SWS SOUTH CENTRAL CHAPTER
Spring Business Meeting Minutes
June 29, 2010 – Salt Lake City, UT

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Officers
Julia Cherry – President - Present
Matt Stahman – President Elect - Present
Ken Krauss – Past President - Present
Robbie Kröger – Treasurer - Present
Adam Williams – Secretary - Not Present

Board
Lisa Webb – Present
Emily Greer – Not Present
Diane DeSteven – Not Present
Chuck Walker – Not Present


Call to Order
The 2010 Spring business meeting of the South Central Chapter was called to order by President Julia Cherry at 12:40 PM on June 29, 2010.

Quorum
In the absence of Secretary Adam Williams, President Cherry declared a quorum. A total of 19 Chapter members was present; the meeting was also attended by SWS Secretary-General William Conner. President Cherry welcomed all and thanked them for their attendance.

Past Meeting Minutes
Copies of the minutes from the 2009 fall meeting in Denton, TX were distributed for review by President-elect Matt Stahman. A motion was made to accept the minutes as written. The motion was seconded and the minutes were approved by a membership vote.

Treasurer Report
Presented by Treasurer Robbie Kroger. Highlights of the report were:

• Total assets of the Chapter as of 26 June 2010 were $20,264.05.
• The 2009 fall Chapter meeting resulted in about $2,400 in proceeds.
• A plant identification workshop held in May 2010 generated proceeds of about $1,100.

Modifications are needed to the 2010 Chapter budget to add costs for: (1) support to the undergraduate student mentoring program at the annual SWS meeting, and (2) production costs of the new Chapter poster (current estimate is $300).

Treasurer Kroger noted his concern over the $1,176 the Chapter received as it share of dues for 2009, which appeared to be low. He will seek information to confirm the basis of the amount transferred to the Chapter.

Standing Committee Reports

• Membership. No report. However, Treasurer Kroger stated that total membership in the Chapter currently stands at 405.
• Program. No Report.
• Nominations. No Report
• Archives. Rebecca Howard reported that the archives continue to be maintained at the USGS National Wetlands Research Center in Lafayette, LA. Plans are to eventually scan the hard copies of old records to create digital files.
• Bylaws and Standing Rules. No report
• Special Issues. No report

Special Committee Reports

• Chapter Poster. President Cherry reported that Emily Greer has completed the poster design. A copy will be printed that can be carried or sent to meetings for display.

Old Business

• Fall Meeting. The meeting will be held October 21 – 23, 2010 at the University of Mississippi Field Station, near Oxford MS. Marge Holland, host of the meeting, distributed a draft meeting agenda. Two one-day workshops are planned for Thursday October 21; the workshops will focus on crayfish ecology and identification and on aquatic insect identification. Registration for the meeting will open at 8:00 AM Friday and a series of presentations will be made until noon. Following lunch, the Chapter business meeting will be held and a tour of the field station will be conducted for meeting attendees. Student presentation will begin on Saturday morning, October 23. Individual student awards of $100, with a $600 total limit, will be available to support travel to the meeting. Holland noted that anticipated high student involvement may require adjusting the schedule to accommodate all participants. Updates on the meeting schedule, a call for abstracts, and a list of presentations will appear on the Chapter website.
  
  
• Workshops. Scott Jecker noted that a successful plant identification workshop attended by 14 people was held in Marcos, TX on May 4, 2010.
  
  
• President Cherry noted that the website requires updating.
  
  
• Undergraduate Mentoring Program. Ken Krauss reported that the University of Louisiana, Lafayette, student that the Chapter had sponsored to attend the Salt Lake City meeting through the SWS Diversity Committee program did not arrive at the meeting. The Diversity Committee will cover the cost of the airline ticket that was purchased for the student, so the Chapter will incur no costs for the program this year.
  
  
• President Cherry announced that Micah Tindall, who placed first in the student presentation competition at the 2009 Fall Meeting, and Nicholas Enwright, who placed second in the competition, have received their travel awards of $800 and $400, respectively.
  
  
• President Cherry officially announced the results from the spring elections. The newly elected officers are: Carol Thompson – President-elect, Rebecca Howard – Secretary, Eddie Millhollon – Board1, and Samuel Pierce – Board. She also thanked the following outgoing officers for their service: Ken Krauss – Past President, Adam Williams – Secretary, and Emily Greer and Lisa Webb – Board members.
  
  
• President Cherry passed presiding duties for the meeting to new the new Chapter President, Matt Stahman, and assumed duties as Past-President.

New Business

• Proposed By-Laws Change. President Stahman noted that there is a effort across SWS for all Chapters to standardize presidential terms to two years to provide continuity at Society Board meetings. This will require a change to the Chapter By-Laws, which currently stipulate that the president, president-elect, and past-president positions are one-year terms. A proposed change to Article III 3(a) of the Chapter By-Laws to indicate two-year terms for the three presidential offices was therefore proposed. This proposal will be submitted for a membership vote at the Fall Business Meeting in Oxford, MS. The current wording in Article III 3(a) and the proposed change are:
  
  Current: “The President, President-elect, and Past-president shall serve for a period of one year or until the next annual meeting, and the Secretary, the Treasurer and Board members shall serve for a period of two years. Board members shall be elected to serve two-year terms, so that in each calendar year, two new Board members are elected and two will rotate off the Executive Board, with four elected Board members serving in overlapping years.”
  
  Proposed Change: “The President, President-elect, Past-president, Secretary, Treasurer and Board members shall serve for a period of two years. Board members shall be elected to serve two-year terms, so that in each calendar year, two new Board members are elected and two will rotate off the Executive Board, with four elected Board members serving in overlapping years.”
  
  
• Student Clubs. Past-President Cherry presented a report by Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge (LSU) Club President Vanessa Tobias. The club is active, and during the past year has sponsored and participated in several outreach activities. The activities included a cleanup of the LSU lakes and Mardi Gras bead recycling. Ashley Nix will be the new LSU club president.
  Cherry also noted that a new student club has been formed at the University of Alabama, and the club has been recognized by the SWS Board. Anna Braswell will serve as President of the club, which will include universities across the state.
  
  
• SWS Oil Impact Website. SWS President Andy Baldwin contacted Julia Cherry in April 2010 concerning ideas about how the Chapter could response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill incident in the Gulf of Mexico. This resulted in a link on the SWS website that posts current information on the incident. Cherry has provided newspaper articles and other sources of information on the status of the incident. She is also requesting additional articles or photographs from Chapter members to post on the site.
  
  
• Future Meetings. The site for the Fall 2011 meeting has not yet been determined. Eddie Millhollon suggested the Red River Research Station near Shreveport as a possible site. A suggestion was also made having the meeting in Little Rock, AR. President Stahman will review options and present a summary at the meeting this fall.
  
  
• Outreach. Scott Jecker reported that a plant identification workshop planned for Louisiana was not able to be scheduled this summer. He will work with Andy Nyman to plan a time for the workshop.

Other Business

Questions/Concerns. Jeff Raasch expressed misgivings over the statement from the SWS Environmental Concerns Committee on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster, which is posted on the SWS website. Raasch believes that the call made in the statement for immediate inspection of all offshore facilities to ensure that future accidents do not occur is outside the realm of the Society’s objectives as described in the official SWS “Aims”. A discussion followed, with no consensus among members reached.

President Stahman called for a motion to close the Business Meeting. A motion was made, seconded, and approved by vote. The meeting closed at 1:50 PM.

Addendum
¹Eddie Millhollon subsequently declined this post. By a Board vote, Jayme Shiner, who placed third in the spring election, was offered the position. She accepted the invitation to become the fourth Board member.

Prepared by Rebecca Howard
October 4, 2010