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Meeting Minutes
Agroecology Business Meeting Minutes
Aug 8, 2006
Deborah Letourneau (Chair) called meeting to order at 12:30 pm
Secretary and meeting notes by Marc Los Huertos (secretary)
Vice-Chair Tim Crews was absent
Members present:
Patrick Bohlen
Doug Boucher
Deborah Letourneau
Rachel O’Malley
Alan Berkowitz
Kristen Mercer
Fabian Menalled
Richard Smith
Fred Pollnac
Katie Monsen
John Vandermeer
Perry Miller
Ivette Perfecto
Ann-Marie Fortuna
Deborah reported that the ESA membership and finances were in good shape due to profit-making meetings of Montreal and Mexico. Rapid Response Teams (ESA ecologists who have agreed to respond to issues in the press and for policy development in a clearing house approach) coordinated by the national ESA office are effective and the ESA council is planning on opening a new office in the southwest as a pilot project for offering this service on a regional level. Furthermore, the ESA council will announce grant funding for small projects or planning grants for sections (such as workshops, website development, etc.). Planning grants will be limited to $2500.
We discussed the need to develop a website that includes job postings, syllabi, news, and other curriculum materials. Deborah and Marc will work on a draft proposal for the new officers when the call from ESA comes out.
ESA council is planning on reorganizing symposium and organized oral session proposal deadlines to be sequential so that their different natures are highlighted (broad topics that provide an overview of the field for a wide audience (symposia) versus cutting edge research of more narrow scope (organized oral sessions). This action is to counteract the prevailing culture/myth that OOS are “failed symposia.” This change will likely be after the San Jose meeting
Chapter fees will increase to $5, primarily because sections need more funds to update websites.
New officers will be elected by email vote after the meeting. Nominees from the meeting who are active members of the section were Fabian Menalled, Matt Liebman and Phil Robertson. Other agroecologists were also nominated who are not active members.
As was done last term, the person with the most votes will be elected to Chair, second most votes Vice-Chair and the third most votes will be Secretary
Field trip for San Jose: Katie Monsen proposed a field trip to several well developed field trip options, visiting organic farms around the central coast of California and a visit to the UCSC Farm and Garden. Additional suggestions suggested a formal link to the Social Justice group. Katie will continue to work with the San Jose program chair (Rachel O’Malley) to develop the field trip(s).
Symposium for ESA 2007 meetings in San Jose which are with the Ecological Restoration Society. Theme is “Restoration in a Changing World”
Suggestions included: Post-farm restoration, Farming as a method of restoration,
Doug Boucher was in a working group with an appropriate theme and he would contact others in the working group to see if they would be willing to participate and provide some text to use in the proposal. Several people volunteered to meet and discuss other possibilities. Proposals are due on 15th of Sept, so for Agroecology section chair to endorses it, it needs to be submitted early Sept. Doug Boucher and Ann-Marie Fortuna agreed to pursue some ideas and contact potential speakers.
Ann-Marie Fortuna will draft a description of the field of Agroecology that provides a rich depiction of the expertise of our section members. A new initiative is to add to the plenary session a prestigious speaker representing one or two sections to introduce the activities of that field to the public. The Agroecology Section was encouraged to make suggestions for the San Jose meeting. John Vandermeer was suggested as a potential speaker. Contact the officers who can transmit suggestions to program chair Rachel O’Malley.