President's Letter - Paul Dubowy, Winter, 2004

The South Central Chapter is the largest chapter (area) in the United States, comprising over 600,000 square miles and extending over all or part of three time zones; only the Canada and Australia chapters are larger. We are blessed with having some extremely talented and hard-working chapter members, as evidenced by the fact that 2003 was an incredibly productive and successful year for the SC Chapter. Having served on the Society’s Executive Board for the past ten years I can safely say that we have one of the most productive, exciting and dynamic chapters in SWS. I would like to acknowledge and thank the current members of the chapter’s Executive Board: Marge Holland, Past-President, Scott Jecker, President Elect, Matt Stahman, Secretary-Treasurer, Megan LaPeyre, Andy Nyman, Bob Nairn and Carol Thompson, Executive Board Members, and Darrin Dantin, Webmaster, for their dedication and hard work.

The high point of 2003 for the SC Chapter was hosting the SWS 24th Annual Conference in New Orleans in June. Those of you who attended know that the conference was a huge success; if you were unable to attend you missed a truly memorable event. It was the largest SWS conference ever with nearly 800 registrants (250 of which were students) and over 500 oral and poster presentations. Conference Chair Lisa Gandy did an extraordinary job coordinating all the various aspects of the conference—venue, social events, children’s program, field trips, etc. The success of the New Orleans conference would not have been possible without Lisa’s incredible determination and drive. Many other chapter members also worked very long and hard hours to ensure the success of the conference. I have heard from many people outside our chapter that the SC Chapter has set a new level of achievement that will be daunting for future SWS conferences to repeat.

The SC Chapter’s annual meeting was held for the first time in Oklahoma at the University of Oklahoma’s Biological Field Station on Lake Texhoma, 15-18 October 2003. As with the New Orleans conference, if you missed the Oklahoma meeting you missed a great SC Chapter event; our thanks to Bob Nairn for hosting the meeting. A two-day pre-meeting workshop, focusing on Basic Assessment and Restoration of Degraded Streams, was offered by Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation Fisheries Division Staff. The annual meeting on Friday featured several invited speakers on Oklahoma wetlands, a Chapter business meeting and a field trip to Tishomingo NWR. At the Business Meeting Lisa Gandy received a plaque for her dedication to SWS. The very popular “Itchy Possum and the New Saturday Night Tractors Band” was the entertainment for the social on Friday evening, where we were joined by many colorful local residents. Saturday morning featured the student paper competition, with the winner, Clint Porter, University of Oklahoma, receiving financial assistance ($600) to attend the 2004 SWS International Meeting in Seattle.

In December I attended the fall meeting of the South Atlantic Chapter in Savannah, Georgia, to discuss plans for the 2004 joint chapter meeting. The 2004 South Central Chapter annual meeting will be held jointly with the South Atlantic Chapter and the Gulf Estuarine Research Society in Pensacola Beach, Florida, 6-9 October 2004. Darrin Dantin and Scott Jecker have been working hard to develop a program that I am sure you will find exciting and extremely interesting. Please plan on joining us in Florida in October!