| The secretary’s activities this year were focused on conducting the annual election. This year we filled positions for president, vice president, and secretary. Voting instructions were sent out electronically on March 12, 2009. Again this year the balloting was contracted through a third party, and ballots were accompanied by descriptions of the officers' responsibilities and biographies of the candidates. Voting went smoothly, and 362 ballots (out of 1,030 eligible voters)—six more than last year—were submitted by the deadline, midnight on April 13, 2009.
Robert Ricklefs was elected president; he will serve as president-elect in 2010, president in 2011, and past president from 2012 to 2014. David Reznick was elected vice-president; he will serve as vice-president-elect in 2010, vice-president in 2011, and past vice-president in 2012. Daniel Bolnick was elected secretary; he will serve as secretary from 2010 to 2012 and past secretary from 2013 to 2015.
The secretary’s other major activities included working with the president and committees to refine and record committee membership and deadlines for decisions, updating the American Society of Naturalists (ASN) website with Patricia Morse and Andrew Baumann of the University of Chicago Press (UCP), updating the ASN Officers' Handbook, fielding various inquiries, distributing news to the membership, composing the reports of the annual meetings, running voting of executive council decisions, and coordinating efforts with respect to planning Joint Council and ASN business at the annual meeting in Moscow, Idaho, in 2009.
Minutes of the ASN Executive Committee Meeting (Pt. 1), Moscow, Idaho, June 19, 2009
President Kingsolver convened the Executive Council (EC) meeting at 2:00 p.m., with introductions. Present were Joel Kingsolver (president), Jonathan Losos (president-elect), John Thompson (past president), Douglas Schemske (vice-president), Sarah Otto (past-vice-president, ex officio), Tia-Lynn Ashman (secretary), Kathleen Donohue (treasurer), Carol Horvitz (past treasurer), Mark McPeek, (editor-in-chief, The American Naturalist), Michael Whitlock, (past editor-in-chief, The American Naturalist), Andrew Baumann (publications manager, University of Chicago Press), and Betsy Etges (financial advisor, Morgan Stanley).
President’s Report
Joel Kingsolver gave the president’s report. He reported on the outcomes of standing committee activities for 2009, including the Sewall Wright awardee (Michael J. Wade, Indiana University), the E. O. Wilson Naturalist awardee (Jonathan Losos, Harvard University); the four Young Investigator awardees (Renee Duckworth, University of Arizona; Luke Harmon, University of Idaho; Jason Kolbe, University of California, Berkeley; and Brian Langerhans, University of Oklahoma). Due to medical reasons, both Duckworth and Langerhans will give their Young Investigator symposium talks in 2010.
President Kingsolver reported that his selection for the Presidential Award was “Unifying life-history analyses for inference of fitness and population growth” by Ruth G. Shaw, Charles J. Geyer, Stuart Wagenius, Helen H. Hangelbroek, and Julie R. Etterson (The American Naturalist 172:E35–E47).
The president also reported on officer nominations and that the transition to the new editorial team of The American Naturalist was seamless. He also discussed his attendance at the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) meeting and the meeting of the management board for the Dryad consortium, a digital repository for data underlying scientific publications in evolution, ecology, and related fields.
Treasurer’s Report
Carol Horvitz presented the treasurer’s report. She reported that she will be passing the reins to Kathleen Donohue after she prepares the 2008 tax return. Treasurer Horvitz reviewed the 2008 report on the society’s revenue and expenses. She discussed how the prorated revenues/costs from meetings would be reflected in the 2009 report as a result of the time lag between decisions being implemented. As part of this discussion, financial advisor Betsy Etges described for the council how she came to be the financial advisor to ASN (since 2004) and then presented her annual review, in which she reported a net loss from 2008 of 2%. She reviewed her recommendations for the future, which would allow for flexibility. The Finance Committee (Carol Horvitz, John Thompson, and Kathleen Donohue) will discuss these recommendations. Then the president and new treasurer signed documents pertaining to the ASN accounts.
After Etges’s presentation and departure, the EC discussed the need for a policy on the composition of the financial committee. John Thompson proposed that it be the current and past presidents and current and past treasurers, that is, those with the authority in the account. A motion was passed to support this proposal. A vote was held, and the proposal was unanimously supported.
There was a unanimous vote to approve the officers’ 2008 reports.
Editor's Report
Mark McPeek presented the editor’s report. He reminded the EC that December marked the beginning of the transition between editorial teams, and as of May 2009, the transition was complete. The highlights are as follows. In the past year 800 manuscripts were submitted to The American Naturalist. This number represents a 3.5% increase over the previous period. There were 826 final decisions; of these, 23% were to accept, a rate slightly lower than last year (25%). Of the decisions to decline, 43% were editorial declines. During the period, the average time from submission to first decision was 43 days (up from 40 days in the previous shortened reporting period in the new web system). The average time to acceptance was 149 days, down by 11% from last year. Volumes 171 and 172 comprised 161 print articles (1,844 print pages), of which 84 pages appeared in the vice-presidential symposium. There were 32 E-articles (496 typeset pages). This represents an increase. The University of Chicago Press provided a temporary increase in E-pages in 2008 to help with the backlog of accepted articles.
Editor McPeek discussed the selection for the first Student Paper Award. There were 52 papers considered, and the editorial team selected a paper by student author Thomas E. X. Miller (Tom E. X. Miller, Brigitte Tenhumberg, and Svata M. Louda, “Herbivore-mediated ecological costs of reproduction shape the life history of an iteroparous plant,” The American Naturalist 171:141–149). The student author will receive a $100 gift certificate for University of Chicago Press books, as well as a one-year membership to ASN.
A general discussion by the EC of publishing issues commenced. The council discussed how reference limitations are affecting citations. Sarah Otto brought up the issue of separate appendix links and how supplemental material is not automatically downloaded with PDF versions of papers. It was noted that if supplemental material is not attached to the PDF it may not get linked to the paper when papers are moved to JSTOR. Andrew Baumann stated that he would ask UCP whether this was possible. Joel Kingsolver discussed the fact that authors need guidelines as to what information should be included in the supplemental material.
Publisher’s Report
Andrew Baumann presented the publisher’s report in two traditional parts (circulation and marketing).
Circulation. The American Naturalist enjoyed an overall 24% increase in circulation in the past year, owing largely to a new consortial agreement with China’s National Science and Technology Library. Regular institutional subscriptions also rose by 1.1%. Individual subscriptions by ASN members were down by 5%, essentially negating the 2007 increase in these. The EC discussed the potential causes of this. With the Chinese consortium, the new distribution is now 50% foreign, with developing country access increasing. Single-article sales were strong (15–20 articles sold this way each month). The EC discussed ways to link such sales to memberships.
Baumann discussed metrics of “reach and impact.” These include the ISI impact factor rankings, where The American Naturalist moved from 8 to 9 for ecology journals and from 6 to 7 in evolutionary biology in the latest available report (2007). Another metric, online usage (website and JSTOR), showed high traffic and strong usage by readers in Canada, Asia, and Western Europe.
Marketing. Baumann detailed the Press’s promotion efforts, for example, a life science journals brochure, advertising exchanges with Ecology and Ecological Monographs, and program ads, registration packet inserts, and exhibit booths at conferences. He mentioned that reductions in the marketing budget due to the economic downturn curtailed UCP’s presence at some international meetings. E-mail promotions were discussed in detail, including the ones announcing ASN benefits for student members. Ashman suggested that we send this e-mail every fall because it builds a sense of community and new students matriculate every fall. Baumann reviewed extensive publicity that papers published in The American Naturalist received this past year.
Other Business Items
Data Repository for Ecology and Evolution. Michael Whitlock reported that all evolution journals are on board with a data-archiving policy (at Dryad or elsewhere). He reported that Dryad was in the beta-testing period. Authors would soon be given the option of depositing data from their papers. The EC discussed issues associated with data archiving, including whether there was a “feedback” mechanism when authors use Dryad, who will be responsible for policing authors' use of it, as well as where funding will come from after the initial funding from NESCent (National Evolutionary Synthesis Center) runs out. Whitlock noted that he will be writing an editorial about Dryad for The American Naturalist.
ASN Representative to the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE) Education and Outreach Committee. The EC discussed a possible appointee to the SSE committee.
Policy on Press Releases for Awards. The EC discussed whether ASN should routinely send press releases (and e-mails to members) to announce award winners. Baumann volunteered to have UCP's publicity manager send press releases to the home institution of all the awardees. It was agreed that these would be sent out to coincide with the announcement of awards at the annual meeting banquet.
Engaging Membership and Use of ASN Funds. The EC discussed possible ways to use ASN funds to better engage the membership. Ideas included those aimed at postdocs, membership mixers at the annual meeting, research funding for students, travel awards with free membership, additional travel awards, and workshops or events to meet award winners. It was agreed that student involvement would be useful to identify areas that would be most attractive and beneficial to students. It was decided that a committee of students would be formed starting with the Young Investigators award recipients this year, and an e-mail call would be sent out to solicit volunteers for the student committee. Sarah Otto and Kathleen Donohue drafted an e-mail message to be sent to student members. Mark McPeek, Sarah Otto, and Douglas Schemske agreed to head up an ad hoc committee to get the student committee off the ground.
A motion was put forth to increase student travel awards to 15 awards of $500 each (up from 10 at $300). A vote was held, and the motion was unanimously supported.
Election of an Additional Honorary Member. The EC decided to revisit this in the second meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m.
Minutes of the ASN Executive Committee Meeting (Pt. 2), Moscow, Idaho, June 16, 2009
President Joel Kingsolver convened the meeting at 5:10 p.m. Present were Joel Kingsolver (president), John Thompson (past president), Jonathan Losos (president-elect), Sally Otto (past vice-president), Doug Schemske (vice-president), Tia-Lynn Ashman (secretary), and Kathleen Donohue (treasurer).
ASN Member for SSE Education Committee. The EC made nominations for the ASN representative to the SSE education committee. President Kingsolver will contact the nominees.
ASN Honorary Members. The EC reviewed the list of current honorary lifetime members and discussed nominees. A motion was made to elect Robert T. Paine as honorary lifetime member this year. The subsequent vote was unanimous. Subsequent to the meeting President Kingsolver notified Dr. Paine, and Vice-President Schemske wrote an announcement for publication in The American Naturalist.
Use of a Portion of Meeting Profits to Send Representation to Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS). President Kingsolver reviewed the proposal from the Joint Council to send representation to SACNAS to increase awareness of the societies and to encourage underrepresented students to participate. A committee led by Scott Edwards was formed at the Joint Council for this purpose. Joel Kingsolver will be ASN’s member of the committee. Once the committee meets, we will send an e-mail to the membership.
Funds for the VP Symposium. The council discussed how funds for the VP symposium are meant to be spent. The council discussed the rationale for a set budget per year, rather than an itemized list of costs to be reimbursed, which allows the VP flexibility to decide how he/she wants to use the funds to produce the best symposium possible. Allowable expenses were viewed as travel, registration fees, and honoraria. It was decided that the funds presently allocated were insufficient, and there was a motion to increase the budget for the VP symposium to $8,000 (from $5,000). A vote was held, and the motion was passed unanimously. Given that it was not possible to retroactively apply this new limit to the 2009 VP symposium, a second motion was made to cover the cost overage for the 2009 VP symposium (not to exceed an additional $3,000). A vote was held, and the motion was passed unanimously.
New ASN Programs. The council discussed ideas that came up at the Business meeting with respect to use of ASN funds. A graduate student committee was formed at the business meeting. Ideas included supporting local meetings in exchange for membership drives at these meetings and an ASN student mixer at the annual meetings to meet the faculty. The latter might be held at lunch, and the idea of spreading faculty out over tables to facilitate the mixing was proposed. If this is to be instated, then it would have to be added to the list of items the vice-president has to schedule and would have to be advertised to the student members in advance.
Subsequent to the meeting a vote was held by e-mail, and the motion to initiate an informal ASN lunch mixer was supported. This event will be added to the scheduled events by the vice-president, and the Officers' Handbook was revised to reflect this.
It was also decided subsequent to the meeting to temporarily suspend holding the mixer before the ASN presidential address.
What Does It Mean to Be an ASN Member? Jonathan Losos suggested that the EC needs to determine what the society stands for (i.e., what is our unique identity?) so that we can more clearly convey to graduate students what they will get out of being members. John Thompson pointed out that at the core ASN reflects “evolutionary ecology.” The EC discussed ways to promote a unique identity. The idea of meeting separately to accomplish this was brought up by Doug Schemske. Joel Kingsolver suggested a link between NESCent, NCEAS (National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis), and ASN. Jonathan Losos vowed to devote more time to the issue at next year’s meeting. The idea of including a student member (nonvoting, at least initially) on the council was recommended.
Meeting Miscellanea and Meeting Handbook. The EC discussed issues that came up during the meeting and a need to get a copy of the meeting handbook from the secretary of SSE. Subsequent to the meeting SSE Secretary Judy Stone received a PDF version of the handbook created by George Weiblen; she was also forwarded a copy of the Canadian Society of Evolution and Ecology handbook and will be compiling a formal working document for the ASN/SSE/SSB (Society of Systematic Biologists) meetings from these handbooks.
The meeting was adjourned at 6:15 p.m.
Tia-Lynn Ashman, Secretary
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