North Central Branch, Entomological Society of America Final Business Executive Committee Meeting, Bloomington, IL, March 29, 2006
In attendance: Gary Hein, Ric Bessin, Marcus McDonough, Shripat Kamble, Paul Fields, Rick Weinzierl, Mike Culy, Marianne Alleyne, Randy Higgins, Mark Boetel,
The meeting was called to order by President Gary Hein at 12:10.
President Hein presented an agenda for the meeting.
Marianne Alleyne noted that the meeting went well, except for the stolen LCD projector and a few other minor items. A police report was filed and Purdue University (the owner) has insurance. If that is not covered, then the Branch may consider reimbursement. There were just a few minor glitches with noise in the hotel. The Executive Committee extended their thanks to the Local Arrangements Committee.
Mike Culy noted that Rick Foster, 2006 Program Chair, reported that it is very difficult to hold members to the deadlines for paper and symposia as we have a long history of extending these dates. Because of this, people expect the deadlines to be extended.
The Operations and Standards committee was ad hoc and will be disbanded. By the end of the year, President Hein will ask Executive Committee members to contact committee chairs to make sure the changes are implemented.
Awards Stewardship Oversight Committee will have Rick Weinzierl chair this committee. This committee will provide oversight of the other awards committee so that they move forward. We did not nominate a member for the Extension Award, so Shripat Kamble moved and Dave Ragsdale seconded that we nominate Rick Foster (last year’s Branch nominee) for the Society’s competition. The motion passed unanimously.
Shripat Kamble moved (Bessin seconded) that we recognize all the Executive Committee members with plaques for their service as well as the Program and Local Arrangements Chairs. This would include Executive Committee at Large, student rep, Program Chair, LAC Chair. The motion passed unanimously.
Mark Boetel relayed the discussions with the Student Awards co-chairs. The
co-chairs this year liked the a co-chair relationship to share the work. The
updated guidelines would indicate that the chair name a co-chair from the committee.
One of the co-chairs would handle student paper competition oversight. The
other would handle the scholarship competition. Mark also noted that there
needs to be standardization for evaluation of the scholarship and paper competitions.
Mark Boetel presented the following motions:
Motion 1
"Development of Branch-specific criteria for selecting a Comstock
Graduate Student Award recipient" WHEREAS, guidelines for student awards
at the parent ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA (ESA) suggest that Branches
determine their own criteria for selecting Branch recipients of the J.H. Comstock
Graduate Student Award, and WHEREAS, no selection criteria are currently listed
on the ESA or NORTH CENTRAL BRANCH ESA websites, and WHEREAS, specific criteria
would improve the nomination and selection processes by providing a guide for
nominators, nominees, and Student Awards Committee members, BE IT RESOLVED
that the EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE of the NORTH CENTRAL BRANCH OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF AMERICA hereby authorizes and encourages the 2006-2007 North Central
Branch STUDENT AWARDS COMMITTEE to develop specific selection criteria for
assessment of nominations for this prestigious ESA award.
Motion 2 "Establishment of a quantitative system to evaluate
NCB student scholarship award nominees (J.H. Comstock Graduate Student Award
and Graduate Student Scholarship Award)WHEREAS, no system is currently in place
with which to quantitatively evaluate nominations for graduate student scholarship
awards in the NORTH CENTRAL BRANCH OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA,
and WHEREAS, such a quantitative system would allow for consistent and fair
consideration of nominations for these awards,
BE IT RESOLVED that the EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE of the NORTH CENTRAL BRANCH
OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA hereby authorizes and encourages the
2006-2007 North Central Branch STUDENT AWARDS COMMITTEE to develop a numerical
rating system for assessment of nominations for the J.H. Comstock Graduate
Student Award and the Graduate Student Scholarship Award.
Weinzierl moved that the resolutions be accepted, Shripat seconded the motion. The motion was passed unanimously. The criteria and scoring sheets need to be posted on the NCB website prior to the announcement for the competition. Mike Culy moved that we accept the changes to the student award guidelines, seconded by Shripat Kamble. The motion passed unanimously.
Nominating committee is encouraged to develop a slate of candidates for elected offices that reflects the diversity of our membership. The same goes for other Branch Committees.
Gary Hein discussed the Linnaean Games Committee with Wyatt Hobak about ways to structure the standing committee. Wyatt doesn’t go to members for questions as he feels that there is a need to keep the questions secure. Wyatt suggested that there would be a three person committee plus a student apart from the Gamesmaster. The committee could have the responsibility of setup while the Gamesmaster would focus just on developing questions for the competition. This year Gary Hein will work on the guidelines during this upcoming year. The level of difficultly of the questions appears to be appropriate for the competition.
Local and time committee did not have a representative, but venues have been selected through 2010. Gary Hein would like to have the International Plant Resistance Association meet along with us in 2009.
Update on the Winnipeg was provided by Paul Fields. He noted the cooperation with the Executive Committee. Brent Elliott will be the Local Arrangements Chair. There is a diverse list of symposia ideas that have already been put forward. The bus reservations should be made by the end of May or Early June. We need to get a copy of the contracts to review, liability issues and other matters. The contract will need to be reviewed by Judy Miller, Mike Culy, and Gary Hein. Deposit may be required. It was suggested that we try to meet as an Executive Committee on Sunday morning rather than Sunday afternoon in Winnipeg.
President Hein noted that we need to fill vacancies on a few standing committees, Awards, Youth and Education, and Strategic Planning Committees. Ideas should be forwarded to Gary Hein. This list of vacancies will be sent to the membership via email.
Guidelines for the Student Affairs committee changes were moved to be approved by Marcus McDonough. Boetel seconded this motion. There was a discussion of the nature of how a student representative would need to be elected. There was some sentiment that the whole membership be eligible to vote for this officer. The first election will be this fall/winter. We should include a list of candidates to encourage participation
New Business Expectations of the committees has already been brought forward (see above).
Planning for the 2007 symposia in Winnipeg has already been initiated.
We may need to have a conference call before the Society annual meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:55 pm.