VMS Meeting October - Eric DeChaine
2018-10-09 19:30 - 21:00 (America/Vancouver) | The Usual: VanDusen, Floral Hall, 5151 Oak St, Vancouver, BC, V6M 4H1, Canada
Eric DeChaine will visit us from Bellingham, Washington to present “The Promises and Pitfalls of Inventorying Fungi in Cascadia”.

DeChaine is interested in the evolution and biogeography of arctic-alpine plants and fungi. He studies the effects of historic and future climates on the distribution and diversity of these organisms with the goal of identifying processes underlying speciation and endemism around the North Pacific Rim.

Fungus Among Us Festival
2018-10-12 18:00 - 2018-10-13 16:00
Organized by the Whistler Naturalists, the Fungus Among Us Festival is a great event with lots to offer! Click here for more details and to buy tickets.

39th Annual VMS Mushroom Show
2018-10-21 10:00 - 16:00 | The Usual: VanDusen, Floral Hall, 5151 Oak St, Vancouver, BC, V6M 4H1, Canada
Come celebrate all the amazing fungi at our 39th anniversary of the show!

Richmond Art Gallery Tour & Mushroom Walk
2018-10-27 12:00 - 14:00 | Richmond Art Gallery, 7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond, BC
Artist Xiaojing Yan’s exhibition In Suspended Silence features some very fungal art. We’re participating in a group tour of the gallery, starting a 12pm, and then moving to nearby Minoru Park for a brief mushroom walk to see what’s out there.
Click here for more info about the exhibition.
Richmond Art Gallery
7700 Minoru Gate
Richmond, BC V6Y 1R8
BY DONATION – funds going to the gallery, which graciously offered this free tour

Mayne Mushroom Muster 2018
2018-11-03 13:00 - 15:00 | Mayne Island Agricultural Hall, 430 Fernhill Rd, Mayne Island, British Columbia, V0N 2J0
This is an opportunity to check out the amazing diversity of mushrooms on Mayne Island. We encourage you to bring in samples for discussion and identification with the help of other local mushroom enthusiasts.
There will be prizes for largest mushroom and most diverse collection.
More info at: https://mayneconservancy.ca/event/mayne-mushroom-muster-2018/?fbclid=IwAR1RkT_pQLCLayDQBhmno-gMXX-KdykAbmTZ1bfFw8thuwluzKhIjGYKn18

Beaty Members' Guided Mushroom Walk
2018-11-04 10:30 - 12:30 | Beaty Biodiverstiy Museum, 2212 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada
Do you know where to look to find the dozens of mushrooms species that call our campus home? Beaty Museum Members are invited to join our Fungi Curator Mary Berbee to learn more about how to identify different mushroom types and where to look for them.
Meet at the museum for instructions on what to look for and then embark on an hour long walk in small groups around campus where you will collect your own specimen. The groups will meet back at the museum and vote for their favourite fungi!
You can book now at: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/beaty-members-event-2018-mushroom-walk-tickets-50419325560
A museum membership and an EventBrite registration is required to attend this popular event. Memberships can be purchased in person at the museum or online: http://beatymuseum.ubc.ca/get-involved/membership/

Richmond Mushroom Show
2018-11-04 11:00 - 16:00 | Richmond Nature Park, 11851 Westminster Hwy, Richmond, BC
Discover the fungus among us as the Vancouver Mycological Society presents a show of local autumn fungi. Bring mystery mushrooms for identification on Sunday, November 4 between 11:00 am and 4:00 pm.
Admission is by donation and all proceeds support the Richmond Nature Park Society’s environmental education programs.
This event is suitable for all ages. Parking is limited so please consider your impact on the environment and consider travelling by bus or bike. For more information, call the Richmond Nature Park at 604-718-6188 or visit www.richmond.ca/parksprograms.

Beatrix Potter: Illustrations of this World
2018-11-10 14:00 - 16:00 | VanDusen Botanical Garden, 5251 Oak Street, Vancouver, BC
Beatrix Potter was a woman of many interests and ambitions. However, we often come to know only one of these, her children’s books. Renowned for her fabulous Peter Rabbit storybook illustrations at the turn of the Century, during this period Potter was also involved in the study of fungi (mycology) and, later in life, land conservancy efforts in Britain.

VMS Meeting November - James Kronstad
2018-11-13 19:30 - 21:00 | The Usual: VanDusen, Floral Hall, 5151 Oak St, Vancouver, BC, V6M 4H1, Canada
Dr. James Kronstad will present “Fungal threats to human health”.
James Kronstad received his PhD in 1984 from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Washington. In 1989, he was recruited by Dr. Michael Smith (a founder of ZymoGenetics) to join the faculty of the Biotechnology Laboratory, and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of British Columbia. He was promoted to full professor in 1999 and was Director of the Michael Smith Laboratories (previously called the Biotechnology Laboratory) from 2008 to 2017.
For the past 30 years, Dr. Kronstad’s research program has focused on understanding mechanisms of pathogenesis for fungi that attack plants and animals. Recent contributions include collaborations on the genome projects for the cereal pathogen Ustilago maydis, the fungus Malassezia globosa (associated with skin diseases) and five strains of the AIDS-associated pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans.

December VMS Meeting - Members' Night
2018-12-11 19:30 - 21:00 | The Usual: VanDusen, Floral Hall, 5151 Oak St, Vancouver, BC, V6M 4H1, Canada
Members’ Night is returning after a brief hiatus in 2017. Instead of a single speaker presenting, we’ll have several members giving mini-presentations on a fungal topic they’re passionate about. Expect to hear about interesting projects, personal trips into the fungal unknown and maybe even some VMS history!

Survivors' Banquet
2019-01-19 17:00 - 21:30 | The Usual: VanDusen, Floral Hall, 5151 Oak St, Vancouver, BC, V6M 4H1, Canada
Survivors’ Banquet – members-only event
The mushroom-lover’s social event of the year! Potluck dinner with all your fellow mycophiles. Email president@vanmyco.com to register.

VMS Meeting: Daniel Winkler
2019-03-12 19:30 - 21:30 | The Usual: VanDusen, Floral Hall, 5151 Oak St, Vancouver, BC, V6M 4H1, Canada
Our speaker is the one and only Daniel Winkler, presenting the “Best of Mushroaming”, a retrospective on his decade of mushroom hunting and explorations around the world.

When traveling in rugged High Asia (Tibet & Bhutan), his native Alps, tropical South America (Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia & Suriname), as well as wild North America, Daniel is on the hunt for gorgeous choice edibles, potent medicinals, and all kinds of bizarre and colorful fungi from the most minute to massive fruitings. His favorite hounds are rain forests, be it tropical or temperate as well as alpine environments. His favorite fungi (besides all these tasty edibles) are strange Cordyceps, which triggered Daniel’s curiosity in medicinal mushrooms 20 years ago in Tibet. Recently this interest matured into a new field guide “Medicinal Mushrooms of North America” published in cooperation with Robert Rogers.

Daniel is the author of field guides to Edible Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest and California (both Harbour Publishing, 2011 and 2012) and Amazon Mushrooms (2014, co-authored). www.mushroaming.com

This event is free and open to everyone, as are all our regular meetings, although membership purchase is encouraged!

VMS Meeting: Spencer Stuart
2019-04-09 19:30 - 21:30 | The Usual: VanDusen, Floral Hall, 5151 Oak St, Vancouver, BC, V6M 4H1, Canada
LECTURE DESCRIPTION
Beatrix Potter was a woman of many interests and ambitions, however we often come to know only one, her children’s books. Renowned for her fabulous Peter Rabbit storybook illustrations at the turn of the Century, Potter during this period was also involved in mycology and, later in life, land conservancy efforts in Britain.
Join lecturer Spencer W. Stuart as he explores three facets of Potter’s life. Beginning with her extraordinarily successful children’s tales, of which she published twenty-three, he will delve into Potter’s lesser-known involvement with the study of fungi through scientific illustration as well as writing. Now housed in the Armitt Museum in England and Perth Museum in Scotland, these beautifully executed and famously accurate watercolours continue to serve as reference to both amateur and expert mycologists alike. Finally, he will discuss her enduring legacy to the conservation of the historic Lake District of North West England, revealing not only the familiar figure we have all come to know of imagination and fairy tale but also an enthusiastic, down-to-earth Naturalist caught up in the debates of the day.
BIO
Spencer Stuart holds a master’s degree in the History of Art from the Courtauld Institute in London, England (recipient of the Director’s Award). Upon graduation he took a position with Bonhams Auctioneers where he worked closely with the North American Rare Books and Manuscripts department in Toronto and New York.
Spencer is now a collections advisor for middle to mature stage collectors of rare books, manuscripts, photographs, and prints. In concert with his advising, he is an active writer and lecturer on histories of the printed word for a variety of international publications including The Book Collector and Amphora as well as having a monthly segment with Sheryl McKay on CBC Radio’s North by Northwest as a Book Historian.
Spencer is an alumnus of both the Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminars (’18) and the Rare Book School (University of Virginia).

Blue Lake Spring Foray
2019-05-10 15:00 - 2019-05-12 11:00

Annual General Meeting
2019-05-14 19:30 - 21:30 | The Usual: VanDusen, Floral Hall, 5151 Oak St, Vancouver, BC, V6M 4H1, Canada
May 14th will be our AGM! In order to vote, you will need to be a member. You can renew or join at the meeting, or online anytime.
We will have a presenter after the AGM business is done, about 8/8:30pm.
After the AGM business Gustavo de Moura will present “Kombucha: History, SCOBY, and why you should be drinking it.”
Bio:
Gustavo de Moura. BA in Accounting from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil; Graduate of the Brewing and Brewery Operation Diploma from Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Head Brewer at Oddity Kombucha since July 2018.
After deciding to move to Canada, I also moved to a new career in the brewing industry. My passion for craft beers led me to the Brewing diploma on KPU, and the love for fermented food got me started at homebrewing Kombucha. After finishing my studies at Kwantlen I got a brewer position at Faculty Brewing, a sister company of Oddity Kombucha. The head brewer position at Oddity got vacant shortly after and I took the role. Since, I’ve been constantly learning about the kombucha production process, how it ferments and how to achieve the desired flavours I want and how to constantly achieve them.

VMS Meeting: Michael Hathaway
2019-06-11 19:30 - 21:00 | The Usual: VanDusen, Floral Hall, 5151 Oak St, Vancouver, BC, V6M 4H1, Canada
Pine Mushrooms as World-Makers (re-scheduled from cancelled February meeting)
From Michael:
“This talk will give a brief introduction to a long-term collaborative research project that follows the harvest and trade in the pine mushroom (matsutake) from several countries around the world to its destination in Japan. I will focus on how this valuable trade is shaping the lives of several indigenous groups in Southwest China, on the eastern edge of the Himalayas, such as ethnic Tibetans and Yi. I suggest that the trade itself (as well as larger political events) are influencing the livelihoods of these people, such as how they farm and raise yak and goats, but also creating less expected changes such as fostering a kind of ethnic resurgence.”

Michael Hathaway is an associate professor of cultural anthropology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia. He studies the intersection of indigenous politics and environmentalism in China, and more recently, has been exploring how indigeneity has emerged in the Asia-Pacific region through transnational encounters. His first book, Environmental Winds: Making the Global in Southwest China (University of California Press, 2013) explores how environmentalism was refashioned in China, not only by conservationists, but also by rural villagers and even animals themselves. His second major project examines the global commodity chain of the matsutake, one of the world’s most expensive mushrooms, following it from the highlands of the Tibetan Plateau to the markets of urban Japan. He works with other members of the Matsutake Worlds Research Group, looking at the social worlds this mushroom engenders in Canada, the United States, China, and Japan.

VMS Meeting: Paul Kroeger
2019-09-10 19:30 - 21:00 | The Usual: VanDusen, Floral Hall, 5151 Oak St, Vancouver, BC, V6M 4H1, Canada
Our September speaker is Paul Kroeger, one of the founding members of the VMS. He will present “Genus Amanita”.
Some of Paul’s many activities and accomplishments in this field include: researching the biochemistry of medicinal mushrooms at the University of British Columbia (UBC) as a long time research associate in their Department of Botany; major contributor to the mycological herbarium collections in the Beaty Biodiversity Museum at UBC; significant contributions to the DAOM Herbarium in Ottawa and DAVFP Herbarium in Victoria; frequent consultant for various agencies, including the British Columbia Drug and Poison Information Centre.

Urban Mushroom Walk
2019-09-14 12:00 - 14:00 | Riley Park Plaza, 50 East 30th ave, Vancouver, Canada
Join us for an urban mushroom walk lead by Paul Kroeger, one of the VMS’ founding members and a local expert on mushrooms, particularly toxic mushrooms.
We’ll meet at the Riley Park Plaza, located near the corner of 30th and Ontario.

VMS Meeting: Alissa Allen
2019-10-08 19:30 - 21:00 | The Usual: VanDusen, Floral Hall, 5151 Oak St, Vancouver, BC, V6M 4H1, Canada
Alissa Allen will present “Mushrooms and Lichens for Dyes: Making rainbows from fungi”
Alissa Allen is a self-taught mycologist and the founder of Mycopigments. She specializes in teaching about regional mushroom and lichen dye palettes to fiber artists and mushroom enthusiasts all over the world. Alissa got her start in the Pacific Northwest and has been sharing her passion for mushrooms for over 15 years. She has written articles for her website as well as Fungi Magazine and Fibershed. In 2015 she created the Mushroom and Lichen Dyers United discussion group and The Mushroom Dyers Trading Post. These groups have grown into a community of over 6000 members. In 2020 Alissa will host the International Fungus and Fiber Symposium in the US at a location yet to be disclosed. Alissa uses brilliant colors found in fungal dyes to entice people to take a closer look at mushrooms and lichens and the role they play in the greater ecosystem. To read more about her work, visit http://mycopigments.com/

Fantastic Fungi Film Screening
2019-10-09 08:00 - 17:00 | Rio Theatre, 1660 East Broadway, Vancouver, BC, V5N 1W1, Canada
Join opening night post-screening discussion with Director Louie Schwartzberg, and special guests.
When so many are struggling for connection, inspiration, and hope, FANTASTIC FUNGI brings us together as interconnected creators of our world. FANTASTIC FUNGI, directed by Louie Schwartzberg, is a consciousness-shifting film that takes us on an immersive journey through time and scale into the magical earth beneath our feet, an underground network that can heal and save our planet. Through the eyes of renowned scientists and mycologists like Paul Stamets, best-selling authors Michael Pollan, Eugenia Bone, Andrew Weil, and others, we become aware of the beauty, intelligence and solutions the fungi kingdom offer us in response to some of our most pressing medical, therapeutic, and environmental challenges.
Please note: this is not an event organized by the VMS. Please contact the event organizers for all inquiries.

Fungi & Art Walk
2019-10-12 13:00 - 16:00 | Trout Lake Community Centre, 3360 Victoria Drive, Vancouver, BC, Canada
An experiential, educational, and artistic urban mushroom walking tour facilitated by mycologist and artist Willoughby Arevalo. Guided through sensorial and artistic explorations, each participant will be invited to reflect on the intersections between fungi, the urban ecosystem and the sensing/thinking body. Under 13yrs old must be accompanied by an adult.
Tickets and more info here.
Please note: this is not a VMS event. All inquiries should be made to the organizers.

Mushroom Walk
2019-10-19 14:00 - 16:00 | Lighthouse Park, 4902 Beacon Ln, West Vancouver, BC, Canada
Join David to learn about the important role of fungi in our forests and how to safely identify them. This is a joint event for Lighthouse Park Preservation Society and Nature Vancouver. Membership in these societies is not required.
To limit the size of the group and because the event may be rescheduled due to weather or other unforeseen circumstances, registration is required. Contact David at cookeco2@yahoo.com to register.
Disclaimer: this is not a VMS event – please contact cookeco2@yahoo.com for all inquiries.

40th Annual Fall Mushroom Show
2019-10-20 10:00 - 16:00 | The Usual: VanDusen, Floral Hall, 5151 Oak St, Vancouver, BC, V6M 4H1, Canada
What: The Vancouver Mycological Society’s 40th Annual MUSHROOM SHOW
When: Sunday October 20th
When: 10am – 4pm
Where: VanDusen Botanical Garden, Floral Hall, West 37th and Oak Street, Vancouver, B.C. Canada
Why: Fungal Fun! The show provides displays of identified mushrooms and other fungi, with their edible, poisonous or dubious status. Also we have speakers, slide shows, books and roving experts on cultivation, preservation, gourmet cooking, medicinal use, hunting, ecology, and cultural use. Bring your own specimens for identification!
How: Admission $3.00 cash, children under 12 free. Wheelchair accessible. Parking free.
Share our show poster with your friends!
Speakers:
11:00 Cool Plants and their Fabulous Fungal Friends – Dr. Andy MacKinnon
12:00 Common Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest – Duane Sept
1:00 Magic Mushrooms – Paul Kroeger
2:00 Truffles – Dr. Emma Harrower

Fungi Forager's Feast
2019-10-29 18:00 - 20:30 | Slocan Community Hall, Slocan Park, Vancouver, BC, V5R 1V6, Canada
Still Moon Arts Society presents its seasonal Forager’s Feast Potluck, Tuesday, October 29th. At Slocan Hall next to 29th ave Skytrain station. Willoughby Arevalo will give a mushroom cooking demo and presentation. Sign up to attend at stillmoonarts.ca
Please note: this is not a VMS event. Please contact event organizers for details.

VMS Meeting: Willoughby Arevalo & Carmen Rosen
2019-11-12 19:30 - 21:00 | The Usual: VanDusen, Floral Hall, 5151 Oak St, Vancouver, BC, V6M 4H1, Canada
Our presenters will be Carmen Rosen and Willoughby Arevalo – they’re presenting “Fruiting Bodies and Mycelial Connections”

Over the past year and a half, DIY Mushroom Cultivation author and VMS member Willoughby Arevalo, and Still Moon Arts Society founder and Artistic Director Carmen Rosen collaborated on a series of living mycelial sculptures which are installed in Renfrew Park. They will discuss their inspiration, process, and some techniques for sculpting in collaboration with living fungi.

Willoughby’s lifelong friendship with fleshy fungi has led him down a mycelial pathway – from a start in field identification and mushroom hunting, branching into cuisine, DIY cultivation, farming, education, writing and eco-arts. In his thirty years of self-motivated inquiry and intimate lived experience with fungi, he has spent the last decade prioritizing sharing mycology with people in communities across North America This has manifested in numerous presentations, art projects, teaching tours, collaborations, gatherings, and his new book, DIY Mushroom Cultivation, out now from New Society Publishers.

Carmen is a visual artist, singer, and interdisciplinary performer. She has a long history of initiating art projects and creative community integrated projects that have resulted in enrichment of school programs, community enhancement, and ongoing creative work for many artists and community members. Carmen is the founder and artistic director of Still Moon Arts Society: inspiring vibrant and connected communities by creating art and nurturing a passion for nature. Through Still Moon and in collaboration with many community partners, she creates the Renfrew Ravine Moon Festival, Still Creek Stories, Reflecting Still Creek Art and Stewardship, and many other projects.

Fantastic Fungi Film Screening
2019-11-26 21:30 - 23:00, 2019-12-07 13:00 - 14:30 | Rio Theatre, 1660 East Broadway, Vancouver, BC, V5N 1W1, Canada
FANTASTIC FUNGI (Louie Schwartzberg, 2019 / 81 mins) Imagine an organism that feeds you, heals you, reveals secrets of the universe and could help save the planet. ‘Fantastic Fungi’ is a revelatory time-lapse journey, from 2019 Maui Film Festival Visionary Award honoree and director Louie Schwartzberg, about the magical, mysterious and medicinal world of fungi and their power to heal, sustain and contribute to the regeneration of life on Earth that began 3.5 billion years ago. Better yet, you’ll see it through the eyes of mycologists, like renowned Paul Stamets exing about the unlimited potential of fungi in the fields of food, medicine, expanding consciousness, bioremediation, neurogenesis and treating end-of-life anxiety. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
19+
Please note: this is not a VMS event. Please contact event organizers or the Rio Theatre with any questions.

VMS Meeting: Sharmin Gamiet
2020-02-11 19:30 - 21:00 | The Usual: VanDusen, Floral Hall, 5151 Oak St, Vancouver, BC, V6M 4H1, Canada
Our presenter is our very own Sharmin Gamiet, with the topic “Towards Understanding Macrofungi of the Northwest Territories”.
After completing a project for Environment Canada on “General Status of the Species – Macrofungi,” it became clear that there were significant knowledge gaps on the status of the macrofungi in the Northern areas of Canada. Dr. Suzanne Carriere from the Wildlife Branch of the Government of the Northwest Territories set out to rectify this situation. For the past 4 years, Sharmin and others have been visiting forest sites, mostly around the Yellowknife area but from other areas as well, to collect, photograph, document and voucher macrofungi, with the goal of creating a database of macrofungi for the Northwest Territories. This talk, an update on the project, will discuss the challenges faced in identifying forest macrofungi north of the sixtieth parallel.
Sharmin Gamiet has been working with fungi for over 30 years, focusing on mushrooms and their relatives found in the Pacific Northwest (BC, Washington and Oregon). She has trained at UBC and the University of Washington using the Friesien species concepts (macro and micro morphological, rather than genetic traits, are used to group fungi). Sharmin has led mushroom forays throughout BC for many years and enjoys sharing and discussing mushrooms in their habitats.

VMS Meeting: Britt Bunyard
2020-03-10 19:00 - 21:30 | The Usual: VanDusen, Floral Hall, 5151 Oak St, Vancouver, BC, V6M 4H1, Canada
Britt Bunyard will present “From Lowly Saprobe to Mycorrhizal Masters: Amanitas (A Tale Told in the DNA)”

An overview of all aspects (biology, taxonomy, chemistry, physiology) of the beautiful Amanita mushrooms of North America. Everyone is familiar with the mushrooms but how much do we really know about what they are doing in the forest? How much do we know about their history and evolution? It turns out that a recent discovery–using modern molecular biology–led to an amazing discovery about their evolutionary past. Amanitas are mycorrhizal symbionts with forest trees but come from saprobic ancestors. The story is told in their DNA. Newbies and non mycologists will not be overwhelmed; advanced mycologists will not be bored, this discussion is for everyone with lots of beautiful images.

Britt Bunyard, PhD, is the founder, Publisher, and Editor-in-Chief of the mycology journal Fungi. Britt has worked academically (and played very amateurishly) as a mycologist his entire career, writing scientifically for many research journals and popular science magazines. He has served as an editor for mycological and entomological research journals, and mushroom guide books. A popular evangelizer on all things fungal, Britt has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, PBS’s NOVA and Wisconsin Foodie television programs, and in The Atlantic, Vogue, Forbes, Saveur, Women’s World, and others. He serves as Executive Director of the Telluride Mushroom Festival. He co-authored Mushrooms and Macrofungi of Ohio and Midwestern States (The Ohio State University Press) and is the co-author of the forthcoming Amanitas of North America and The Beginner’s Guide to Mushrooms (Quarry Books), both scheduled for publication in 2020.

Zachary Mazi: The Edible Mushrooms of the Lanna Kingdom
2020-10-13 19:30 - 20:30 | Zoom Webinar
For our first ever virtual meeting / presentation (this coming Tuesday October 13), the VMS is excited to host a speaker from half-way around the world!

Originally from Oregon, and now living in the mountains of Northern Thailand, Zachary Mazi is a professional chef and enthusiastic mycologist. Coming to us from the tail end of the local mushroom season, will be presenting on the edible fungi of the Lanna Kingdom.

He is currently working on a book: Mycophagy: The Art and Science of Cooking (and eating) Mushrooms.

Members may check their email or log in to view the access link to this webinar

Members may now log in to watch the replay

As this is a webinar, your microphone and camera will be disabled by default, and you will not be able to turn them on.

PLEASE NOTE: We only have capacity for 100 attendees to join the live webinar. You may join as early as 7:25pm on Tuesday.

The meeting will be recorded, and the video posted to a private members-only page on the Vanmyco website. If you are unable to join due to capacity, or if you don’t use Zoom, you’ll still have a chance to watch the replay as soon as we upload it.

For this trial run of presentation by Zoom, we will:

Allow everyone to see and upvote text Q&A questions
Try to attend to “raised hands” for those who prefer to ask questions by voice
Allow all attendees to speak to each other by text on the “chat” tab
Not require pre-registration (to make joining the meeting as simple as possible)
