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Western Division of the American Fisheries Society
EXCOM Midterm Retreat Minutes
Date: October 19-21, 2004

Attendees: Lynn Starnes (President), Joe Margraf (President-elect), Tom McMahon (Past-president), Bob Hughes (Vice-president), Molly Ahlgren (Alaska), Scott Bryan (Arizona/New Mexico), Patrick Goddard (Bonneville), Anita Martinez (Colorado/Wyoming), Doug Olson (Oregon), Tina Swanson (California/Nevada), Jim Tilmant (Native Fish Committee).

Old Business

The 21 September 2004 teleconference minutes were revised and approved.

Subunit Reports

The Alaska Chapter hired a financial advisor to invest funds to maximize gains while minimizing risks, and continues to plan for the 2005 annual meeting of the AFS. The student subunit will be selling t-shirts with the meeting's Ray Troll logo.

The Arizona/New Mexico Chapter is helping organize a University of Arizona student subunit and is sponsoring a renovation of Fossil Creek through use of barriers. The Chapter employs online abstract submission and registration and has nearly completed its procedures manual.

The Bonneville Chapter is funding and organizing a livestock exclosure project on the Logan River in cooperation with multiple government agencies and nongovernmental organizations. The Chapter's quarterly newsletter is published through its website.

The California/Nevada Chapter co-sponsored an annual American River Salmon Festival and submitted technical comments on Paiute cutthroat trout, American River management, and winter-run Chinook salmon. The Chapter publishes an online newsletter, and will host the 2007 annual meeting of AFS.

The Colorado/Wyoming Chapter funded student scholarship endowments at the University of Wyoming and Colorado State University , and is developing a procedures manual. The Chapter developed a list of 65 known illicit fish introductions and won the 2004 AFS Best Chapter of the Year Award.

The Idaho Chapter produced and distributed 10,000 copies of a brochure describing status, trends, and economic losses surrounding anadromous salmonid runs. It is now designing a restaurant place mat depicting salmon and steelhead recreation areas.

The Oregon Chapter produced an informational brochure on the Chapter, is developing a K-12 inservice workshop for teachers, and is co-sponsoring a coastal cutthroat trout workshop scheduled for 29 September—1 October 2005. Income from a stream restoration workshop helped fund a stream restoration project, and the Chapter newsletter is available on its website.

The Western Native Fishes Committee has received $140K to fund data compilation of all native freshwater fish species (not salmon) in northwestern Mexico , western USA , and western Canada . Leanne Roulsen (Garcia & Associates) was contracted to develop the data base at an 8-digit HUC scale. Persons with large verified data sets are encouraged to contact Leanne.

New Business

WD Website

Attendees were reminded that website postings must be approved by the Officers to limit spam.

Grants Funding

Margraf moved and Swanson seconded to commit $5K to grants in FY-2005. McMahon amended and Margraf seconded to commit $6K to grants in FY-2005. The amended motion passed unanimously.

Margraf moved and Goddard seconded to allocate $3K for the poster social at the Mexican Symposium on Fishery Science, with the request that the WD be acknowledged as the social sponsor and that the parent society and Southern Division will be challenged to match that amount. The motion passed unanimously.

Margraf moved and Swanson seconded to provide $2.5K to help fund a symposium on Pacific salmon life history models at the 2005 AFS annual meeting, with the caveat of providing 10 copies of the proceedings to the WD. The motion passed.

Margraf moved and Hughes seconded to provide $500 to the Equal Opportunity Section to help fund travel by women and minorities to the 2005 AFS annual meeting.

WD Newsletter

It was agreed that a January 2005 newsletter issue was appropriate given the need to remind members to submit abstracts for the AFS 2005 annual meeting. Starnes agreed to form an ad hoc committee to investigate online publication of The Tributary to save money and accelerate communication. She requested chapter presidents to send her names of newsletter editors and also reminded them to send newsletter copies to the AFS executive director and WD officers.

WD Awards

McMahon reminded participants to nominate groups and individuals for WD awards and offices.

2005 Annual Meeting

Margraf reviewed plans for the annual meeting. There will be a WD business lunch limited to the first 500 tickets sold, and the meeting will include a full day of sessions on Thursday. A WD Excom meeting will be held on Friday 16 September 2005 (plan on it!!). The WD and Alaska Chapter sent AFS an MOU requesting a $325 registration fee, an 80/10/10% split of profit and losses and a 33/33/33 split of profits exceeding $100K should such occur.

Endowment Fund Raising

The September 2004 fishing fund raiser was postponed to 2005.

Columbia River Biological Opinion on Dams

Keith Wolf sent a letter to NOAA Fisheries stating that the WD would comment more fully later after forming a formal review committee. Starnes will request a copy of the letter. Swanson emphasized the need for a more rapid response mechanism for 60-day agency comment periods.

Revised WD Bylaws

Margraf noted that the revised bylaws were approved by AFS and will be added to the WD website. Two important changes were that a quorum consists of 4 of 5 officers and 4 chapter presidents or their proxies.

WD Strategic Plan

Starnes will ask all chapter presidents and committee chairs to provide, by 5 November, 2+ key issues from their 2005 work plans that she can feature in her WD work plan.

Hazardous Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP)

Starnes reminded participants about the need to limit alien introductions and dispersal by their own field activities.

Piscicide Banning

Bryan noted that New Mexico has banned piscicides and that the Arizona/New Mexico Chapter is developing a resolution in opposition for consideration by the Environmental Concerns and Policy Committees. Martinez stated that in Colorado chemically-sensitive people are notified before piscicides are introduced. Goddard noted that clove oil is not an FDA approved anesthetic.

Fiscal Year

McMahon moved and Hughes seconded to shift the budget period from 1 June 2004—31 May 2005 to 1 October 2004—30 September 2005, with a temporary inclusion of June through September in the current budget. The motion passed unanimously. This change insures an annual meeting in each budget cycle, and begins the budget year near the time the incoming President takes office . Starnes will revise the current budget to reflect income and committed expenditures for the new and expanded fiscal year. The new fiscal year may require altering the grant proposal deadline and notifying IRS. Chapter presidents are reminded of the need to file with IRS annually.

Continuing Education

Margraf reminded chapter presidents to inform Cindy Williams, AFS Continuing Education Coordinator, concerning planned continuing education courses.

Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)

Margraf identified a need for generalized use protocols approved by AFS.

WD Membership Committee

Hughes requested that chapter presidents provide him with the names of their membership committee chairs, as well as successes and failures in increasing AFS memberships.

Irregular (Noncomforming?) Chapters

McMahon will inquire about the status of the Portland and New Mexico State Chapters.

Officer Attendance at Chapter Annual Meetings

1-3 Nov North Pacific International (Starnes)

15-18 Nov Alaska (Margraf)

3-5 Feb Arizona/New Mexico (McMahon)

7-11 Feb Montana (Hughes)

16-18 Feb Oregon (Hughes)

24-26 Feb Idaho (Starnes)

8-9 March Bonneville (McMahon)

8-9 March Colorado/Wyoming (McMahon)

10-12 March Governing Board Mid-year (Starnes, Margraf)

17-19 March California/Nevada (Hiner)

30 March-2 April Humboldt (Hiner)

2-4 May Mexico (Starnes)

?????????? Hawaii

Next teleconference: 16 November 2004, 11:30 MST.

Respectfully submitted, Robert M. Hughes