Executive Committee Members in Attendance: Pat Greany, Julie Stavisky, Marco Toapanta, John Capinera, Richard Mankin, and John Petti.

Committee Chairs and FES Members in Attendance: Norm Leppla, John Sivinski, Robert Meagher, Lois Wood, Bernie Sparks, Jeff Shapiro, Nancy Epsky, and Gary Leibee.

President’s Opening Remarks: The meeting was called to order at 1:02 p.m. on December 9, 1999, by President-elect Pat Greany.

1. Pat presented an announcement from President Peterson stating that he had retired from Dow AgroSciences but intended to remain active as President of the Society.
2. Pat distributed an agenda and asked those in attendance to review minutes from the September 23, 1999, Executive Committee and turned the meeting over to Secretary Petti.

Secretary (John Petti): Minutes from the September 23^rd Executive Committee Meeting were reviewed and accepted by unanimous vote.

1. John announced the end of his three year term and asked that a request for nominations for the position of Secretary be included in the Newsletter.

Business Manager (Teresa DuChene): Pat presented Teresa’s report as she could not attend the meeting. The vote to accept the report was unanimous.

1. In order to better accommodate our members, especially those from other countries, Teresa would like the Executive Committee to consider offering Visa/Master Card as an optional method of paying membership dues and meeting registration. She is making inquiries to determine the overall cost and will present her findings at a future meeting.
2. Teresa requested that space be reserved in the Newsletter to remind members that FES now has tax-exempt status and donations/contributions to the Society are tax-deductible. She suggested offering some type of recognition for their generosity to further encourage donations.

Florida Entomologist (Dick Baranowski): John Sivinski presented two sets of three galley proofs, one set shown in our standard format and the other shown in the proposed format similar to ESA.

1. A few details still need to be ironed out, like what to do with the cover if the table of contents is moved inside, and there was no cost comparison so a final decision on whether and when to implement the change was tabled until the April meeting.
2. If approved, the format change could appear in the first issue of 2001.

Pioneer Lecture (Norm Leppla): Norm announced that Louis Wright will be the Pioneer Lecturer honoring John T. Creighton at the 2000 Annual Meeting.

1. Jim Lloyd will approach Ernest Myer about being the Pioneer Lecturer at the 2001 meeting. The 2001 Honoree has not yet been determined.
2. Clay McCoy will take over next year as Chairman of the Pioneer Lecture Committee.
3. Due to special circumstances this year, the PLC will not need its $1000 honorarium. Norm motioned, Pat Greaney seconded, and the motion to transfer the funds to the Behavioral Ecology Symposium was passed unanimously.

Local Arrangements (John Capinera): John announced that the 2000 Annual Meeting will be held August 6-9 at the Registry Resort in Naples.

1. He estimated the per night room charge at $110, commenting that members should find the luxurious accommodations well worth the money. The Registry Resort is difficult to find so John intends to have directions and a map available on the FES website.

Public Relations (Nancy Epsky): Nancy has brochures from the Registry Resort and plans to make them available at the ESA and SEBESA meetings in hopes of increasing the number of people attending.

1. John Capinera suggested increasing attendance by concentrating on other Florida groups like the Mosquito Control Society and County Extension Agents.
2. Nancy is looking into the cost to advertise the meeting in the American Entomologist.
3. The Entomo-L and Bio-Control Bulletin Boards were suggested as ways to advertise the meeting without cost to FES.

Program (Pat Greany): Pat suggested the Behavior Ecology Symposium should not necessarily be or stay one of the basic symposium topics at annual meetings.

1. John Capinera pointed out it is hard to find enough speakers to fill the symposium so it often ends up being a catch all. He added it might make more sense to have a symposium on exotic pests.
2. Pat offered a list of other suggested topics including protected crop, urban, and medical entomology, invasive species, GM crops, and vector biology. He further suggesting asking former president Jimmy Carter to present a talk in the area of vector biology, adding it might give a big boost to attendance.
3. Rob Meagher asked if there would be a poster session this year. John Capinera responded positively stating that there would be a 4' X 4' limit on size and that he would arrange to rent stands to support them.

Honors and Awards (Gary Leibee): Gary announced that he would be retiring as chairman of the committee and suggested Wendy Meyers as a possible replacement.

1. John Capinera said Don Hall may be interested in taking over and that he would approach him about it.

Computer Resources / Long Range Planning / Webmaster (Richard Mankin): Teresa has updated the membership database and Richard has submitted it to Colony One to update the Website. The estimated cost of improvements to and consolidation of the data base is $600.

1. Tom Walker spoke to the company that currently converts the Florida Entomologist to HTML about changing those files from 1994 to present to SGML for posting on PubMed. He should have quotes soon. Plans are to make these manuscripts available on PubMed and get more input from Dick Baranowski before offering to post non-refereed manuscripts on PubMed.
2. Nothing has been done to promote or solicit banners for employment opportunities and advertising on the FES Website. Pat is to speak to Lance about forming a new committee to take charge of the enterprise which was discussed and encouraged at an earlier meeting.

Publications (Tom Walker): Lance asked Pat to have the committee consider reducing the number of undistributed journals from 300 to 100. He believes the number is excessive and we could save both printing and storage costs.

1. John Capinera suggested finding out how much of a savings we would realize before committing to the idea.

Student Members (Marco Toapanta and Karen Young): Marco pointed out that many faculty and students of Mexican universities attend the SWESA Annual Meetings as their international meeting. He suggested encouraging Caribbean entomologists to view FES Annual Meetings as their international meeting to boost our attendance.

1. He also suggested we contact the Mexican Entomological Society about sharing links to our respective Websites.

Newsletter (Lois Wood and Nancy Epsky): Lois reported that a member, experienced in PageMaker, offered to update the look of the Newsletter.

1. The January issue is about ready to publish, pending receipt of Lance’s Presidential Address and the updated 2000 Committee Roster.
2. John Sivinski is to write an announcement of the Florida Entomologist format change to be included in the next Newsletter.
3. John Capinera is to put together the first announcement of the 2000 Annual Meeting for publication in the Newsletter and posting on the FES website.
4. The Newsletter is to include an announcement that there will be a concurrent session for papers presented in Spanish. The paper submission form is to be revised to include a space to indicate the presenter’s language preference. The possibility of having a simultaneous translator was discussed.

April 20, 2000