Conference Call

ExCom Meetings, Minutes

Executive Committee Meeting Minutes

9:00 am Central, May 18, 2018

Attendees: Rebecca, Julie, Kayla

  1. Officer Reports
    1. President: Rebecca
      1. Thank you to fellow ExCom for maintaining communication within the ExCom and with the membership, posting updates on policy and responding to email requests/discussions representing FITS. I could not do it without you!!!
    2. President-elect: Paul
      1. Paul was not in attendance, as he was busy instilling wisdom in the bright young minds of the future.
    3. Secretary-Treasurer: Kayla
      1. Nothing to report
    4. Past-President: Julie
      1. Nothing to report
  2. Committee Updates
    1. Electronic Services Advisory Board: Rebecca
      1. Earlier this week, Melissa W. sent a revised draft of the membership services survey. Julie provided comments already, and Rebecca will do so as soon as possible.  The survey will be deployed on AFS’s website and needs to be designed soon.
      2. The definition of ESAB from FITS is a common source of confusion for AFS members and staff.
      3. Julie suggested we invite Beth Beard to future ESAB meetings to ensure staff engagement and communication of upcoming changes
      4. Action Item: Rebecca will provide comments to Melissa and assist with survey tool development.
      5. Action item: Rebecca will add a definition of ESAB on the FITS site to better define how different the committee’s function is from the Section
      6. Action Item: Rebecca will initiate a new ESAB meeting and ensure Beth is invited
    2. Communications: Julie
      1. The definition of Communications Committee versus the Science Communication Section is a common source of confusion.
      2. Upcoming change in WordPress is going to force some website programming issues to occur; Beth attended their meeting and shared this with them as it could affect the main site and any grandchild theme sites (i.e., Unit Websites)
  3. Report on Previous Action Items
    1. Organize travel partnership program: Will be discussed in full during Old Business
    2. Announce the call for a FITS Communications Coordinator: Done; Julie has a drafted announcement which will be posted 5/18/18 on the FITS website  and will go out in the next automated newsletter
    3. Set up redirect to the new website units.fisheries.org/fits/: Done
    4. Add content to website: Done
  4. Old Business
    1. Website
      1. A great deal of content was migrated from the old site to the new site by Kayla (KUDOS!) and the old site has been shut down with a redirect in place
      2. Minor issues with the grandchild theme need to be addressed by Grant, but sounds like an upcoming WordPress update is going to create a new round of website bug review  – Will be followed up by ESAB
      3. Action Item: Julie will add the information from the 2017 Symposium to the website
    2. Fishackathon
      1. A Global Winner was announced: PoachStopper from Boston. Their solution addresses IUU detection.
      2. We need to not only share information about the winner and the success of the event, but also the answers to our FITS-submitted challenge set
      3. Action Item: Rebecca will follow up with Colombe to get more information on participant projects, and will share the Global Winner via news post AND promote the FITS challenge participant’s projects
    3. AFS Annual Meeting 2018
      1. Symposium planning is going well! 14 people are signed up to speak, making two  half-days focused on 1) data management for dissemination and 2) data visualization.  The exact date has not yet been determined, but it may work out well to host the FITS Business Meeting immediately following the symposium.
      2. Affiliated meeting requests are due June 30. We do not need A/V, but we will want to look at food and beverage possibilities.
      3. ESAB may want to have their meeting immediately following FITS.
      4. Action Item: Julie will work on the Affiliated Meeting Request for FITS and send draft to ExCom.
      5. Action Item: Rebecca will work on the Affiliated Meeting Request for ESAB and note that they want the meeting to adjoin FITS’ meeting.
    4. Partnership Travel Award Program
      1. A draft award program was discussed in detail
      2. Funding at $1,000 should be no problem given our typical income/expenditures, but we should consider fundraising ideas from other Units, maybe attend the Unit Leaders webinars in the future
      3. Timing of the award needs to allow for the attendee to register, submit a paper (August 17), and request travel from employer. We need to wait to announce until after hearing back from OFWIM regarding registration waivers/other perks for the winner.
      4. Action Item: Julie with contact Rebecca Scully (OFWIM) to request registration waiver for the winner, a moment in the spotlight during the business meeting, and any other possible perks for the winner at the OFWIM conference; OFWIM’s next ExCom meeting is planned for June 13, 2018
      5. Action Item: Rebecca will work on finalizing the award description, creating an online application form, creating a draft scoring rubric, and creating the award announcement
  5. New Business: None
  6. Adjournment at 10:20am

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