2004 SOUTHEASTERN
BRANCH - ESA ANNUAL MEETING
FRANCIS MARION HOTEL,
CHARLESTON, SC
MIDDLETON ROOM
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
MEETING
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1:00
- 5:00 P.M.
1) Call to Order - Michael L. Williams, President
SEB-ESA.
President Williams called the Executive Committee meeting to order at 1:07 pm on February 15, 2004, in the Middleton Room of the Francis Marion Hotel, Charleston, SC, and welcomed all in attendance. Williams asked if there were additional items for the agenda. Having none, Williams invited ESA President Steffey to address the group.
2) Comments from ESA President - Kevin Steffey
President Steffey thanked everyone for the invitation to attend the SEB meeting and stated he is looking forward to attending all the branch meetings. Steffey provided a brief history of the financial situation of ESA and the motions previously passed that brought us to this point today. He stated that the financial situation is much better but we are not completely out of the woods. A new mission statement with core functions has been developed. A decision matrix was also developed. Steffey stated that many of the issues and difficulties that ESA is facing are typical of what is happening to many other societies. However, there are some specific to ESA and he would like to determine what these are and target them. The biggest concern is member retention and reclamation. The early to mid-career scientists is the largest group not renewing membership. An important question that needs to be asked is: “Is the ESA relevant in modern times?” The governing board will work more in concert with the Strategic Planning Committee. Now at GB meetings, there is a meeting of strategic planning. ESA will continue with and pursue appropriate affiliations and partnerships. The Plant Management Network is a new affiliation. ESA continues to need input from the officers and membership. The next national meeting will be held Nov 14-17 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The International Congress to be held in August may impact attendance at ESA. Program symposia can still be submitted even though the deadline is past. It is possible to have a symposia added at the last moment. It will not be in the program but it is possible to still have the symposium, but it will require some self-promotion. Steffey commented that there would be some changes at the next annual meeting. There will be changes in the program, when student awards will be given, times of section business meetings, and will have the winning Linnaean Team compete with a more “mature” team made up of professors/researchers. Steffey stated that there was a motion made at the fall GB meeting regarding being able to change your branch affiliation. The committee on rules and regulations will report back to the GB with a recommendation.
David Riley, Chair of the
National Membership Committee, suggested having a membership drive for those
that have not renewed their membership.
He currently has a list of those members that have not renewed and would
share them with the branches to encourage everyone to renew.
3) Comments from ESA Executive Director - Paula Lettice
Lettice thanked the branch for the invitation to attend the meeting. Lettice stated that the strategic planning is starting to pay off and ESA should be financially in the black for 2003. The papers have been signed to sell the national headquarters building at Lanham, MD. The ESA office moved two weeks ago to a smaller, newer, rented suite. The office now has a color printer. Lettice stated that the membership data show a significant decline since 1999. Regular members show the greatest reduction and these are the largest moneymakers. Student and emeritus are growing groups but pay less money to ESA. Seventeen percent of the members did not renew their membership within the last two years.
Williams commented that members that are not affiliated with a section do not have voting rights. Brewer asked if membership is lost equally across sections and branches. Paula said it differs but there are no obvious trends. BCE members have dropped. Managing the certification process is now done in house. Meeting attendance has dropped but variable. Last national meeting had the attendance but less money because more students attended which pay less money. Williams asked about the problem at the last national meeting regarding the hotel block. Lettice reported that we did not meet some hotel room blocks and were required to pay fees at two of the hotels but that it was considerably less than expected. The SE Branch had the highest attendance of the branches last year and received the largest subvention check. Also last year, ESA did not have to pay approx. $400,000 in unemployment insurance. President Steffey stated that there is currently extra money but the society must be very careful with it. ESA needs a reserve for future protection. ESA has outsourced many services. They are adding electronic commerce software to speed up credit card and online registration. Rapid review is working fairly well but still not all members are complying. Twenty-one scientists have been selected to get money for travel/registration to the International Congress.
4) Comments from ESA Governing Board Representative -
Wayne Gardner
Gardner stated that this is his
final year as GB rep for the SE Branch.
He reiterated comments made by President Steffey about the relevancy of
ESA being an important issue. He also
reminded everyone that late submissions for symposia topics are still being
accepted. Gardner commented that
improved data from ESA has helped in the decision making for ESA and that there
is a learning curve for membership services.
We need to be patient and membership services will improve.
5) Comments from ESA Certification Board and
Entomological Foundation – Don Allemann
Allemann reported on the ESA
Foundation. The Foundation was created
in 1901 by the ESA leadership. The
Foundation seeks funds from a variety of sources that are used to help promote
the science of entomology especially among the young. A 13-member Board of Directors governs the Foundation with
oversight from the ESA GB. Pat Zungoli
from the SE Branch continues as a member of the Foundation Board. The SE Branch is also well represented among
the Foundation counselors who network among the membership. Money is tight but the Foundation did well
in 2003. Notable contributions included
partnering with UC Davis in a $35,000 grant from USDA for youth education and a
$10,000 grant from the International Congress on Insect Neurochemistry and
Neurophysiology to establish a youth recognition award. The Foundation has also
been recently listed on the igive.com website where purchases at some 500
popular stores like JC Penny, Kohls, Target, etc. will result in a percentage
of your purchase price going to the Foundation. Details are available on the website. Foundation monies are invested with Schwab and TIAA-CREF. Several members of the SE Branch were
recipients of Foundation awards in 2003, which include Christina Coleman,
Auburn, Juan Jurat-Fuentes, Georgia, and James Austin, Arkansas.
6) Reading of 2003 Minutes - Catharine Mannion,
Secretary-Treasurer
Mannion stated that the
minutes were posted on the website and were also available at the current
meeting. M. R. Williams made a motion
to suspend reading of the minutes and to adopt the minutes as published on the
web. One correction was noted to change
‘Oswald’ to ‘Oswalt’. Joe Culin
seconded the motion and it passed on voice vote.
7) Committee Reports
Local Arrangements
Committee - Joe Culin, Chair -
Culin stated that everything has gone pretty well for the meeting. Culin thanked the committee for working hard
and a good job. The golf tournament did
not happen most likely due to weather.
Alvin Simmons will be providing a tour of the new USDA Vegetable
Laboratory on Tuesday afternoon. There
is also a trip to the Cypress Gardens on Tuesday afternoon at a cost of $5.00,
which is less than the normal fee.
There will be sign-up sheets at the registration desk. Donations from industry representatives are
very low ($2,300). Almost all
presentations are by PowerPoint. There
is a breakfast tomorrow morning before the opening session
Meeting Location and
Time-2005 - Clarence Collison, Chair
– The 79th Annual Meeting of the SE Branch ESA will be held at the
Grand Casino Resort and Convention Center, Tunica Mississippi. Tunica is located on the banks of the
Mississippi River, 25 miles south of Memphis. The meeting will be held from
March 6-9, 2005. The contract has been
signed and lodging at the Veranda Hotel will be $59.00 per night + tax. The convention center has over 27,000 sq.
ft. of meeting space and the resort features a variety of restaurants, a spa
and salon, and a Hale Irwin-designed golf course. Outlet shopping is located nearby.
President Steffey commented
that there will be 4 branch meetings in March.
Mike R. Williams (MS) commented about the concerns of filling the hotel
room blocks and that perhaps the hotel should be notified that some members may
book cheaper rooms outside the block.
Williams had experienced this previously at this location for another
meeting.
Meeting Location and
Time-2006 - Sterling Southern, Chair – Southern stated that the
2006 meeting will be in North Carolina and asked for input on locations. Last time the meeting was in North Carolina
it was in Ashville. Possible choices
would be in Ashville again or on the coast.
Ashville was well accepted in the past and there are relatively good
airline connections. Southern stated
that Jim Harper will be assisting and will forward information as soon as they
have it.
Program Committee- John
Ruberson, Chair – Ruberson stated
that the meeting has a full and rich schedule of papers. The numbers of presentations is comparable
to previous years (see table below).
The 2004 meeting is most comparable to the largest meetings we have had
since 1999. There are 119 oral
presentations and 75 posters. There are
13 cancellations and 2 replacements.
There were a few changes to the program and any feedback would be
appreciated. (1.) The physical program
was produced with a commercial copy machine rather than at a printer. The cost was approximately 20% of that
incurred using a printer. The quality
of the images is decidedly poorer. (2.)
A gap in the program for approximately 3 hours on Tuesday afternoon was
provided to give people a chance to visit with one another or to see a few of
the sights. Ruberson said he would like
to see all digital presentations next year so there will be no need for slide
projectors. Joe Culin arranged for the
PCO’s to get credits for their pesticide licenses. Culin expects approximately $800.00 as a result of one-day
registrations for the PCO’s. Ruberson
also suggested that we go to an all electronic mail out. Ruberson stated that there were minor
problems with the online title submission.
|
Year/ No. papers |
Oral Papers |
PhD Oral |
MS Oral |
Posters |
PhD Posters |
MS Posters |
Symposia |
|
1999 Sandestin 188 total |
153 |
10 |
12 |
35 |
6 |
4 |
1-
Branch Symposium (Opening) 2- Lygus Management 3- Teaching Entomology 4- Urban Entomology 5- Longleaf Pine
Communities 6- Student Symposium 7- Vegetable Insects 8-
Ornamental Entomology |
|
2000 Mobile 145 total (133 w/out) |
114 (102 w/out opening/closing) |
12 |
13 |
31 |
7 |
2 |
1-
Branch Symposium (Opening) 2- Insect Conservation in
the Southeast 3- Student Symposium 4- Vegetable Insects 5- Armyworm Symposium 6-
Teaching Symposium |
|
2001 Augusta 195 total (172 w/out) |
162 (149 w/out opening/closing) |
20 |
11 |
33 |
6 |
6 |
1-
Branch Symposium (Opening) 2- Teaching Entomology 3- Forensic Entomology 4- Urban Entomology 5- Ornamental Entomology 6- Student Symposium 7-
Stored Product Pests |
|
2002 Little Rock 167 total (167 w/out) |
116 (111 w/out opening/closing) |
9 |
12 |
51 |
8 |
6 |
1-
Branch/Student Symposium (Opening) 2- Plant/Herbivore
Interactions 3- Turf and Ornamental
Entomology 4- Vegetable Insects 5-
Armyworm Symposium |
|
2003 Baton Rouge 196 total (188 w/out) |
121 (113 w/out opening/closing) |
11 |
7 |
75 |
8 |
13 |
1-
Branch Symposium (Opening) 2- Teaching Entomology 3- Formosan Termite 4- Urban Entomology 5- Vegetable Insects 6-
Student Symposium |
|
2004 Charleston 194 total (186 w/out) |
119 (111 w/out opening/closing) |
8 |
9 |
75 |
13 |
10 |
1-
Branch Symposium (Opening) 2- Turf and Ornamental
Entomology 3- Vegetable Insects 4- Student Symposium 5-
Armyworm Symposium |
2004 Symposium
Organizers:
Branch
Symposium: Mike L. Williams (Auburn)
Turf
and Ornamental Entomology: Gretchen Pettis
Vegetable
Insects: David Riley
Student
Symposium: Donny Oswalt
Armyworm
Symposium: John Adamczyk, Rob Meagher
Member Awards Committee
- Donn Johnson, Chair – By
November 1, 2003, a total of 7 nominations were received from SEB-ESA members
for 5 award categories (2 - Integrated Pest Management, 2 - Extension, 1 -
Regulatory Entomology, 1 – Teaching, and 1 - SEB Nominee for ESA Recognition in
Entomology). Johnson checked to make
sure that all nominees were current members of ESA since this is a requirement
to receive these awards. Unfortunately, no one submitted nominations for the
ESA Recognition Award in Urban Entomology or the ESA Recognition Award in
Insect Physiology, Biochemistry, and Toxicology or Distinguished Service to
Certification Program. Two electronic “Calls for Nominations for SEB Member
Awards” were sent to all department heads on 18 July (15 September deadline)
and again on 22 September 2003 (delayed deadline to 1 November). Each email
listed all the awards available and hyperlinks to the URL addresses where a
nominator could read about the qualifications and nomination packet format
about each award. By 15 September and 1 November, respectively, Johnson had
received 5 and 7 nominations by email, which was an improvement over 2003 of
only two nominations. All nominations were handled electronically at the
submission stage and the committee evaluation stage. All files for each nomination
packet were available on a FTP site that could be accessed by a password.
Johnson asked how could we get more information about the awards to the
membership. North Carolina, Florida,
South Carolina and Louisiana were the only states to submit nominations
.
Student Awards
Committee - Jeremy Greene, Chair
– No report given.
Nominating Committee - Nancy Hinkle, Chair - The 2003 SEB-ESA Nominating Committee consisted of
Art Appel (Auburn University), Chip Anderson (Bayer Crop Science), Jeff Dobbs
(Olympic Horticultural Products), Frank Guillot (USDA-ARS), and David Williams
(USDA-ARS, retired). Potential
candidate suggestions were solicited from SEB members, including previous
officers. Four excellent nominees
agreed to have their names submitted, two for President-Elect and two for
Member-at-Large. The committee
nominated Karen M. Vail, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Mitchell E.
Roof, Clemson University (retired), for the SEB-ESA Member-at-Large slot and
Craig Abel, USDA-ARS Southern Insect Management Research Unit, Stoneville, MS,
and Wayne Gardner, University of Georgia, as President-Elect candidates.
We need nominations to replace Wayne Gardner, Branch Representative to the ESA GB, by May or June. This should be done by the chair of the nominations committee.
Student Affairs
Committee - Donny Oswalt, Chair -
Linnaean Games: Six teams participated
(Auburn, Clemson, Univ. of Florida, Univ. of Georgia, NCSU, and Univ. of
Tennessee). The competition will be
held on Monday, 2/16/04, 5:00-7:30 pm in the Gold Ballroom. The Games Master will be John Morse and the
judges will be Kevin Steffey, Mike L. Williams and Nancy Hinkle.
Student Symposium: The student symposium will be held on
Tuesday, 2/17/04, 8:00 – 11:15 am. The
topic is Entomology in the Genetic Revolution.
There are seven speakers (Tracie Jenkins, Marjorie Hoy, Tovi Lehmann,
Nannan Liu, Mike Caprio, Jason Rasgon, and Matt Turnbull).
Photo Salon: There was a format change in submitting
photos in that it was all digital. There
were 145 submissions, which is considerably more than last year, which was 10
submissions. The committee will meet
today to discuss this issue about number of submissions, quality and size. The committee will try to develop some
requirements to be put on the website.
Actual contributors are about 20.
Oswalt would like to run a slide show during the awards lunch to show
all submissions.
Membership Committee -
Mike Caprio, Chair – No report.
David Riley, ESA Membership Committee, stated he has a list of current members of the branch for the past two years that have not renewed. Usually there are about 1200 members and as of last week, there are 780 current members; non-renewed 544 for the past two years. About 1900 members have not renewed since end of 2001. Riley stated this is why he suggests having a membership drive for non-renewing members. There is a lag period for renewals so the list may not actually be complete. Riley stated he will give the list of non-renewals to the branch president.
Education -
Michael R. Williams, Chair – Williams stated that this committee was ad hoc for
several years. The committee is
comprised of himself and Joe Culin. The
committee met via phone/email in October and November 2003, and decided that
there would not be a teacher symposium but that they did commit to both a
symposium and teacher workshop for 2005.
It has been 2 years since there has been a teacher workshop. These workshops have always been well
received, but at times difficult to arrange. There is a need for the President to poll the membership and name
other interested individuals to this committee. Williams stated he will develop some guidelines for the committee
for the incoming President.
Nomination Committee to
National Office - Gary Mullen –
Mullen stated that there are no nominations for national office. He stated there are no guidelines for making
nominations, so this needs to change.
Currently, this is an ad hoc committee.
There is still time to make nominations for this year. The Vice President Elect (yearly) and
Secretary-Treasurer (every 3 years) nominations are not required but have been
selected by an ad hoc committee of past presidents. There are also nominations for the Branch Rep and BCE Rep. Mullen stated that there needs to be
something in the mail out to change this committee to a standing committee
which will require a vote at the final business meeting of the next branch
meeting.
Buntin made a motion to
eliminate the ad hoc committee and assign those charges of nominations to the
national office to the Nominations
Committee and that the committee should include two past presidents. Joe Culin seconded the motion. This will require a bylaws change that will
need to go membership. Change should
include involvement of past presidents. Williams asked that Mullen write the
bylaws change. “The Executive Committee recommends that the Branch
Nomination Committee assume the responsibility of nominating SEB members for
nationally elected ESA positions and that the Branch Nominations Committee be
expanded to include two past SEB presidents.”
This should be included in the next mail out. All in favor.
8) Treasurer=s Report - Catharine Mannion, Secretary-Treasurer
Mannion passed out the Financial Summary for 2003-04 and a proposed budget for 2004-05. The books were transferred to Mannion in May 2003 with a balance of $41,108.73. The balance on February 13, 2004, was $48,759.86. Most of the expenses for this meeting (hotel costs, food, awards) have not yet been paid. All funds were held in a Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Active Assets Account.
The approved budget for
2003-04 and the proposed budget for 2004-05 both show an approximate deficit of
$10,000. The deficit is not actual
because not all money is spent that has been budgeted and the actual numbers
reflect a breakeven situation. It was
suggested to Mannion to include the actual budget figures and not just the
proposed figures for next year’s meeting.
It was also suggested that Mannion investigate putting a portion of the
money into a CD after all bills have been paid. Beverly Sparks moved to approve the budget. It was seconded by Joe Culin and passed on
voice vote.
9) Comments from President
Elect - Gary Mullen
Mullen stated that the SEB handbook for officers and committee chairs had not been updated since its last revision in September 2002. The disk copy was apparently lost and was not passed on to the president-elect for updating and revisions for 2003-04. The 2002 handbook provided no listing of the past members of a number of committees since 1998, with others not updated since 2000. Through the efforts of Nancy Hinkle and past president Beverly Sparks, the 2002 handbook was scanned and sent electronically to Mullen. This was used to update the handbook and produce the 2004 edition. Thirty bound copies of the guidelines were produced for distribution to the 2004-05 officers and committee chairs. The cost was $7.43 per copy for a total of $229.90. There are still several revisions that need to be addressed such as discrepancy regarding the name of the Local Arrangements Committee, the number of members on some committees, awards where there has been no recipients in recent years, listing of Linnaean team members in recent years, and no mention of the Nominating Committee for National Offices and the By-Laws Revision Committee.
10) Other/New Business
Items
Wayne Gardner moved to remove
the cost of the Fidelity bond from the budget after Executive Director Lettice
checks to see if the branches are covered under the ESA policy. Joe Culin seconded the motion and passed on
voice vote.
The meeting was adjourned at
5:00pm.