2003 Final Business Meeting, Cincinnati, Ohio
Present: Beckage, Beckemeyer, Chen, Coudron, Dunkel, Gelman, Headings, Ishida, Keena, Lawrence, Leal, Lenz, Li, Loudon (Secretary), Mankin, Pszczolkowski, Ramaswamy (Chair), Schal, Sheppard (Vice-Chair), Shields, Tebayashi
Sonny Ramaswamy called the meeting to order at 5:02 pm. Sonny welcomed all to the meeting, and remarked that the symposia were well attended. Sonny thanked the judges, the symposium organizers, and the presenters.
Old Business
None.
Reports
Common Names
Kent Shelby had no report.
Education/Youth
Henry Hagedorn was not present; no report.
Ethics
Helen Nichol was not present; no report.
Fellows
Neither Lynn Riddiford nor Michael Chippendale were present; no report.
Finance
Jeff Shapiro was not present; no report.
Founders Memorial Award
David Denlinger was no present; no report.
Honorary Membership
No report.
International Affairs
Florence Dunkel reported that all of the positions are at large. Florence will be joining the committee. The committee had discussed ways to provide journals to people in developing countries.
Membership
Nancy Beckage reported that the committee considered creation of a new "affiliate" category (e.g. for teachers) who don't want to attend national meeting nor do they want the journals. Also, people who had not renewed ESA membership were asked why: 20 percent didn't mean to stop paying dues (just forgot), and 30 percent said that their focus had changed. Sonny Ramaswamy asked why the national office computer system couldn't be set up to generate an automatic e-mail reminder when the ESA membership was getting ready to elapse. Coby Schal suggested that an incentive could work, such as providing a 5-year membership at some savings.
Program
No report.
Public Information
No report.
Rules
Elizabeth Beckemeyer reported that the committee was busy but had nothing to report.
Strategic Planning
Tom Coudron stated that there was nothing else to report. Also, Nancy Beckage had been unable to attend that meeting as it was the same time as her talk.
Student Affairs
No report.
Systematic Resources
Melody Keena reported two things: (1) Almost 12 entomological collections (most associated with universities) were closed this year. Letters have been sent from the ESA president protesting against these closures. (2) There is some interest in the committee in official approval for section level subcommittees.
Section B Awards Canvassing Committee
It was noted that this year Section B missed out on Fellows so need to keep on top of the process.
Section B Nominating Committee
Florence Dunkel noted that Scott Hutchins had been supported by Section B last year although he was not elected. Sonny Ramaswamy moved that Hutchins be supported by Section B this year. Tom Coudron seconded the motion. It passed unanimously. Other nominations:
§ Publications Council: Steven Valles and Ann Fallon (from preliminary meeting)
§ Secretary: Kent Shelby and Richard Lee (from preliminary meeting). In addition, Melody Keena was nominated by Elizabeth Beckemeyer (seconded by Tom Coudron)
§ Annals Editorial Board: Tom Coudron was voted in
§ Ethics Standing Committee: Justin Schmidt by acclamation
§ Finance Standing Committee: Richard Mankin by acclamation
§ Founders Memorial Lecture: Lynn Riddiford, Coby Schal will be suggested to the Governing Board
§ Membership Standing Committee: Richard Musser (from preliminary meeting). In addition, Pauline Lawrence was nominated by Florence Dunkel (seconded by Coby Schal). Their two names will go forward.
§ Education & Youth Standing Committee: Richard Musser
§ Rules Standing Committee: Andy Chen and Qisheng Song (these two names will go forward)
§ Common Names Standing Committee: Qisheng Song was nominated by Tom Coudron (seconded by Kent Shelby) and Hugh Robertson
Section B Symposium Committee
Five symposia proposals were submitted. Symposia were ranked using ballots and the results were:
§ Olfactory Receptors and Plasticity of the Olfactory System (Walter Leal)
§ Insect Neuropeptides and Neuropeptide Receptors (Yoonseong Park)
§ Mechanical Properties of Arthropod Structures (Michael Breed and Catherine Loudon)
§ Juvenile Hormone: From Mode of Action to Receptors (Maciej Pszczolkowski and Sonny Ramaswamy)
§ Insects and Viral Specificity: Underlying Physiological and Molecular Mechanisms Governing Vector Specificity or Host Infection (Diana Cox-Foster and Barry Beatty)
A vote was taken on which of the top four symposium proposals should be put forward for consideration as a program symposium by the Governing Board. Symposium (3) above ("Mechanical...") was selected.
Governing Board
Elizabeth Beckemeyer stated that one major change from Monday is that awards deadline will be July 1 as usual (due to objections). The date for Fellows nominations is still March 15th. It is still not known how the Millenium negotiations turned out. At the Cincinnati meeting there were 2138 paid registrants. ESA has signed its half of the building sale papers, and the buyers are expected to sign on Friday. Stormy Sparks is the overall awards committee chair for ESA, so contact him for questions. Scott Hutchins is the awards liaison, and is another good person to contact with questions. Other topics discussed by the board:
There are questions about whether branches need to put forth all award nominations. Some awards were not intended to be processed through branches. Sonny Ramaswamy added that the branches do make own awards, and that branches often send awardee names on to national society.
At the Strategic Planning meeting, John Oswold (Section A) had an idea about recognizing web sites by peer reviewing web sites. Pauline Lawrence noted that ESA should have a mechanism for such a peer review process. Elizabeth Beckemeyer stated that the mechanism is being worked on now. Coby Schal pointed out that because websites are dynamic and constantly changing, they are hard to evaluate because a website could be great at one point in time but not later. Richard Mankin stated that it might be better to give an award to an outstanding website. Elizabeth Beckemeyer reminded all that a section is allowed to have its own web site and have it linked to the ESA page.
Publications Council wants all to know that supplementary materials can be linked to publications (so be aggressive and novel if publish in ESA journals). Henry Hagedorn will have his last year in 2004 on the Publications Council.
ESA now has ~5400 members. The membership tracking is much better now, and so this number is more believable than numbers in the past. The older estimates were probably very inaccurate.
The board was also very concerned about the implications of the "open access" rules.
Certification Board
No report.
Judging Panel for the ESA Recognition Award in Insect Physiology, Biochemistry, and Toxicology
Pauline Lawrence said that there was nothing new to report since the preliminary meeting. Pauline encouraged the re-nomination in the coming year of the outstanding candidates who were not selected for the award this year. There was general agreement that Pauline had done a great job on the committee.
Judging Panel for the Entomological Foundation's Lillian and Alex Feir Travel Award
Coby Schal reiterated that more applications would be welcome for this award.
New Business
Kathleen Shields asked whether anyone was interested in running for Secretary. No one answered.
Dale Gelman reported that the new student award in insect physiology, toxicology, or molecular biology would recognize innovation in research, and would provide a maximum of $1,000 possibly in the coming year. In subsequent years, the award amount will increase every year by an amount that will depend on the earnings. The awardee must be a current ESA member, and can be nominated by the branch or section. Dale encouraged everyone to help publicize this award. The panel for selection of the awardees was set up. The four starting panelists will be Dale Gelman (volunteered earlier), Ann Fallon (volunteered earlier), Walter Leal (nominated by Coby Schal, seconded by Kate Loudon), and Tom Coudron (nominated by Elizabeth Beckemeyer, seconded by Andy Chen). Two of these starting panelists (not determined yet) will go off the panel after one year, and the other two after two years. Every year two panelists will be selected for 2-year terms. Dale was thanked for her efforts in getting this award started.
There was some discussion about the timing of student award presentations during the ESA meeting.
Sonny Ramaswamy was thanked for his leadership as Section B Chair, and Carol Sheppard was welcomed as the incoming Chair. It was noted that Carol has high service demands next year because she will be program co-chair for the Salt Lake City meeting as well as Section B chair. Sonny volunteered to help Carol with her Chair duties for the year, and this was accepted by Carol and those present.
A motion to adjourn was put forth at 6:25 pm by Sonny Ramaswamy and seconded by Pauline Lawrence.