The meeting opened at 11 am. Those present: P. DePriest, D. Fahselt, S. Ott, C. Smith, D. Triebel. The meeting discussed seven main subjects:

1. Constitution - Cliff has written to M. Wedin regarding changes to the IAL Constitution, all changes have to be submitted to the membership by the end of February 2000. Consideration of mechanisms for soliciting nomination of officers were discussed, in particular to ensure that nominees are both willing and have the time to do the job. The suggestion that the IAL should become a federation of local and regional affiliated lichen societies was mentioned again but deferred for more detailed consideration. The matter would be more appropriately discussed by the membership at the General Meeting in Barcelona.

2. Suggestions for future IAL meetings - In future, the end of August rather than September would be a better time. It was suggested that the General Meeting should also include workshops, as well as symposia, for example, changing directions in research on lichen symbiosis, lichenicolous fungi. The location of the next IAL General Meeting in 2004 should be outside Central Europe. Some suggested locations included Russia, the Pacific Northwest of USA (Seattle), South America, the east coast of North America. The location should be not too expensive for the majority of participants, and house an active local group of lichenologists. This discussion should continue in the Council so that a venue(s) could be presented to the General Meeting in Barcelona and the sponsors could present an overview of the potential field trips.

3. Special student support - We discussed the establishment of a foundation to support student attendance at meetings. An annual member subscription to a fund is a distinct possibility as well as bequests from members and friends where possible. The establishment of a foundation should be a goal of the next Council.

4. Banking - It was agreed that we should look into establishing two business offices for IAL, to handle different currencies. In each case IAL should seek status as a non-profit organization to avoid taxes.

5. "Finance" Committee - We suggested that President M. Jahns appoints a committee of past Presidents to look into the management of IAL funds.

6. Nominations Committees - The introduction of three nomination committees (each with 3 persons) was discussed: a) The Acharius Medal, b) Mason Hale Award, and c) IAL executive. Nominations should be allowed from the membership, and the process should be open. There should be at least two nominations for each office. No person should have more than one office within these committees. This should also be discussed in Barcelona.

7. Newsletter - E-mail should become the standard way of receiving the Newsletter, as a cost-saving step that would free up more resources for student awards, etc. This should also be discussed in Barcelona.

The meeting closed at 12.30.

Dagmar Triebel, München

The IAL Committee for Conservation of Lichens (ICCL) was set up during the second IAL symposium in Båstad, Sweden, in 1992. The Committee became a Specialist Group under the umbrella of the Species Survival Commission (SSC) at IUCN in 1994. The chairman of this group was G. Thor and the secretary P. Wolseley. Thor has expressed his wish to step down from the chair and Ch. Scheidegger will take over at least until the IAL meeting in Barcelona. We have circulated this information to all members of this Committee, and we hope to ratify positions and membership in Barcelona. Meanwhile, at at the LiCons symposium in Birmensdorf a short meeting was convened, to discuss the preparation of a "Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan Lichens - IUCN/SSC Lichen Specialist Group". A report of this meeting follows:

Ch. Scheidegger gave a short overview on recent IUCN publication series, and proposed that the IUCN/SSC Lichen Specialist Group should work on in the Action Plan for lichens. He asked what should be included, the better known epiphytic species or all lichenised fungi? According to R. Türk, it should include saxicolous and terricolous species because of threatened habitats, etc. Scheidegger said that the "Status Survey and Action Plan Lichens" could be structured by habitat. Other participants suggested that it should include man-made environments, such as metal-rich sites, those of high biodiversity and high endemism, areas of potential biodiversity where little or nothing is known. An example was supplied of the contents of the Bryophyte Action Plan including an introduction, and: a) What are bryophytes? b) Importance of Bryophytes, c) Threats, d) Major habitats, e) Regional overviews, including centres of diversity, conservation issues and case studies, f) Preliminary Red List Areas. The meeting agreed that this a good model, and to ask lichenologists to respond either with offers to cover particular areas or by helping in particular sections. The objective should be to produce a preliminary draft of a "Status Survey and Action Plan Lichens" to be discussed at the IAL symposium in Barcelona. Lichenologists who wish to contribute to its planning and elaboration are kindly asked to contact Ch. Scheidegger by e-mail: scheidegger@wsl.ch. Please write "IUCN" in the subject line.

Pat Wolseley, London

The IAL Council has decided to support the fourth IAL Symposium: a transfer of US$ 3000 is currently arranged from the USA account by the Deputy Treasurer. Therefore, the present balance of the two IAL accounts is of US$ 7500. The mailing costs of the present issue are not known yet - depending on the year of postage (1999 or 2000). Former members who have received issues of the Newsletter during the last years, are requested to pay the membership fee of US$ 40 for 1997-2000. Members who joined the Association at any time during 1997 or 1998, will receive (or have already received) all issues from 1997 (Vol. 30, 1997; Vol. 31, 1998; Vol. 32, 1999). Please, let me know if you have not received them! Lichenologists who have decided to join the Association now, can choose to pay in full (US$ 40 for the entire four years period: 1997-2000), and then they will receive also the back issues. If they choose becoming a member only from January 1999, the fee is of US$ 20. New members should contact the Treasurer in order to be registered. I need your name, mailing address (i.e. institution, street, town, country), fax, e-mail and telephone. Please send any changes as soon as possible. This time, a report of payment is sent only to those members who have not paid completely until 2000. The payment of other members is registered until December 31^th, 2000. Please, submit all unpaid membership fees by April, 30^th, 2000. Exceptionally, some members (who asked it by former correspondence) are allowed to pay during IAL4 in Barcelona, 2000. However, during that Symposium a new membership period (2001-2004) will start. Present treasurers suggested the Council that in the future payment should be accepted only for the entire 4-years period. Payment in advance for the new period should be avoided. The following options are available:

1) Edit Farkas, Institute of Ecology and Botany, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, H-2163 Vácrátót, Hungary - cheques should be made payable to: Hungarian Foreign Trade Bank, H-1051 Budapest, Szent István tér 11, Account no.: 501-00047-2100-4019 MTA TUDOMANY (the account holder is the Dept. International Relations, Hungarian Academy of Sciences); as a remark please add: "IAL membership fee for 1997-2000 (or 1999-2000)". The SWIFT code of the bank is: MKKB-HU-HB - All fees should be paid in US$ You are kindly requested to add US$ 5 for bank charges if you send a cheque, or, in case of bank transfer, to pay all bank fees. Please, inform me directly if a bank transfer has been taken place!

2) IAL dues can be also paid to: François Lutzoni, IAL Deputy Treasurer, Center for Evolutionary and Environmental Biology, Dept. of Botany, The Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605, USA. In this case there is no bank service charge.

E. Farkas, Budapest/Vácrátót

All IAL members are kindly requested to send their nominations for both Council Officers (President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Deputy-Treasuer, Editor) and two Members-at-large to the Secretary, Dagmar Triebel, not later than 1 July 2000. The rules for the nomination under the current constitution are as follows "Nominations for the Council may be made by any individual member and must be submitted to the Secretary in writing (e-mail is OK) at least two months before the election with the written consent of the person nominated. Members of Council are not eligible to serve consecutive terms. If there is more than one nominee for each Council officer, an election by majority vote on a closed ballot shall be held to determine the Council membership."

Dagmar Triebel, München

The IAL is granting the Mason Hale Award to pay tribute to some excellent work done by young lichenologists and the Acharius medal in recognition to the life work of older distinguished lichenologists. The call for nominations was closed on December 15, 1999. The Acharius Medals and the Mason Hale Award will be assigned on the occasion of the IAL 4 symposium in Barcelona, September 2000. Here is a list of former IAL medalists:

• Allison KNIGHT, 28 Embo St., Dunedin, New Zealand, fax: (+64) 3-4878784, e-mail: jgknight@es.co.nz, phone: (+64) 3-4878265.
• Michael A. THOMAS, Dept. of Biochemistry, University of Otago, P. O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand, fax: (+64) 3-4797866, e-mail: mike.t@sanger.otago.ac.nz, phone: (+64) 3-4795149.

• Teuvo AHTI, new fax: (+358) 9-1914830, new phone: (+358) 9-1914782.
• William C. DAVIS, 4537 N. 87th Pl., Scottsdale, AZ 85251, USA.
• Javier ETAYO, Navarro Villoslada 16, 3º dcha., 31003 Pamplona, Spain, jetayosa@pnte.cfnavarra.es
• Katherine A. GLEW, Department of Botany, The Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605, phone: (+1) 312-665-7846, e-mail: kglew@fmnh.org
• Pekka HALONEN, Botanical Museum, P.O. Box 3000, FIN-90014 Univ. Oulu, Finland, e-mail: pehalone@sun3.oulu.fi
• Scott A. LaGRECA, Farlow Herbarium, Harvard University, 22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA, fax: (+1) 617-4959484, e-mail: lagreca@oeb.harvard.edu, phone: (+1) 617 4955729, (+1) 617 4952368.
• Philip F. MAY, 42 Stults Road, Belmont, MA 02478-3431, USA, e-mail: pfmay@aol.com, phone: (+1) 617-4841914.
• Vivian MIAO, Lichen Biology Section, Terragen Discovery, Inc., Suite 300, 2386 East Mall-UBC, Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z3, Canada, fax: (+1) 604-2218881, e-mail: vmiao@unixg.ubc.ca, phone: (+1) 604-2218896, ext. 206.
• Yoshikazu YAMAMOTO, Lab. Adv. Bio-Prod. Sci., Dept. Biol. Prod., Akita Prefectural Univ., 241-7, Kaidobata-nishi, Shimoshinjyo-nakano, Akita, 010-0146 Akita, Japan, fax: (+81) 18-8721678, e-mail: yyamamoto@akita-pu.ac.jp (office), phone: (+81) 18-8721646.
• Douglas ZOOK, School of Education, Boston University, 605 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA, fax: (+1) 617-3533924, e-mail: dzook@bu.edu, phone: (+1) 617-3532030.