Hi All,
Thanks for the very productive meeting at the museum yesterday. As promised, I have attached the file for the draft "cheat sheet" that I created, and that we worked on revising yesterday. When you guys meet together and finalize which data fields you wish to include in the database, you can feel free to edit this file directly and return it to me.

The purpose of this "cheat sheet" is to act as a handout for the record keeper in the field, to remind them what it is they are supposed to be recording while there. It also provides a brief definition for each of the data entry boxes that will appear on the online data entry form.

For those of you who were not at the meeting, we arrived at the following conclusions (and please correct these if they are wrong and/or add anything I have missed):
1) We should use the list of species that Dave compiled (from all the old foray lists) as the first draft of a "checklist" of species known to occur here. This will serve as a table of names (i.e., fungal taxonomy) in the database and will also be posted on the website for members to print out and use as a checklist on forays.
2) We should try to obtain for the museum's permanent collection at least one representative specimen of each of the taxa on the list so it can act as a physical documentation (voucher) of what grows here for future reference and scientific research.
3) The field data that goes with each voucher specimen will be entered online into a new data form that the museum will create and post on the plant atlas website (www.sdplantatlas.org). This is similar to the situation that now exists for lichens. The database will be available online for searching by the Club members (and the general public??)
4) We will also accept records of observations made (without keeping a specimen) as long as the identity of the specimen is verified by one of the "designated" experts in the group (who will they be?). This will allow us to document locations where different mushrooms were found so we can begin to draw dots on maps to show their distribution across the county. We will explore the idea that photographs will be accepted and linked to these observation records (but this may take some funding).
5) We will build some more web pages with useful information (like a link to photographs of the mushrooms on the checklist) and post those either on the plant atlas webpage, or on the Mycological Society webpage (to be decided).

The way we left it was that the ball is in your court to talk it over and make some final decisions about things such as:
- which data fields are going into the database and what gets printed on the voucher specimen labels
- does this project only cover San Diego County?
- shall we make a convention to always voucher any desert mushrooms because of their unusual nature?
- where should the web pages be hosted, on the plant atlas website or your own website (or a combination since we probably need the database stuff on the museum's website)
- if web content is posted on the plant atlas website (checklists, photos, etc.) do you want them hidden behind a login, or made available to the general public on the front page (are there any concerns about revealing locations to the public??)

Thanks very much for your interest in doing this, and for working on it with us at the museum. I think this will become a very important resource for your members, as well as having scientific significance because of the tie-in with the Plant Atlas project.

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Mary Ann

Mary Ann Hawke Ph.D.
Project Director, San Diego County Plant Atlas
San Diego Natural History Museum
"Your Nature Connection"
Website: http://www.sdnhm.org
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 121390, San Diego, CA 92112-1390, USA
Street Address: 1788 El Prado, San Diego, CA 92101