Southern Division
American Fisheries Society
EXCOM Meeting Minutes
29 October 2000
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

President Marty Hale called the EXCOM Meeting to order at 0810. Secretary/Treasurer Larry Connor determined that there was a quorum present. There were four proxies present, Bret Preston for Mike Shingleton (WV), Bob Curry for John Crutchfield (NC), Steve Filipek for Charles Gagen (AR), and Larry Mohn for Charles Gowan (VA). President Hale recognized Past President and Society First Vice-President Fred Harris.

American Fisheries Society Representative's Remarks: Fred Harris, AFS 1st Vice-President, remarked that Society President Carl Burger, Past-President Christine Moffit, an Executive Director Gus Rassam were in China attending the 3rd World Fisheries Congress in Beijing. They are attempting to bring the 4th Congress to North America probably on the west coast. Fred will be contacting the chapter presidents about membership initiatives and appointing a representative on the Society's membership committee. Fred also discussed the possibility of having a preliminary meeting with the division officers who's presidency will coincided with his to coordinate their efforts.

President's Report: President Marty Hale deferred his report until the business meeting.

President Elect's Report: President Elect Mike Meador commented on his work on the technical committee system. Many of the respondents to the technical committee survey felt that the Division needs to take a more active role in directing the technical committees. The committee concluded that there needed to be more active communication between the committees, Division, and the fish chiefs relative to the goals and objectives of the committees. The committee recommended a bylaws revision to be discussed under new business.

Vice President's Report: Most of Vice-President Jeff Boxrucker's activities centered on membership. He served as chair of the Division's membership committee and on the Society's membership committee. The activities started at the 2000 midyear meeting with a meeting among the officers and others. The most important idea stemming from this meeting was a sliding scale dues structure. The recommendation was sent to the Society's membership committee for consideration.

Secretary/Treasurer's Report: Larry Connor moved that the 4 February 2000 EXCOM meeting minutes be approved. Bob Curry seconded. There were no corrections and the motion carried. Secretary/Treasurer Larry Connor let the report stand as written. He added that the Society was making a push for better financial reporting by the subunits. This will mean that any Southern Division entity that has income and expenses will need to be included in the Southern Division's report.

Chapter Reports: Generally the chapter reports stood as written. Marty Hale reported that the Alabama chapter was attempting to make a break from the Alabama Fisheries Workers Association and establish themselves. Steve Filipek and Brian Wagner from the Arkansas chapter reported on the joint Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana meeting. They are also holding a joint meeting with the Arkansas chapter of the Wildlife Society. The chapter has provided judges for science fairs. Larry Connor reported on the 2001 midyear meeting in Jacksonville for the Florida chapter. The Louisiana chapter is forming a student committee; a member concerns committee; and a long range planning committee. North Carolina has bid to host the 2003 midyear meeting and is proceeding with the plans. Oklahoma discussed hosting the 2004 midyear meeting, but the bid status was not clear at this time. Bret Preston of the West Virginia chapter reported that the West Virginia University students were taking on the job of producing the chapter's newsletter.

Audit Committee Report: Wes Porak and the audit committee went over the books and found everything to be in order.

Awards Committee Report: Gene Gilliland discussed the problems getting committee volunteers and nominees for the awards. Gene Gilliland moved that the Division increase the awards committee funding to $500. Keith Ashley seconded. The motion carried.

Mail Ballot Committee: Keith Ashley let the mail ballot committee report stand as written. The new officers are: Vice-President Steve Filipek, Secretary/Treasurer Dick Luebke, and nominating committee representative Hal Schramm.

Membership Committee: Jeff Boxrucker let the membership committee report stand as written.

Nominating Committee: The nominating committee had difficulty locating candidates for office, but put together an excellent slate. Additionally the procedures manual will be updated to reflect the correct deadline for the newsletter.

Program Committee: Mike Meador let his report stand as written.

Resolutions Committee: There were no external resolutions submitted for consideration this year.

Anniversary Committee Report: The Anniversary committee plans to hold a celebration of the Division's 50th anniversary at the 2002 midyear meeting. The committee will request all chapters and technical committees to put together a history poster for the meeting.

Communications Committee Report: The communications committee feels that web service fees will increase to as much as $650 in the future, but the current budget is adequate until then.

Aquaculture Committee: The Aquaculture Committee did not submit a report. The Division is reviewing the status of the Aquaculture Committee.

Pollution Committee: The Pollution Committee's was allowed to stand as written.

Reservoir Committee: Mike Allen is stepping down as committee chair and Mark Oliver will be heading the committee in the future.

Small Impoundments Committee: Gene Gilliland moved that the Division endorse their consumer guidelines on small impoundment consultants and fish suppliers as submitted to the EXCOM previously. Bob Curry seconded. The motion carried.

Striped Bass Committee: Scott Van Horn is working on revitalizing the Striped Bass Committee. He is planning a meeting later this fall for North Carolina and surrounding states to try to reorganize the committee. There was a long discussion about whether this was still the striped bass technical committee, an ad hoc committee, or a special task force. Also discussed was whether this should be a subcommittee of the Reservoir Committee and how ad hoc committees would be funded by the Division. The consensus of the discussion indicated that the committee headed by Van Horn was the current Striped Bass Committee and, therefore, could use the committee's bank account.

Trout Committee: Jarrad Kosa submitted a written report for the Trout Committee. Larry Mohn added that the Trout Committee has organized the East Coast Trout Conference in conjunction with the Northeast Division.

Warmwater Streams Committee: The Committee is still working on the streams video. The Red River Chloride Project is dead in its current form.

Society Nominating Committee Representative: Hal Schramm has been unable to find a potential Southern Division candidate as yet.

SEAFWA Proceedings Editor: Submissions for the Southeastern were up this year. Several of these were the new case history papers. The new editor will be John Galvez.

Old Business: There was no other old business.

New Business:

Mike Meador moved that the Southern Division amend Section V (i.) of the bylaws to read, "Technical Committees of the Division shall provide a forum for the resolution of important professional problems within the Division." This would eliminate references to specific technical committees by name. Steve Filipek seconded. The motion carried.

Mike Meador moved that the Southern Division allocate $1,500 to support AFS Leadership topics at the 2001 midyear meeting. Jeff Boxrucker seconded. The Division would use these funds to support A/V for the workshop and to support travel by Jim Martin, Joe Margraf or Dale Burkett, and possibly Lisa Dineer to the meeting. The training agenda would generally follow the same format as at this year's annual meeting. There was discussion of having some of these speakers make presentations at the general session on Saturday morning. The motion carried.

Budget: Larry Connor discussed the proposed budget with the changes approved at the meeting. The travel budget was increased by $1,000 to cover Jeff Boxrucker and Steve Filipek's travel during the year. Connor moved to accept the 2001 budget with the changes already approved at this meeting. Keith Ashley seconded. The motion carried. Larry Connor was directed to contact AFS HQ about the methodology used to figure the dues rebate.

The EXCOM directed future midyear meetings to include a short business meeting in the agenda.

Larry Connor moved to adjourn. Bob Curry seconded. The motion carried and the meeting adjourned at 1152.