First meeting of the Maryland Honeybee Working Group

Present: Mike Embrey, Galen Dively, Andrea Morris, Mark Hoffman, Steve McDaniel, Jerry Fischer, Denis Frank, Sandy Sardanelli
Recorder: Charles Mitter

1. Get the people in Maryland with major concern/responsibility for honeybee issues in the same room so that they can start working together.
2. Generate a summary of honeybee research and extension activities, and problems, in Maryland.
3. Generate a list of action items that will begin to address these problems.

The bulk of the time was devoted to a series of reports/statements, by each attendee. At the end of the meeting we generated a list of the following action items:

1. Today's group agreed to continue to work together, and broadcast its intention to do so by naming itself the Maryland Honeybee Working Group.
2. The working group will establish a web presence by early November.
3. The first activity sponsored by the working group will be a public information session on Colony Collapse Disorder and the broader issue of pollinator health in Maryland, to be held Wednesday 12 November as part of the university's Bioscience Day. An announcement, sent to those who had previously responded to a notice distributed at the State Fair, is attached. Working group members will hear from me very shortly with request for their participation!
4. We will work to find funding for an apiary science faculty position in ENTO Dept., commencing with an appeal for support to be made at the Bioscience Day workshop.
5. The working group will have a presence at Honey Harvest Days in Oregon Ridge and Montgomery County.
6. We will have a presence and literature at the Agriculture Legislative Dinner.
7. We will arrange for letters of support for researchers applying for federal funds to conduct research on bees. Dr. Dively has recently sent you such an appeal.
8. We will suggest to Mike Raupp that he invite a guest column for his Bug of the Week page from Jerry Fischer.