EB-ESA Final Business Meeting, Ocean City, Maryland
Tuesday morning, March 12th, 2002 Meeting Minutes prepared by R. R. Youngman, Secretary
Members present: George Hamilton, Ellen Klinger, Franco Badenes-Perez (Student Affairs Committee Representative for EB-ESA), Tom Kuhar, Jan Nyrop, Susan Whitney, Rod Youngman, Brian Nault, John Stoffolano, Jim Steffel
Jan Nyrop gave brief welcome and opening remarks
George Hamilton gave a brief update on the Treasurers report. He discussed revenues for EB-ESA as of the end of June, 2000. George reported that our investment account reserve fund was $30,000 at the start of last fiscal year, and we ended the year at $31,249.30. Total funds available as of Dec. 31, 2001 were $63,416.58.
A motion to approve the Treasurers report was passed.
Jan Nyrop commented that from a financial perspective the EB is in good shape. Jan went on to say that although the EB is not in the business of making a profit, it appears the branch will make a small profit this year.
Brian Nault, Governing Board representative
made several comments:
He said Paula Lettice covered much of his material at the Monday
night banquet.
He reported that the ESA National office building is up for sale.
He went on to say that the financial forecast for ESA was bleak
and that substantial changes to operating will occur. At the 2001
annual ESA meeting in San Diego, the Governing Board agreed on
the following four key functions of the National Society: membership,
meetings, publications, and finances.
The following items were considered to be the best course of action:
1) Sale of merchandise will be eliminated, except for ESA products (e.g., Handbooks)
2) All public affairs activities will be eliminated (excluding the ESA Newsletter)
3) In-house membership services will be outsourced
4) Directors of Marketing and Membership will be consolidated into one position
5) Financial management will be consolidated into a chief financial officer position, and the possibility of outsourcing will be investigated
6) Awards process will be modified in accordance with committee recommendations to save money
7) Administrative staff involved in personnel management, governance, administrative support, and mail will be consolidated
8) Affiliate memberships with AAAS, AAZN, ASSC, CAST, CoFARM, and CSSP will be eliminated
9) Position papers and most press releases will be eliminated
10) Outreach activities by the National Office will be eliminated
11) A meetings assistant position has been eliminated
12) Outsourcing the annual meeting "process" will be investigated
13) Outsourcing journal editing to save money will be investigated
The goal of these actions will be to restructure the National Office by eliminating positions to save expenditures in salaries/benefits for coming year. Currently, the budget is in the black. There will be a new editorial structure for all ESA journals. All journal editors will be volunteers and will no longer receive an honorarium. Also, there will be a business plan for all publications.
Ames Herbert asked about the status of the Handbooks in progress. Brian Nault said he should contact Alan Kahan. Jay McPherson said efforts are being made to determine the completion date for each of the in-progress handbooks.
Annual Meetings:
1) There will no longer be informal or formal conferences; instead, they will just be called symposia.
2) Registration fees will be similar to those of the 2001 San Diego meeting.
3) Except for 2008, meeting sites have been booked through 2010. This was done to take advantage of cost-saving incentives. It was pointed out that the lowest rates typically occur between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
4) The EB-ESA 2003 meeting will be held 16-18 March at the Harrisburg Hilton.
5) The EB-ESA 2004 meeting will be held the 7-9 or 21-23 of March at the Omni Hotel in New Haven, CT.
6) Membership renewal dues are up to $125 per regular member.
7) Strength in numbers campaign was mentioned.
Harold Harlan (outgoing representative to BCE) wants BCE to remain an independent group. Says BCE is continuing to pick up members.
A motion to accept the Governing Board Representatives report was passed.
Mark Rothschild, IDEP chair, discussed membership and other items at their recent committee meeting. Mark said that Donna Ellis was nominated for the upcoming 3-year chair of IDEP. The program for the upcoming EB-ESA meeting in Harrisburg was discussed, and IDEP wants to have a symposia involving exotic pest Homoptera. He also said their workshop at Ocean City went very well.
Jan Nyrop remarked that the Ocean City meeting registration was about 180. Jan also inquired about deceased EB-ESA members. Alan Cameron pointed out that Beckford F. Coon passed away this past year. He was acting head of the Penn State Entomology Department from 1963-65, and then served as head from 1965-78. Michael Villani was another EB-ESA member who passed away this year. It was suggested that the EB-ESA secretary contact Kathy Shields of the ESA Governing Board to find out if there were any other members who died in 2001.
New Business:
The meeting was turned over to President-elect Susan Whitney
Susan Whitney began a general discussion involving everyone in attendance about the format for the 2003 meeting. The following are summary comments for each discussion point:
Student paper competition: Should
be continued and is a strong point of the meeting.
Poster competition: It was noted that we paid $9 per day for each
of the blank easels, and we buy the boards for each one. Authors
should be required to post dates/times when they will be present
at their posters.
10-minute papers: There was general agreement to keep them in
the program.
Business meeting: Should be kept in the program.
Time and location of meeting: Should be attractive to the majority
of members.
Inexpensive: Many felt costs associated with attending the meeting
should be kept to a minimum; however, Jim Dill remarked that the
cost of registration should be increased to accommodate the balance
between what meeting attendees expect and the necessary costs
associated with meeting those expectations.
Displays: Displays/posters need to be a continuing part of the
annual meeting.
Symposia: Comments were made that the Ocean City symposia were
a strong point.
Plenary session: Interest in this topic was considerable and mixed.
Some were in favor of eliminating the plenary session; others
wanted a short plenary session held from 11-12 am on Monday; still
others thought we should have an earlier plenary session as well
as some limited symposia on Sunday afternoon. There was general
agreement that the current length of the meeting was about right.
Banquet with cost included in registration: Comments were made
about encouraging better student attendance at the banquet and
overall meeting.
Linnaean games: Game times should be shorter to include more rounds,
and senior pickup teams should be encouraged.
General comments were made about the following items:
Keeping everything on time
Increase nominations for EB-ESA awards
Provide a well serviced social with free food and beverage
Provide free coffee breaks
Have an awards luncheon instead of an evening banquet
Hold symposia on new technology
Have banquet off-site and structure it around an interesting field trip-type event
EB-ESA should encourage more outreach
Encourage vendors with video/digital technology that can be viewed on sight
Have "welcome" just before start of poster session
EB-ESA President should be the keynote speaker during plenary session
Conduct plenary session over lunch and provide a "brown bag" meal
There was general discussion on how we can encourage greater student attendance; and a comment was made to encourage more faculty member involvement.
Gary Miller's "Entomotoon" program about insects and the Civil War was mentioned as a possible topic for the 2003 meeting.