President's Letter - Ron Boustany, Winter, 2002

Greetings South Central Chapter,
At this midpoint in my term as president of the chapter I feel both a sense of accomplishment with the past events and nervous excitement about those to come. I can report to you today that our chapter is in very good standing financially and is a very active and productive chapter in SWS. In the next two years we are poised to play a major role in SWS as we host the 2003 international meeting in New Orleans. Presently there is a team of members actively involved in planning this meeting and I can personally testify to the hard work and diligence that these people are putting into the preparations for the meeting. Lisa Gandy, general conference chair, has already spent countless hours planning and coordinating the committees over the past year. At this time all of the committees are fully involved in carrying out their various roles in making this event very successful and memorable. Check out our link on the SWS website (www.sws.org) to see what the current plans are. Also there is still plenty of work to be done so if you are interested in getting involved, please give Lisa a call and join the team. At the very least, make plans to go the meeting because it will be a very enjoyable experience both professionally and socially. Need I say more about a conference in New Orleans! I should also mention that we are planning on making a big showing to promote our meeting in 2003 at the SWS 2002 meeting in Lake Placid so plan on going and join us.

This past fall we had a very successful chapter meeting at Delta State University. We have to thank Dr. Sam Faulkner and his crew of Delta State University for planning and hosting the meeting. The two workshops (Introduction to ArcView and Introduction to grasses, sedges and rushes) were well attended and very well run. For the general meeting we hosted 5 invited guest speakers, a productive chapter meeting, and an interesting field trip (even though we got soaked by the rain) to the unique sand fields of the Mississippi Delta near Rosedale. To top off the day’s activities we were honored to be invited to the university president’s home for our evening social. But what was most incredible about this meeting was the number and quality of student presentations that we had at this meeting. We had 9 presenters and the 2001 South Central Chapter Fall Meeting Student Presentation Award went to Laurie Leach of the University of Memphis. Laurie will represent our chapter at SWS 2002 in Lake Placid by presenting her work. I congratulate all of the student presenters for a job well done and I also congratulate their mentors for both giving them the opportunity to showcase their work and for producing such excellent students. The quality of the presentations is truly a direct reflection on the quality of their program. I invite all chapter members who have such an important responsibility to take advantage of this opportunity in the future for the benefit of the student and the program.

Finally, as president, I have experienced first hand the value of being surrounded by capable, competent, and enthusiastic people in handling the affairs of the chapter. Indeed all of you can rest assured that the chapter is in good hands with the current board members and officers. Please be aware that these people volunteer a great deal of time and trouble to see that this chapter is in working order. I must particularly thank our Secretary/Treasurer, Rebecca Howard, for the incredibly efficient and thorough work that she does. I also thank immediate past president, Mark Ford, for offering a steady hand in mentoring me through my term and our board members for offering valuable advice in overseeing the activities of the chapter. Of course, I must give special thanks to a person who is neither a board member nor officer but perhaps has been a most valuable asset to our chapter. I speak, of course, of our new webmaster, Darrin Dantin. Darrin has spent countless hours bringing our website up to date and, despite my badgering, graciously gets information posted in a very timely manner. He does all of this at his home at night and he does it with enthusiasm. Do me a favor and congratulate him on a job well done if you get a chance and check out the great job he is doing on the website. While you are at it, thank all these other folks who volunteer their valuable time to the chapter.

I wish all of you a happy and productive 2002 and look forward to seeing you at one of the upcoming events.

Ron Boustany
President, SWS/South Central Chapter