FLORIDA CHAPTER, AFS
19th Annual Meeting
11 March 1999
Withlacoochee Training Center, Brooksville, Florida
President: Grant Gilmore
President Elect: Bob Wattendorf
Secretary Treasurer: Doug Haymans
Past President: Larry Connor
The theme for our symposium was Florida Fisheries--Economics, Marketing and Education.
Invited speakers covered these topics from the perspectives of industry, tourism, management
agencies and universities and included both freshwater and saltwater aspects. In addition a wide
variety of excellent contributed papers and 10 posters (our most ever) were presented on
traditional fisheries topics. All abstracts are available on line at http://nersp.nerdc.ufl.edu/~fafs/.
Items of interest at the business meeting included Grant Gilmore's discussion of the lack of saltwater papers presented at the 1999 Southern Division mid-term meeting in Chattanooga. He pointed out that there are a minimum of 50 university, agency and private marine labs in the Division and that something should be done to encourage their participation. Larry Connor, Secretary-Treasurer of the Southern Division urged us to host the 2001 mid-term meeting and suggested it would give us an opportunity to actively seek quality papers including marine topics. A motion to host the meeting, with the first choice of venues being in Jacksonville, due to ease of access by both road and air, passed. (Note: Subsequently, we heard that the Southern Division has taken us up on the offer, and we are pursuing a facility with Larry Connor as arrangements chair and setting up a program committee).
Grant Gilmore complimented Bob Wattendorf on the chapters' new web site (http://nersp.nerdc.ufl.edu/~fafs/) and especially commented on the utility for future officers due to ease of access to Roger's Rules of Orders, our Procedures Manual and our Charter all being on-line. He encouraged members to log on and use the various links to follow important legislative issues including special links pertaining to the creation of a new Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which was mandated by a constitutional referendum passed by the electorate in November 1998. The new agency will include the former Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission, Marine Fisheries Commission and portions of the Department of Environmental Protection.
Chuck Cichra reported on the Roger Rottman Memorial Scholarship. The Committee selected University of Florida student Joel Carlin to receive the $500 scholarship and due to the extemely high caliber of applicants the Committee personally contributed to fund a second $200 scholarship for Bonnie Whitlock. In the future, it is hoped that the investment account will allow endowment of two scholarships without affecting principle. One will be for a Ph.D. student and the other for an M.S. or undergraduate.
Last year's raffle allowed us to pay room and board at the Chapter Meeting for ten students, and
the Raffle Committee chaired by Doug Haymans raised enough in 1999 to fund ten more students next year.
The Newsletter is now being edited by John Benton and compliments and expressions of sympathy were bestowed upon him. John plans to try to publish the newsletter quarterly and Bob Wattendorf indicated he could put the letters on the website as soon as they went out. There is already an archive of past newsletters on the website. A proxy will be set up to allow individuals that want to be advised by email of new postings to receive automatic notification.
Steve Miller, Chair of the Legislative Committee pointed to the utility of the web in keeping everyone informed of important bills. He encouraged individuals to write on their own expressing their views on conservation issues.
Grant Gilmore commended Larry Connor for an excellent job in putting together a Directory of members, along with a very useful list of fisheries offices. The latter is now posted on our web site with links, where available. Members chose not to have their personal names and contact information placed on the web at this time.
The issue of membership lists then entered into a discussion of selling the list for Chapter benefits, such as raffle donations or cash for various projects. In the end a resolution was passed allowing transfer of the list under the following conditions:
Doug Haymans was elected as the new president elect and Peter Hood became the new Secretary Treasurer. When Bob Wattendorf assumed the Presidency, he commended Grant Gilmore for his leadership efforts, in particular in calling attention to the needs of Caribbean fisheries biologists. Grant will head a Chapter effort to sponsor a symposium at the Gulf Caribbean Fisheries Initiative meeting in Key West during November 1999. The proposal to officially seek a name change for the Chapter to include the Caribbean was deferred until an ad hoc committee could determine if the Caribbean fisheries biologists would consider such a move to be helpful or "imperialistic."
Bob also commended Larry Connor for the wide array of contributions that he has made to the Chapter and noted that although officially he would be stepping down from the Executive Committee his leadership would still be relied on as we prepare for the Southern Division Mid-Term Meeting.
Other resolutions that passed authorized the Secretary-Treasurer to pay off our AFS-2000 pledge a year early and to extend our thanks to the Clemson Chapter for their support of our raffle. In addition, Bob Wattendorf was directed to write a letter to the appropriate State Legislative Committee Chairs in support of the Florida Forever Act. Due to some minor concerns, a pledge was made to post the draft letter for a week on the web site to allow member comments before the final was mailed. (Note this was accomplished, as directed, and the Florida Forever Act did pass the Legislature providing more funding for future environmental land acquisition and management). Wattendorf also sought and received a resolution allowing a task force to review the Parent Society Strategic Plan if it passes, as expected, at the mid-term. The task force will recommend at next year's Chapter Meeting either adopting, or modifying and adopting the plan, as suggested in the "Fisheries" article that presented the draft to members.
Finally, Wattendorf requested and received approval to use Chapter funds to conduct a survey of members, including those who do not typically attend Chapter Meetings to determine what non-attending and potential members want from the Chapter and to see if some other time or venue would result in better attendance. A copy of the survey will be mailed with the news letter and another version posted on the web.
The meeting then adjourned to another wonderfully interactive bonfire social....