The Southwestern Association of Naturalists
Minutes of the Business Meeting

Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
Thursday, 22 April 1999
Final Draft



President Echelle called the meeting to order at noon CST with a quorum present. The Minutes of the 1998 Business Meeting were approved as they appear in Volume 43(4) of The Southwestern Naturalist.

President Echelle appointed Keith B. Gido, Mike Robertson, Richard D. Durtsche, and R. D. Stevens to serve as tellers for elections. The Secretary reported no nominations by mail for President - elect, and President Echelle called for nominations from the floor. Three nominations were made before nominations were closed by an approved motion. The tellers distributed ballots for the presidential election, with results to be tabulated and announced later in the meeting.

President Echelle and the tellers conducted the election of four new members to the Board of Governors to replace members (Jennifer K. Frey, Robert D. Owen, Salvador Contreras - Balderas, Robert J. Edwards) whose terms expire this year. The Secretary reported no nominations by mail. President Echelle called for nominations from the floor and seven members were nominated. There was a motion that nominations cease, it was seconded and the motion carried. Ballots were distributed, collected and were to be counted and the results announced at the banquet Friday evening.

Treasurer Williamson reported on 1998 finances. A summary is contained in the Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of Governors and Officers, and further detail is included in the Treasurer's written report to President Echelle and the BOG. Income totaled $44,934, expenses totaled $57,948, expenses exceeded income by $13,014 and Williamson transferred $5,020 to the Trustees for investment. The checkbook balances were $24,982 (31 December 1997) and $6,948 (31 December 1998).

The Treasurer then reported on memberships, which were 877 in various categories of individuals and 369 institutions on December 1998. By April 1999, individual memberships had declined to 729 with 347 institutional members. This decrease is consistent with patterns from earlier years, and probably will be recouped by years' end. Next, Williamson conducted the election of new members. She introduced a list of 57 student, 46 regular, 2 sustaining, and 30 student-award, prospective members. There was a motion and second to approve the new members. The motion carried.

Williamson described the dues increases recommended by the BOG (contained in the minutes of the BOG Meeting), a motion was made and seconded for approval of the increases, and the motion was approved by the membership. President Echelle also announced the increase in page charges approved by the BOG, and reported in the minutes of their meeting.

Williamson then reported on the 2000 proposed balanced budget of $58,800 approved at the Meeting of the Board of Governors and Officers on 21 April 1999. A summary is contained in the minutes of that meeting. There was brief discussion of the dues increase and the page-charge increase approved by the BOG, and their effect on the budget; specifically that they obviate the need for the trustees to subsidize the budget from the endowment fund.

President Echelle announced that most committees would not give reports because of the brief time available for the meeting, but that committee reports are summarized in the minutes of the BOG meeting. He thanked the committees and their chairs for the work they had done for the society during the past year, Dwight Moore for his work on the web page, and Bruce Stewart and Salvador Contreras - Balderas for the travel advice they made available.

The Secretary read a summary of the draft minutes of the BOG meeting, and the President asked for questions or corrections. There were none.

William J. Matthews reported for the Honors Committee that:

1. The Robert L. Packard Teaching Excellence Award for 1999 will go to Ticul Alvarez of Universidad Autónomá de Nuevo Leon;
2. The 1999 W. Frank Blair Eminent Naturalist Award will go to Neil Douglas of The University of Northeastern Louisiana;
3. The 1999 Donald W. Tinkle Research Excellence Award will go to Dr. Cornelio Sanchez-Hernandez of Universidad National Autónomá de Mexico;
4. The 1999 Meritorious Service Award will go to Jerry Choate of Fort Hays State University, former President and long-time Trustee,
5. The awards will be presented at the 2000 banquet.

Jennifer K. Frey reported for the Conservation Committee that he Conservation Award (reported in the Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of Governors and Officers) was to be made by mail to D.D. Diamond, C.D. True, and K. He for their paper "Regional Priorities for Conservation of Rare Species in Texas." The paper appeared in The Southwestern Naturalist 42:400-408.

Earl Zimmerman, Local Chair for the 2000 meeting in Denton, Texas reported on preparations by The University of North Texas to host the society. The membership showed its appreciation to Zimmerman and UNT by applause.

President Echelle thanked Brenda Clark for the work of the Membership Committee in promoting the association to prospective new members and requested that members nominate prospective student members for dues-free memberships to Clark or other committee members, using forms available at the registration desk or from Clark and other committee members.

The tellers presented the result of the presidential election to Echelle, and he announced that Paula S. Williamson was elected to the office of President - elect. The membership congratulated Williamson by applause.

No new business was brought forward.

The following actions were taken at the 1998 Banquet on the evening of Friday 23 April 1999:

President Echelle announced that John Baccus, Kelly McCoy, O.W. Van Auken, and Celia Lopez - Gonzalez were elected to three - year terms as Governors.

William J. Matthews presented the 1998 Robert L. Packard Award for Teaching Excellence to Terry C. Maxwell and the 1998 W. Frank Blair Eminent Naturalist Award in absentia to Robert Rush Miller. He also announced for those who may not have been able to attend the Business Meeting the names of the 1999 awardees for each of the four awards the society bestows.

President Echelle presented the Wilks Award for the Outstanding Student Paper to R.D. Stevens of Texas Technological University for his report "Tropical Bats, Subtropical Communities, and Biogeographic Interfaces: Seasonal Variation in the Structure of a Guild of Frugivores." Stevens received a check for $250 from the Student Awards Fund and a nearly complete set of back issues of The Southwestern Naturalist.

President Echelle also presented the Outstanding Student Poster Award to Miguel León-Galván of The Universidad Autótoma Metropolita-Iztapalapa. He received a $150 check from the Student Awards fund and a nearly complete set of The Southwestern Naturalist. The winning poster, titled Cambios Morfometricos Estacionales en Testiculos y Epididimos del Corynorhinus mexicanos (CHIROPTERA: VESPERTILIONIDAE) en Tlaxcala, Mexico" ("Testicular and Epididymal Seasonal Morphometric Changes of Corynorhinus mexicanus (CHIROPTERA: VESPERTILIONIDAE) in Tlaxcala, Mexico,") was co-authored by R. López-Wilchis, O. Hernández-Pérez, and A. Rodado-Garcia.

Echelle announced that D.D. Diamond, C.D. True, and K. He will receive the George Mitsch Sutton Award in Conservation research as reported above.

Jerry Choate read and the membership adopted the following resolution:

Whereas the Southwestern Association of Naturalists assembled at the Universidad Autónomá de Nuevo Leon in Monterrey, Mexico, and

Whereas this, the 46th gathering of an organization whose geographic focus includes both Mexico and Central America as well as the southwestern United States, was the first SWAN meeting ever to convene south of the U.S. border, and

Whereas the meeting was held in the beautiful Biblioteca Magna in the midst of an enormous campus at which there are well in excess of 100,000 students, and

Whereas naïve Norteamericanos staying at the Holyday Inn asked how far it was to walk to the Biblioteca and were told "cinco minutos" only to discover that there is more than one biblioteca and that the distance to the correct biblioteca was more like cinco kilometros, and

Whereas those of us from north of the border who speak broken Español at best were pleased that inhabitants of Monterrey laughed at our efforts only infrequently, and

Whereas the bus drivers who transported participants back and forth between the hotels and the Biblioteca proved that it is possible to squeeze a 2-meter wide bus into the 1-meter wide space between two other vehicles, and

Whereas participants who opted to ride taxis were reminded of stock car races as the taxis drafted behind buses before darting across several lanes of traffic with centimeters to spare between honking cars, and

Whereas the Norteamericanos who agreed to serve as session moderators and found themselves listed as "relators" panicked when they heard the rumor that they would be required to provide simultaneous translations of papers into Español, and

Whereas the Local Committee planned leisurely lunches at the Biblioteca so that the cooks could individually prepare meals for SWAN members, but then President Echelle scheduled a business meeting for the same time period that took up most of the allotted 1.5 h for lunch, and

Whereas the Student Competition papers and posters at the meeting were among the best in recent memory, and

Whereas President Tony Echelle skillfully orchestrated an increase in dues by not giving the assembled members any opportunity whatsoever to debate the issue, and

Whereas the meeting represented a serious attempt on the part of SWAN to bring our Latin American colleagues into the Association and thereby transform SWAN into a truly international organization,

Therefore, be it resolved that the assembled members of the Southwestern Association of Naturalists extend sincere gracias to Doctora Reyes Tamez - Guerra (Rector), Doctor Luis Galan-Wong (General Secretary), and Ingeniero José Gonzalez - Treviño (Academic Secretary) of the administration of the Universidad Autónomá de Nuevo Leon and to Leon Maestro de Ciencias Juan Adame - Rodrigues (Director) of the university's Facultad de Ciencias Biologicas for hosting this important international meeting, and

Be it further resolved that SWAN extends a sincere gracias to Local Committee members Doctorá María de Lourdes Lozano - Vilano (President), Doctor José Gonzalez - Rojas (Secretary), Doctor Armando Contreras - Balderas (Treasurer), and also to Maestro de Ciencias Elena Garcia - Ramirez, David Lazcano - Villareal, Antonio Guzman - Velasco, José María Torres - Ayala, Jesus Montemayor - Leal, Juan Lopez - Soto, and Gabino Rodriguez - Almaraz (Vocals), and also to Doctor Salvador Contreras - Balderas for making this the first meeting of SWAN in Mexico one of its most successful.

Following a motion, second, and approval for adjournment, the Business Meeting adjourned at 1300 CST.

Respectfully submitted by David L. McNeely, Secretary

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