Local Committee: Link Olson and Kris Hundertmark (Local Committee Co-Chairs), Hayley Lanier and Brandy Jacobsen (additional Organizing Committee Chairs), Perry Barboza (LARS Guide), Brian Barnes (Special Session Coordinator), Lindsay Blaine (LARS Tour Coordination), Ryan Cooper (Program Compilation), Kevin Colson (Vendor Coordination), Patrick Druckenmiller (Permafrost Tunnel Guide), Kerynn Fisher (Public Relations, UAM), Marie Gilbert (Public Relations, IAB), Adam Gillette (Special Capstone Technician), Aren Gunderson (Poster and Catering Coordination), Mareca Guthrie (Graphic Design), Karen Hibbard-Rode (Signage), Kyndall Hildebrandt (Run for Research), Gretchen Hundertmark (Abstract Cleanup), Dusty McDonald (General Assistance), Dorothy Parkerson (Venue Reservations and Coordination), Maria Russel (Event Accounting and Venue Coordination), Theresa Woldstad (Committee Meetings), Ed Debevec and Jock Irons (Website Design, Technical Support, Program compilation), Jim Lawlor and Tom Meier (Denali Field Trip, National Park Service), and Trina Roberts (EPSCoR Landscapes Genetics Student Registration Waiver Committee).
Members were notified by e-mail of on-line access to the program before the meeting and abstracts for papers presented were provided to members attending the meeting. Abridged minutes of the directors' and members' meetings follow.
Abridged Minutes of Meetings of the Board of Directors
Meetings were held between 0908 and 1720 on 24 June 2009 and between 1203 and 1333 on 27 June 2009. The meetings were attended by 28 and 27 Officers and Directors and 15 and 7 invited guests, respectively. The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. Reports were read, accepted, or otherwise acted upon from the President, the Recording Secretary, the Secretary-Treasurer, the Trustees, Publications, Ombudspersons, Animal Care and Use, Historian/Archives, Checklist, Conservation, Conservation Awards, Coordination, Development, Education and Graduate Students, Grants-in-Aid, Grinnell Award, Honoraria, Honorary Membership, Human Diversity, Informatics, International Relations, Jackson Award, Latin American Fellowship, Legislation and Regulations, Mammal Images Library, Marine Mammals, Membership, Merriam Award, Nomenclature, Planning and Finance, Program, Public Education, Public Relations, Resolutions, and Systematic Collections standing committees; the ad hoc AIBS-ASM Graduate Student Public Policy Internship Committee, the ad hoc Bylaws Committee, and from the ASM representatives to other organizations.
Actions of interest to the membership were: announcement by the Secretary-Treasurer that we have 4,311 members (including 3429 Annual, 655 Life, 63 Patron, 117 Emeritus, and 17 Honorary Members) and that subscriptions to the Journal of Mammalogy totaled 709; recommendation of 291 new nominees for membership, and termination of 260 individuals; announcement that there were 19 members who reinstated membership, 0 resignations, 7 deaths, and 10 persons completing Life Membership payments; notification that in 2008 the Future Mammalogists Fund received contributions of $6,783.00, the Latin American Student Field Mammalogy Fund took in $2,590.00, the ASM General Contribution Fund received $2,515.00; the Oliver Pearson Fund received $415.00; the ASM General Contribution Fund received $410.00, and the ASM Century Fund received $400.00; acceptance with thanks for the report of the Secretary-Treasurer; reconfirmation of Ron Van Den Bussche as Secretary-Treasurer; notice from the Trustees that the value of the Society's net reserve principle was $2,331,822.39 as of 31 December 2008 and the value of the Society's Pooled Income Fund was $36,853.00 as of 31 December 2008; re-election of Phillip Sudman to a 3-year term as Trustees for the Society; acceptance with thanks of the Trustees' report; extension of enthusiastic thanks to out-going Journal of Mammalogy editor Ed Heske for his fine service. Ron Barry was approved by the Board of Directors in April 2009 as the incoming journal editor. Thanks also to out-going Associate Editors Mark Hafner, Marty Main, Rodrigo Medellín, Eileen Lacey, Rick Sweitzer, and John Yunger and appointment of 5 new Associate Editors Victor Sánchez-Cordero, Jonathan Jenks, Madan Oli, Richard Stevens, Dirk Van Vuren, and Samantha Wisely to the Journal of Mammalogy.
The following budget for general expenses in 2010 was adopted: $59,630.00 for committees; $1,500 for support of the Secretary-Treasurer's office; $42,500 editorial honoraria and editorial expenses; $43,842 for A.M.& M. Services; $1,000 for on-line member services; $42,850 Grants-in-Aid; $4,000 for Student Honoraria; $6,000 for Latin American Field Mammalogy Awards; $10,000 for ASM Graduate Fellowship; $5,000 for Oliver P. Pearson Award; $1200 for Conservation Awards; $300 for Grinnell Award; $150 for Jackson Award, and $60 for Merriam Award; $250 AAZN dues; $200 AIBS dues; $100 NSCA dues; $550 IUCN dues; $1,000 indemnity/liability insurance, $5,000 for audit/tax preparation and $350 for bank fees; $3,000 Executive Committee; $3,500 President's contingency fund; transfer of $128,412 from the Reserve Fund brought the estimated expenses and income both to $341,467.00.
Abridged Minutes of the Annual Meeting of Members
The 1st session was called to order at 1009 and was recessed at 1158 on 26 June 2009 and the second was called to order at 1033 and adjourned at 1131 on 27 June 2009.
Minutes of the preceding meeting were approved as published in abridged form in the Journal of Mammalogy and as approved by the Directors and Officers. Abridged minutes of the first Board Meeting were read. Reports were presented in oral and/or written form from the President for the Executive Committee, the Secretary-Treasurer, the Recording Secretary, the Trustees, standing committees, ad hoc committees and ASM representatives to other organizations.
Actions of interest to members were: acceptance of 291 new members, reinstatement of 19 members, and dropping of 260 members delinquent in dues payment; election of Vice-President, Recording Secretary, and 7 Directors, including 1 Student Director (new officers and directors listed on page iv of this issue); election by acclamation of Timothy H. Clutton-Brock and Kenneth B. Armitage to Honorary Membership; adoption by the membership of several changes in the Rules; notification that the 2010 annual meetings are scheduled from 11-15 June at the University of Wyoming, Laramie, and decision to hold the 2011 meetings at Portland State University, Portland Oregon from 25-29 June, which will be a joint meeting with the Australian Mammal Society; announcement at the Banquet that Grants-in-Aid had been awarded to: Brian Klingbeil (University of Connecticut) - B. Elizabeth Horner Award; Christina Booher (Auburn University); Katy Califf (Michigan State University); Laura Cisneros (University of Connecticut); Bridget Conneely (University of British Columbia); Sarah Courbis (Portland State University); Bogdan Cristescu (University of Alberta); Lauri Das (Michigan State University); Ben Dantzer (Michigan State University); Jennifer Duggan (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign); Eliecer Gutierrez (City University of New York); Chris Habeck (University of Wisconsin); Kyndall Hildebrandt (University of Alaska Fairbanks); Andrew Hope (University of New Mexico); Angela Horner (Ohio University); Jane Indorf (University of Miami); Emily Kay (Harvard University); Julia Kilgour (University of Regina); Rafael Leite (Brigham Young University); Kristen Lucia (Miami University); Janet Maclean (University of British Columbia); Cindy Mathiasen (University of New Mexico); Marianne Moore (Boston University); Adrian Munguia-Vega (University of Arizona); Teri Orr (University of California, Riverside); Bret Pasch (University of Florida); Yadeeh Sawyer (University of New Mexico); J. Angel Soto-Centeno (University of Florida - Florida Museum of Natural History); Elizabeth St Clair (Stony Brook University); Megan Strauss (University of Minnesota); Eli Swanson (Michigan State University); Zachary Taylor (Miami University); Georgina Voegele (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine); and Mrinalini Watsa (Washington University in Saint Louis). The recipient of the ASM Fellowship in Mammalogy, Jonathan N. Pauli (University of Wyoming) and the nominee for the Albert R. and Alma Shadle Fellowship in Mammalogy, Brandi S. Coyner (Oklahoma State University) were announced at the banquet.
The Anna M. Jackson Award went to Jennifer E. Smith (Michigan State University), the A. Brazier Howell Award to Quinn R. Shurtliff (University of Nevada, Reno), and the Elmer C. Birney Award to Sean A. Neiswenter (University of Nevada, Las Vegas). ASM Undergraduate Awards were presented to: Rebecca Kelley (Miami University) and Jennifer McCreight (Purdue University). The following awards were announced at the annual banquet: Latin American Student Field Research Awards to: Laura Torres Morales (Instituto de Ecología, Vera Cruz, México), María Paula Tujague (National University of La Plata, Argentina), Gabriela Verónica García (Universidad de Buenos Aires), and Vanina Alejandra Fernández (Universidad de Buenos Aires); the Joseph Grinnell Award for Excellence in Education in Mammalogy to David M. Armstrong (University of Colorado); the Hartley H. T. Jackson Award to Glennis A. Kaufman (Kansas State University); the C. Hart Merriam Award to Richard S. Ostfeld (Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies); the Aldo Leopold Award to Helene D. Marsh (James Cook University); and the William T. Hornaday Conservation Award to Gerrit Jan Schipper, III (IUCN-SSC/CI-CABS).
The following resolutions were adopted:
Host Resolution American Society of Mammalogists Annual Meeting
WHEREAS, the 89th annual meeting of the American Society of Mammalogists was held at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska, 25-28 June 2009; and
WHEREAS, the local committee, in an impressive demonstration of organizational efficiency, managed to fit the entire meeting into a single day; and
WHEREAS, mammalogists from the lower 48 came ready to party all night, and many are still wondering when to start; and
WHEREAS, Link Olson's nefarious plot to downsize the ASM bureaucracy by assigning a room for the Board meeting too small to accommodate all the participants, no electrical outlets for laptop computers, and ordering lunch for only half the participants was foiled by President McLaren's excellent leadership; and
WHEREAS, President McLaren discovered that Board meetings can be much, much shorter when someone points out that the issue they were debating for 2 hours was voted on and decided 10 years ago; and
WHEREAS, like the Board meeting, the Members' Meeting was a model of efficiency and ended early; we just wish that Hugh Genoways could have been here to explain to us how this could have happened; and
WHEREAS, Jenn Smith taught us that for female hyenas, sister power is no laughing matter; Sean Neiswenter showed that publicly refuting a hypothesis previously published by your major professor does not always result in a painful death; Quinn Shurtliff discovered that some females will mate with any male put in front of them; Andrew Edelman informed the students in the audience that Natural Selection wants you to stay home and mooch off your mom; and Jake Esselstyn showed that failing to reject a hypothesis rejected by everybody else could win you a prestigious award; and
WHEREAS, Mark Brigham succeeded in giving a “totally s****y” talk, and sent mammalogists scurrying back to their powerpoints; and
WHEREAS, for some reason, none of the speakers for the rest of the meeting would touch the wooden pointer; and
WHEREAS, Chris Dickman taught the males in the audience that although “Big Bang Reproduction” might sound like a good idea, sometimes a cold shower might extend your survival; and
WHEREAS, if you are ever assigned a 50-min speaking time but only have about 20 minutes of information to present, you should ask Mike Mares to introduce you; and
WHEREAS, the long, linear feature identified by Google Earth as the Alaska pipeline was really the breakfast line for the UAF dining hall; and
WHEREAS, the instructions for Elevator Etiquette informed us about the importance of personal space, but didn't tell us how to position those little white towels while traveling between floors to and from the showers in the morning; and
WHEREAS, mammalogists assumed the “no alcohol” signs in the dorms indicated places to stack their empties; and
WHEREAS, ASM members got that the twisty stuff on the back of the program and T-shirts was DNA, but couldn't figure out whether it was supposed to represent caribou antlers or a bicornuate uterus; and
WHEREAS, we greatly appreciated the eyeshades with the printed eyes, allowing us to pretend we were still awake during the Members' Meetings; and
WHEREAS, the local committee saved Gail Michener's reputation by correcting the spelling of “squirrel” in the title of her abstract, but the next Mammal Species of the World will have to add a new entry for the “gog-nosed skunk”; and
WHEREAS, you know you're in Alaska when the Run for Research starts at a ski hut, and runners cross the finish in record time after being pursued for 5 k by hordes of giant Pleistocene mega-mosquitoes; and
WHEREAS, the open bars every day were a mammalogist's dream come true, and almost made up for the airfare; and
WHEREAS, the local committee used the ASM membership to test the loading capacity of the staircase in the Museum of the North, and if the worst happened, hoped it might open up some job opportunities down in the lower 48; and
WHEREAS, we wonder what part of Link Olson's shady past gave him the idea of holding up a number in front of you while you get your ID photo taken; and
WHEREAS, many ASM members were relieved that between the social in the Museum of the North and the picnic at Pioneer Park, Alaskans discovered fire and learned to cook their fish; and
WHEREAS, in the Home Range Symposium, we learned from Joel Brown that even plants have a home range, plunging organizer Roger Powell further into the deep pit of despair over coming up with a Universal Definition; and
WHEREAS, Joe the Polar Bear proposed a brilliant solution to the problem of global warming; and
WHEREAS, now that Ed Heske is no longer Journal Editor, the role of God has officially been passed to Ron Barry, but Ed can still appear in white; and
WHEREAS, we thoroughly enjoyed the great food, warm hospitality, open bars, cool exhibits in the Museum of the North, perky red squirrels, fierce tundra voles, red foxes, moose, and muskoxen;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the American Society of Mammalogists meeting at their 89th annual meeting at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska, 25-28 June 2009, gives our enthusiastic thanks to Link Olson, Kris Huntermark, Brandy Jacobsen, Hayley Lanier, and the rest of the local committee for a stimulating, fun-filled meeting, and we hope they'll invite us back to the great state of Alaska before another 20 years.
