2017-2018 Section Newsletter

Posted by on June 22, 2018
Greeting Section Members! The 2018 Annual ESA Meeting in New Orleans is coming this August. Here is an update from the past year’s activities, and important items for the upcoming meeting.

 

(1) Recap of the 2017 annual meeting

Based on 2017 business meeting minutes by Carolyn Dash, 2017 Chair

At the 2017 annual meeting in Portland Oregon, the following officers were elected:

Melissa Chipman became chair
John W. Williams was elected vice-chair of the section
Gavin Simpson was elected secretary
Joseph Napier was elected student liaison
Philip Higuera was elected as the new Deevey Award coordinator

Deevey Award Winner

The 2017 Deevey Award winner was Joseph Napier, a Ph.D candidate in the Department of Plant Biology at the University of Illinois, for his presentation: “Rethinking glacial plant dynamics: multiple refugia and local expansion of a species complex north of the ice sheet”.  Honorable mentions were given to Kevin D. Burke and Yue Wang, who also gave outstanding presentations. (link)

2017 Business Meeting

Attendees at the 2017 Business Meeting discussed several topics:The main focus of the meeting was on declining membership in our section, from 170 members in 2001 to 94 members in 2007.Section members discussed ideas for improving the section membership, including

  • having the student liasion play a big role in engaging with potential student members
  • getting active members elected as officers of the section
  • encouraging PI’s to bring their students with them to the business meeting
  • using our budget to provide a student travel award in addition to the Deevey Award

Section members also brainstormed ideas for session proposals for New Orleans. See link to relevant paleoecology sessions currently scheduled for the 2018 meeting.

There was also discussion regarding the need for section officers to pass information on the next group of leaders. This resulted in a post-meeting series of discussions between older and newer section leadership to get everyone up to date.

ESA council meeting 2017 – Big picture items discussed at our business meeting

  1. ESA announced its search for the new Executive Director. Catherine O’Riordan was announced in February 2018 (see link)
  2. ESA released 3 times more policy statements than usual in 2017, and focused on increasing communication
  3. Budget in 2017: $1.7 mil endowment, $3.2 reserve, $5 mil reserve goal
  4. ESA council stressed that SECTIONS are key to the community

Paleoecology Section Budget (as of June 23rd 2017)

Membership: 92 members

Section Finances: $3050 (balance to carry forward)

Expenses: Deevey Award prize to Joe Napier ($500)

(2) ESA Paleoecology Section Web Presence

Section Website www.esa.org/paleoecology:

Substantial improvements have been made to our section website, thanks to efforts by the Paleoecology Section members to contribute information and pictures. Work on this website began in at the request of the ESA Historical Records Committee in preparation for the 2015 ESA Centennial Meeting. In particular, thanks to Phil Higuera and Jaquelyn Gill for pulling together the historical information about section officers and past Deevey Award winners. Melissa Chipman updated the website this year to get it caught up to present, and has been using it to post section announcements and points of interest for the upcoming meeting. If anyone has additional information to be added to the website, please send it to the section Secretary for that term.

Twitter presence:

Thanks to our student liaison Joseph Napier for boosting our web presence this year, specifically by communicating with the ESA student section and posting regular updates to our twitter feed. Remember, you can follow and contribute to the Paleoecology Section on Twitter (@esa_plaeo).

(3) Before the 2018 Meeting in August

1) Please volunteer to be a judge for the 2018 Deevey Award competition. If you are able to attend a few talks and score them for the competition, please contact this year’s Deevey Award coordinator Philip Higuera. Also, be sure to encourage your students to enter the competition!  Details for applicants are on the website (link)!

2) Have a look at the relevant events at the upcoming ESA meeting in New Orleans on the section web site (link) for more information on the time/location meetings and sessions of interest! Also note, the Long-Term Studies Section has invited to attend a joint section mixer to have a few drinks and meet. Details are available on our website.

3) If possible, please be sure to attend our section business meeting (and bring your students!).  The business meeting is terrific way for students to start getting involved in the community and make connections with other researchers in our field.

4) In addition, please review the proposed amendments to the Paleoecology Section bylaws. Section members will vote on substantial changes to the section bylaws ay this year’s annual section business meeting. These amendments, if approved, will go into effect at the end of the annual meeting.

Section members were informed of the vote on June 8th, 2018 by Gavin Simpson (Paleoecology Section Secretary). Please note  that all section business at the 2018 meeting will follow current bylaws.

The proposed amendments fall into several categories:

  1. Electoral reform: removing term limits, setting nomination of officers to occur before the annual meeting, and allowing voting for officers before and at the annual meeting
  2. Student representative: officially adding a student representative section officers (and associated language in Article 2: Purpose).
  3. Minor streamlining of text and replacement of less-current specifics (e.g. Deevey award amount, annual newsletter, and posting announcements via ESA Bulletin) with more general language.

The Bylaws and proposed amendments are available here (link):

A webform for public comment is available here (link):

Hope everyone has a great time in New Orleans!

Melissa Chipman, Section Chair 2017-2018

 

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