Members in attendance approved the minutes of both the 45th annual meeting (held at Indiana State University in 1994) and the 46th annual meeting (held at Mankato State University in 1995), as well as the final Financial Report from the Mankato meeting.

West Lakes Treasurer, Mehmet Aritan, then reported on the financial standing of the division, which showed a balance of $8,568.49 as of October 15, 1996. He added, however, that West Lakes membership was down about 100 from last year. John Fraser Hart suggested contacting Ron Abler at the AAG to inquire about a "quirk" in the data; if none be found, he requested that Treasurer Aritan ask for the Executive Director's suggestions on building membership. Larry Brown suggested that the Division use some of its positive balance to provide "travel compensation" for students from the West Lakes to attend the national meeting. Hart cautioned against spending the Division's funds haphazardly, instead proposing the Division consider an endowment-bearing investment of some kind.

Jon Kilpinen provided his report on the current meeting, a joint conference with the East Lakes Division of the AAG. Citing figures from October 23, he indicated that 117 people had pre-registered for the meeting, including 70 from the West Lakes and 47 from the East Lakes. Almost half of those pre-registered were students. Total income prior to the meeting was $4,710.00 ($3,200.00 from West Lakes), with estimated expenditures totaling $4,396.24 ($2,390.29 for West Lakes). While Kilpinen cautioned that these preliminary figures would likely change once the final tabulations were made, the Division will likely make about $800 from the meeting. Kilpinen added that he would file a final budget report for the meeting with the Treasurer as soon as possible.

Old business included brief discussion of the now-moribund proposal for the merger of the West Lakes and East Lakes divisions and the low attendance levels at Division meetings. On the former topic, consensus indicated that no merger was imminent and that the topic be kept on the "back burner." On the latter topic, most agreed that support from the "major" departments in the Division was necessary to increase meeting attendance, though few suggestions followed as to how to make that a reality.

New business discussion dealt primarily with the topic of future West Lakes meetings and their locations. Since no site had been determined for next year's meeting, the possibility of another joint meeting with East Lakes at Michigan State University was considered briefly. With no invitation forthcoming from an East Lakes officer, talk turned to identifying a West Lakes host. Bill Miller tentatively invited the Division to meet in 1997 at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The Division voted in favor of a Carthage meeting, pending Miller's confirmation within a week. [Miller subsequently notified Chairperson Kilpinen that Carthage would indeed host the 1997 meeting.] Wally Brinkmann extended an invitation to the Division for the 1998 meeting, to be held at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in conjunction with the Wisconsin Geographical Society meeting. The Division quickly accepted this invitation. Divisional officers will explore sites for the meetings in 1999 and beyond, possibly including UW–Oshkosh, UW–Whitewater, and Chicago State.

In other new business, Jon Kilpinen volunteered to prepare a West Lakes home page on the World Wide Web, mainly for centralizing information on Division business and future meetings. His proposal met with mild support. Larry Brown then issued a formal welcome from AAG headquarters. He reiterated his suggestion that AAG divisions provide some sort of student travel compensation for national meetings. He also outlined some ideas/news being discussed in Washington: 1) talk of a merger between the West Lakes and East Lakes has cooled because both regions appear to be "alive and well," 2) the AAG should make a more concerted effort to involve non-academic or "practicing" geographers, and 3) "Jobs in Geography" listings will soon appear on the AAG's web page.

West Lakes Councillor, John Hudson, next presented his report on matters related to the West Lakes discussed at the AAG Council meetings held since the Mankato meeting. He confirmed that a merger of the West Lakes and East Lakes seems highly unlikely any time soon. He also commented on AAG budget concerns related to a slight drop in national membership and increased costs at recent national meetings. Finally, Hudson reported that his term as Regional Councillor ends on June 30, 1997. He stressed the importance of the Councillor position and advocated the election of a new Councillor prior to the Ft. Worth meeting in April.

The Division then elected its new slate of officers. Jon Kilpinen, Valparaiso University, was elected as Chairperson for 1996-1997. Kilpinen was directed to identify hosts for the 1999 and 2000 West Lakes meetings. The Division also elected the Program Coordinator of the 1997 West Lakes meeting as Secretary for 1996-1997. [With his confirmation of a Carthage College meeting next October, Bill Miller assumed the office of Secretary.] Mehmet Aritan, University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, was reelected for another 3-year term as Treasurer for 1996-1999.

Discussion then turned to the election of a new West Lakes Councillor, which requires a vote of all Division members by mail. Chairperson-elect Kilpinen was directed to send out a Call-for-Nominations to the Division (along with a copy of these minutes), the return date for which should be early January. Once nominations are tallied, Kilpinen will mail a ballot to each Division member, to be returned by early March. Kilpinen was directed to pay for these mailings out of any surplus funds generated by the Valparaiso meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:36 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Jon T. Kilpinen
1995-1996 West Lakes Secretary