FMS Business Meeting Minutes
Sunday September 2, 2007, 3:00 PM, Marriot Pacific A Room, San Francisco, CA - 51 people present (34 members) in attendance (documented)
Welcome and Announcements (Joe Larscheid)
- Call to Order 3:00 p.m.
- 2400+ registered participants at annual meeting, close to record attendance
- Acknowledgement of current and previous officers (several in attendance)
Mary Fabrizio- Summary of Governing Board Meeting
- Fisheries and Socio-economics policy statement sent back to Committee
- Annual AFS Meetings survey
- >90% think annual meetings are great
- Many suggested “topics meetings” separate from annual meetings
- E.g., upcoming tagging symposium in New Zealand
- Want input
- AFS budget in excellent shape
- Focus on IT support
- New coastal and marine fisheries journal progressing- assigned development editor
- 2008 first issue
Approval of minutes from 2006 Annual Meeting (Lake Placid)
- Ron Essig- Motion, Wayne Hubert- Second
- No discussion, minutes approved
Review and Approval of Financial Report (Brian Graeb)
- Hal Schramm- Motion, Fred Janssen- Second
- Brian clarified our actual balance- plenty of money ($~36,000)
- Motion Passed
OLD BUSINESS
FMS Awards (Ron Essig)
- Hall of Excellence inductees (plaques will hang in the FMS Hall of Excellence at the Ak-sar-ben Aquarium in Gretna, NE)
- Hannibal Bolton received the sections highest honor. Hannibal has an extensive background in fisheries management with 30+ yrs of service with the US Fish and Wildlife Service. He also has extensive experience with AFS, serving on a wide range of committees. Hannibal was present to receive the award.
- Dr. David Willis was also inducted into the FMS Hall of Excellence. Dave has very broad experience in fisheries management and ecology, pond management, fisheries assessment, and fisheries education. Dave also has many editorial accomplishments, extensive service with AFS, and has greatly advanced fisheries management and education. Dave graciously accepted the award and thanked many previous colleagues and graduate students.
- Paul T. “Jack” Wingate was also inducted into the FMS Hall of Excellence. Jack has a storied career with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources spanning 25 years, and long-time service in AFS leadership roles.
- Conservation Achievement Awards
- Southeast Aquatic Resource Partnership (SARP). SARP was created in 2001 as a groundbreaking partnership of 13 states, 4 regional fishery commissions, many federal agencies, and numerous private organizations. Its Southeast Aquatic Habitat Plan to be completed in late 2007 should serve as a model for regional implementation of the National Fish Habitat Initiative.
- Award of Excellence
- James Cowan Jr. James was recognized for his dedicated service to state, regional, and national fisheries management, including 15 years for the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council and 10 years for the National Research Council Ocean Studies Board.
- Roy Williams. Roy was recognized for his 39 years of marine fisheries management in Florida and his pioneering efforts in moving marine fisheries management from a reactive to a more proactive process.
- Award of Merit
- James Vincent and Paul Balkenbush were presented an award of merit for the leadership of a contingent of Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation employees, cooperators and volunteers to enhance a 2,800 foot portion of the lower Mountain Fork River through a hydraulically improved low-flow channel, enhanced stream habitat, two-acre wetland construction, and creation of a new 1,200 foot trout stream.
- Forrest Bonney was presented an award of merit for his 35 years of brook trout management in Maine including revamping regulations, authoring a species management plan, and publishing two books in 2006-2007 on this species for laymen and technical audiences.
New Books Update
- Michael Fraidenburg thanked FMS for supporting his book Intelligent Courage ($2,500). He encouraged everybody to “Leave a mark, not a stain”
- Vaughn Paragamian Burbot 2 available end of winter
FMS/FAS exchange program with the Institute of Fisheries Management (United Kingdom) update (Joe Larscheid)
- Joe gave keynote address last year at IFM meeting
- Steve Axford (president of IFM) traveled to San Francisco to attend AFS meeting this year
- Nearly 800 members in IFM
- Utilize AFS resources, e.g., textbooks, etc.
FMS Web Page (Fred Janssen)
- Online funding request submittals will be fixed
- Reservoir Symposium update- thanked FMS for support ($2500)
- Gave update on Data Summit 2 ($500 FMS)
- Much work before vision of large data aggregation is complete, as part of the National Fish Habitat Initiative
- Work towards agency sharing
- Develop at local scale
- Fishdata.org
FMS Newsletter (Colombo)
No report
Committee Reports
- Fisheries Techniques Standardization Committee (Scott Bonar)
- 47 authors involved, 9 agencies, international representation
- Working on 2nd draft
- Has undergone LOTS of review
- Available end of the year
- Assessment of Fish Aging Techniques (Maceina)
- Committee formed in 1986
- Surveyed State and Provincial agencies
- White paper in Fisheries
- 45 States, 6 Provinces responded
- 7 sportfish groups
- Latitudinal cline- scales used more in North, otoliths in South
- Age-5 or 6 viewed as maximum reliable age when using scales
- Back-calculating ages from otoliths is a waste of time
- Age data viewed as very important for most agency decision making
- Lots of marking occurring
- Starting to compile databases of known-age fish
- Revision of Standard Weights (Hubert)
- Gave history and development of problem, including cooperation with Ken Gerow (U of Wyoming Statistician)
- Wayne is the Chair of an Ad hoc committee to proactively revise the equations based on appropriate statistical methods
- Committee examined several approaches and recommended an unguided approach, but make software and manual available
- Dirk Miller suggested partnering with the Computer Users Section
- Mike Maceina asked if new equations could be related to old equations. Wayne said not without the original datasets
- Inland Fisheries Management in North America, 3rd edition update (Hubert)
- Decided to use the AFS book production unit to front most money for publication. FMS would still get a return on investment, but at a lower rate. However, we would not have to front much of the production costs
- Survey results prior to revision
- 275 responses- pointed to need for vast revision
- Thus, Wayne and Mike are developing a whole new book
- 1st draft ready in 2007
- Perhaps ready for publication by 2008
- Requested $5,000 for graphic artist
- Dirk Miller motion, Steve Filipek second
- Should Wayne look for artists bids? No, Wayne had personal contact that was cutting us a deal
- Passed for $5,000
Sponsored Symposia
- Urban Fishing Symposium (Tom Lang)
- FMS contributed $2,000
- 16 presenters supported by travel grants, including 4 students and 1 international attendant
- 200 kids at fishing clinic at San Francisco’s Lake Merced
- 35 oral, and 17 poster presentations
- Working on publishing proceedings
North American Lake Management Society NALMS (Don Gablehouse)
- Acknowledged work by Don Bonneau to bridge gap to “EPA types”
- Requested speakers to attend the Chicago meeting, particularly from outside the Midwest
- FMS will help by writing a letter of support
NEW BUSINESS
Requests for funding
- National Fish Habitat Initiative Workshop (Gary Whelan)
- Sponsorship level $500
- Motion- Mike Duval , Second Steve Filipek; Passed unanimous
- Walleye Technical Committee “Biology and Management of Walleye and Sauger in North America (Dave Willis for Patrick Hanchin)
- Requested $5,000, no returns to FMS
- Motion Dave Willis, Second Tom Lang
- Discussion- Can WTC also cover pikeperch? Questions will be passed to WTC
- Vote passed unanimous
- Equal Opportunity Section student travel fund
- Line item in budget, but Joe brought up to remind members that we will contribute $500
Other New Business
- Brad Parsons reminded members of the upcoming tagging and marking meeting in New Zealand
- Trying to initiate a scholarship program for agency folks to attend
Membership Discussion
- 637 FMS members. Seem to have a lot of lapsed members
- Ideas to promote membership
- Have AFS promote benefits of Section memberships
- Have sign-up at FMS sponsored symposia, and other similar events. Currently the only way to sign up is when annual membership is renewed
- Public television model- membership drives
- Promote to students
- “Up-selling” for example, have pop-ups when members log on to vote , etc.
- Motion to adjourn made by Gene Gilliland, Steve Flipek 2nd, Motion passed. Meeting adjourned at 5:00 p.m.
NOTE: officers received LOTS of grief about the lack of drinks at the meeting, but after explaining that the cost to provide beer would have been >$800, the target of the grumbling shifted to the hotel. The ExComm is working on this issue for future meetings.