NEMATODE officers for 2002-2003

Minutes of Business Meeting, Division of Nematodes, Society for Invertebrate Pathology, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil, August 18, 2002, 20:10 - 22:15

Because the chair of the Division, Itamar Glazer, was not able to attend the SIP meeting, he had appointed Patricia Stock to chair the meeting.  The meeting was called to order by Patricia Stock at 20:10.  21 people were present.

1. Webpage:  The present status of the nematode division’s web page is similar to that of other divisions, i.e., list of officers, minutes.  Parwinder Grewal suggested a list of things to add which was discussed.  It was agreed that the following items should be present on the web page:  1. List of officers,  2. Minutes of last division meeting,  3. Announcements,  4. Student Travel Award guidelines,  5. Introduction to biology of nematodes and symbiotic bacteria (comments: do not restrict to entomopathogenic nematodes but clarify that other insect nematodes are also of interest),  6. Selected publications and/or poster presentations (comments: check w/ Peg Rothstein if there is enough space for poster presentations etc.),  7. Pictures from recent meetings,  8. Links to other websites (in part already there) and to, e.g., faculty profiles on their department/university webpages.

2. Student travel award:  The Division is given $1,000 per year from the society.  Members-at-large could serve as judges for awards.  Student awards should be in the range of $250-500 but the amount should be kept flexible so that different numbers of students and needs can be accommodated.  Award should be based not only on financial need but also on merit.  Selected students have to give an oral or poster presentation.  Any unused money could be used to invite non-member speakers.  Grewal and Stock will work out guidelines, than members can give input via email, before the guidelines are placed on the division webpage.

3. Symposia for 2003:  It was agreed that there should be a workshop on 'Molecular approaches to Diagnostics'.  Several symposium titles were proposed and discussed but none was definitely accepted.  More input should be sought through email from other members.  Discussed titles included:  a. ‘Behavior of pathogen-infected insects’ (cross division symposium),  b. ‘Production’,  c. ‘Invasion biology of insects pathogens’ (cross-division symposium).

4. Grewal and Stock proposed the development of a ‘mobile EPN workshop’ that could be conducted in conjunction with the SIP meeting.  But it was found that conducting it during the meeting would conflict with the other sessions and appending it to the meeting (i.e., Friday pm or Saturday) would be not very feasible because of time and financial restraints.

5. Grewal suggested the development of a video on lab techniques for EPN based on the Kaya & Stock chapter in the Lacey manual.

6. Election of new officers:  The following slate of officers was unanimously elected:

Chair: S. Patricia Stock;  Chair elect: Parwinder Grewal;  Secretary/Treasurer: Mary Barbercheck;  Member-at-large (1 more year): Robin Stuart;  Member-at-large (2 more years): Heikki Hokkanen.

7. Raising fees for Division members:  No decision was made but it was agreed that only non-students should have to pay more, e.g., keep at $2 for students and raise to $5 for other members.

The meeting was closed at 22:15.

Respectfully submitted

Albrecht Koppenhöfer