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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