ABLE - Past Issues of Labstracts

October 2011

Secretary's Report Guinan

Minutes of the ABLE General Business Meeting
June 15, 2011, 12:15-1:30 pm
33rd Annual Workshop/Conference
New Mexico State University

* Call to order and approval of agenda – Ruth Beattie
* Ruth called the meeting to order at 12:15 pm and the agenda was approved.
* Reports from Officers and Committee Chairs

President’s Report – Ruth Beattie
- Ruth thanked the board members and the conference hosts for their efforts over the past year
Secretary’s Report – Judy Guinan
- Judy moved for the approval of the minutes of the 2010 General Business Meeting. The minutes were approved as written.
Treasurer’s Report – Alec Motten

Alec reported that ABLE is in good financial health, due in part to increased revenues through new member recruitment

Fall 2010 and Winter 2011 Labstracts were published. Barbara announced that Labstracts will no longer be a separate entity but will be merged with the website

Grants-in-Aid Committee – Joy Perry
- This year there were 2 registration waivers awarded, and one proposal for a laboratory teaching initiative grant was received.
Major-Workshops Committee – Larry Blumer / Kate Verville
- Larry announced that next year, Joy Perry will join Kate as a co-chair of the major workshops committee
- Larry thanked the committee and this year’s 18 presenters for their efforts. He emphasized that major workshops are the core of the meeting and submissions are essential. He also mentioned that presentations are peer reviewed by the committee and the hosts, and all of the participants in the workshop. The deadline is 10/31 for electronic submissions.
Membership Committee – Maggie Haag
- Maggie announced that ABLE now has almost 450 active members. She said that the ease of online membership through PayPal has helped with the increase. She welcomed the new members to the meeting and to ABLE.
- Maggie asked members to continue to recruit new members, particularly grad students, senior undergraduates, and post-docs, who can join for $15. She also suggested that members could consider giving people winning teaching awards at institutions a gift membership to ABLE. She reviewed the benefits of membership, including grants-in-aid and registration-waiver grants, as well as the collegiality of the members.
Mini-Workshops Committee – Ralph Preszler
- For the benefit of the new members, Ralph explained the nature of mini-work sessions, which are offered on Fridays of the conference. He also thanked this year’s mini-workshop presenters for their presentations.
Nominations Committee – Marielle Hoefnagels

There were two open positions last year. Alec Motten was elected as Treasurer and Isabelle Barrett-Ng as member-at-large.
There are two open positions again this year for member-at-large and president elect.
Janice Bonner will be committee chair for the upcoming year.

Poster Session Committee –Joy Perry for Tom Fogle

Joy announced that there will be evaluations for posters this year, and urged participants to complete evaluation forms for 2 – 3 posters that they visit this year.

Proceedings Committee – Karen McMahon

Karen thanked the editorial board for their work on this year’s Proceedings who edited 22 major workshops, 27 minis, and 20 posters. She also thanked Dan Johnson for putting the Proceedings online in a journal-like format, and Mark Walvoord and Chris Beck for their efforts on the website as well
The committee is looking for volunteers to review help to review the submissions.
Submission information/instructions for Proceedings are available online.

Publicity Committee – Kathy Nolan and Bill Glider

Kathy encouraged members to contact her or Larry Blumer if they wished to discuss ideas for workshops.
Bill reported on the result of a participant survey last year on exhibitors and vendors. According the respondents, 82% of them visited a vendor or exhibitor while at the conference. Bill said that vendors not only help the conference financially, but also help publicize ABLE to book publishers, biological supply companies, etc., which can help us recruit new members.
The survey indicated that we need a greater diversity of exhibitors and vendors, including biological supply companies, field equipment suppliers, publishers, specialty companies, software vendors, book publishers on the natural history of the local area, non-profit organizations in area, and he will be working at developing those connections.
There are free post cards publicizing ABLE available to anyone who would like to take them to their institution or to professional meetings. Anyone interested should contact Bill.

Regional ABLE (RABLE) Committee – Ruth Beattie

Ruth described the purpose of these conferences to the membership and encouraged participants who might consider hosting a regional ABLE to contact her for more information.

Website Committee – Mark Walvoord

Mark thanked Chris Beck, Saewon Koh, Helene d'Entremont for the work that they contributed to the website this year. He mentioned that they could use more volunteers to help maintain the site.
Sarah Deel started a Facebook page for ABLE.

ABLE 2011 – Barbara Stegenga

The 2012 annual meeting will be held at the University of North Caroline at Chapel Hill. Barbara discussed plans for the conference including facilities, lodging, field trips, and other activities.

* Unfinished Business – No unfinished business
* New Business – No new business
* Adjournment – the meeting adjourned at 1:17 pm.

Judy Guinan, ABLE Secretary

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