Join us

Welcome! MAW is always looking for new members who want to learn more about fungi. MAW membership provides opportunities to:

·        Participate in guided mushroom forays with expert identifiers.*

·        Join our monthly online meetings, which feature a virtual identification table and at least one presentation.

·        Participate in our fungi tasting dinners and join our Culinary Co-op Group.

·        Receive our newsletter, Potomac Sporophore.

·        Participate in our annual Sequanota Weekend Foray (additional charge).

·        Participate in our Fungal DNA Sequencing group.

·        Join the North American Mycological Association at a reduced rate.

Your dues and contributions help support programming and club operations, including maintenance of MAW’s website and bringing in engaging speakers for our monthly meetings.

*Please note that our membership has expanded considerably during the past couple years, and our mushroom forays sometimes fill up quickly. If you're confident in mushroom identification and can help lead forays, let us know!

We're often asked about gift memberships. Unfortunately, because each new member needs to agree to the Awareness of Risks and Personal Assumption of Risks (immediately below), we aren't able to offer gift memberships.

IMPORTANT:  By your submission of your online membership form and each subsequent renewal of your membership in the Mycological Association of Washington, Inc. (“MAW” or “MAWDC”) you acknowledge and agree to the following:

Awareness of Risks

You are aware that: 

·        the identification of wild mushrooms always carries with it the risk that a mushroom may be misidentified, 

·        consuming a mushroom that has been incorrectly identified creates a risk of personal injury, including serious illness (up to and including an untimely death), and 

·        consumption of mushrooms and other foraged foods, even when correctly identified, carries a risk of illness, injury, or death as a result of personal sensitivity (including allergy or harmful interaction with other foods, medicines and substances). 

Personal Assumption of Risks

Your application for and any renewal of membership in MAW represents an agreement that you (for yourself and your family members) personally assume and bear all risks arising from participation in MAW activities and that you agree to release, hold harmless, and indemnify MAW and any of its officers or members from any and all legal responsibility for injuries or accidents suffered by you, your family members, or any minor child under your care during or as a result of any activity conducted under the auspices of MAW, including but not limited to your use of information provided by MAW and activities involving mushroom collection, identification, or consumption.

Use of Images and Recordings

If a recording, such as a photograph or video or audio tape, is made in a public space, that recording can be used by its owner for legal non-commercial purposes without obtaining consent of any person whose likeness or voice was captured in that recording.

Membership MAW is open to the general public and the general public can participate in many activities associated with MAW without becoming members.  This public access to MAW and its activities inherently causes MAW’s activities to occur in a “public space” in which the participants would have no reasonable expectation of privacy.

You agree that by reason of your membership in MAW or your or your family members’ participation in any MAW activity, that you, for yourself and on behalf of your family members and other minors under your care, irrevocably consent to use, distribution or publication by MAW or its members, in support of MAW’s exempt purposes, of any recording made at or in connection with any MAW activity.