Minutes from the Section A Business Meetings

2006 Preliminary Business Meeting, Indianapolis, Indiana

Monday 11 December, 5:30pm/1730h EST

Prelude, added after the fact by Secretary Goldstein: 

We faced a number of major issues, some strategic and others tactical.  Obviously these include the reorganization of ESA (which surrounds the responsibilities of Sections and branches as well as the nature of Section Independence and the decoupling of governance from programming and administrative structure), and the contention over concurrent or conflicting sessions (both student competition sessions and primary Section A sessions).  A number of illustrations, related primarily to the reorganization, will be available from Goldstein upon request, courtesy of Powerpoint presentations during various meetings here.  A more expanded draft of the minutes will include the detailed journal reports presented thus far and be disseminated following vetting by Carol and Michael.

  1. Call to order
  2. Old business
    1. Approve last year’s minutes
    2. Correction of last years minutes with respect to the comment by J. Heraty that was meant to suggest section A involvement in promoting new specialized (systematics related) symposia at branch meetings
  3. Welcome new officers
    1. Caterino (Chair)
    2. Goldstein (Vice-Chair)
    3. Branham (Secretary)
  4. Committee appointments
    1. Tabulated (see file; 15 names, including reappointments)
    2. Section A fellows (from website); replacement of Manya Stoetzel; suggestions are needed.
    3. Systematics Resources abolished as an independent committee
    4. Dave Furth finished as chair; it was proposed that Systematics Resources committee finish out their current terms and be substituted with the Entomology Collections Network steering committee.
    5. ESA Systematics web page online as of 1 January 2007
    6. Environmental Entomology agenda items:  Use of common names from other countries; use of order and family names in a data base (directed to Common Names committee report).

Michael Ivie emphasized that we have the power to appoint any committee.

A unamimous vote was made in favor of retaining our current de facto liasons with ECN

Susan Weller recommended hanging on to the Systematics Resources committee as a section committee, which appears to have occurred.

  1. Foundation and ESA awards
    1. 2006 Fellows of ESA - Carl Schaefer
    2. 2006 Snodgrass Memorial Research Award - James Austin
    3. 2006 John Henry Comstock Graduate Student Award - Torsten Dikow, Floyd Shockley
    4. 2006 Joseph H. Camin Fellowship - Amanda Hodson
    5. 2006 Stan Beck Fellowship - Seth Bybee
    6. 2006 ESA Student Activity Award - Floyd Shockley
  2. Program Report (Chair)
    1. No program symposia from section A were chosen this year; some proposals may not have fit the theme, but this needs to change
    2. We did fill our 3 section symposia slots and apply for all of the PEF funds available.
    3. Judges and moderators filled their responsibilities admirably
    4. Symposia:  AToL; Ectoparasitism and Tribute to Steve Ashe
    5. 3 TMP sessions; posters can be uploaded
    6. Only one request for PEF, which (it is widely agreed) should be improved
    7. Changes at ESA headquarters; Judy Miller, Lisa Spurlock, Paula Lettice
    8. Symposia scheduling at Confex, including PEF (preference for international participants, particularly for non-members)
  3. Governing Board Report
    1. John Heraty presented a cogent discussion of the  ESA renewal (a.k.a. reorganization); milestone chart; see Heraty’s text; some discussion ensued concerning rolling back dues and registration fees, but no decisions have been made by the governing board, beyond our current move to roll back dues to 2004 levels.  Since 2002 membership has increased dramatically; 591 members currently; and a 23K surplus is anticipated, albeit at the cost of digitizing back issues of ESA journals
    2. John Oswald presented a brief on web- and other neo-publications
    3. A number of western meetings are scheduled (e.g. Reno, San Diego; schedules have been announced) and again here in Indianapolis
    4. ICE (International Congress of Entomology) proposal for California has been made; there are several sponsors, with funds supplemented by other societies in return for not holding independent meetings; Andrew Smith will follow up in writing for ECN participation with letter to John Trumble
    5. ITIS:  Members are encouraged to access the site and fix any classification- and nomenclature-related errors (e.g. Choristoneura lambertana versus C. lambertiana)
    6. John Heraty encourages people to nominate fellows from Section A
    7. Replacements for departed staff were made (Ann Kenworthy, Richard Levine)
    8. Restructuring revisited:  There are many issues here (and, N.B., far too many and nuanced to recapitulate at our Section A business meeting).  In short, the reorganization involves a reduction in number of sections and a major shift in governance.
    9. Our newly proposed section name:  Systematics, Evolution, and Biodiversity (SysEB or SEAB); bylaws and administrative paperwork may need to be revisited.
    10. John Heraty mentioned two letters in prelude to several straw votes.  One letter was from Andy Brower and the other from an unnamed new member in order to illustrate, clarify, and (we hope) resolve certain concerns.
    11. Administration structure is available from Heraty and Goldstein (the latter courtesy of Governing Board presentations by Scott Hutchinson); issues of outsourcing were touched upon and it was suggested that they be treated as a self-governance issue.
    12. Again the issue of ESA’s support of ECN was confirmed.  The issues are largely financial and legal and will likely be handled in tandem.
    13. The issue of section independence was discussed.
    14. Unanimous support was expressed for the reorganization; almost all were in favor of SysEB terminology as opposed, for example, to just “Evolution”
  4. Other reports
    1. Common Names (John Heraty)
    2. Education and youth (Wild)
    3. Ethics (Brower-not present)
    4. Fellows Awards (Stoetzel-not present)
    5. Finance (Zack)
    6. Founders (Cameron-not present)
    7. Honorary Membership (Ivie)
    8. International affairs (Hauser/Phillips)
    9. Membership (Shockley)
    10. Strategic Planning (Chaboo)
    11. Publications council (Oswald)
    12. American Entomologist (Heraty)
    13. Annals (Oswald/Henry)

                                                               i.      Details have been retrieved in writing from Oswald; the retirement of our editor has been addressed via replacement by Lawrence Heard

  1. Book & Media Reviews (Cryan)
  2. Environmental Entomology (Schiff). Agenda items include common names, family names, the publishing of short communications in Environmental Ent., and open access publishing.  The voucher issue is overly contentious in the view of several present.
  3. Medical Entomology (Fang); details are available from Q. Fang
  4. Thomas Say (McHugh-presented by Margaret Thayer later at Coleopterists Society).
  5. Systematics Resources (Shockley)
  6. ECN (Marshall—to be presented at final business meetings by Andrew Smith)
  7. Web Affairs (Oswald)
  8. Future meeting dates redux
    1. 2007  San Diego
    2. 2008 Reno
    3. 2009 Indianapolis
    4. 2010 San Diego
    5. 2011  Reno
  9. Future symposia:  Deadlines for proposals are in February (for program symposia) and March (for section symposia).
  10. New business
  11. Adjourn

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