North Central Branch, Entomological Society of America Executive Committee Meeting, March 23, 2003
Minutes:
In attendance: Ric Bessin, Bob Wright, Mike Gray, Fred Baxendale, Kevin Steffey, Scott Hutchins, Paul Fields, Brent Elliott, Gail Kampmeier, Jon Tollefson, Rob Wiedenmann, Steve Yaninek, Gray Brewer, Billy Fuller, John Wedberg, Sonny Ramaswamy
The meeting was called to order at 8:01 am by President Gray, and introductions were made.
Fred Baxendale and Scott Hutchins moved and seconded the approval of the minutes of the final executive committee meeting in East Lansing, Michigan. The minutes were approved unanimously.
ESA Vice President Kevin Steffey provided some general comments concerning the ESA national office. Since 1999, the ESA Governing Board has been working with a financial crisis and examining how the ESA has been doing business. There have been major reductions in personnel (67%), elimination of sales of merchandise, and out sourcing of services. The ESA mission and vision statements have been reworded. The other crisis facing the society is the reduction of membership, we are only about 84% of the 1999 levels. There has also been a decline in annual meeting attendance. Fortunately, we were not in deficit last fiscal year.
Mike Gray announced that Jon Tollefson was elected as a Member-At- Large to the Executive Committee and Gray Brewer as NCB ESA President Elect.
Scott Hutchins reported from the ESA Governing Board about the financial situation of the society. With the economy, ESA investments are down, but stabilized. The society is still trying to sell the building and are currently subletting the building for revenue. With the reduction in staff and outsourcing, the financial outlook is improving. The program enhancement funds from the ESA to the NCB ESA were up this year from $2897 to $3416. There is an effort at the society level to streamline the nomination process between branch awards and national nominations.
Gail Kampmeier reported from the ESA strategic planning committee. The SPC has revised the strategic plan and developed a decision matrix that will help the leadership prioritize the efforts and activities of the ESA office and society. Three strategic goals have been identified by the SPC. Gail presented the results of the Leadership conference in Ft. Lauderdale. One area we need to improve in the branch is attendance by regular members at the branch meetings. The committee structure also needs to be strengthened at both the branch and national levels. President Gray indicated that the charges for each of the Branch committees are on the Branch web site. We may also need to provide a better meeting to showcase other disciplines in Entomology rather than the commodity-based annual meeting orientation in the past. A discussion ensued regarding how the annual meeting could be enhanced to draw additional members.
Billy Fuller reported from the Student Awards Committee that the Comstock and Graduate Student Award winners have been selected. There were a number of conflicts between the branch and national awards, so a effort was made to resolve these inconsistencies. Proposed improvements include that the committee chair turn in documents and forms needed for the committee. The incoming committee chair needs to receive the final report from the previous chair to enhance continuity. Billy Fuller recommended that the President Elect consider a member of the current committee serve as the next chair.
Sonny Ramaswamy provided information about the 2004 meeting at the Fairmont Hotel in Kansas City, MO. The hotel room rates are very attractive and will be $99 for s/d/t occupancy. This is a beautiful hotel that has been recently renovated. Meeting rooms and equipment associated with the meeting will be provided free of charge. An expo may be conducted on the Saturday before the meeting. There may also be an opportunity to interact and participate with surrounding universities, colleges, and public schools.
Rob Wiedenmann submitted the Program Committee report. At this meeting, we are meeting with the ASA, and the ASA has made some adjustments as they traditionally do not have concurrent sessions. The awards recognition has been rearranged to a time to maximize the audience for the ceremony. We had 60 student competition oral and poster presentations. John Van Dyk’s web site development has greatly facilitated the paper submission process. John has been very responsive to suggestions to enhance the web site. Gail Kampmeier indicated that only 36 out of 120 papers had been uploaded by the initial upload deadline last Monday, they trickled in the rest of the week. We may want to consider put off the upload deadline until the start of the meeting and have an allotted time to upload the presentations onto the laptops.
The Time and Place Committee reported was submitted from Mark Ascerno that indicated the following locations: Kansas City MO (2004), Purdue, IN (2005), Illinois (2006), Winnipeg, CA (2007), and Lexington, KY (2008) for the upcoming NCB-ESA annual meetings.
Paul Fields presented the plans on a proposed joint meeting between the North Central Branch and the Entomological Society of Manitoba in Winnipeg in 2007. There are about 100 members of the Entomological Society, and their recent joint meeting with the ESC there were 200 attendees. Information was presented on estimated airfares and other meeting costs. A response to the proposal needs to be made to the ESM by October. Our national representatives were very supportive of the proposal. This will be presented to the membership by President Gray at the opening business meeting.
Ric Bessin presented a budget analysis of the 2002 budget and a proposed 2003 budget. A discussion followed of the details of the proposed budget. The budget will be voted on by the Executive Committee at the next meeting.
The next meeting of the Executive Committee will be Tuesday at 6:00 pm in Conference Room II.
The meeting was closed at 12:10 pm.
Respectfully,
Ric Bessin NCB-ESA Secretary-Treasurer