National Shellfisheries Association –Pacific Coast Section

Annual Business Meeting

 October 9, 2003

Doubletree Hotel Portland-Columbia River, Portland Oregon

 

1.   Call to Order

 

The meeting was called to order by the chair, Graham Gillespie, at about 5:00 PM.

 

      The following members and interested people were present:

Graham Gillespie, Jennifer Whitney, Joe Schumacker, Don Velasquez, Dan Ayres, Ken Chew, Kelly Toy, Adam Brisbois, Aimee Christy, Carla Norwood, David Fyfe, Ford Evans, Chris Langdon, Marcia House, Neil Bourne, Brent Vadopalas, Andrew Suhrbier, Jon Agosti, Mark Camara, M. Maille Lyons, Marcie Bidwell, Jennifer Ruesink, Alan Trimble, Charles Woelke, Vivianne Barry, Sylvia Yamada, Lisa Hillier, Kurt Johnson, Cathy Stanley, Are Strom and Rich Childers. 

 

2.   Adoption of 2003 Agenda

      

      The 2003 agenda was adopted as written.

 

3.   Adoption of  2002 Minutes

      

      The 2002 business meeting minutes were adopted as written. 

 

4.   Treasurer’s Report

 

Donald Velasquez gave a brief summary of the status of both the general account and the Ken Chew Student Endowment Fund.   It was decided to keep a minimum of $3,500.00 in the general account and transfer the remainder to the Ken Chew account which is interest-bearing.

 

5.   Old Business

 

      a)     Increasing Student Participation and Membership:

 

There is still a lot of opportunity to improve student participation and membership.  Molly Lyons has recently come to PCS on the west coast and mentioned the need to promote student participation at National NSA Meetings as well.  She announced that she is selling $10.00 cookbooks to help provide financial assistance for students to attend National NSA meetings.

 

      b)    Fund Raising for Ken Chew Endowment Fund:

 

      Silent auctions, student banquets, and NSA/PCS t-shirts were types of fundraising activities that have been employed in the past.  Silent auctions and student banquets have done well but require some reasonable organizing commitment.  Student banquets are sometimes not possible at certain meeting locations, but are a good option when the conference site can accommodate them.

 

     c)      Roles of Members-at-Large:

 

      The members felt that the members-at-large should be more involved with the conference planning and that they should attend the first planning meeting if possible.

 

6.   New Business

 

a)      Committee Reports:

 

Newsletter and Web Page: Joe Schumacker felt that we should mail out black and white copies. Joe made an appeal to the membership to get newsletter material. It was also suggested that titles and names for abstracts be posted for each meeting and minutes should be posted as well.

 

      Annual Meeting Planning: The sessions to plan this year’s Annual Meeting were all held in Olympia with the Executive Committee and PCSGA staff.  Jenny Whitney had a short summary of  meeting planning sessions. The planning process has become smoother in recent years. Identifying session chairs beforehand works very well and the practice should continue.

 

      b)   Topics and Session Organizers for 2004 Meeting:

 

            Session organizers for the 2004 meeting were identified with the goal of establishing meeting topics early and soliciting papers. Possible sessions or “subsessions” identified for inclusion in the 2004 meeting were as follows with tentative organizers in parentheses:

 

Shellfish Assessment & Management (Graham Gillespie)

Crustaceans (Rich Childers)

Abalone (Carolyn Freidman)

Genetics (Joth Davis)

Mussels (Dan Cheney)

West Coast Estuaries (?)

Shellfish Disease (?)

Aquaculture and Habitat (?)

Nuisance Species (?)

Hatchery and Nursery Techniques (?)

 

     c)   2004 Meeting Site and Time:

 

            Initial indications from the PCSGA staff suggest that the 2004 meeting will be held in Tacoma. The second week of October is the most likely time frame, and those in attendance were not aware of other events which might conflict with that schedule.

 

    d)      National NSA Annual Meeting:

 

The meeting for 2004 will be held on March 1-5 in Honolulu Hawaii and the early registration deadline is January 13.  Molly Lyons made a plea for a larger west coast presence at National NSA meetings. 

 

    e)      Other Business:

 

Despite an admirable effort to design a new logo for NSA-PCS, the motion was made to stay with the “traditional” logo for our NSA-PCS site and documents.  The motion passed.

 

7.    Election of New Officers

 

Graham Gillespie stepped down as chair. Jennifer Whitney stepped down from Co-Vice chair and offered to serve in a member-at-large position for next year. Joe Schumacker stepped down from Co-Vice Chair with the knowledge that his schedule would make it difficult to serve in that capacity.  Members supported having a position titled the Outgoing Chair which would assist the Executive Committee.  Graham Gillespie agreed to serve as the first official Outgoing Chair. 

The new elected officers of the Executive Committee are:

 

Chair - Rich Childers.

Vice Chair - Don Velasquez. 

Secretary Treasurer -  Kelly Toy

Members-at-Large - David Fyfe, Jon Agosti, Andy Suhrbier and Jennifer Whitney.

 

 

8.   Best Student Paper Award

 

Twelve student presentations were made at this year’s conference. Kirstin Holsman (University of Washington) won the Best Student Paper Award. Kirstin’s paper, co-authored with P. Sean McDonald, was Spartina Impacts on Dungeness Crab Populations in Willipa Bay.

 

A suggestion was made by David Fyfe and Neil Bourne to have two student paper awards instead of one, dividing candidates into graduate and undergraduate categories.

           

9.   Adjourn Meeting

 

      The meeting was adjourned.