2009 Microsporidia Business Meeting Minutes
Location: Park City, Utah
Date: 17 Aug 2009
Meeting called to order at 17:04
Present: James Becnel, Susan Bjornson, Nils Cordes, Aurore Debuffet, Dörte Goertz, Wei-Fone Huang, Andreas Linde, Raquel Martin- Hernández, David Oi, Daniela Pilarska, Lee Solter, Grant Stentiford, Yichun Tsai, Steven Valles
1. Approval of last year’s business meeting (previously published in the SIP newsletter)
Motion: To approve the minutes of last year’s Microsporidia Division Business Meeting (Becnel/Solter)
Accepted (Unanimous)
2. Report of the SIP Council Meeting (16 Aug 09) from the chair (David Oi)
a) New Executive Secretary, Cecilia Schmitt
- The Society’s bookkeeping system has been completely overhauled.
- The Society has a new bank and investment company.
b) SIP Nominations committee
- Would like suggestions for the SIP offices of President-Elect, Secretary, 2-Trustees, and Treasurer.
- The position of Treasurer is currently a 2 year term, but because of the steep learning curve, potential nominees should be informed they would likely be renominated for a second term.
- Nominating committee has an October 2009 deadline. Names of potential nominees should be made through the Division Chair.
c) The Society will begin offering multiple year membership (1, 2 or 3 yr).
d) Student award applicants
- The council decided that applicants for student awards do not have to be members of the Society.
- There has been discussion regarding a 2-tier fee for students to attend the meetings (a reduced meeting rate for student members).
3. Division travel award policy
Division members were asked for consensus on the following question: Can a travel award be awarded to the same individual twice?
- Our current practice: The top two papers received by the Division are submitted for consideration for the Martignoni Award. If one of these is awarded the Martignoni Award, the second student paper that was submitted is awarded the Microsporidia Division Student Travel Award. No preference or distinction is made between an MSc or PhD applicant.
- The Martignoni Award is awarded to an individual only once. An individual cannot be awarded both the Martignoni Award and a travel award simultaneously. A particular application may be submitted to only one Division per year.
- The following consensus was reached: Preference will be given to applicants that have not yet been awarded the Microsporidia Division Student Travel Award.
4. Status of the Microsporidia Division
The question was raised by the Chair as to whether the Microsporidia Division should consider combining with the Fungi Division.
Discussion:
- The Microsporidia Division is comprised of about 50 members whereas the Fungi Division has a membership of about 100.
- The Microsporidia Division was the first to be established by the Society. It has always been a small group but the size has remained relatively consistent since conception.
- It was noted that although there were no contributed papers submitted this year, 4 posters were submitted. It was also noted that this particular meeting was smaller overall with respect to attendance.
- There may be opportunities to hold joint symposia at future meetings with either the Fungi Division or the new Pathogens of Beneficial and Non-pest Invertebrates Division.
- Decision: A resounding ‘no’.
5. Microsporidia Division Financial Update
- Travel assistance was provided to Division symposium speaker Yulia Sokolova ($750 US)
- Microsporidia Division Student Travel Award recipient: Nils Cordes ($750 US). A certificate was presented to Nils by the Chair.
- Division membership: 49 members (2009)
- Division balance: $2968 (as of 30 April 2009)
6. Election of new officers:
- Member at Large: Steven Valles (USDA-ARS Gainesville FL) – Accepted (unanimous)
- Student representative: Nils Cordes (University of Illinois) – Accepted (unanimous)
7. Division Committees
- Membership Committee: Jiping Liu
- Student Awards Committee: Gernot Hoch, Judith Smith, Susan Bjornson
Division chair will ask if committee will continue to serve.
- Division Chair will appoint a committee to obtain nominees for upcoming Division offices of Chair-elect, Secretary/Treasure, 1 member-at-large, to be elected in July 2010
8. Potential symposium/workshop topics for SIP 2010
It was suggested that the upcoming symposium focus on microsporidia of arthropod pests in the Turkey/Middle East region, including neighbouring countries (Linde).
- Tentative symposium title “Microsporidia and other protists in arthropods from the eastern Mediterranean region”. (geographic region may need to be revised)
- Workshop topic: TBA. Those discussed included (1) Comparison of complete microsporidia genomes, and (2) Generalized microsporidian life cycles
9. New business/Announcements
Suggestions for Founders Lecture honourees (Becnel) - Nominees from the Division should be for persons with long careers that have focussed on the study of microsporidia. Names of nominees should be communicated to J. Becnel.
Motion to adjourn the meeting (Solter/Becnel): Meeting adjourned at 17:56
Respectively submitted by Susan Bjornson and David Oi
Addendum November 6, 2009 from the Chair, David Oi.
Annual Dues for the Microsporidia Division will increase for regular members from $5 to $10 in 2010. Student dues will remain at $5. Dues increase was approved by a majority of the Microsporidia Division’s executive committee, and there was unanimous support for the increase from the membership in an email poll held from Oct 29 – Nov. 4 2009 (19 /19 responders voted for increase).
