Executive Committee Members in Attendance: John Sivinski, Joe Funderburk, Lance Peterson, Theresa DuChene, Pat Greany, Nancy Epsky, Julie Staviski, Chris Tipping, and John Petti.

Committee Chairs and FES Members in Attendance: Norm Leppla, Gary Leibee, Lois Wood, Richard Mankin, John Capinera, Robert Meagher, and Clay Scherer.
 

President's Opening Remarks: Meeting called to order at 1:10 pm on September 24 ,1998 by President Sivinski. Bound copies of the Florida Entomological Society Operating Guidelines were distributed. Joe Funderburk was asked and agreed to head a group that, working with the Guidelines Committee, would look at and amend discrepancies in the current by-laws. The revised by-laws, which have not been published since 1996, will be published in a future issue of the Florida Entomologist. No published agenda .

Secretary's Report (John Petti) Minutes of the Executive Committee meeting held on April 29, 1998, including revisions reflecting the decisions to use the FES lightning bug logo for the 1998 annual meeting and NOT to print and mail the 1999 Annual Meeting Program to members, were resubmitted for approval. Norm Leppla expressed concern for members who do not have access to the FES website where the program will be published. Discussion followed and it was generally agreed that in accordance with the society's plan to offset some of the cost of going on-line by eliminating printing and mailing costs, the decision would stand. Those members without Internet access would have to request a copy of the program, which traditionally is not available in print until the week before the meeting, from the Program Committee or obtain a copy from a member who does have access. President Sivinski motioned to approve, Joe Funderburk seconded, and the vote to accept the revised minutes was unanimous.

• •Minutes from the 1997 Annual Meeting held in Daytona Beach were e-mailed to Executive Committee members for review and presented for approval. President Sivinski motioned to approve, Joe Funderburk seconded, and the vote to accept the minutes was unanimous. Unfortunately, it was learned later that the approved minutes did not reach Dick Baranowski in time to appear in the December issue of the Florida Entomologist as planned and will be published in March, 1999.
• •Minutes from the 1998 Annual Meeting held in Sanibel Island were e-mailed to Executive Committee Members for review and presented for approval. Photographs were not yet available and members decided to postpone voting until the next meeting in December. Dick Baronowski later confirmed that this would still allow enough time to publish the minutes in the March 1999, issue. John Petti acknowledged David Hall for acting as secretary at the 1998 meeting and producing the minutes, recommending that he receive a special service award at the 1999 annual meeting.
• •John Petti sent a letter to the Sundial Resort, including a copy of the resolutions, thanking the hotel for helping to make the 1998 FES Annual Meeting a success.
• •A preliminary roster of the 1998-1999 Executive Committee and Standing and Ad Hoc Committee Chairs was prepared and distributed. Members were urged to verify the information and committee chairs were asked to submit a final list of their committee members including address, phone numbers, and e-mail address, to John Petti at johnmpetti@AOL.com.

• •Teresa recapped current 1998 annual meeting revenue ($13,550.00) and expenses ($19,318.19) and projects a deficit of $5,545 after all accounts are settled. Following annual meeting deficits of about $3,000 for 1996 and $5,884 for 1997, Teresa requested ideas for providing a well-rounded and informative meeting with out running way over budget.
• •Pat Greany questioned whether costs of symposia ($2,322.23) and Honoree (Dr. Mound - $3,038.33) should be considered a direct expense of the meeting or charged to operating revenue.
• •Pat Greany suggested soliciting revenue from industry in exchange for display/booth space at the meetings. Lance Peterson suggested that exposure at research meetings is not appealing to industry. He also warned that as existing companies consolidate, their will be fewer contributors and organizations such as FES can expect fewer dollars from industry contributions.
• •Teresa pointed out that meeting registration fees and member dues, especially for students are unusually low. Those present generally agreed that both of these costs are modest in comparison to other professional organizations. Increasing meeting registration fees and membership dues were discussed.
• •Joe Funderburk asked for input as to what is a reasonable amount for students to pay. Chris Tipping and John Petti indicated that the registration fee has traditionally been paid by or through the university and would not directly impact the students.
• •Clay Scherer pointed out that increasing costs associated with the annual meeting should be absorbed by those who attend the meetings.
• •John Sivinski pointed out that increasing meeting registration by $30.00 per member X times 200 registrants would cover the deficit.
• •Teresa advised those in attendance of the current procedure for handling delinquent membership dues. If payment is not received after one notice, members (ca. 100) receive a 2^nd notice informing them that they have been dropped from the data base. This results in interruption of the Florida Entomologist mailing, added costs from mailing the journal to members (ca. 60-70) that renew, loss of membership (ca. 22-27), and nasty letters from disgruntled members. Teresa suggested mailing a 2^nd notice of payment due, advising members of the consequences of non-payment, before mailing a 3^rd (now the 2^nd) notice of being dropped form the mailing list. This would involve Teresa's time, paper and printing supplies, and postage for about 100 notices.
• •John Petti suggested revising the 1^st mailing to reflect the consequences of non-payment.
• •Pat Greany suggested using e-mail.
• •The possibility of including notices with journal mailings was discussed. No decision was reached.
• •Alamo car rental offered a program to FES where members would receive a 10% discount and the society would receive a 2% rebate. No decision was reached.
• •Teresa reports that Mr. Green has requested emeritus status.
• •President Sivinski expressed the need to look at the alternatives and motioned to accept the financial report. Seconded by Pat Greany, the vote was unanimous.

 

Fiscal (Bob Meager) No report was submitted.

• •John Petti motioned that the Fiscal Committee, with the help of Teresa DuChene, be charged with the responsibility of investigating the alternatives presented in regard to annual meeting costs and, with the aid of data from previous meetings, develop cost guidelines for future meetings. Seconded by John Sivinski, the vote was unanimous.

• •Richard Mankin reports that abstracts from the 1998 meeting have been deleted and that the 1998 program has been archived. It is possible link abstracts in the 1999 on-line program to an author's website where other members may access a slide show or other accompanying information. Contact Webmaster Richard Mankin through the FES website.
• •New features have been added to the membership data base. Member information, including a 250-character "special interests" field, can now be updated by members. Richard Mankin will develop and announce the procedure for obtaining a password.
• •Pat Greany requested a "petty cash" fund for implementing changes that improve the utility of the FES website. Such improvements are currently delayed up to three months, pending approval by the Executive Committee. John Petti motioned to budget up to $500.00 per year to be used at the Computer Resources Committee's discretion. Motion was seconded by Lance Peterson and the vote was unanimous in favor.
• •Nancy Epsky requested that unedited minutes of the Executive Committee meetings, a list of committee chairs and members, and other committee business be posted on the FES website. Options for displaying access to this information were discussed and will be further investigated by the Computer Resources Committee.
• •Richard Mankin reports little activity on the "On-Line Forum" site and requests members to make submissions to the "Hot Topics" page of the FES website.

• •The Florida Center for Library Automation (FCLA) estimates that the back-issues (1969 forward) should be searchable by Thanksgiving. Tom Walker reports that the project is within budget, projects a $700.00 surplus, and suggests that these funds be used to integrate the recent issues (1994-date) with the earlier ones if the Executive Committee finds that FCLA's user interface is superior to the interface that we are currently using.

• •Concurring with Dick Baranowski, Jorge Pena also submitted a letter stating that inclusion of the Spanish resumen does not preclude the reading of or publication in the Florida Entomologist and that most Spanish speaking persons prefer English.
• •President Sivinski solicited the opinion of a Mexican colleague who felt that the resumen is a good thing and notions presented by Dick and Jorge are wrong, pointing out that Conservation Biology requires a long Spanish abstract.
• •Howard Frank feels that not only should we keep the resumen, but should also consider accepting articles in other languages.
• •Joe Funderburk expressed concern over the Florida Entomologist losing its quality status and cautioned that the caliber and validity of submissions from third world authors should be carefully scrutinized.
• •In support of keeping the resumen, Norm Leppla recounted the original reasons for its addition to the Florida Entomologist. At the time, no North American journal was linked to or serving Latin American countries and FES has much in common with them. In retrospect, Norm pointed out the significance of our association with Latin America in regard to applied entomology. With so many restrictions in North America, a significant amount of research and the applications thereof occur in or emanate from Central and South America. Norm also pointed out the need to maintain the quality status of the Florida Entomologist.
• •Pat Greany suggested making the resume nonobligatory.
• •Lance Peterson expressed strong support in favor of keeping the resumen.
• •After much discussion, President Sivinski motioned to keep the resumen. Pat Greany seconded and the vote was unanimous. The issues of cost and who would do future translations was not resolved.
• •President Sivinski introduced the idea of publishing a memoir series of the Florida Entomologist, initially dedicated to Caribbean biodiversity. Dick Baranowski supports the idea and has offered to make the first submission (Hemiptera in the Caribbean). Jim Lloyd has volunteered to serve on the editorial staff and submit a monograph on fireflies. Tom Walker is also in support of the idea. President Sivinski wants ideas from the membership.
• •The question of accepting papers from authors with institutional membership status was introduced. The by-laws state that authors must be members of FES to submit papers. After much discussion and in light of a change to the by-laws requiring support of the membership, Pat Greany suggested that the pros and cons of accepting submissions from institutional members be published on the society's Hot Topics web page where members could contribute their input. Bob Meager volunteered to present the pros and President Sivinski agreed to ask Dick Baranowski to present the cons.

Newsletter (Lois Wood and Nancy Epsky) No report submitted. Past President's message is needed. Next issue of the newsletter will include snippets encouraging membership to submit e-mail addresses and watch the website for inclusions of society business discussed at this meeting. An edited version of the unapproved minutes from this meeting will be included in the next issue.

Caribbean Conference (Abe White) Not represented.

Caribbean Directory (Howard Frank) Not represented.

Operating Guidelines (Ellen Thoms) Not represented. Published guidelines distributed.

Long Range Planning (Richard Mankin) No report submitted.

Membership (Phil Koehler and Clay Scherer) Not represented.

Public Relations (Nancy Epsky) No report submitted. Faith Oi was welcomed as a new member of the committee.

Awards (Gary Leibee) No report submitted. Gary reported having mailed awards to members that did not attend the annual meeting.

Sustaining Membership (Keith Griffith) Not represented.
 

Miscellaneous

• •Pat Greany suggested that it is not too early to begin looking for a location of the 2000 annual meeting and offered to post potential locations on the FES website. Members could suggest locations and, as the meeting date approaches, vote on the general location from which a specific hotel will be chosen.
• •President Sivinski agreed and added that it would be good to get their input now that we have the capacity to poll the membership.

 

Meeting Adjourned at 4:00 PM.

Submitted by: John Petti, Secretary

October 14, 1998

http://www.flaentsoc.org/9809execboardminutes.htm
12/14/98 Richard Mankin