2024 Annual Meeting Summary
WAPOA held the 2024 Annual WAPOA Meeting in Crosslake on Saturday, July 27. The attendees were welcomed with coffee, delicious cinnamon rolls, educations exhibits, and by President Tony Coffey. He opened the meeting with one of our mission-related quotes:
“Everything we do is about water quality.”
Coffey went on to sum up a few of our accomplishments this past year. These included:
Funding summer watercraft inspections at area boat landings.
Conducting summer-long water testing at over forty area lakes and streams.
Deep water testing of area lakes
Contracting PLM to inspect twenty-nine landing on the Whitefish Chain for early detection of Aquatic Invasive
Species (no new AIS were found!)
Hosting a statewide AIS Roundtable meeting.
Manning informational booths at area shows
Holding the “Run For The Walleye” with 710 runners from twenty six (26) states
President Coffey introduced the current WAPOA Board of Directors and Emeriti, recognized the sad loss of our Membership Director, Dave Topinka; and the loss of WAPOA members Pat Perry and Tom Thompson. The 2023 Annual Meeting Minutes and the 2023 Year-End Financial Report were reviewed and approved by those attending the meeting.
Election of WAPOA Board Members was conducted. Those elected were Dave Hamel (Business Relations), Geoff Davidge (Natural Resources, Robb Reid (AIS), Scott Johnson (Water Quality), and Shannon Watters (Outreach). Tony encouraged members to consider volunteering for the open Publicity/Communications and Membership Director positions.
Tony shared information about Starry Stonewort being present in lakes near our area and stressed the importance of finding ways to control it. There are currently no effective methods to eradicate it. He stated the best way to “control” it is to PREVENT it from spreading from lake to lake through diligent CLEAN IN-CLEAN OUT practices. He and other WAPOA members will visit Lake Koronis soon to learn how they are addressing the infestation there with Starry Stonewort.
The meeting concluded with President Coffey telling attendees what THEY can do to help WAPOA protect water quality: become a water quality tester, participate in a Shoreline Restoration Community Build, become an AIS inspector at boat landings, join one of WAPOA’s Strategy Groups, and/or join the WAPOA Board, and talk to your neighbors about WAPOA and about protecting our waters.
Following the Business Meeting there were two excellent guest speakers. Anna Cates, PhD, U of MN, and MN State Soil Health Specialist, spoke about Soil Health and Grassland 2.0. Kirsti Marohn, Correspondent, MPR News spoke about her two decades of observations about the Environment, Energy, and Water.
