Minutes

SCL Business Meeting, 8 January 2005, Clearly Centre, Windsor ON

Peter Leavitt presides the meeting. Vice-president Hélène Cyr attends concurrent CCFFR business meeting. Alain Patoine and Jérôme Marty take notes.

Meeting opens at 5:30 PM

1. Acceptance of minutes of SCL 2004 annual meeting (as posted on www.limnology.org/canada).
Paul del Giorgio and Martha Guy adopt (?).

2. 2004 Executive report

a. DIALOG Support continues

Maggy Xenopoulos: Canadians participants to DIALOG pay 100% of their bill. Future meetings will be in Alabama and so should be cheaper to attend. SCL should decrease its 2 000$ contribution to DIALOG. Sue (Susan Weiler?) tries hard to get funds for Canadians to attend DIALOG.

Peter Leavitt: the funds provided by the SCL to DIALOG are for limnology or oceanography PhD graduates.

b. Clemens-Rigler Travel Fund (CRTF)
About 20 000$ are distributed every year for students to attend the meeting. SCL puts in 8% (the balance by CCFFR), but receives 33%. SCL puts in ca. 2,500$, CARS puts in ca. 10,000 $. Motion to require matching funds (so that the more a society pitches in, the more it benefits from it), and distribute more funds of smaller amounts. Motion accepted by Norm Yan and Brian Cumming.

Peter Leavitt’s answer to a question by Brian Cumming: the SCL representative to the CRTF board, Howard, comes up with ca. 15 000 $ in extra funds (?)

Together, the SCL and the Canadian Aquatic Resources Section of the American Fisheries Society (CARS) are societies (able to raise funds), but the annual congress is organized by CCFFR, a non-society.

d. Election of a new treasurer-secretary
Peter Leavitt reads Rolf Vinebrook’s letter of application to the position of secretary-treasurer.
Election of Rolf Vinebrook as Treasurer-Secretary for 2005-2007 (unanimous).

e. SCL Survey 2004
i. Motion to remove the bylaw requirement that members of the Society need to be members of the SIL. Motion accepted unanimously minus one abstention. Vote will proceed by email, along with the vote for a name change.

Norm asks if SIL is about to stop publishing the proceedings in order to decrease its membership fees.

ii. Motion to approach CMOS (?), Ecological Society of America (ESA, Canada Section) and other marine societies about participating in SCL

P.L.: To attract marine scientists, the Society needs to change its name. Motion to change the Society’s name. Based on the result of the Survey, there is sufficient agreement among members to proceed to a vote. Members will be asked via email to suggest names and rank their preference during the winter session. The new name shall contain the words “society”, “Canada” or its variations, and “Aquatic”. Also the Society should have a logo ready within three months in preparation of the joint American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO)-SCL meeting in 2006.

Jim Rusak asks how many marine scientists are in need of a society, and if there is a risk of creating “two solitudes” by including marine scientists in the Society. Peter Leavitt: there are three times as many Canadians that are members of ASLO as there are members of SCL.

Pedro: adding article sub-sections to the Canadian Journal of Aquatic Sciences might help in attracting scientists from both the freshwater and marine environments.

iii. Membership Fees
The Society needs more money if it is to support the CRTF and DIALOG. It is proposed that fees be increased from 30$ to 60$ for regular members and from 15$ to 30$ for students. To encourage membership to SIL, a 30% discount on the SCL membership should be applied for members that register to both societies (SCL and SIL). It is agreed by the Assembly that there shall be NO discount on the SCL membership for students that do not want to be members of the SIL.

iv. SIL membership dues in 2005. Pro-rated based on GNDP or salary.

3. Financial Report of the Treasurer
Charles Ramcharan presents the Society’s financial statement for the year 2003-2004, including the meeting at St. John’s. Zero costs for mailings and Web site maintenance. 2 000 $ went to DIALOG. Beatrix Beisner and Bill Taylor adopt (?) the Report.

4. Election of SCL executive officers
a. SCL treasurer: see pont 2d.

b. President and both VPs in 2006 - Shelley puts forward a motion to stagger the positions of the executive such that outgoing members of the executive become ex-officio members that can “coach” the newly elected officer. Motion accepted by Norm Yan and Beatrix Beisner.

5. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (CJFAS)
CJFAS impact factor is up. Gary Sprules will send a CJFAS representant to future SCL business meetings to talk about the CJFAS performance (as it is done with the CCFFR). Gary Sprules also invites people to consider CJFAS when submitting their papers, now that the editorial board has changed (and less biased for fisheries papers).

6. Future meetings
a. 2006 Calgary/Banff
John Post is the local organizer of the SCL-CCFFR meeting in Calgary, January 5-7, 2006. Paul del Giorgio reminds of the need for an SCL logo.

b. 2006 ASLO with the American Fisheries Society (AFS) and ISFHA (?)
Yves Prairie proposes to have a booth to advertise the SIL 2007 meeting in Montreal where 1800-2000 people are expected. Ask CCFFR if they will be present at the joint SIL-SCL meeting in 2007 in Montreal.

c. 2007 Montreal/Ottawa

d. SIL Montreal

7. Business arising
Hélène Cyr is at the CCFFR business meeting and will ask its assembly if members are willing to consider a change in the timing of the annual SCL-CCFFR meeting. The year 2008 may be the first when the annual meeting is held at a later time than January.

Charles will ask members, via email, to come up with a new logo.

Peter Leavitt reads thanks

8. Adjournment
Motion to adjourn accepted at 6:45 PM.
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SCL Business Meeting, 10 January 2004, Delta Hotel, St John's NF

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Chair of Meeting: Peter Leavitt (President)
Secretary: Charles Ramcharan (Secretary-Treasurer)
Attendance: Agbeti Michael, Arnott Shelley, Blais Jules, Bouchard Giselle, Campbell Christine, Curtis Jeff, Donald David, Dubois Kristal, Ghadouani Anas, Lark John (CCFFR observer), Leavitt Peter, Marty Jérôme, Muir Derek, Patoine Alain, Prairie Yves, Radomske Erin, Rennie Mike, Smol John, Tremblay Alain, Vinebrooke Rolf, Yan Norm.

Peter Leavitt presides the meeting. Alain Patoine takes notes.

Meeting opens at 5:15 PM

Peter Leavitt thanks Shelley Arnott and Charles Ramcharan for their organizing of the SCL meeting and expresses his will that SCL does more to its members.

1. Acceptance of minutes of SCL 2003 business meeting.

2. Executive report for the year 2003

2.1 DIALOG Support, possible NSERC grant application.
For the first time, SCL has contributed financially (2 000 $) to support three Canadian students presented with the opportunity to participate in the annual DIALOG meeting (Dissertation Initiative for the Advancement of Limnology and Oceanography, an initiative of the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography). This year’s Canadian awardees were from 1) Jay Cullen (Rutgers); 2) Irene Gregory-Ives (University of Ottawa); 3) Simon Donner (Wisconsin-Madison). Because the National Science Foundation only supports American students at this meeting, it is agreed that SCL should seek funds to support Canadian students, irrespective of the location of their work. Yves Prairie wonders if SCL money should not be used to fund the Clemens-Rigler Travel Award (CRTA). Norm Yan points out that there are education grants that can fund Canadian students to participate to the DIALOG meeting. Peter offers to work a funding arrangement with the Ecology Program of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC). The executive committee will seek members’s opinion by email as to whether SCL should continue to financial support DIALOG.

2.2 Clemens-Rigler Travel Award (CRTA)
Available funds added up to 30 059 $ this year. Awards were 200 $ for students who have already ben awarded during previous years, 350 $ for first-time applicants. Among SCL registrants, 13 were given an award.

The CRTA has fours sources of income: Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO, 6 000 $ per year), SCL (1 000 $), local sponsorships (variable), and the Canadian Chapter of the American Fisheries Society. John Larkin mentions that the this later Society can deliver official receipts for tax deduction purposes to local sponsors.

2.3 Council of Aquatic Sciences (CAS) dissolution
SCL was reimbursed 200 $ following the dissolution of CAS. John Smol explains CAS had projects disproportionate to its level of organization and financial resources.

2.4 Website update, email services
Charles Ramcharan informs that the Website has been updated in December 2003 but notes that the email list needs to be upgraded. John Larkin informs that the CCFFR Website is maintained by Chris Tager (DFO) for about 750 $ per year; a professional would charge 10 000 to 12 000 $. Shelley proposes that a graduate student takes care of the Website. To avoid changes in domain names, it is suggested that the SCL Website uses the SIL (International Association of Theoretical and Applied Limnology) domain (www.limnology.org/Canada). The executive committee will decide whether a webmaster should be hired to keep the Website working and up to date.

2.5 Revenue issues
According to the SCL bylaws (appended to the Agenda handouts), regular (non-student) members of SCL are required to be members of the SIL. During the past 10 years, however, this has not been enforced. According to Charles Ramcharan, there are about 40 SCL members out of 100 that have not paid their dues to the SIL. Anas Ghadouani asks what are the services provided by SIL. These include a subscription to SIL proceedings (once every three years) and a 40% discount on subscription to CJFAS and possibly other NSERC journals, possibly via paper mailing. It is agreed that membership dues should be paid at a different time than at registration, possibly via paper mailing, and that SCL and SIL membership fees should be combined. Shelley Arnott accepts to conduct a email membership drive.

3. Financial Report of Treasurer.
Charles Ramcharan presents the details of the Financial Statement (appended to the Agenda). John Larkin gives his explanation of why the Ottawa meeting in 2003 had a negative balance. There is a general consensus on the necessity of carrying a financial cushion.

4. Canadian Society of Aquatic Sciences (CSAS)
Peter Leavitt reports on discussions he had with Richard Rivkin and John Cullen on the idea of extending SCL membership to marine scientists. The principle is that non-fishery marine scientists are the only group not served by the CCFFR/SCL meeting. There are questions about potential conflicts between the SCL and the CCFFR. John Larkin explains that the acronym CCFFR initially stood for “Canadian Conference for Freshwater Fisheries Research”. Because there were many oceanographers present at the CCFFR, the organizers changed the meaning of the acronym to “Canadian Conference For Fisheries Research”. The CCFFR is not a society, contrary to the SCL. The Assembly allows Peter Leavitt to explore the possibility of extending the SCL membership to include oceanographers and fisheries scientists, possibly by sponsoring a special session at the 2005 annual meeting in Windsor (ON).

5. Election of SCL executive officers, student participation
Peter Leavitt explains that SCL “Officers” represent SIL at the Canadian level; bylaws do not normally allow student representatives in its officers. However, because SCL feels a responsibility towards students, the Society has extended its executive committee to include student-representatives. Last year, no students volunteered to act as an SCL student-representative. Alain Patoine, a postdoctoral researcher, has acted as an interim student representative for the year 2003. Five students who could not attend the SCL conference this year have expressed their interest in acting as student representatives by e-mailing letters of interest to Alain Patoine in December. Three students present at the meeting express their interest (Kristal Dubois, Jérôme Marty and Mike Rennie). To elect two new student representatives for the year 2004, it is agreed that SCL members at large will vote electronically, based on the letters of interest provided by the students.

6. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
Peter Leavitt reports on the journal’s performance (using information presented by Moira Ferguson during CCFFR’s business meeting the day before). Of 637 papers received in 2003, 196 were accepted, 25 were withdrawn and 370 were rejected. In 2002, numbers were 576, 164, 26 and 327. There is currently a two to three months backlog, which represents an improvement on previous years.

7. Future meetings
The meeting for 2005 is planned to be in Windsor (ON). Five conference rooms have been booked in the Congress Centre for January 6-9, 2005. There will be the possibility for double occupancy in the two hotels adjacent to the Centre. The package deal for hotel rates includes the banquet. CCFFR has worked the fees out to be 140$ per regular member, 100 $ per student. Proposed special sessions are: Toxic Substances; Invasive Species; Great Lakes Water Quality and Fisheries. John Smol suggests to add a “25-year progress in ecology” as a follow-up on a 1980, small-room meeting with many of Rigler’s students. It is agreed to attract freshwater and marine scientist, from Canada as well as from the U.S. (Madison, Wisconsin etc.).

The 2006 will likely take place in Calgary (John Post is local chair), less likely in Banff, whereas the 2007 meeting will take place in Montreal.

8. Business arising
Yves Prairie reports on the organization of the upcoming SIL 2007 conference in Montreal. SIL and ASLO were asked if they would be interested in holding a joint conference in 2007. ASLO voted against a joint meeting, and the project has been abandoned. Members of the SCL executive committee need to be involved in the organization of SIL 2007, along with other helpers. Financial benefits or losses of the SIL 2007 may return to SCL.

Peter Leavitt explains why the Peters Award has not been given in recent years. In most years, there has been insufficient full SCL members to act as judges of the student presentations. Anas Ghadouani proposes, for future meetings, that the best paper be published in an aquatic journal. Yves Prairie suggests that the Rigler talk (determined by SCL) be published in CJFAS, alongside the Stevenson lecture (determined by CCFFR).

9. Adjournment
Meeting is adjourned at 6:45 PM.

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SCL Business Meeting, 6 January 2003, Westin Hotel, Ottawa ON

Chair of Meeting: Peter Leavitt (President)

Secretary: Charles Ramcharan (Secretary-Treasurer)
(Minutes not yet online.)

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SCL Business Meeting, 5 January 2002, Empire Landmark Hotel, Vancouver, BC

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Chair of Meeting: Peter Leavitt (Vice-President)
Secretary: Hélène Cyr (Secretary-Treasurer)
In attendance: Christine Brereton, Geneviève Carr (Student Representative), Ngan Diep, Anas Ghadouani (Student Representative), Martha Guy, Roland Hall, John Lark, Seija Mallory, Asit Mazumder, Matthew Norton, Reinhard Pienitz, Charles Ramcharan, Cindy Reijwan, Jim Rusak, Daniel Schindler, Michael Turner, Brent Wolfe

1. Welcome and acknowledgements. Thanks to Scott Hinch, CCFFR's local organizer.

2. Informal Minutes of 2001 meeting, Toronto, ON.
Motion made, seconded and accepted by majority.

3. Update from CJFAS by Moira Ferguson (John Roff was also present).
Moira Ferguson and John Roff took over as editors of CJFAS in 1997. Their editorial policy is explained in CJFAS 55(01): iii-iv. They were asked to control the exponential rise in number of pages and have done so. Rejection rate has gone up and the number of submissions is stable. There are no editorial bias in the subject matter being published, with half fish/fisheries studies and half aquatic sciences studies. CJFAS now appears on time. Citation index remains stable with an impact factor of about 1.5, ranked third among fisheries journals.

4. Award information.

Rigler Memorial Award.
The procedure for nominations and selection of the Rigler Memorial Award was formalized last year, but we received very few nominations for the award. We are fortunate to have a good awardee this year (Jack Vallentyne) despite the limited feedback. Next year, the executive plans to advertise the call for nominations earlier and more broadly than this year, and asks for more participation in the nomination process.

Peters Memorial Award.
The review process for oral papers at the 2001 meeting was difficult, and there were too few reviewers present to deal with all student papers at the 2002 meeting. The executive proposed to award the 2002 Peters Memorial Award for the best student paper published in freshwater aquatic sciences. The student must be an undergraduate or graduate student enrolled at a Canadian university and must be first author. Nominations will be asked from supervisors. Vote was unanimous in support.

Clemens-Rigler Student Travel Awards.
35 awards in 2001, only 32 were claimed (Total 10 567.69$). 45 awards made in 2002, 3 declined (Total 18 050$). Maximum award this year was 600$ for travel from the east coast. The fund is doing well and students presenting at SCL meetings are encouraged to apply for the award.

5. Future meetings. (presented by John Lark)
Jan 2-5 2003, Westin Hotel, Ottawa
(mixer on evening of Thursday Jan. 2; half day on Sunday Jan. 5).
Brian Cumming is SCL program chair, John Gunn is CCFFR program chair, John Lark is local organizer. Meeting scheduled for 2.5 days because time constraints have forced too many CCFFR members to change their oral presentations into posters in the last 2 years. In order to promote integration of the two societies, SCL will also meet for 2.5 days. Dates are chosen to minimize travel costs and interference with teaching.

Plenary: Ecosystem approach at protecting Canada's waters

Themes (all good for joint SCL/CCFFR sessions):
1) invasive species,
2) role of biodiversity at landscape scales,
3) impact of multiple stressors on aquatic ecosystems.

Call for papers for the 2003 meeting will be sent earlier (mid-August) and abstract deadline will be Sept. 15 to facilitate the organization of the conference (requested by Scott Hinch, local organizer this year). The executive will look into providing data projector facilities, in particular data projectors. Expected cost of meeting is high, due to room charges (ca. $150/day). Students will be allowed 4x occupancy.

2004, St. John, Newfoundland.
CCFFR local organizers: Bob Gregory, Joe Brown, George Rose. Expected costs also high because of high air fares.

2005, Windsor, ON.

2006, Calgary, AB.

Any suggested venue for the meeting is welcome and should be forwarded to John Lark. In particular, SCL is invited to host the meeting, if we are willing to attend to the local arrangements, including guaranteeing the hotel.

6. Society Executive Elections.
Anas Ghadouani (student rep), Geneviève Carr (student rep), and Hélène Cyr (Secretary-Treasurer) were thanked for their services.

New Secretary-Treasurer: Charles Ramcharan, unanimous.

New Student Representatives: Matthew Norton (U Montréal), unanimous.

We will e-mail request for more student nominations. Geneviève Carr (U. Ottawa) agreed to stay on for a 1-year transition if no other student is interested.

7. Update on Council of Aquatic Sciences (CAS).
A June 2005 scientific meeting is still planned in Portland, OR. CAS dues were not collected in 2001 and the committee did not meet. According to Jonathan Phinney (ASLO executive director), CAS remains a loose confederation of societies in need of some energy to move forward. He suggests that SCL remains a member.

8. Good press coverage of the 2002 meeting.
National Post 05 Jan., p.4 on Karen Kidd (DFO; Feminization of fish); Ottawa Citizen, 05 Jan.; BC Telegraph; Radio Canada interviews with Peter Dillon's research group (acid lakes not recovering), Dick Beamish (salmon biology). Press coverage may be even better if press releases are sent earlier, 4-5 days before the meeting. These press releases are coordinated with CCFFR to increase public awareness of scientific findings.

9. Treasurer report.
H. Cyr presented the SCL financial statements for the past 3 years (see Financial Statement). Attendance at meetings has been consistent. Membership is stable. This last year our incomes exceeded greatly our costs, due to high registration fees to the meeting in Toronto, but much lower costs than expected. This has lead to a large balance for the last fiscal year (12 650$). The executive suggested uses for this surplus and asked for suggestions.

Possible uses of surplus:

* Safety fund (we can have as much as 2-3000$ in deficit at smaller meetings).
* Increase Clemens-Rigler Travel Fund contribution from 1000$ to 2000$
(these contributions are matched up to 6000$ by DFO; the maximum DFO match is currently being reached)
* Reduction of student registration fees in Ottawa and St. John's, which will be 2 expensive meetings (expensive venue in Ottawa, expensive travel to St. John's). The matched contributions for the Clemens-Rigler Travel Fund are already at their maximum so there is little incentive to simply increase the Fund (i.e., we cover 100% of the additional costs anyway).
* SCL advertising in CJFAS and other journals/venues.
* Web-site development. This could eventually be done in conjuction with CCFFR if they decide to hire professional services.
* Invest SCL funds. This will be done by the new Treasurer.
* Rental of data projectors. Will be negotiated with hotel in Ottawa or with local universities.

9. Other business.
Asit Mazumder asked if SCL plans to participate in the ASLO meeting to be held in June 2002 in Victoria. We agreed this was beneficial and asked that the SCL executive be given time to discuss the nature of our participation.

10. Business meeting closed at 18h20.

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SCL Business Meeting, 8 January 2005, Clearly Centre, Windsor ON

SCL Business Meeting, 10 January 2004, Delta Hotel, St John's NF

SCL Business Meeting, 6 January 2003, Westin Hotel, Ottawa ON

SCL Business Meeting, 5 January 2002, Empire Landmark Hotel, Vancouver, BC

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