AFS Fisheries Information and Technology Section

Executive Committee Meeting Minutes

October 12, 2018

Agenda

• Officer Reports
• Committee Reports
  • Communications Update
    • Need for photo cloud storage?
    • Did we shut down afsfits@gmail.com?

• • • • Sarah will manage but need to find login
      • Could keep as document storage and photosharing
    • Sarah would like to update the website but needs input on what we’d like to have
    • Rebecca suggests that we try to be better about integrating the website with the Facebook page
      • Rebecca and Sarah will look into plugins for WordPress to integrate the two better
      • Feature where people can use their Facebook logins to post on website?
    • Section Infographics by ELMA program
      • We will be working with one of the emerging leaders, Nathan Lederman, to create an infographic for FITS over the next year

• ESAB Update

• • • Electronic services advisory board; Amber Lee Jones is Chair, Rebecca is FITS representative
      • Would like to pass off to someone else next year
    • Just finished collecting responses to survey about AFS online services

• AFS 2018
  • Governing Board Report submitted

• • • Completed and everything was all good

• Symposium Report

• • • Good presentations and discussion
    • Attendance was slightly down, but only a little less than average
    • May be a good time to focus on a new topic, perhaps add an additional FITS-sponsored symposium

• Update website with minutes

• • • Need to make sure it’s posted more frequently and determine who should be responsible
    • Going forward, Kayla will post meeting minutes, Sarah will post other documents

• How can we redesign our meeting for next year?

• • • Don’t attract a lot of new people, new ones we do attract we tend to lose
    • Should think about restructuring the meeting; skip all the report reviews and ask people to look at it before the meeting
    • Only briefly review old business and do so early in the meeting, make it more of an open forum discussion
    • Focus time on new business, roundtable set up, send suggestion topics early
    • Coordinate the business meeting with trade show? Discuss with Steve Kambouris
      • Have a booth for only the opening evening? Act as “ambassadors” for the trade show vendors?
      • Don’t call it a business meeting, could help attract more people

• Travel Award Results and Discussion

• • Winner is Jordan Holtsworth
  • Scoring improvements
    • Rubric was a bit too general
    • Should we require a presentation for applicants?
    • Send “primers” to scorers about things to keep in mind when scoring
  • Poster for OFWIM
    • Sarah will touch base with the winner about getting it printed and getting it to the meeting

• Fishackathon 2019

• • Notable changes in leadership
  • Still ramping up, date has been moved from February to June to coincide with World Ocean Day (June 8-9^th, 2019)
  • Paul is scheduled to be in Europe during that time but will make sure someone is there to cover it
  • Could we create a package to help more subunits be involved? Distill the package from Fishackathon down and send it out to the units – encourage them to register as well

• Technology Article (Sarah)

• • Will send a draft to ExComm in the next couple weeks
  • Initially were going to put it in NAJFM as a peer reviewed summary of advanced tech but editor decided it isn’t quite the right fit for the journal. Better suited for Fisheries Magazine and will talk to Jeff Schaeffer.
  • Kickoff to our effort of translating knowledge on advanced technology
    • Announcement of where we’re going in the future as a section

• Symposium Planning 2019 and beyond

• • Sarah to lead the planning
    • Will contact contributors to Tech Article to gauge initial interest and ask for input about additional contributors

• Continuing Education 2019 and beyond
  • Hard Part Microchemistry suggestion from Ben Neely

• • • Going out of our usual topics could help attract new members who might otherwise not think to join FITS

• Data Management