Withlacoochee Training Center, Brooksville, Florida The meeting began after it was determined that a quorum was present. Past presidents Richard Cailteux, Larry Connor, Grant Gilmore, Marty Hale, Mike Murphy, and Ron Taylor were recognized as being present. Current President Bob Wattendorf opened the meeting with some comments.
Committee ReportsRottman Scholarship
Scholarship awards
Newsletter
Nominating committee
Legislative committee
Treasurer's report
Grant Gilmore spoke about the Gulf and Carribean Fisheries Institute annual meeting that occurred in Key West. He indicated that the Chapter sponsored a series of papers on the movement of fishes from the Carribean to Florida and Biogeography. The papers were very well received. Grant commented that it would have been nice to have some type of poster present at the meeting explaining the Chapter and its activities. The next meeting will be in Biloxi, Mississippi this fall. The Chapter unanimously moved to form a display committee and spend about $750 to create the display. Larry Connor spoke about the Southern Division annual meeting. At this meeting, the membership was told that under Gus Rassam's (AFS executive director) leadership, the Society has moved from a $300,000 deficit to a positive balance. The next Southern Division meeting will be held from October 29 to November 1, 2000 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Larry also talked about the upcoming mid-year meeting that the Chapter is hosting next February. The meeting will occur in Jacksonville from February 21 to 25 at the Jacksonville Hilton and Towers Conference Center on the St. Johns River. The room cost will be $82 per night. A variety of workshops and symposia have been talked about and topics will be finalized this summer. Student travel grants will be available to cover some expenses and registration will be waved for students who work during the meeting. Mike Allen has been organizing a bass symposium to be held at the National AFS meeting
occurring this August in St. Louis, Missouri. The Chapter voted unanimously to spend $1,000
towards this effort. Larry Connor and Bob Wattendorf reported on Chapter involvement with an article on biologist salaries that was in a recent issue of Fisheries. The survey used median values of salary ranges. This works fine when some type of merit/step increase system is in place so that salaries are distributed across the salary range. However, states like Florida do not use this type of system and most biologists end up being at the base rate within the range. The consequence of this type of survey is that Florida biologists look like they are being paid more than they actually are. The inadequacy of the survey was brought to the attention of Bob Kendall, Fisheries editor. He wrote an explanatory article highlighting the concerns which will appear in the May issue of Fisheries and is posted on our web site.
Bob Wattendorf was recognized for his service as president by the Chapter. Doug Haymans was installed as the new president. Bob will continue working on the Chapter web site and will serve as head of the Nominating Committee. John Benton will continue as newsletter editor and Chuck Cichra will continue as chair of the Travel and Rottman Scholarship committees. Steve Bortone volunteered to serve as the Awards Committee Chairman. Mike Allen moved that registration, meals, and room charges be waived for symposium speakers. This motion was amended to pay the one-day registration fee. The membership voted unanimously that one-day registration fees be waived for symposium speakers. Steve Huskey is the co-chair of the Skinner-Raffle committee for the National meeting. He asked that the Chapter pay for framing and shipping of a Diane Peebles print, and this motion was passed unanimously. Charles Walker announced the winner of the archery competition was Steve Harkey. Don DeSylva who has newly moved to the Brooksville area, brought up two environmental problems in the region. The first was that Perrier water company was asking to increase their pumping rate in an area already suffering drought conditions. The second was that pollution from the many concrete companies in the area may cause environmental problems through the aerial dispersal of calcium carbonate. He was asked to write some articles for our newsletter to better inform the membership of these problems. Steve Bortone announced that he has written a book on spotted seatrout biology Chuck Cichra is on the Southern Division Nominating Committee. Members interested in getting more involved in the Southern Division should contact him.
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