BUSINESS MEETING MINUTES
Sunday, September 11, 2005, 3:00 PM, Alaska Room, Hilton,
Anchorage, Alaska
Welcome and Announcements (Dave Willis)
- Call to order 3:10 p.m.
- Dave Willis acknowledged current and previous officers present.
Jan Lubeck (AFS staff) provided an overview of the Hutton program,
and also reviewed staff changes and who is responsible for the program. She
reported plans for 2005 and had a nice testimonial from a previous
Hutton participant. Jan finished with a pitch for more state
agency involvement.
Approval of Minutes of 2004 Annual Meeting (Madison meeting; have been
posted on web page since last September)
- Joe Larscheid motion, Fred Janssen second, approved.
Review and Approval of Financial Report (Dirk Miller)
- Quick overview, no questions.
Business Items
President’s Remarks (Dave Willis)
- Acknowledged Gus Rassam
- Dave thanked all officers, newsletter editor Colombo, Webmaster
Janssen, and committee members for their efforts over the past year.
Fishery Management Section Awards (Joe Larscheid and Dave Willis)
- A 2005 FMS Award of Excellence was presented to Gene Gilliland (OK)
for his accomplishments in outreach, education, and research regarding
black bass management. Gene has developed a national reputation
as an authority on black bass management issues. He has been
a leader on issues such as largemouth bass tournament-associated
mortality, largemouth bass virus, and habitat enhancement for black
bass fisheries.
- Another 2005 FMS Award of Excellence was presented to an interdisciplinary
team from the University of British Columbia: Drs. Scott
Hinch (Department of Forest Sciences), Anthony Farrell (Department
of Zoology), Mike Healey (Institute for Resources,
Environment and Sustainability), and Steven Cooke (Centre
for Applied Conservation Research). They used an interdisciplinary
approach to tackle pressing issues in fisheries conservation and
management by focusing on Pacific salmonids and detailed study of
their ecology, physiology, biochemistry and molecular biology. Steve
Cooke was present at the meeting and graciously accepted the award
on behalf of the research group.
Hall of Excellence: 2005 inductee (Dave Willis)
- Dr. Roy Heidinger, retired (not really) fisheries
professor at Southern Illinois University, was the deserving recipient
of the Section’s highest honor. Chris Kohler provided
an overview of Roy’s career. Roy’s plaque will
hang in the FMS Hall of Excellence at the Ak-Sar-Ben Aquarium in
Gretna, Nebraska. Roy was not present to accept the award because
his daughter was getting married in Idaho at the same time; Section
members “grudgingly” agreed that Roy had a legitimate
excuse. J Roy’s copy of the plaque was presented
to him at the departmental picnic at Southern Illinois University
during October 2005.
Committee reports
Newsletter Committee (Rob Colombo)
- Rob was not present, and Dave gave a summary of recent newsletters,
thanking Rob for his continuing work. Many comments indicated
that the quality and content of recent newsletters was greatly appreciated.
- Tim Hess acknowledged SIU for their long-term dedication to newsletter
production. The SIU student subunit of AFS received the FMS
Award of Excellence in 2002 in recognition of their long-term service
to the Section.
FMS Web Page (Fred Janssen)
- Fred mentioned Dave’s attention to the web site and acknowledged
Rob Colombo for his newsletter work. The web site will evolve
because Fred has new software. Fred also is web-enabling the
report that Don Gabelhouse produced (Fish Sampling and Data Analysis
Techniques used by Conservation Agencies in the U.S. and Canada;
1992). The report was a result of work by the Section’s
Fisheries Techniques Standardization Committee.
Special Committee Reports
Fisheries Techniques Standardization Committee (Scott Bonar)
- Scott reported that the “Standard Sampling Methods for North
American Freshwater Fishes” project is well underway, and that
many respected biologists have agreed to author the chapters on various
habitat/environment types. In addition, Scott reported tremendous
financial support from most of the federal natural resource agencies. The
final product should represent a great partnership. The editors
hope to have the project updated periodically as are other AFS publications.
Inland Fisheries Management in North America revision, third
edition (Wayne Hubert and Chris Kohler)
- Wayne Hubert gave update on next revision. Acknowledged Roy
Heidinger. This book originally was envisioned in 1989. Two
editions are out now, with the second being 7 years old. The
Society has about a 2 year supply on hand, so it is time to get started
with 3rd edition and hopefully have it available by 2008. The
editors are in the initial planning stages; there is a guidance committee
in place, who will work on approach and solicit authors.
Sauger Symposium at AFS 2006 (Brian Graeb)
- The Section will sponsor the symposium at the 2006 meeting in Lake
Placid. Many authors are interested in presenting, but anyone
still interested should get people in touch with Brian (brian.graeb@sdstate.edu). No
proceedings will be published because various speakers already have
their work in various stages of publication.
Review of Requests for Funding
Burbot Symposium II, Vaughn Paragamian: $4,000
- The first burbot symposium was supported by the Section at $2,000,
and Vaughn has returned approximately $4,000 to our coffers from
sales of that book (Fisheries Management Section Publication Number
1). Officers reviewed this request, which was correctly submitted
via the formal process on the FMS web page. Officers were supportive
of the project but some thought the request was high. This
request will not return money to the Section because it will be a
block of papers in a journal instead of a book. Kevin Pope
moved to approve, Andy Loftus seconded.
- Mike Hansen wondered why not a book? Discussion ensued.
- Most of the budget will cover page charges. Questions were
asked whether such support was necessary. Vaughn had previously
indicated that unused funds would be returned to the Section.
- A friendly amendment was made and accepted to scale back funding
to $2,000.
- Funding was passed at $2,000.
Equal Opportunity Section Student Travel Support (line item): $500
- FMS members decided last year (2004 annual business meeting) to
make this annual support a line item in our budget.
Stream Habitat Restoration Workshop (create line item?) $1,000
- Don Duff (former FMS President, and recipient of our Award of Excellence)
requested this funding just prior to the Anchorage meeting, being
unaware of our new funding procedure. Dave Willis recognized
the long-standing support of this workshop by our Section and wondered
if we should make it a budget line item. We have sponsored
the workshop on Stream/Salmonid Habitat Restoration every other year
since 1978. The 2006 meeting will probably be in England, and will
also be our second international meeting; the first international
meetings was in Ireland in 2002 and was a big success. The 2004 workshop
was in California at UC-Davis. The 2006 workshop will probably
be in late summer/fall in northern United Kingdom.
- Kevin Pope made a motion to include it as biannual line item. Steve
Lochmann seconded. Motion passed. Officers will need
to make a special effort to get this every-other-year item into the
budget (i.e., into “corporate” memory).
Approval of Revised Section By-laws (Dirk Miller;
were posted in last Section newsletter); please note Section VI, Item
6.
- Brian Murphy moved approval, with Mike Hansen providing the second. While
most issues were “clean-up” details provided by Dirk,
Section VI, Item 6 required special notice. This item reads
as follows: “The Executive Committee can approve individual
funding requests up to $500 without a vote of the membership up to
a maximum of $2,000 each fiscal year. All requests larger than
$500 must be electronically submitted via the Section web page by
1 July each year. The Section Executive Committee will conduct
a preliminary review of all requests. Applications clearing the preliminary
review will be posted on the Section web page for member comment
and then presented to the membership for final approval at the annual
Section business meeting.” The question was then asked:
how often are there $500 requests? This question was difficult
to answer, but past officers indicated that a request or two each
year was common.
- Motion was unanimously approved.
FMS Involvement in Development of New Standard Weight Equations (Wayne
Hubert, Ken Gerow)
- Wayne reviewed history of standard weight equations and recent
developments, acknowledging Richard Anderson and then Brian Murphy. He
described the problem and the work that Dr. Gerow currently is doing,
and made a pitch for use of the modified approach for computing standards. He
made a call for AFS action, and suggested that FMS should provide
oversight.
- Ken then made a pitch for archiving databases used for developing
the equations. He suggested that the Section establish a committee
to deal with standard weight issues. Substantial discussion
ensued.
- The Section is in need of a volunteer to provide oversight to this
committee. Dr. Gerow, at statistician at the University of
Wyoming is willing to provide technical assistance on the work, but
wanted a fisheries professional to take the lead on the project. No
volunteers were readily apparent at the meeting, and Section officers
will continue the search for a volunteer.
Need for a Case History Journal? (Hal Schramm)
- Dr. Schramm led this discussion, intended to review the need for
documentation of case histories, both for management biologists and
for teaching purposes. He was not suggesting that another journal
be developed. He primarily suggested that case histories should
be available to readers/colleagues. Case histories are not
being submitted and consequently not published in outlets such as
the North American Journal of Fisheries Management. He
cited the benefit to teaching fishery management based on case histories. Hal
was not sure where to go with this idea. Great work is being
done, with many applications. Case histories could potentially
be posted on the FMS web page.
- Mike Hansen suggested online publishing. He thought the Section
could provide a guide for authors and let people upload cases.
- Doug Stang indicated that many case histories are available in
agency reports. With the upcoming addition of agency reports
to the Fisheries InfoBase, a new source of readily accessible information
will be available.
- Scott Bonar indicated that there are no rewards for agency biologists
to publish. What could AFS do to encourage this work? The
Section officers will try to continue shepherding this idea.
How Can We Get People to Nominate Individuals for Section
Awards? (Willis / Larscheid)
- Dave Willis made strong pitch to get people to nominate people
for awards. One suggestion was to integrate the past presidents
of the Section into the process. We’ll give that a try
for 2006. Meanwhile, remember the standard old line: every
one of us knows someone who is deserving of Section recognition. So,
please consider making a nomination!
Other Business
- Student memberships: Craig Paukert moved and Fred Janssen seconded
that Section memberships for students will be free, but only if they
ask. George Spangler suggested that students be “full” members,
rather than “student” members of the Section. All
agreed that was the intent of the motion. Motion passed unanimously.
- Julie Meka accepted a $400 check for travel support that the section
approved at the 2004 business meeting for speakers to travel to the
2005 AFS symposium on “Catch-and-Release Science and its Application
to Conservation and Management.”
- Michael Fraidenburg provided an update on his “Lessons Learned” book
project. He will be meeting with students, and has most of
interviews completed and some commitment from publishers.
Motion to adjourn made by Stuart Shipman and seconded by Mike Staggs. Motion
passed. Meeting adjourned at 5:05 p.m.
