Minutes from the Section B Business Meetings

Present: Meg Allen, Marianne Alleyne, Nancy Beckage, Elizabeth Beckemeyer, Dov Borovsky, Tom Coudron, Florence Dunkel, Ann Fallon, Melody Keena, Walter Leal, Roger Leopold, Catherine Loudon, Richard Mankin, Richard Musser, Don Mullins, Holly Popham, Kent Selby, Jeff Shapiro, Qisheng Song, David Stanley, Genet Tulgetske, Bradleigh Vinson, Judy Willis.

Chair David Stanley called the meeting to order at 5:35 p.m. He welcomed a new member, Genet Tugetska, a Ph.D. student from UC Riverside. David thanked the symposium organizers and speakers, student competition judges, moderators, and committee and board members. 

Congratulations were extended to Hans Gilstrup recipient of the Lillian & Alex Feir Travel Award this year.

Nancy Beckage announced that David Stanley and Coby Schal have been elected Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She took the opportunity to announce the fundraising activities to launch a Section B Lynn Riddiford Travel Award. This program is aimed at supporting M.Sc. and PhD students to travel to ESA and ICE meetings earlier in their careers. Nancy responded to the question raised by Borovsky indicating that the award will be merit-based.

A card for Dale Gelman’s retirement was circulated.

Reports of Section B Representatives:

Governing Board Representative(Coby Schal)

Coby announced that the next ESA meeting will be held in San Diego (Dec. 9-12, 2007). He announced a new initiative to have child care offered during the ESA meetings.  This service will be subsidize by ESA and will cost members $15 per session. Coby stressed the importance of spreading the word as similar initiatives were not successful in other societies. The more people will be using the service the more likely the program will be a success. Nancy Beckage extolled this decision, which has been in demand for over 20 years. Coby mentioned that this was not a financially advantageous project for ESA, but it is the right service the society should provide.

Due to the lack of a contract with the Convention Center in Charlotte NC, the venue for the 2008 meeting was sold to another Society. Arrangements were made to have the 2008 meeting in Reno. Because of the advantageous package for two meetings, the Society is closing a deal for 2008 and 2011. Dates for the 2008 meeting are yet to be decided, but it is likely to be in the week of Nov. 16, i.e., the week prior to Thanksgiving. We will be back to Indianapolis in 2009 (Dec. 13-17). The 2010 meeting will be in San Diego (Dec. 12-16).

ESA central Judy Miller resigned just prior to the annual meeting in Indianapolis. ESA is considering outsourcing meeting arrangements & planning.  For example, TriSociety (Agronomy/Crop Science/Soil) is running the meeting in Indianapolis. Outsourcing with Science Direct or other providers does not cost the society as these entities take a fee from hotels and guarantee the best price.

Coby reported that John Trumble (UC Riverside) is submitting a bid to host the 2012 International Congress of Entomology in San Diego. The proposal is backed by Canadian ESA, Alberta ESA, and other societies.  Arrangements are being made to have the support of Mexican Entomological Society. ICE meeting has not been in North America since the meeting in Vancouver and in the US since the meeting in Washington, DC.

Coby announced that the New Editor-in-Chief for Environmental Entomology is Alan Cameron.

Coby reported that the Governing Board sent the proposal for a new open access journal “Public Entomology” back to Publications Council for consideration.

The Governing Board has passed a measure adopting the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (www.ITIS.gov) as the source for scientific names to be used when submitting papers to ESA journals. The Society budget is now well balanced, with ca. 4.5 million USD in savings. The finances of the Society were fixed by a plan suggested by an ad hoc committee chaired by George Kennedy.  During this period of major financial changes  Jeff Shapiro and Melody Keena, from Section B, served on the Finance Committee. Given the current situation, there was a roll back in membership fee.

Coby also noted retirement of Lisa Spurlock & Richard Levine’s hire.  Paula Lettice also resigned and did it very gracefully.  Interim Executive Director Ann Kenworthy has been engaged.  Governing board will be considering options of recruiting an new Executive Director or engaging the services of another society’s Executive Director.  Responded to a question raised by David Stanley Coby explained that the function of the Director is not only financial but also administrative. Melody commented that the need to manage the ESA building has been eliminated.

Regarding the Proposal to ESA Membership for Organizational Renewal, Coby pointed out that there are benefits and concerns. He urged Section B members to read the article written in American Entomologist 52 (3), 150-166, 2006 and distributed to the membership along with the registration package. The major concern is the label for Section B being “Suborganismal Systems.” That naming may drive away affiliations.  Nancy proposed “Integrated & Suborganismal Systems.” Coby suggested “Physiological, Cellular and Genomics Systems.” Brad Vinson suggested we revisit the issue and vote at the Final Business Meeting.

Coby described some of the general guidelines of the proposed ESA structure, which would give autonomy to what are now considered ESA Sections. The current sections will be reduced from 6 to 4 and would operate more independently in the new structure. There will be opportunity for networking, operational flexibility, and even to change their name once they become independent. Coby suggested a motion at the final business meeting to request formal change from the Governing Board. 

D Stanley invited reports:

Education and Youth(Richard Musser): nothing to report

Ethics(Justin Schmidt): no report

Fellows(Sonny Ramaswamy) no report

Founder’s Memorial(Lynn Riddiford): absent, no report

Finance (Melody Keena): It is yet to be decided if the Society will take the lead to scan or digitize older journals because the Governing Board needs to determine what the societies long term publishing strategy will be, either under our control and partially outsourced or completely outsourced. In response to a request from the floor, David Stanley offered to take action to promote indexation of the Archives in PubMed.

International Affairs(Florence Dunkel) – wanted to talk about this at final meeting

Membership(Marianne Alleyne): haven’t had meeting yet.

Rules(Andrew Chen); not here

Common Names(Qisheng Song): Song reported that it was a busy year for the committee. They have approved 26 common names, which will appear in ESA Newsletters.

Awards Committee(Peter Dunn): no report

Publications Reports

American Entomologist Editorial Board(Florence Dunkel). Florence reported the rejection rate for 2005 was 20% of the submitted manuscripts. The journal processed 63 ms in 2005 and the number of submissions is increasing slightly.

ESA is considering a possible venue for May Berenbaum’s buzzwords, which production as a book is to be discontinued. 

Florence stressed that Book reviews are becoming more frequent. John Lindgren needs reviewers. American Entomologist will be on line in 2 years. The journal is considering a newsstand version for public consumption. It could be a subsection or the journal or even a pdf. Should a new section of American Entomologist be started to discuss current years’ problems. Gene Kritsky suggested section called “This Year’s Pest Problem”.

Annals Editorial Board(Tom Coudron): Joe Keiper resigning, board has chosen candidate. Submissions have dropped 5%, acceptance rate 70% while other stats remained unchanged.  Blackwell’s proposal to publish the Journal is closed out. (Coby noted Blackwell is now owned by Wiley). Journal is considering Short communications.

Journal of Economic Entomology Editorial Board(Qisheng Song): acceptance rate is down to 58%. Time to notification is now 11.2 weeks, whereas publication appears in 44weeks. Subscriptions have not much change. New Subject Editor – Coby for Urban Entomology – Household and Structural.

Journal of Medical Entomology Editorial Board (Kent Shelby): Kent reported that submissions are increasing while acceptance rate is decreasing and impact factor is rising. He noted that the New Editor, Walter Tabashnik, is a hands-on editor.

Journal of Public Entomology – how would it impact JME? There are some concerns yet to be addressed. Wait for Pub council decision.  Looking for forensic entomology editor.

Nancy Beckage expressed support for a proposal for a new publication, Public Entomology, which would serve well High School and Junior College Teachers.

The Society is in need of Forensic Entomology subject editor.

Arthropod Management Tests Editorial Board(Kent Shelby) – no report

Archives of Insect Physiology and Biochemistry Liaison(Sonny Ramaswamy): David Stanley reported that number of pages and papers published increased.

Section Committee Reports

Awards Canvassing Committee (Richard Mankin) – no report.

Section Symposium Committee(Melody Keena): Melody reported that there are two more slots on this committee that she is seeking volunteers to fill.  There is currently a proposal for one symposium titled “Frontiers in Vector Molecular Physiology” submitted by Walter Leal and David Denlinger. She suggested this be considered for Section B’s proposal of a Program Symposium. We will vote on the symposia submissions at the final business meeting.

Melody encouraged members to plan on attending Sundays of the national meetings. There is a full program, except posters, on the first day (Sunday) of each meeting.  Regular posters will probably be reserved for Tuesdays or Wednesdays since student posters take almost all the slots available on Mondays. Deadlines for Program Symposia to be entered in Confex is Feb 1st. Section & regular have until Mar 6^th, whereas the deadline for contributed papers and posters is July 20.

Judging Panel for the Entomological Foundation Lillian & Alex Feir Travel Award (Walter Leal): An awardee was selected and is present at these meetings.

Section Nominating Committee(Jeff Shapiro): He reported the process for nominations, selections, and appointments for ESA officers. 

Jeff requested nominations for ESA Presidential candidates. The names of Dale Gelman, Lynn Riddiford, Kathleen Shields, and Brad Vinson were suggested Florence Dunkel emphasize the need to nominate a woman. There was tremendous support for Lynn Riddiford.  Jeff was asked to seek support from other Sections before Lynn was contacted. Elizabeth Beckmeyer had to leave to announce the Women’s Breakfast on Wed in other sections but would also begin seeking support for Lynn for President.

Nominations opened for secretary. Walter Leal suggested Kelly Hoover, but it was pointed out that she should be consulted first. Nominations are due by Feb, with the nomination package including biosketch & picture due in May.

Marianna Allyne was nominated with strong support from the floor.

Pubs council – Jeff Shapiro suggested Kent Shelby.

Insect Physiology award – Coby nominates Brad Vinson

Lillian & Alex Fear award

ICINN student award (neurophysiology) travel award committee -

Awards Canvassing committee -

Jeff stressed that we always need volunteers!!

David Stanley asked if there were Old Businesses.

As New Business, Judy Willis wrote the following resolution to thank Dr. Fred Nijhout, which was unanimously accepted.  Section B thanks the ESA for Honoring the Father of Insect Physiology, Professor Vincent Wigglesworth in this year’s Founder’s Memorial Lecture. We express our appreciation to Professor Fred Nijhout for his superb and elegant lecture that eloquently captured the breath and style of Wigglesworth’s legacy.

Nancy Beckage mentioned that the Symposium “Women Shaping History in Entomology” was excellent, but unfortunately it was not well attended by men.

Dov Borovsky commented that there were problems with the AV system. The use of mouse as a pointer for the recorded presentations is leading to confusion, particularly because the pads are not user friendly. Walter Leal noted that the computers in the room do not reflect what is seen in the preview room. He indicated there were problems with his presentation and many others which run smoothly in the preview room.

A motion was moved by Brad Vinson to pass the following resolution. Section B supports the developmental idea of Lynn Riddiford Travel Award by the Entomological Foundation. The motion was seconded and voted unanimously.

No other Reports.

Call for adjournment!!!