Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, 2011

BSG Business Meeting, Minutes

Friday April 15, 2011

Meeting Called to Order by Leslie Rigg at 7:05 PM

Opening Remarks

Lesley welcomed the conference and BSG attendees to the meeting and provided an overview of the agenda for the business meeting.

Introduction of Newly Elected Members

Kurt Kipfmueller introduced the newly elected BSG Board Members

President: David Cairns, Texas A&M University

Executive Board Member: David Goldblum, Northern Illinois University

Executive Board Member: Ross Meentemeyer, UNC Charlotte

Student Representative: Clayton Whitesides, Texas State University-San Marcos

Kurt noted that he felt voting was light, but he had no context in terms of the levels of voting in the past. Kurt Kipfmueller thanked the elected members those that ran for positions for their willingness to serve the BSG.

Announcement

George Malanson made an announcement related to the submission of manuscripts to Progress in Physical Geography. George asked BSG members to strongly consider submitting papers to the journal noting that no biogeography articles were submitted to Progress by North American biogeographers in the past year.

James J. Parsons Distinguished Career Award

Jacob Bendix made a brief slide presentation outlining the contributions of Albert Parker. Jacob highlighted the reach and impact that Parker’s work and mentoring has had on the discipline. Bendix read some of the exceptional comments provided by those who wrote letters of support for Parker’s nomination. Bendix noted that Parker has published 7 articles in the Annals, and has mentored 11 Ph.D students and 19 master’s students over his distinguished career.

Parker made a brief acceptance speech upon receiving the award from the BSG.

Henry Cowles Award

James Speer was awarded the Henry Cowles Award for Excellence in Publication for his book: Fundamentals of Tree-Ring Research, published by The University of Arizona Press. Jim was not present to receive his award and it was accepted on his behalf by one of his students.

Student Awards

BSG Student Awards

Last year’s student awards were presented (compiled by Amy Hessl) by Gabrielle Katz.

2010 Student Awards:

Masters: Matthew Kwit, Northern Illinois University.

Ph.D.: Grant Elliott, University of Minnesota (currently at University of Missouri)

2010 Research Grant: Kimberly Meitzen, University of South Carolina

This year there were 8 Master’s and 7 Ph.D. students competing for awards. Gabrielle thanked the judges in the competition. There was some limited discussion concerning the challenges with getting judges coordinated, partly related to the manner in which AAG schedules sessions.

International Biogeography Meeting

Lesley Rigg reported on the results of the support provided for travel to the International Biogeography Meeting. There were a total of 38 applicants for support. The committee provided support to 9 students, 3 post docs, and 3 early career faculty. Lesley noted that a survey of the awardees noted that the meeting was an exceptional opportunity for networking. She also noted that applications were quite strong.

BSG Student Panel Session

Arvind Bhuta discussed the outcome of the BSG Student panel session focusing on career development. Arvind felt the panel was informative and turnout was around 20 students. There was discussion of the development of a student BSG Facebook page.

Chair’s Report

Lesley presented the chairs report, highlighting the number of sessions sponsored by BSG this year, membership levels, and a brief look at budget issues. Lesley noted that this year the BSG sponsored 45 different sessions and that membership grew by 40 members to 489 in the last year. Of the 489 members, 213 are students and 276 are non-student members. Lesley encouraged the audience to work toward getting students and colleagues to join. The BSG budget is driven by membership, so numbers are important. However, Lesley also noted that we are an exceptionally lean specialty group (we only spent ~$50 for the board’s breakfast meeting), and that most money goes toward student support (awards, travel support for the BSG student member, etc.).

There was some limited discussion concerning the challenges related to contacting every member since some appear not to receive emails from the BSG listserv.

Newsletter

Joy Mast discussed the newsletter, which is published online. Joy pointed out the website and made a request (or plea) for contributions for the next upcoming newsletter.

Chair’s Meeting

Dave Cairns reported on the Specialty Group Chairs meeting. The most substantial outcome of the meeting were proposed infrastructure changes to the AAG website. One potential change involves the development of social media tools within the AAG website. Additionally, Dave noted that there was some discussion of the development of searchable profiles, blogs, chats, and microsites. The changes are meant to streamline communications between the AAG and its members. There was also some discussion about making the website accessible to mobile devices which would be especially helpful during the meeting. Finally, Dave discussed the possibility of making the meeting program electronic.

Financial Report

Lesley provided a brief overview of the finances of the BSG. In short, finances are tight, and the $1 increase in dues helped get us by this past year. Additionally, the lack of a physical geography party resulted in a $200 savings. Lesley noted that we are financially ‘ok’, but that it is important to increase membership if we are to continue providing student awards and support.

Other/Announcements

• There was additional discussion of the Facebook site, mostly in an effort to streamline communication.
• There was a request made for BSG members to check the status of their listserv membership via the AAG website to ensure they receive emails.
• Members were asked to apply for awards and vote
• Sally Horn requested that we try to announce student winners during the meeting if at all possible. This would ensure that we can acknowledge the students while they are present at the meeting. This would provide some coordination in terms of holding student competitions prior to the business meeting. This would have worked this year, but there is some uncertainty as to whether it could be coordinated via AAG.

Lesley was thanked by the board and those present for her outstanding leadership of the BSG over the last two years.

The meeting adjourned at 8:15 PM

Minutes Compiled by Kurt Kipfmueller. Please alert Kurt to any errors (kurt@umn.edu)