2016 Meeting Minutes – Fish Habitat Section

AFS Fish Habitat Section Meeting Minutes

2016 Annual Business Meeting/ http://habitat.fisheries.org/

Kansas City, Missouri

Tuesday, August 23, 2016; 5:30 – 6:30 pm

Johnny’s Tavern, Kansas City Power & Light District, 1310 Grand Blvd, Kansas City, MO 64106

Determination of Quorum (minimum of 10 members present)
1. 18 members present
2. 34 total people present
Call to order – Tom Bigford, FHS President
Recognition of AFS and FHS officers and other guests – Tom Bigford
1. FHS Officers remain Tom Bigford, President; Tom Lang, President-elect; John Sweka, Past-President; Sheila Eyler, Secretary/Treasurer
  1. There were no changes in FHS officers this year (positions are on 2-year terms)
2. AFS Officers attending – Steve McMullin and John Boreman
Current AFS Issues – AFS Leadership
1. Statement from AFS Leadership – Steve McMullin (1^st Vice President)
  1. The Society is working on improving visibility and relevance of publications. AFS will also dedicate a couple issues of Fisheries each year to a thematic issue (i.e. climate change)
  2. The Imperiled Species Section was a new addition to AFS this year

A document is being developed at AFS for the next administration to discuss the future of the nation’s fisheries

AFS is at full staff levels now and has gone through some position restructuring
1. Jessica Mosely – Student and Professional Education
2. Martha Wilson – Communications Director
3. Katrina Dunn – Development Director
President’s Comments – Tom Bigford
1. Social media
  1. Joe Nohner was the lead last year and we have had good feedback on this new initiative
  2. Adrienne McLean will be taking over the social media responsibilities for the FHS for this year
2. Continuing Education
  1. AFS is looking for ideas for a Marine focused continuing education class for the next AFS meeting in Tampa
  2. AFS has requested that the FHS consider developing a course for the meeting as CE courses are popular at AFS
3. Pursue opportunities to reach out to groups such as the Restore America’s Estuaries – The Coastal Society Summit in December 2016 in New Orleans and the Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation’s next biennial conference in November 2017 in Providence
4. Some Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCC) are weak in fish issues and may be looking to FHS to help identify issues of interest and people that can assist
Approval of minutes from 2015 Business Meeting, Portland, OR – Sheila Eyler, FHS Secretary/Treasurer (view minutes at http://habitat.fisheries.org/what-we-do/section-meeting-minutes/section-minutes-2015/ )
1. Propose to approve by Tom Bigford, minutes approved
Review of Financial Report – Sheila Eyler
1. Current account balance
  1. Beginning Account Balance (8/1/2015): $8,201.21
  2. Inflows (membership dues): $2,685.00

Outflows: $1,360.76

Ending Balance (7/31/2016): $9,525.45
Bob Hughes is seeking section support for a book publication, but no decisions have been made
Committee Reports
1. Student Presentation Awards – John Sweka
  1. FHS provides an award for best student presentation in FHS sponsored symposia
  2. FHS sponsored 3 symposia this year
    1. 3 students were considered for the award
    2. All presentations were complete but results have not been tallied yet to identify a winner
  3. NFHP and FHS Award – Tom Bigford
    1. Ryan Roberts provided background information that the NFHP has been providing awards since 2008 for excellence in science, communications and leadership in fish habitat projects
      1. Primarily for activities implemented in the past year
    2. The award nomination period will open in next few weeks
      1. NFHP usually receives 8-10 nominations per year
      2. 2 awards are given each year
      3. Awardees must belong to the NFHP partnership

FHS started cost sharing on the award 2 years ago

Award may be presented in Panama City in October 2016
Old Business – Tom Bigford
1. Social media – Joe Nohner
  1. Assumed responsibilities for the FHS after the 2015 annual meeting. Improvements included:
    1. Renovation of the website
    2. More active on FB page
    3. Opened twitter account
      1. Primarily retweeting blog
    4. Recruited students to do a habitat blog every Tuesday
      1. Idea was to put a popular spin on recently published research
      2. People can contact the social media coordinator if they would like a blog done on a specific topic or research paper

Social Media statistics
1. 3,000 people visited website since November
  1. 26% are return visitors
2. Twitter has 168 followers
3. 1,500 people have visited the Facebook page
  1. Most visitors are younger people, but 24% are in the age range of 45-54 yrs old
  2. The Facebook page currently has 667 followers
4. Symposia endorsed or assisted by FHS:
  1. Monday, 9:40-4:00 – Documented and Documenting the Effects of Climate Change on Inland Fish and Fisheries, Sheraton Empire C
  2. Monday, 9:40-4:00 – Best Student Papers and Posters, Sheraton Chouteau A
Monday, 9:40-4:00 – Reservoir Fisheries Habitat Restoration: Innovative Techniques to Restore Habitat in Our Nation’s Impoundments (Session #1), Sheraton Atlanta

Monday, 2:20-5:00 – Translating Essential Fish Habitat Science into Fishery Management Decisions, Sheraton Van Horn B
Tuesday, 9:40-2:20 – Reservoir Fisheries Habitat Restoration: Innovative Techniques to Restore Habitat in Our Nation’s Impoundments (Session #2), Sheraton Atlanta
Tuesday, 9:40-5:00 – Interactions Between Hydrology and Non-native Aquatic Species, Sheraton Empire C

Tuesday, 1:40-5:00 – Inland Drivers of Coastal Hypoxia, Sheraton Chouteau B
Wednesday, 9:40-3:00 – Effects of Drought on Aquatic Resources, Fisheries Management, and Mitigation Strategies (Session #1), Sheraton Chicago

Thursday, 8:00-4:20 – Protecting Fish at Cooling Water Intakes, Sheraton Chouteau A
Thursday, 8:00-5:00 – Effects of Drought on Aquatic Resources, Fisheries Management, and Mitigation Strategies (Session #2), Sheraton Chicago
Best Student Paper Award
1. Looking for a new coordinator to organize the judging and awarding for 2017 meeting
  1. Steve Brown – NOAA Fisheries has volunteered to coordinate student judging for the 2017 Annual meeting
2. Responsibilities include:
  1. Determine which symposia FHS sponsors
  2. Contact symposia organizers to get a list of students presenting in symposia
  3. Arrange for at least 3 judges per student presentation
  4. Distribute student talk schedule and score sheets to the judges
  5. Once presentations are done, collect score sheets and tally them and announce a winner
3. NFHP and FHS Award – Soliciting reviewers for award nominations in late summer/early fall
  1. Need judges for NFHP in about a month – reviewing as many as 10 nominations
  2. Need about 3 people from FHS to assist in judging, the following individuals have volunteered:
    1. Jeff Boxrucker (jboxrucker@sbcglobal.net)
    2. William Janowsky (bjanowsky@fs.fed.us)
    3. Kyle Hartman (hartman@wvu.edu)
  3. New Business – Tom Bigford
    1. Social media – Joe Nohner
      1. Adrienne McLean will be our new social media coordinator
      2. Tom Bigford will send out info for contacting Adrienne and links to our social media sites
    2. Tampa meeting (August 2017)
      1. Symposia or individual technical sessions
        
        Looking to get FHS more active
        
        Looking for other sections to partner with to develop symposia
      2. Workshops for Sunday
        
        Attempt to develop continuing education course or some other option

We will evaluate the potential to schedule our meeting with respect to Water Quality Section, Bioengineering Section, Estuaries Section, and other common partners and possibly have a joint meeting with one or more, section(s)
1. Marine and Estuary Sections meet Sunday night
  1. Consider possibility to have FHS meet with them to reach out to more individuals
2. Elections next summer for 2017-2019 term – candidates?
  1. FHS will be soliciting candidates for President Elect and Secretary/Treasurer in about 9 months
  2. Amberle Jones and Kimberly Lellis expressed interest in a position (akjones@azgfd.gov; klellis@usgs.gov
3. Other?
  1. The American Institute of Fishery Research Biologists is looking for new members
4. Thank you to the owners of Fishiding which helped sponsor refreshments for the FHS annual meeting
5. U of Arkansas at Pine Bluff has a job listing for a professor position dealing with habitat, the position will consist of 65% research and 35% teaching. They are looking for candidates that can do both stream and standing water work.
6. Benjamin Walther (Past President of Marine Fisheries Section is looking for opportunities to work with the FHS. New MFS President is Cynthia Jones.
7. Karin Limburg of the Estuary Section discussed their consideration of a fundraiser on the Sunday prior to the AFS meeting.
8. Gary Whelan of the NFHP mentioned they had a new report released August 23 that can be found at their website (fishhabitat.org)

Adjourn

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