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Western Division of the American Fisheries Society
EXCOM Teleconference Minutes
Date: September 23, 2003

Participants: Don MacDonald, Tom McMahon, Lynn Starnes, Joe Margraf, Monica Hiner, Dave Ward, Mary Whalen, Vaughn Paragamian, Bill Bradshaw, Cindy Williams, Pat Byorth, Dana McCanne, Jim Tilmant, Don Mitchell, Carol Kerkvliet, Eric Wagner, Don Mitchell

Quorum Present (not at first, but after several people entered the call)

Secretary/Treasurer Report (Monica)

• Current Balances: Savings $18,555.43; Checking $26,204.12 ($4548 Mexican Travel Funds); Cutthroat Documentary $16,232.01; 6-month CD $13,439.44. Grants Funding Endowment Balance $62,765.41 (have invested $55K of 100K agreed upon)
• Meeting Minutes
  • Need to approve minutes from EXCOM teleconferences held on May 20th, June 24th, July 22nd, and August 15th. Also need to approve minutes from Annual Executive Committee Meeting held on April 14, 2003 in San Diego. No Quorum present at the time this was discussed, so discussion was tabled until Phoenix Retreat.

2003 Annual Meeting (Tom)

• Meeting Proceeds
  • Amy Harris has been working diligently on the meeting accounting, but it still looks like the meeting has a net loss of approximately $6,000. There were a fair amount of people who registered and were not charged (on their bankcards). There is approximately $5K left over from Mexican Travel, but there is a question about where it is going. Eric had conveyed that at the last retreat it was agreed that the left over money would be used to help form a Mexican committee.

Upcoming Annual Retreat in Phoenix (Tom)

• Call the hotel to make your reservations!

2004 Annual Meeting

• The committee had a Team 2004 meeting last week at Little America
  • Sat down with the hotel and renegotiated the contract. The current agreement is a concurrent sliding scale of room nights and food costs, which depends on the number of people attending. There is no incentive to have the banquet on site. We will ask to waive the room costs if we commit to $45-50K in food costs.
  • The hotel has released rooms for Saturday and reserved more for Thursday’s continuing education classes. Rooms will be $75 for a single, and the hotel has committed to honor that rate for 3d before and 3d after, and they will also go towards our room nights.
  • The committee is hoping for 250 meeting registrants and fundraising of $20K
  • The sessions are ½ to ¾ full already
  • The whirling disease folks are helping with the poster session (Jerri Bartholomew and Dave Kumlein)
  • There is 1 commitment from plenary speakers so far. Lynn is hoping that Robert Kennedy with Riverkeepers will also come and speak.
  • Lynn has been contacting local Coors beer distributors for donations, and Bill will contact Budweiser
  • Lynn has sent out a letter to consulting firms to solicit for donations and involvement with the Western Native Fishes aspect of the meeting
  • We are hiring a company to handle registration to avoid problems seen at this past meeting.
• Eric has talked to several other facilities for potential banquet sites:
  • Clark Planetarium—will cost $10K for rental
  • Red Butte Gardens—too small
  • Squatters Brew Pub—will cost approximately $10K for food, beverage. Set up would be difficult, but it could work
  • Little America—would cost $9K
• Eric talked to Lori Cannon with Little America and for them the room block is still the critical issue regarding the meeting room rental. They are not flexible with lowering the meeting room fees based on catering needs.

Time and Place Committee (Dave)

• 2005 meeting in Anchorage
• 2006 meeting location still undetermined. Pat Byorth talked to the Montana EXCOM and they are interested in having a meeting in either late June or late July in either Bozeman or Missoula. Oregon isn’t interested in co-hosting the meeting, but it is still unclear whether NPIC may be interested. It was suggested that each interested Chapter put together a one page letter to the Division stating interest.

Western Native Fishes Committee

• There are already commitments from people to give papers at the upcoming annual meeting, and the RFP is almost done
• There will be a teleconference this week to discuss how to evaluate proposals
• The NFWF sounds interested in granting $50K (Don will be looking for it in the mail)

Newsletter and Website (Mary)

• The new website is approximately 75% complete and looks GREAT!
• We should sever our ties to the old AFS website to get our refunds, since it is prorated.
• Mary is still working on bringing in archived information
• The next newsletter will be after the retreat.

Upper Basin Pallid Sturgeon Recovery Workgroup (Don)

• Co-chairs have been identified: Molly Webb, Jack Williams, and Larry Hilderbrand. They will be meeting soon in Portland.
• Terms of reference have been developed and they have populated the committee. Copies of the background information have been distributed and they are currently working on the questionnaire. We can expect excellent progress and results.
• Funding: $15K has been committed, but we are still looking for an additional $16K.

Lamprey Review Committee (Don)

• The work of the committee is done. The letter report will be translated into a letter from the WDAFS President and recipients will be identified. This should be complete by the retreat.

Mexico Chapter Formation (Eric)

• A mission statement and committee charges have been developed. The Southern Division is interested in partnering with the Western Division due to common ties they have with eastern Mexico.
• In general, communication is difficult due to the cost of phone calls and unreliability of email service.
• The number of active members in Mexico is between 25-30, and according to the constitution we must have at least 25 members in the geographic area to sign the petition to become a chapter.
• There are plans for 2 meetings in Mexico: 2005 in La Paz (largely to organize the Chapter) and approximately 2 years later possibly in Mazatlan (co-host WDAFS annual meeting??)

Hutton Junior Biology Program (Casey)

• A very successful committee meeting was held in Quebec City
• There are now 9 subcommittees
• There is a problem with finding mentors
• The stipend may be reduced from $3,000 to $2,000 (will be determined soon)

Grants Funding (Bill)

• We still have a long way to go to fulfill our endowment fund. The fundraising committee needs to work harder to make progress. We still need to raise $45K to meet our original goal for the endowment fund.
• We also need to work hard to double fund-raising for the upcoming 2004 meeting from $10K to $20K.

New Business

• Water 2025 Conference—Cindy Williams
  • USBR has a 2025 water program to address water shortfalls in the West. They have convened a series of conferences and meetings to discuss water issues, which is by invitation only. Fish and Wildlife agencies have not been represented and Trout Unlimited is the only representative on behalf of the fish.
  • We could establish a WDAFS committee to review the regional report and prepare an official response.
• Pike in Western Reservoirs—Don Mitchell
  • The issue is the illegal introduction of pike into reservoirs.
  • This was prompted by Lake Davis, California. There is a desire to conduct a second treatment to eradicate pike.
  • The WDAFS could develop an opinion on how to deal with issues related to pike and other introduced species. It would be helpful to discuss social issues associated with control programs, perhaps have a roundtable discussion in Salt Lake City that would focus on successes and failures.
• AFS Strategic Planning Review Committee (Tom)
  • Dirk Miller nominated
  • Also put a notice on list server for volunteers
• 4th World Fisheries Congress Stakeholders Forum
  • Don MacDonald and Jim Martin have resigned
  • We may need to identify other WDAFS members to take the project on. The goal would be to follow the Program Committee’s instructions exactly. We could use the list server to solicit interest.

Next EXCOM Meeting at the Retreat in Phoenix, AZ on October 14-16, 2003