The year between ESA\u2019s 100th annual meeting in Baltimore and our 101st meeting in Fort Lauderdale was a time of great change and a time to look forward.<\/p>\n
ESA member Tim Scholwater and Katherine McCarter, ESA executive director, enjoying the 2016 Annual Meeting closing social that was held on the Fort Lauderdale beach.<\/p><\/div>\n
The decision by the ESA Governing Board to end self-publishing ESA journals and transition production to John Wiley & Sons set in motion a very demanding schedule for ESA. All of our archives, information, and processes had to be transferred to Wiley, and new systems and ways of publishing our journals needed to be established. At the same time, ESA continued to produce its journals until Wiley took over the production in January 2016. We were fortunate that our committed publications staff worked diligently to produce our journals even as they prepared to close the Ithaca, New York publication office in November 2015. It was difficult to say good bye to the very dedicated production staff, many of whom had worked for ESA for a number of years. Five new positions for peer review specialists were created and filled with individuals who had held similar roles before the transfer.<\/p>\n
In early January 2016, we welcomed Steve Sayre as our new director of publishing, based in the Washington, DC headquarters. Sayre not only supervises the peer review staff and coordinates with the editors in chief, but also serves as ESA\u2019s liaison with its new publishing partner. As with any transition of this magnitude, there have been bumps along the way, but working closely with Wiley, we work through each challenge. We are confident that we have emerged with a stronger publication program that allows us to expand and enhance our publications while also providing new and exciting opportunities for ESA to pursue.<\/p>\n
There are notable accomplishments from the new\u00a0publication structure:
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Increased distribution of ESA journals worldwide
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Online access to ESA journals for all members
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Increased impact factors in 2016 for all ESA journals
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a040% growth for Ecosphere, which published 425 articles in 2016 making it ESA\u2019s largest journal
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Edited articles posted in Early View that significantly shorten the time to publish<\/p>\n
The dramatic change in the way we publish our journals is allowing us to\u00a0focus on other needs and to assess the future directions for ESA. Spearheaded by President Monica Turner, the Governing Board and management staff undertook a strategic planning effort that resulted in a strong commitment to enhance member services and to develop a coordinated communication plan for the organization. A new position, membership manager, was created and became operational December 2016. We will review, strengthen, and expand member services, provide benefits and networking opportunities for ecologists who choose careers outside of academia, and increase the benefits for academic scientists at all career stages. In the coming year, ESA will also develop a comprehensive communications strategy that not only will benefit our members, but will raise the visibility of ESA with decision-makers in the private and public spheres.<\/p>\n
While much of our attention was on ESA\u2019s publishing program and plans for the future, this annual report also highlights many exciting and important activities undertaken in the areas of science, meetings, education, and public affairs.<\/p>\n
ESA is in a strong position for the future. As we look ahead to a new administration in Washington, ESA will actively convey the importance of ecological science in dealing with the challenges that face our planet. We will engage our membership, focus our efforts, and together will continue to be a trusted source of ecological knowledge.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Katherine McCarter
\nExecutive Director<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[et_pb_section admin_label=”Monica with Binos” fullwidth=”on” specialty=”off” transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” padding_mobile=”off” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_css_main_element=”height:620px;” background_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0)” custom_padding=”96px|||”][et_pb_fullwidth_image admin_label=”Fullwidth Image” src=”https:\/\/www.esa.org\/2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Monica-turner-presidents-letter.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” animation=”off” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_margin=”96px|||”] [\/et_pb_fullwidth_image][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section admin_label=”Section” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row” make_fullwidth=”on” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” padding_mobile=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Letter from Prezi” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/714"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714"}],"version-history":[{"count":41,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1433,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/714\/revisions\/1433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}