2004 Final Business Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah
The meeting was called to order at 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November, 17, 2004, by Section C Vice-Chair, Rob Meagher, with about 28 members present. (Section C Chair Robert M. Nowierski was attending a symposium)
Announcements
The 2005 ESA Annual Meeting will be held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida November 6-9, 2005.
IOBC-NRS and IOBC-Global Sponsored Symposium entitled "Trophic and Guild Interactions in Biological Control – A symposium and a book,” May 8-11, 2005 in Quebec (near Quebec City). The symposium will be followed by a 2-day "summer school."
2003 Final Business Meeting Minutes
Vice-Chair, Rob Meagher, read an abbreviated version of the minutes of the 2003 Section C Final Business Meeting. Gail Kampmeier moved that they be accepted as read, seconded by Peter Price, and the motion passed.
Old Business
Report from the Nominating Committee, Past-Chair Sanford Porter:
Vice President-Elect - no nominations
Secretary, Section C (2006) - Rob Wiedenmann, Kenna MacKenzie
Editorial Board representatives
Arthropod Management Tests (2005-2010) – no nominations
Journal of Economic Entomology (2005-2010) – no nominations
Journal of Medical Entomology (2005-2010): Tom Sappington was nominated
Book and Media Reviews (Vacant – normally 5-year term) – no nominations
All positions on standing committees have been filled for 2005!
Report of the Governing Board Representative, Gail Kampmeier
The ESA Awards for the President's Prize in Primary Education and the corresponding prize for Secondary Education will be transferred from the ESA to the Entomological Foundation. The Foundation will also attempt to publicized these awards through the National Education Association.
There were four amendments to the Bylaws that will be forwarded to the membership for a vote: a) flexible branch memberships allowing member choice of branch; b) change in the structure of the Membership Committee that changes ex officio status of branch members and removes the requirement that they be chairs of the membership committee of their respective branches and requires Section representatives that will report to each Section at national meetings; c) removing the Standing Committee for Systematic Resources from the bylaws with the intent of making it a committee in Section A [Note: concern was expressed by members of Section C that the Section A committee also embrace possible members from other sections, where interest is expressed]; and d) removing the Standing Committee on Public Information. I will be writing the justification for changes in the Membership Committee composition and the arguments against abolishing the Public Information Committee, Mike Ivie will write in support the change. Jackie Miller will be writing the justification for the move of the Systematic Resources Committee to Section A and Joe Egger will be asked to write a contrasting statement. If you have input on any of these proposed bylaws changes, please contact these people
A new protocol was developed for nominations to Standing Committees and it was recommended that volunteers should be identified for these positions by the summer Governing Board meeting. It was noted that the Sections are responsible for tracking and filling editorial board vacancies and it is not part of the Governing Board Committee on Nominations.
The Executive Committee of the Governing Board met during the 2004 Annual Meeting with Emeritus Members, Branch Officers, Section Officers, Leaders of other Entomological Organizations, and with Blackwell Publishing.
Although the registration numbers for the 2004 Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City are not yet final, attendance is estimated at ~2100 participants, with about 300 people registering on-site. This is good news as it exceeds the projected number budgeted and falls in a year where there was competition from the International Congress of Entomology.
The buzz on the Annual Meeting On-line has been very positive and it is estimated that just over 70% of talks will be available for viewing on the web in a couple of weeks. Those people attending the Annual Meeting will be allowed to view this on-line benefit for free this year, and others not attending the meeting will be able to gain access by paying the preregistration fee for the meeting that is appropriate to their dues category. The Governing Board was pleased to be able to offer this benefit to conference attendees at no additional cost this year.
The Governing Board approved a balanced budget with an increase in page charges for ESA members from $48 to $52/page, noting that this is in keeping with a cost of living increase and no increase has been made to page charges for about 10 years. Annual Meeting registration, which has not changed in three years, will be raised $5 from 2004 preregistration levels for students, student transition levels I and II, emeriti, and guests; $10 for members; and $15 for non-members. This increase, in addition to a cost of living increase, will pay for Annual Meeting On-line.
In new business, discussion about the 2005 theme of "Sex, Bugs, and Rock & Roll" in the preliminary business meetings of the Sections stirred rather more controversy than anticipated. Recommendations to request that President Ivie reconsider the theme came from Sections C and E, and a motion to draft a resolution against the theme was voted on by D and F. Frank Gilstrap
Kevin Steffey handed over the gavel to President Ivie. Liaison positions to Standing Committees were assigned and I will continue on as the liaison to the Membership Committee in 2005. The Governing Board was exceedingly pleased with the progress of this committee under the direction of chair, David Riley, and for 2005, Section C's Rayda Krell will chair this busy committee. There will be an increased emphasis on Section involvement in retention as this seems to have been successful for the Branches that put an effort into the process. For C, subsection secretaries will be asked to participate in this effort, coordinating with the Membership Committee member and Chris Stelzig, the ESA Membership Director.
Mike Gray was appointed to the Committee (of one) on Nominations. In an election by secret ballot, Jackie Miller and Mike Gray were elected to the Governing Board Executive Committee.
The Governing Board adjourned to take pictures of the 2005 board.
Respectfully submitted,
Gail Kampmeier
Section C Governing Board Representative
2005 Meeting Theme
Frank Gilstrap spoke in support of President-Elect Mike Ivey, and his theme for the 2005 National Meeting “Sex, Bugs, and Rock and Roll”, followed by discussion of the theme.
Section C Representation
Tom Waltzer stated that the Systematics Resources Committee needed a Section C representative. Dan Pavuk volunteered to work with the committee.
Report from the Publications Council Representative, Laurence D. Charlet
The Publications Council met from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. on November 16, 2004, at the Marriott Hotel, Salt Lake City, UT. A summary of the items discussed is as follows:
Reports from the editors-in-chief of all of the ESA journals were that, other than occasional problems, the review systems worked fairly well. There were yearly changes in subject editors in a number of journals and a constant need for more reviewers. The triennial review of the journals is past due, but most editors felt that the previous version was not useful and it needed to be revised. A suggestion was made that perhaps outside review would be helpful. A comment was made that the Journal of Economic Entomology and Environmental Entomology were the highest cited entomological journals in the world!
There was concern that some journals should have a wider representation of Sections on the Editorial Boards. The Publications Council will recommend to the ESA Governing Board that all Sections have representation on all Editorial Boards. This will require a bylaws change.
There was considerable discussion of open access to ESA journals. Complete access would hurt ESA monetarily since we derive income from back issues and reprints. ESA joined BioOne in 2001 and receives a significant amount of income annually from the subscription pool which is shared among participating publishers and amounted to $57,696 in 2003. The money is received in the year after the subscriptions were in effect. ESA is currently negotiating to have all past issues of all journals available online. There will be no direct cost to ESA to do this other than to provide the company with hard copies of all back issues to be scanned. In addition, many authors pay to have pdf versions of their reprints available and after two years can put their reprints on their own websites.
The issue of ESA not having an outlet for molecular biology papers was discussed. We probably ‘missed the boat’ on this one and it may be too late. A suggestion was to look into beginning an insect molecular biology online journal.
ESA uses the web-based Rapid Review manuscript submission and tracking system from Cadmus, the company that typesets and prints our journals. There have been some problems with the system, but ESA is tied to a multi-year contract with Cadmus. The contract will expire at the end of 2006.
Report from the Standing Committee on Membership, Rayda Krell
Membership totals have increased in 2004 from 5,527 members in 2003 to 5,682 members in 2004 (updated numbers from ESA Newsletter, January 2005). In Section C, membership increased from 1,754 in 2003 to 1,791 members in 2004. All Section C subsections increased membership except D which declined by 5 members. The committee focused on recruitment, retention, and renewal through section and branch activity to keep membership up, by encouraging emeritus members to remain in the society, and by encouraging students to join. Members’ efforts are particularly important through personal contact, and the web. Members of Section C are encouraged to vote for a bylaws change so that the Membership Committee would include all section leaders and branch leaders.
Report from the Ethics Committee, Cathy Eastman
The ESA Committee on Ethics dealt with one item of business during 2004 – a request in July from President Kevin Steffey. He had received a query about a potential ethics violation involving an ESA member allowing non-member laboratory staff to access ESA journals through his membership account. After discussion, the committee decided that, in the context of this supervisor-employee situation, there was no ethics violation. President Steffey concurred with the committee recommendation that no action be taken on the matter.
Report from the Standing Committee on Education and Youth, Gwen Pearson
Tiffany Heng-Moss is 2005 Chair. M. O. Way (Southwestern Branch) is the Chair Elect for 2006.
Development of educational materials: Committee members W. Wyatt Hoback, Gwen Pearson, and Kerri M. Skinner received funding from the Entomological Foundation for “Development of Guidelines & Assessment for Modules to Teach Entomology.” Since the basic knowledge, skills, and dispositions that characterize scientific literacy with respect to entomology are undefined, they are working to identify the basic competencies of an entomologically literate person. The survey was announced to the membership of the ESA in September, 2004. The preliminary results were presented at the ESA National Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah. Work on development of an assessment rubric and essential concepts will continue.
Linnaean Games: The Education and Youth Committee submitted the following motion to the Governing Board: A separate committee is established for standardizing and providing guidelines for conducting Linnaean Games at the annual and branch meetings of the ESA. Comments: The Linnaean Games are beyond the scope of the Education and Youth Committee which addresses issues pertaining to development of entomological educational material for K-12 and determining mechanisms for increasing interest and involvement of youth in entomology related activities. ESA President Kevin Steffey appointed a Special Committee for the Linnaean Games, Chaired by Marlin Rice.
Teaching Symposium: The Education and Youth Committee submitted the following motion to the Governing Board: The ESA elevates the status of the Teaching Symposium to that of Program Symposia so that it is eligible for Program Enhancement Funds to the level of $ 1000 (At present it is eligible for $200). Comments: If the Teaching Symposium is to include only ESA members or speakers that have their own funding for travel to meetings, the intent of the symposium will be lost. Last year the symposium was cancelled because no PEF were provided.
New Business: Discussion of how to involvement of local educators at the ESA meeting, and possible revitalization of the Insect Expo.
Report from Environmental Entomology Editorial Board (Norman C. Leppla, given by Alan Cameron)
Eight new subject editors replaced 6 that resigned. The acceptance rate of submitted papers was about 60-62%. Editors hope for improved positive responses to review requests and rapid reviewing. The journal is running well.
Report from American Entomologist Editorial Board (Daniel M. Pavuk)
Increased submissions are needed. Rick Brandenberg is the new Chair of the editorial board.
Report from the Annals of the ESA Editorial Board (Robert K. Vander Meer, given by Sanford Porter)
1300 pages were published in 2004, with a 56% acceptance rate for submitted papers. On average it took 12 weeks from submission to acceptance. The average time from submission to publication was 45 weeks. The Board is considering MS Word Track Changes Comments files as a way of communicating reviewer’s suggestions by e-mail, and would like comments on this change. Page charge waivers are available to members for the first 5 pages, then the C.P. Alexander Fund has $2,000 per year to cover extra pages. This fund was fully used in 2004.
Report from the Journal of Economic Entomology Editorial Board (James E. Throne)
450 manuscripts were submitted, the mean time from submission to return of reviewed manuscript was 1 month, submission time to acceptance was 3 months on average, and mean time from submission to publication was 10.5 months.
From 1 January to 31 October, 2004, 5 numbers were published, with 1772 pages, and 238 papers. The acceptance rate was 57%.
The journal had 6,204 articles cited in 2003, the most highly cited entomological journal in the world. The next most frequently cited entomological journal had 2,000 fewer citations. The half-life of JEE articles is over 10 years.
There is an ongoing discussion about putting all back issues of all ESA journals online.
There have been problems with submitting manuscripts online using Windows XP SP2. Until the problems are resolved, please contact Alan Kahan should difficulties arise.
Report from the Journal of Medical Entomology Editorial Board (Thomas W. Sappington)
Three new subject editors were added to replace 3 that left. Most manuscripts submitted were on mosquito biology and control, while there is little submission in the areas of molecular entomology and GIS. The acceptance rate was about 58%. From submission to notification of editor’s decision averaged 11 weeks, and to publication it averaged 45 weeks. Subscriptions have declined, although submitted papers have been the highest in several years.
The Triennial Review of journals seems to lack merit, although some sort of review is needed.
Consideration is ongoing on the abbreviation of virus names and the need for an international protocol.
The Editorial Board is considering a policy statement on the ethical treatment of animals, and a statement in the journal’s instructions to authors will be developed.
Report from the Thomas Say Editorial Board (Laurence D. Charlet)
The meeting of the Thomas Say Entomology Editorial Board was held on Tuesday, November 16, 2004. Those in attendance included Larry Charlet (Section C), Tom Clark (Section F), and Alan Kahan (ESA Director of Communications).
There has been a policy change from publishing proceedings to publishing monographs because of the limitation of funds at $2,000 per year. This covers one monograph per year. Proceedings and more monographs could be published if authors find the financial resources to cover costs. One monograph is scheduled for publication in December 2004 or January 2005.
Report from Book and Media Reviews Editorial Board ( Jonathan Lundren) – not available
Report from Arthropod Management Tests Editorial Board (Ray Cloyd) – not available
Symposium Plans (Vice-Chair Rob Meagher)
Tracy Lesky proposed a symposium for the 2005 meeting, honoring the life of Ron Prokopy and featuring 17 speakers from 5 countries.
Rob Meagher proposed a new system of dealing with symposium proposals for the 2006 meeting. He recommended that ideas for symposia should be solicited in the summer of 2005, and that symposium chairs should contact him by October 1, 2005, with proposals. These could be considered by membership and 5 or 6 could be presented briefly at the Section C preliminary business meeting. At the final business meeting votes would be taken to decide the 4 final symposia for Section C. Sanford Porter suggested that the whole membership should be polled.
Call for Moderators and judges for 2005
More volunteers are needed to act in these positions. Please contact Rob Meagher (rmeagher@gainesville.usda.ufl.edu), or Peter Price (peter.price@nau.edu). Moderator/judges forms were available at the meeting.
Triennial Review
Tom Holtzer suggested that the Triennial Review of journals, or an equivalent, is still needed as journals must be kept accountable. Quality control is necessary, even though the procedure is ponderous. Tom Sappington suggested that the Triennial Review should be replaced with annual reports from editorial boards to the Publications Council, and Sanford Porter added that rigorous evaluations should follow. The Publications Council needs to discuss the issue of quality control of the journals.
New Business
Resolutions or other items from the floor:
Sanford Porter proposed a resolution that we authorize the officers of Section C to set up a committee to recommend methods for hand carrying biocontrol agents into the USA. There was unanimous support in favor of the resolution.
Appreciation was extended to all those who have served Section C during 2003-2004 including the Section and Subsection officers, representatives from the various boards, councils, committees, moderators and judges, and symposium organizers. A special thank you to Gail Kampmeier, Section C Representative to the Governing Board.
New Officers:
Chair Robert Nowierski passed the gavel to Chair-Elect Rob Meagher, who then presided over the remainder of the meeting.
The request was repeated that all reports be sent electronically (via attachment) to Peter Price one to two weeks after the ESA meetings conclude.
The meeting was adjourned at 4.30 PM, and members were encouraged to attend the ESA Final Business Meeting at 5.00 - 6:30 PM, room 250 A-F, Convention Center Level 2.
Section C Final Business Meeting minutes respectfully submitted by Peter Price, Section C Secretary, 2004.