Submitted by MIEDS--This is a regular update from MIEDS following our board meetings. The MIEDS board met on February 23 in Masset for its first meeting of 2011. The board discussed the following items.From the Community Consultation meetings so far, it was clear that MIEDS needs to continue to implement its broadened Communications Strategy presented at the meetings and will formally seek to restructure itself legally to better ensure there is a direct legal linkage to each community for accountability purposes. The changes to the legal structure will be worked on in preparation for the MIEDS agm in late May, where the new structure will be adopted by the current board and the new board appointed by the member communities.The board discussed the priorities for MIEDS for the coming year, including the feedback received as part of the Community Consultation process. It was felt that since a new board will be in place in June, that leaving the longer term priority decisions to the new group would be best, with the exception of the immediate priorities that MIEDS is already heavily invested in. These priorities include: Completing the Organizational Restructuring as described above; continued support for the various forest tenure developments and discussions; and re-engaging on the value added front as time permits.The Executive Director reported that both the Agriculture and Trails Strategies were proceeding well and are on schedule. The Agriculture Strategy Coordinator is in the process of distributing the draft strategy and presenting it to each council and the Haida Nation for eventual ratification. The Trails Coordinator continues to finalize documents with the Executive Director for presentation to the Communities. Over 90 percent of the work on these projects has been done by a variety of local contractors, rather than off-islands consultants.The Executive Director also notified the Board at the meeting of his intentions to leave the organization. Mr. Glasman indicated that he had decided that the time had come for him to return back to forestry consulting work and focusing more on his young family. He will be leaving following the agm at the end of May when the new senior staff person is in place. The MIEDS board wishes to thank Mr. Glasman for his commitment to the organization and to the people of Haida Gwaii over the past years.The next MIEDS board meeting will be on April 20. Check our website (www.mieds.ca) for other information and highlights on the items mentioned above.