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Division of Fungi Business Meeting The meeting was called to order by Rosalind James (Chair) at 19:00h. Officers Present Present Total Present: 30 Apologies: None Approval of Minutes from last meeting Division of Fungi Annual Report Current Officers Elected Officers in Warwick, UK, 2008 Membership
Division Travel Award 2009 Sastia Prama Putri received a B.Sc. Biology from Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia; a Master of Engineering (M. Eng) in Biotechnology from Osaka University; and is currently a Ph.D. student in Osaka University, Japan majoring in Biotechnology. She has received several awards including the P.T. Kondur Petroleum S.A. Indonesia Academic Achievement Award for undergraduate studies, the UNESCO Fellowship from the Japanese Government and the Japanese Ministry of Education, Sports and Technology Scholarship for postgraduate studies. Treasurer’s Report Fiscal Year (May 1, 2008 – April 30, 2009)
As balance is in excess of $3000 the division should consider not asking for money from council for the student award next year & use revenue instead. John Vandenberg expressed concern that the division would accrue a similar amount of revenue through membership in 2009/10 and Don Roberts queried whether the current balance includes recovery from the fall in dues over 2009. Jørgen Eilenberg and Steve Wraight expressed support for using revenue as the division should use money for a purpose and we are not for profit. The division decided to leave it up to the discretion of the Chair as to whether, in a given year, the Division will fund the student award or one or more speakers, depending on the need and the amount of funds available. End of Annual Report Continuation of Business Meeting SIP Annual Meeting, Park City 2009 Symposia “Fungi in soil habitats—Doing it in the dirt” Organized by Stefan Jaronski. Speakers are N. Meyling, S. Jaronski, J. Leland, and a contributed talk by T. Goble. The Division sponsored a cross-divisional symposium in collaboration with the Division of Viruses, “Multitrophic interactions: implications for invertebrate pathogens.” Speakers are S. van Nouhuys, R. Ramirez, J. Cory, and J. Baverstock. Helen Roy will present Jason Baverstock’s paper as he was unable to attend. Suggestions for symposia for Trabzon, Turkey 2010 No symposia were confirmed at this meeting. The chair will call for division symposia ideas shortly and the fungi division officers will decide via E-mail on confirmed ideas with suggested speakers. The chair will present chosen Symposia ideas to SIP Council. Election of New Officers Nominations for Member-at-large: There were no other nominations from the floor. John Vandenberg & Helen Roy noted that the division was appreciative of the excellent members standing for the position. Successful Candidate Nominations for Student Representative Successful Candidate Other Business
Rosalind James opened a general debate regarding student travel awards and particularly, whether students could receive more than one award. John Vandenberg said a previously successful award winner should only be given a subsequent award for a different piece of research. Jørgen Eilenberg suggested records should be kept on student winners and research topics to aid in this. Mike Bidochka stated there was a general feeling that students should be encouraged to be part of the society as members, and Vitalis W. Wekesa suggested winning awards would be motivating for students. The division will allow students to apply more than once for an award but it will be the officers’ final decision and there will be no Division rule made.
A number of different ideas were put forward and discussed such as; a workshop, t-shirts e.g. to celebrate 20 years of the USDA-ARSEF culture collection at Halifax meeting in 2011 (John Vandenberg) and asking Cecilia Schmidtt what makes money for the nematode societies. John Vandenberg noted that costs of shipping & customs can be inhibitory. Caroline Hauxwell suggested a downloadable screen saver for a nominal fee of images (perhaps from the slide atlas?) and this was accepted by members as a good idea; there are limited costs involved and it can be uploaded to local software easily. Rosalind James suggested seeking corporate funding and John Vandenberg said this would need to go through the SIP finance committee via Kelli Hooever.
Rosalind James said Elsevier donated money this year and will do so again next year. There were some categories with no entries so members are asked to encourage participation next year.
Rosalind James made the suggestion that the microsporidia and fungi divisions be merged. David Oi (microsporidia divison chair) is asking his members. There was general agreement and enthusiasm within the fungi division that it would be beneficial to join as one with the microsporidia division. Helen Roy expressed concern how this would affect number of presentation slots but Rosaline James noted there would be fewer available anyway with the new diseases in beneficials division being formed. Travel awards would still be at the discretion of the Division. Motion (Caroline Hauxwell): to make a formal approach to the microsporidia division to merge with the fungal division (Second Surendra Dara). Motion passed.
Stefan Jaronski made a presentation on behalf of APHIS about regulations & permits for movement of biologicals across US state lines. Level A will not require permits to cross state lines or to release in other states (indigenous); Level B those that require permit for release; those that have no permit granted to release. Possibility to get exemption for strains that can be argued indigenous. EPA & APHIS discussions ongoing. Public will be allowed to make comments on the policy. Stefan will notify SIP Fungi Division members when call for comments is made; SIP Newsletter for early warning and then direct email to members. Comments from all members will be formulated as one response from SIP.
Jimmy Bechnal is looking for ideas for the honoree of the Founders Lecture & these can be passed direct to him. The SIP Founders Lecture committee can recommend an appropriate lecturer.
General discussion on increasing student membership. Ideas included; Vitalix W. Wekesa suggested certificates to students who become members (divisional ones could be paid for by the division), Helen Hesketh suggested a “speed-networking” meeting with researchers whereby students could introduce themselves, make contact & engage with Fungi Division/SIP members. General discussion concluded that a student workshop may be suitable with similar one-to-one meetings & engagement with students sociably. Vitalis W. Wekesa will take this forward with the SIP student committee. Helen Roy fed back information that the website is to be better populated with information for students. Motion (Stefan Jaronski): to adjourn the meeting (second Helen Roy). Motion passed. Meeting adjourned at 20:35h. Minutes recorded by Helen Hesketh |
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