In February of 1996, five forestry students attended the Seventh American Forest Congress that was held in Washington D.C. The students first became involved in the process when they took part in a student held roundtable discussion that was sponsored by ISU's Society of American Foresters student chapter. The idea was to get interaction amongst different clubs on campus such as Fisheries and Wildlife and Landscape Architecture along with Forestry. The next step was to take part in the State Roundtable discussion either as active participants or as scribes for the different roundtables. At the state meeting the group as a whole came up with their vision statement for the forests of the future and developed guiding principles to support that statement. This vision was then submitted to the national congress along with the other vision statements coming from all over the country.