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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Dear IPANErs,</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>I know some of you have tried to submit field forms and you
have experienced problems. I apologize for this. This is one of the
growing pains that is associated with going from something good to something
that works better (even if not at the moment you want it to). We have
been working with our partners at CIESIN (the guys who manage the IPANE data
and website) to both improve the system and to clean up all these niggling
little problems. I am glad to report that one of the big pains we think
has been cleaned up satisfactorily but we need your help. If you have
forms that you have either tried to submit with no luck or that you just haven’t
gotten around to sending in from last year’s field season, please take a
couple of minutes and try submitting one or two. If you have ANY
problems, please email me and let me know precisely what happened or what went
wrong. I will forward these to the computer whizzes at CIESIN. This
is the only way we can really test the system. They are working on these
things now so your timely assistance would be greatly appreciated by all of
us. Without sounding like some sort of hokey commercial, we are really
trying to get this right so it works easily for you. Thanks for your
help.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Second question. We are in the process of figuring out
summer workshops and training sessions and arranging for places and
times. In the past few years, we have offered advanced training sessions
on such things as honeysuckles, privets, other tricky woody plants, grasses and
graminoids, aquatic plants, little known herbaceous invasives and some that
were specifically focused on early detection plants for specific areas. We’d
like to hear from you which ones would be interesting to you (including new
ideas) and that you would be likely to attend if possible. I am not sure
how many we are going to do but we are considering offering advance training
sessions twice, back-to-back, in different parts of New England. If you
have any thoughts on what would be helpful or interesting to you, please email
me and let me know. I’ll throw them in the hopper from which we
will ultimately choose what we will offer. We have some other new ideas
that we’ll be trying this summer too so please stay tuned, dig out your
quadrangle maps and GPS units, and be ready to rock’n’roll this
field season. </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Thanks for your time.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Les</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoAutoSig><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Leslie J. Mehrhoff Ph.D.</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoAutoSig><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Director, Invasive Plant Atlas of New England</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoAutoSig><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoAutoSig><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Box U-43 </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoAutoSig><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>468 Torrey Life Sciences Building</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoAutoSig><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>75 North Eagleville Road</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoAutoSig><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>University of Connecticut</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoAutoSig><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Storrs, CT 06269-3043 USA</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoAutoSig><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Office: 860-486-5708 </span></font></p>
<p class=MsoAutoSig><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>FAX: 860-486-6364</span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'> </span></font></p>
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