Minutes Business Meeting Acarological Society of America

Indianapolis, 10 December 2006

President David James opened the session by thanking the speakers and moderators for a good set of symposia.

Reports:

Secretary / treasurer (Norman Fashing). The minutes of the 2005 business metting were approved as listed. The funding situation is good, with a balance of $ 13,535.

Newsletter (Harold Harlan): 2 issues were generated in 2006, with nearly all copies send by e-mail. Printed versions were send for 9 members.

Archivist (Lance Durden). The archive includes about 3 linear ft of duocumentation, including presidential papers and secretary/treasurer records dating back to 1989 (separate summary page made available). The need for a possible update of the society General Protocol and Procedures was expressed. The last time this was done was by Marilyn Houck with final revisions in 1994.

Award news:

The 2006 Joseph A. Camin Fellowship was awarded to Amanda Hodson, U.C. Davis (Major professor Ed Lewis).

The award for best student presentation for 2006 went to John Schaefer, Ohio State University, Columbus

The ASA travel award went to Fabio Akashi Hernandes, Univ. Estadual Paulista – UNESP, Brazil

News and updates

Manual of Acarology: The new edition of the Manual will be printed by Texas Tech Press and will be avaliable in Fall 2007, as noted in various flyers. One glitch was noted: the e-mail number listed is non-functional. Correct e-mail for pre-orders etc. ttup@ttu.edu.

Possible affiliation with a journal (Ronald Ochoa). Options have been explored for both Acarina, currently produced in Russia, and SAAS, formerly a journal providing access for Chinese acarologists, but now a more general acarology journal. Both are produced biannually. For SAAS the editor (Zhi-Qiang Zhang) suggested a cost of ~$10 per member for electronic access. Acarina would be available for $10-15 per member. Discussion ensued about requirements to subscribe for all members (probably not acceptable), the need to increase membership fees (not urgent, although perhaps appropriate for student members), and the issue of life members (should they pay extra for the added value of journal access). Ron Ochoa will head an effort to get more details from the journals.

Elections. The executive committee presented two candidates for President-Elect and four for the Executive Committee. Jim Amrine, West Virginia University, Morgantown, was voted in as President-Elect and Amanda Loftis, CDC, Atlanta, and Eric McDonald, USDA APHIS PPQ, Houston, as members of the Executive Committee members.

Norm Fashing is retiring from the post of Secretary / Treasurer, with thanks from the society, and Hans Klompen agreed to take over these duties with help of Ashley Dowling and Joel Hutcheson (for web-site issues).

Symposia 2007. Two proposals were suggested, “Issues in plant feeding mites” (David James, Deirdre Prischmann) and “ectoparasites” (Ashley Dowling, Lance Durden). Ectoparsites was selected, with Ashley Dowling and Lance Durden as organizers.

President James handed the gavel to the new president Ron Ochoa. President Ochoa thanked his predecessor for his service, and closed the session (5:30pm).

Subbmitted for approval to the membership,

Hans Klompen

Secretary/treasurer ASA