CMS Members love NAMA
CMS is an North American Mycological Association (NAMA) affiliated club. NAMA is an organization of amateur mycologists originally organized in 1959. Well known for their annual forays, they actually have a lot more to offer. NAMA members have numerous interest groups they can become involved in: Conservation and Stewardship, Culinary, Cultivation, DNA Sequencing, Education, Vouchering, Toxicology, Club Relations, and Medicinal Mushrooms. In addition to virtual gatherings, many of these interest groups/committees provide support and programs for the NAMA annual foray. Foray participants especially appreciate the evening mushroom beverages and/or appetizers provided by the Culinary committee members. And the Vouchering and DNA committees are invaluable when it comes to ensuring the mushroom specimens gathered during forays are all identified and prepared for the NAMA repository in the Field Museum Herbarium of Chicago. NAMA also livestreams over 15 webinars annually during which NAMA members may interact and ask questions of the speaker. And they have a virtual book club that NAMA members may join.
During May of 2026 NAMA held a membership drive and requested the over 90 affiliated clubs to participate by asking their club members who are also NAMA members to share what they love about NAMA. Of coarse NAMA made it easy and fun for clubs to participate by providing graphical templates for clubs to use.
These graphics were primarily intended for Social media sites like Instagram and Facebook. However, not everyone, especially those who enjoy nature more than electronic devices, participate in those platforms. So these are the CMS members who participated in the fun! Some had so many good things to say they needed two!
