge between scientific community and citizens and also to citizens that are unaware.
• Provide forum to bring diverse backgrounds together to seek solutions to real life problems/management.
• Promote understanding of comprehensive management of lake complex ecosystems. How to carry out programs with local involvement/community based environmental protection.
• People resource for networking.
• Provide technical bridge and educational purpose.
• Vision should be all encompassing - be the bridge, protect the resource.
• Have to establish credibility and be an active leader. We don?t have blocks in place.
• Be a voice for lake management; we haven?t established NALMS as a source of assistance.
• Protection of resource(s) unites us all.
• More involvement in education, of future generations (family/children/all levels)
• Work with local communities; getting projects applied in communities; get to people who need it. Need to be the bridge/conduit of information.
• Resource user: need to connect professional and the one who uses the resources. Need to provide/deliver tangible resources/services to do that.
• Improve membership services; give members a feeling of ownership, resulting in increased membership.

The NALMS Planning Committee requested comments on the NALMS Strategic Plan, including the draft Visions statement. My suggestions for modification, sent on 2 August 1999, principally were to consolidate some of these statements to something like the following:

• Be the principal voice promoting comprehensive lake management and local community-based watershed environmental protection in North America.
• Provide technical information/bridge between scientific community, management agencies and citizens.
• Provide forum to bring diverse backgrounds together to seek solutions to real life problems/management.
• Provide resources and services needed to networking professionals, management agencies, communities and citizens, provide for technology transfer, and educational programs at all levels.
• Improve membership services to give members a feeling of ownership.

Please send any suggestions to me by September 30, 1999. That will give me time to consolidate my comments and reports to the Board of Directors for the 1999 annual meeting in Reno.

Sherm Garrison, Director
NALMS Region III

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