Committees of the Wisconsin Mycological Society are groups of members focused on a subset of managing the Society.

All members are welcome to join in on any of the committees we have.  The WMS Board of Directors is a dedicated group of hardworking individuals, but we can always use more help from the membership to get things done!

Please let us know via the Contact Page if you would like to get involved with any of our committees and we will have our committee chairs contact you to start your journey! 

Our current (2024) committees:

NEW! - Conservation and Stewardship Committee - WMS would like to get involved education concerning the state of the mature and old growth forests in Wisconsin and the current state of logging, deforestation, and fungal ecology within that context. 


Events Committee - This is our most administrative and volunteer-based board committee.  All of our events big and small need to be organized with venues secured, set up, torn down and cleaned, needed permits obtained, foray leaders and lecturers lined up and vetted, workshops planned and run.  Within the Events committee, we also have separate sub-committees to organize all of our retreat forays which currently include: (1) Hiles Foray in based in Hiles, WI, (2) Rustic Camping Foray based in Bayfield, WI, (3) Tri-County Foray based in Cumberland, WI, and (4) the Northwoods Foray based in Cable, WI. We accept interest from members in working at these events as foray leaders, speakers and in other roles and accept volunteer interest as well.


Finance - While the finance committee does not actually directly spend WMS money, they assist our treasurer and assistant treasurer in completing monthly reconciliations of the money spent in the club, to develop and maintain the annual budget, and to follow up on any needed tax or other financial documentation and filings. Finance committee may also someday become engaged in seeking and applying for grants on behalf of WMS.


New! - Governance Committee - WMS has new bylaws that were just passed this year (end of 2024), but we also need to develop a variety of policies including a code of conduct and a conflict of interest policy.  Suggestions from members and members who would like to join this committee are welcomed. 

Marketing Committee - Communicating our endeavors and the results of our fungal surveys (forays) to our members is very important.  How else will anyone know what's going on? The marketing team creates media to go in our emails and posts for our social media channels and deploys them to keep our members up to date and to enhance our educational mission.

Membership & Outreach Committee - WMS needs to make partnerships within the state of Wisconsin to be more effective at spreading education about fungi in our state and beyond.  We also discuss how best to celebrate and serve our members in this committee. We have created scholarships and our new WMS Envoy positions to encourage more engagement in mycology in our state.

Merchandise Committee - WMS makes and sells merchandise that our members and fans can get to support our mission and look really cool.  Our current long-term goal is to re-develop an online store and sell our merch there.  Currently you are most likely to find WMS merch for sale at our retreat forays, our annual fungi fair, and a few other events.

Newsletter - Volunteers for this committee can either write or produce written or visual arts material for the newsletter, or help solicit material from others for our newsletter publication.  Volunteers can also help by copy editing our material or formatting it in Canva or another publishing program. Creative submissions are very welcome! Our newsletter has published mycology event reviews, recipes, poems, comics, illustrations, photography, book reviews, mycology resource recommendations, scientific news and views, and much more.

Science Committee - We are developing a more robust citizen science program every year. We have volunteers who educate us on the use of iNaturalist, help set up our new DNA sequencing program and connect with fungaria (herbaria for fungi) partners to secure a home for our specimens which connects them to mycology researchers. Let us know if you are passionate about science and want to join this committee or volunteer in these ways!

Wisconsin Wild Mushroom Certification Class Committee - this committee is largely focused on planning and conducting our Wisconsin Wild Mushroom Certification Class which we developed at the request of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. You can read more about this class here. Members are welcome to join this committee!