Minutes from the Section B Business Meetings

2005 Final Business Meeting, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Present: Allen, Anelli, Beckemeyer (Governing Board Rep.), Coats, Coudron, Gelman, Jiang, Keena (Secretary), Mankin, Matos, Musser, Ramaswamy, Schal (Incoming Governing Board Rep.), Seybold, Shapiro, Sherman, Shields, Vinson, Williams, and Zou

Call to Order

Melody Keena called the meeting to order at 3:05 p.m. in the absence of Chair Catherine Loudon and Vice-Chair David Stanley. She welcomed all to the meeting and remarked that the Section symposia were well attended. She noted that the minutes from the 2004 meeting had been published on the web and asked if there were any corrections. None were mentioned. Sonny Ramaswamy moved to accept the minutes and Tom Coudron seconded the motion. The motion passed.

Governing Board Representative Report (Elizabeth Beckemeyer)

Beckemeyer reported that the Governing Board voted this morning to continue with the restructuring process. A membership referendum will take place sometime in 2006 on continuing with the restructuring process. 

The Governing Board had a proposal from John Trumble (President), Murray Isman (Program Chair), Tim Paine (Local Arrangements), and Carley Joly (San Diego representative) for ESA to sponsor the International Congress of Entomology in 2012. The Pacific and Southwest Branches, the Mexican Entomological Society, the Entomological Society of British Columbia, and possibly the Entomological Society of Canada would co-host it with ESA. The biggest consideration would be the financial impact on ESA. The Congress would be held in July separate from our Annual Meeting at the downtown San Diego convention center (not the Town and Country where we have had a previous ESA Annual Meeting) where there are more restaurants and activates in close proximately. Hawaii was also considered but the cost might be prohibitive. An agenda brief will be put together for the summer Governing Board meeting.

This meeting would have been a record-setting meeting if it went as planned. It is still unclear what the current attendance is at this delayed meeting. ESA will be taking a hard look at the huge workload associated with putting the program together. There may be parts of the process that can be handled by someone other than the program chair(s). Program chairs have not had a budget nor knowledge of what the meeting budget contains, so they have had no control over how dollars are spent. This may be an area where changes need to be made. The Confex system still is not flexible enough, so we may need to find out what can be done to improve it. There are a lot of computer entry problems that have to be taken care of through copy editing that an upgrade to the submission program may solve. 

The Governing Board chose to take no action on the Blackwell proposal since everyone is happy with the way things are. 

The accepted budget is a little in deficit but is considered just a plan for now. When full numbers for this meeting and the end of the year come in then the budget will be adjusted appropriately.

Standing Committees Reports

Editorial Board Reports

Arthropod Management TestsEditorial Board
Environmental Entomology Editorial Board
Journal of Medical Entomology Editorial Board
Thomas Say Publications Editorial Board
Representatives were not present, so there were no reports.

Reports from Section B Committees

Awards Canvassing
No report

Section Symposium
Melody Keena reported that the following symposia proposals/suggestions were submitted:

(1) Bugs Did It First: Insect-Inspired Technology (Karen Kester and Felix Wäckers) selected for inclusion this year but had to be cancelled when the meeting was postponed.

(2) “Impact of Hormone Research on Science and Economy: A Symposium to Honor Contributions of Professor Lynn Riddiford, in honor of Riddiford’s 70^th birthday (Reddy Palli, Bruce Webb, Nancy Beckage). Give Something Back is next years theme. They have a list of 50 people to be invited some of which will be asked to speak. There will also be posters and will apply for NRI funds to cover any extra costs. It is planned as an all-day symposium and would like it to be considered for a program symposium.

(3) Insect Genomics: Insect Plant Interactions proposed topic (Richard Musser)

Sonny Ramaswamy moved to accept all three symposium and put Impact of Hormone Research on Science and Economy: A Symposium to Honor Contributions of Professor Lynn Riddiford forward as a program symposium. Elizabeth Beckemeyer suggested we amend the motion with rankings on the symposia: Impact of Hormone Research on Science and Economy: A Symposium to Honor Contributions of Professor Lynn Riddiford first, then Bugs Did It First: Insect-Inspired Technology, since it was one that was not held this year due to the meeting postponement, and Insect Genomics: Insect Plant Interactions as last.  Program symposia are half a day. Since Impact of Hormone Research on Science and Economy: A Symposium to Honor Contributions of Professor Lynn Riddiford is a full day, we would have to cover the second half as a Section symposium, leaving only 2 half-day Section symposia. If Impact of Hormone Research on Science and Economy: A Symposium to Honor Contributions of Professor Lynn Riddiford is not selected as a program symposium, then we would have only room for one half-day symposium in addition to it. Ramaswamy accepted the amendment; Tom Coudron seconded the motion. The motion passed.

Section B 2005 Nominating Committee
Jeff Shapiro that Meg Allen, Kent Shelby, and Rick Lee were nominated for Section Secretary by the Nominating Committee. He moved to close nominations, and Tom Coudron seconded it. The motion passed. These names will appear on the ballot next summer.

In addition, Qisheng Song was nominated for the Journal of Economic Entomology editorial board by the Nominating Committee. Shapiro called for the vote; Sonny Ramaswamy seconded, and Song was elected.

In order to reform the section awards canvassing committee, the Nominating Committee nominated Richard Mankin 2006, Reddy Palli 2007, Brenda Oppert 2008, Elizabeth Beckemeyer 2008 (chair), Luis Matos 2007, and Steve Seybold 2006 for the terms indicated. Ramaswamy moved to accept the nominations and reform the committee as suggested; Tom Coudron seconded. The motion passed.

Richard Musser was nominated for the judging panel for the Entomological Foundation ICINN award by the Nominating Committee. Shapiro called for the vote; Tom Coudron seconded. Musser was elected.

Suggestions for the Chair: Dale Gelman, Tom Coudron, and Carol Anelli to be appointed to the Nominating Committee

Old Business

Keena asked if there was any old business. There was none.

New Business

First time attendees and graduate students were asked to stand up and introduce themselves.

Beckemeyer suggested that Ramaswamy run for president, and he declined. Ramaswamy suggested Brad Vincent, who will think about it. It was suggested that the chair continue to seek a nomination for president from our Section.

A letter will be sent to Catherine Loudon thanking her for serving as Section B chair and to David Stanley welcoming as the incoming chair. 

Kathleen Shields and Susan Weller were formally thanked for serving as program co-chairs during this postponed meeting. We recognized the enormous effort that went into rescheduling the meeting.

There was a motion to adjourn at 4:38 p.m. by Sonny Ramaswamy. Tom Coudron seconded. The motion passed.