The Southwestern Association of Naturalists
Minutes of the Business Meeting
Norman, Oklahoma
Friday, 18 April 2003

President Paula S. Williamson called the meeting to order at 10:35 a.m. with a quorum present. The membership approved the Minutes of the 2002 Business Meeting as printed in The Southwestern Naturalist 47(4).  The Secretary read a summary of the 2003 Meeting of the Board of Governors and Officers (BOG).

President Williamson appointed the Wilks Award presenters (Jay E. Clark, Karen E. Francl, Scott A. Kelly, Dave P. Onorato, Serena A. Reeder) to serve as tellers for the BOG election.

President Williamson then conducted the election for the new President Elect.

Brenda Clark gave the Treasurer's report, with copies of the written version to the BOG available.  She reported income, expenses, and checkbook activity as provided in the written report and as summarized in the Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of Governors and Officers (BOG).

The Treasurer then reported on memberships, with details on 2002 and current memberships contained in the written report and summarized in the Minutes of the Meeting of the BOG of 17 April 2003.  She also presented a roster of 93 new members for approval.  There was a motion and second to approve the new members.  The motion carried.

Clark then reported a summary of the 2004 proposed balanced budget of  $88,100 approved at the Meeting of the BOG on 17 April 2003.  The minutes of that meeting summarize her report.   President Williamson called for questions on the budget, and there were none.

President Williamson received results of the President Elect’s election from the tellers, and announced that Karen McBee was elected. President Williamson and David McNeely then conducted the election for new members of the BOG, with results to be announced at the annual banquet on Saturday, 19 April.

Jerry Choate reported for the Trustees that SWAN had a reasonably successful investment year, considering the behavior of the financial markets during the past year. Details are available in his written report and a summary appears in the Minutes of the Meeting of the BOG.

Phyllis Kennedy reported for the Budget Oversight Committee that the society’s financial records are in good order, and that the committee found no discrepancies or causes for concern in the records.

Mark Eberle reported that publication of the journal is progressing in a timely fashion, with all of Volume 47 and 48(1) and 48(2) published. Eberle thanked the Associate Editors and the other staff members for their valuable contributions. Several editorial board changes were also announced, and Eberle also described some details of the changeover to electronic manuscript review and processing that have improved efficiency, as reported in the Minutes of the Meeting of the BOG.

Troy Best, Chair of the Honors Committee, announced that 3 awards for the year 2002 were approved by the BOG this year, to be made at the banquet at the 2004 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas:

Robert L. Packard Outstanding Educator Award—Robert C. Dowler, Professor of Biology, Angelo State University;

Donald W. Tinkle Research Excellence Award—Ronald A. Van Den Bussche, Professor of Zoology, Oklahoma State University.

W. Frank Blair Eminent Naturalist Award—Albert Patrick Blair, Professor Emeritus of Biology, Tulsa University.

President Williamson then received committee reports:

  1. Robert Channell announced for the Conservation Committee that the committee had nominated a paper from recent issues of The Southwestern Naturalist for the George Miksch Sutton Conservation Award, that the BOG had approved the nomination, and that the awardees would be named at the banquet. He also appealed to the membership for guidance on how to proceed in responding in a timely manner to conservation issues that arise from time to time.

  2. Edie Marsh-Matthews and Mark Eberle reported for the Student Awards Committee that there were 5 competitors for the Wilks Award, 23 for the Hubbs Award, and 18 proposals for the McCarley Student Research Awards, 5 of which were funded at $1000 each. All winners were to be announced at the banquet on Saturday.
  3. Philip Sudman reported on the Membership Committee's activity over the past year in awarding 18 Student Memberships and producing a reminder to current and lapsed members and authors to join.  He also solicited nominees for this year's Student Membership Awards.
  4. John T. Baccus reported for the Development Committee. He provided details on how the Wildlife Society has been successful at increasing its endowment, and that the BOG had expressed support for the committee taking similar action.
  5. Historian Meredith J. Hamilton announced that a large volume of material was transferred to the Archives by Paul Buck, and appealed to the membership to donate additional items to make the society’s historical record more complete.
  6. Ronald A. Van Den Bussche reported for the Program Committee by thanking the Local Committee for its work in making this year’s meeting a success, reminding the membership that next year’s meeting is in San Antonio, hosted by The University of Texas at San Antonio, and appealing for a host for 2005 and beyond.
  7. William J. Matthews reported for this year’s Local Committee that there were 350 persons attending the meeting, that tickets for the barbecue were still available, and that the silent auction to raise money for the society looks to be a success. Matthews then thanked all those who had worked to make the meeting a success.
  8. Robert D. Owen reported for the ad hoc Cross Border Affairs Committee that the Student Travel Awards program was successful, with awards given to 19 attendees from 10 U.S. and Mexican states. He then discussed the visa difficulties that non-U.S. residents had experienced in attempting to travel to this meeting, pointing out that 2 recipients of Student Travel Awards, and 1 member of the BOG missed the meeting because of visa difficulties. He pointed out that the BOG and the President are concerned about the problem, and have provided letters to persons who need them in order to have U.S. State Department approval for travel, and that the BOG, the President, and the committee will be working to assist persons interested in attending future meetings.
  9. Michael Kennedy reported for the Long Range Planning Committee. He pointed out that the committee had made 3 recommendations to the BOG: (1) not to change the journal name, (2) to add wording to the journal cover to reflect the international nature of the society and its journal, and (3) not to change the annual meeting time.
  10. Bruce Stewart reported for the International Relations Committee that most issues it had been organized for had been addressed, and that the committee had no new activity to report.
  11. Caryn C. Vaughn reported for the Web Site Committee that the web site has been moved to the OU Biological Survey server, and that Dan Hough is now the society’s Webmaster.
  12. Robert C. Dowler reported for the Disposition of Back Issues Committee that back issues are still available at $1.00 per issue though the committee has been successful in its task of reducing the inventory. He also announced that 2 sets of back issues are available in the silent auction, and thanked the Angelo State University personnel and undergraduate students who have assisted the committee.
  13. Carl W. Dick reported for the Student Advisory Committee by first recognizing the student members, providing thanks to SWAN for its student orientation activity and other support to encourage student participation in the society’s activities, and announced a student meeting to take place on Friday, 18 April.

President Williamson then took up New Business.

On behalf of the the Program Committee and Local Committee Chairs Ronald A. Van Den Bussche and O.W. Van Auken reported on plans for the 2004 meeting in San Antonio. Van Den Bussche appealed to the membership to assist in the search for hosts for future meetings, and announced that the program manual is being updated. W. J. Matthews opined that electronic registration for this year’s meeting had been very successful, and volunteered the willingness of the University of Oklahoma to handle registration for future meetings in the same way.

The following actions were taken at the Banquet on the evening of Saturday, 20 April 2003:

President Williamson made the following announcements:

  1. Greg Wilson was elected to replace Karen McBee in the BOG Class of 2005.

  2. Stan Fox, Meredith Hamilton, Kelly McCoy and Cornelio Sanchez-Hernandez were elected to make up the BOG Class of 2006.
  3. The BOG accepted an invitation from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas to host the 2005 meeting.

Robert B. Channell presented the George Miksch Sutton Award for Conservation Research to C. Kirkpatrick, S. DeStefano, R.W. Mannan, and J. Lloyd for their paper, "Trends in Abundance of Grassland Birds Following a Spring Prescribed Burn in Southern Arizona," published in The Southwestern Naturalist 47:289-292.

Edie Marsh-Matthews presented Marian McCarley, the widow of the late Howard W. McCarley, who presented Howard W. McCarley Student Research Awards to:

  1. Chad Hargrave, University of Oklahoma. Title: "Mechanisms for Fish Effects in Stream Ecosystems." Research advisor W.J. Matthews.

  2. Beth Moeller, Oklahoma State University. Title: "Conservation Ecology of the Texas Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma cornutum): Comparative Effects of Summer and Winter Burning". Research advisor Eric Hellgren.
  3. Bret Pasch, University of Arizona. Title: "Space Use of Chiricahua Fox Squirrels (Sciurus nayaritensis chiracahuae) Relative to Fire History." Research advisor John Koprowski.
  4. Aaron Reed, Kansas State University. Title: "Effect of Litter on Seed Availability to Granivores." Research advisor Glennis Kaufman.
  5. Sarah Weyandt, Oklahoma State University. Title: "Population Genetics of the Endangered Ozark Big-eared Bat, Corynorhinus townsendii ingens." Research advisor Ronald A. Van Den Bussche.

Edie Marsh-Matthews then announced that there were 22 competitors for Clark Hubbs Student Poster Awards, and thanked judges Loren Ammerman, Bruce Hoagland, Jeff Kelly and Jody Manus for their work in reviewing posters and determining the winners. She then called on Clark Hubbs to present the awards as follows:

1. Honorable Mention to:

David J. Hoeinghaus, Craig A. Layman, D. Albrey Arrington, Kirk O. Winemiller of Texas A&M University for: "Spatiotemporal Variation in Fish Assemblage Structure in Tropical Floodplain Creeks."

2. Winner:

Jason L. Malaney, Eastern New Mexico University and Jennifer K. Frey, New Mexico State University for: "Primary Productivity and Habitat Quality Hypotheses for Control of Snowshow Hare (Lepus americanus) Demography."

Marsh-Matthews announced that 5 students competed for this year’s Wilks Award, and thanked the judges for the Wilks Award (Rich Broughton, Jerry Choate, and Bob Dowler) for their work. She called on Charles Carpenter to present the Wilks Award.

The Wilks Award was presented to:

Dave P. Onorato of Oklahoma State University for his report titled, "Genetic Sructure of American Black Bears in the Desert Southwest of North America: Conservation Implications for Recolonization."

Troy Best presented 2002 Distinguished Awards as follows:

Robert L. Packard Outstanding Educator Award--John T. Baccus, Professor of Biology, Southwest Texas State University. Baccus was present to accept the award.

W. Frank Blair Eminent Naturalist Award--(1) Roger Conant, Adjunct Professor of Biology, University of New Mexico and Director and Curator of Reptiles Emeritus, Philadelphia Zoological Garden; (2) Robert C. Stebbins, Professor Emeritus, University of California at Berkeley Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. Conant and Stebbins were unable to be present.

Ronald A. Van Den Bussche read and the membership adopted the following resolution:

"Whereas, the 50th Anniversary Meeting of the Southwestern Association of Naturalists was held at the University of Oklahoma, Norman, 17 – 19 April 2003, and

"Whereas, like a good parasite, we returned to our original host, as the first SWAN meeting was sponsored by the University of Oklahoma and held at the OU Biological Station, and

"Whereas, directions to the Forum building were somewhat confusing as all requests for directions were answered with the phrase "Look for the red brick building down the road, " and

"Whereas, only in Oklahoma would you expect to find a continuing education center named for residents of the state, OCCE = okie, and

"Whereas, we were all treated like royalty at the welcoming social, or, one could say that we were given a "Noble" welcome, and

"Whereas, institutional representatives forgot their school flags to display during the UN style Plenary Session, and

"Whereas, the Plenary Session concluded with a multiple choice exam, the fact that cheese won out over money or sex is most disturbing, and

"Whereas, you can change the furniture, add a registration desk, dim the lights, and call the room a suite, but a dorm room by any other name is still a dorm room, complete with slamming doors and students running up and down the halls, and

"Whereas, at least one room came complete with bedtime companions between the sheets – ants apparently can be included in your room at the Sooner Hotel at no extra charge, and

"Whereas, OU’s solution to current budget problems seems to be to supplement revenue by hiking registration costs for meetings held on campus, and

"Whereas, the local committee provided the Development Committee with a head start on fundraising by including fees for lunch in our registration, neglecting to tell anyone in advance, and donating the income from left over food back to SWAN, and

"Whereas, the local committee conspired to keep all participants awake during presentations by artificially elevating our blood-glucose levels by providing ample supplies of donuts, cookies, and sweet rolls before, during and after breaks, and

"Whereas, fans were used in the restrooms to encourage us to return to the paper sessions by blowing volatile fumes back into the break areas, and

"Whereas, the signal for presenters for 'you are out of time' was frequently confused with 'its time to party,' and

"Whereas, Troy Best tried to monopolize the annual business meeting, holding on to the last to his position as Immediate Past President, and

"Whereas, student response to the first ad hoc Student Advisory Committee social gathering was a bit tentative, perhaps due to concern that the program noted that the event would include a keg of beer; in the future, it is recommended that the statement read kegs of beer to alleviate anxiety, and

"Whereas, on 18 April 2003, Bill Mathews set a Guiness World Record by walking 29.6 miles in just 8 hours without leaving the confines of the Thurman J. White Forum Building, and

"Whereas, we thank the local committee for scheduling all events between thunderstorms, and

"Whereas, we are all indebted to the likes of Chuck Carpenter, Harley Brown, Clark Hubbs, Cluff Hopla, and Marian McCarley for seeing SWAN through its first 50 years, and many of us look forward to being present at the next milestone in 2053,

"Therefore, be it resolved that those in attendance at the 50th Annual Meeting of the Southwestern Association of Naturalists, express our sincere thanks to the local committee including Caryn Vaughn, Dan Hough, Edie Marsh-Matthews, Mary Sue Schnell, Stan Fox, Liz Bergey, Amy Buthod, Mike Eggleton, Nick Czaplewski, approximately 25 graduate students, post-docs, technicians, the OCCE Conference Center Staff, especially Deb Corley, Amy Patterson, Georgette Smith, Melvin Kong, and Pedro Caliman, and especially Gary Schnell and Bill Matthews for a seamless, stimulating, and memorable gathering celebrating 50 years of study related to biology of the Southwest, Mexico, and Central America."

Following a motion to do so, a second, and approval, the Business Meeting adjourned at 11:57 a.m.


Respectfully submitted,
David L. McNeely
Secretary