THE ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY
OF AMERICA NEWSLETTER

SOUTHEASTERN CHAPTER

October 1997, Issue 97-3

Andy Ash, Editor

Contents:

Comments From the Chair
Southeastern Chapter Officers
Apology
Announcement
Call for Papers, ASB Important Deadlines
Student Awards at ASB
Proposed SEC/ESA Activities at ASB

COMMENTS FROM THE CHAIR

Our informal SEC/ESA meeting at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America and the Nature Conservancy in Albuquerque, NM was well attended. Several issues were discussed and will be presented at the next business meeting held at the Association of Southeastern Biologists meeting at Northeast Louisiana University, Monroe Louisiana. These include potential Chapter-sponsored activities, Chapter information dissemination, increase in the Odum Award cash prize, and Chapter finances.

Mark MacKenzie is working on activities for the upcoming ASB meeting including symposia and field trips in Louisiana. A theme of restoration in bottomland hardwood communities is being considered. When activities are finalized they will be posted on the SEC/ESA website.

Stemming from discussions of the cooperative effort between ESA and the United Negro College Fund to promote minority education in ecology, there was discussion of developing a speakers bureau. This would be a directory of ESA members willing to give seminars about on-going research or particular areas of ecology at minority colleges, which often lack ecologists on faculty. Mark MacKenzie is checking into the feasibility of this effort as an ESA-sponsored project.

Please note that this is the last newsletter you will receive by mail. In the future, information about the Chapter will be on our web site. We will also have a subscription service (no charge) through the internet so those members can be notified when new information is posted. Please see the announcement for this in the newsletter. General information about Chapter activities will be placed three times a year in the ESA bulletin. This newsletter format change will not only permit rapid information dissemination, but also will save Chapter funds normally spent for postage.

From the ESA Council meeting held in August in Albuquerque, I understand that the national office is still striving to produce accurate financial accountability to Chapters. Hopefully, Chapter finances should be detailed at our next business meeting.

I have appointed Howard Neufeld (chair), Don Shure, and Eloise Carter to a nominating committee for candidates for SEC/ESA offices of Chair and Secretary/Treasurer. Biographical sketches of each candidate will be presented in the next ESA Bulletin and will be posted on the web. These officers will be elected at the next annual meeting in April. If you have any suggestions or would like to be considered for nomination for either of these offices, please contact Howard Neufeld at (TEL) 704-262-2683 or email (neufeldhs @appstate.edu).

I encourage any members who have ideas regarding Chapter projects or issues to feel free to contact me or other officers listed in this newsletter.

L. Katherine Kirkman

SOUTHEASTERN CHAPTER OFFICERS

Dr. L. Katherine Kirkman, Chair
Jones Ecological Research Center
Ichauway, Inc.
Route 2 Box 2324
Newton GA 31770
(TEL) 912-734-4706
(FAX) 912-734-4707
(e-mail) KKIRKMAN@jonesctr.org

Dr. Mark D. MacKenzie, Vice-Chair
School of Forestry
106 M. White Smith Hall
Auburn University, AL 36849-5418
(TEL) 334-844-1014
(FAX) 334-844-1084
(e-mail) mackenzi@forestry.auburn.edu

Dr. Andy Ash, Secretary
Department of Biology
UNC Pembroke
One University Drive
P.O. Box 1510
Pembroke NC 28372-1510
(TEL) 910-521-6418
(FAX) 910-521-6649
(e-mail) AASH@nat.uncp.edu

APOLOGY

Due to unforeseen and heavy workloads at the National Office, the July issue of the newsletter was posted very late. We regret this delay, and feel that the Bulletin publication format should circumvent this happening in the future.

ANNOUNCEMENT

This is the last newsletter that will be mailed to the SEC/ESA membership in the present format. Starting in January, the newsletter will appear three times annually in the January, July and October issues of the ESA Bulletin. Newsletter information, as well as employment possibilities and other time-sensitive information such as meeting announcements and abstract/paper deadlines will continue to be available through the SEC/ESA website (http://www.auburn.edu/seesa). We have created a mailing list to notify individuals when new material has been placed on the web page. To subscribe to this mailing list, send an email to: majordomo@mail.auburn.edu. The mail message body should contain the following text: subscribe scesa. If you wish to have the mailing go to an address other that that from which you send your message, or if you wish to use a more correct address than is currently used by your email system, you would add that address to your message. For instance, if you are sending a request from your work account but you wish to receive scesa at your home account (for example jqpublic@my-isp.com), you would send the following message when you subscribe: subscribe scesa jqpublic@my-isp.com. Turn off any signature information that is appended to your outgoing email as this can confuse the list server software. To ensure against intrusive submissions, list subscribers will not be able to post messages to this list, only SEC/ESA officers will have this ability. Also, common list server commands such as which and who have been disabled so that your email address cannot be retrieved from this list. The desirability of creating a true list server in which all members can post messages may be debated at our next meeting in April. Any questions or suggestions concerning this list server can be directed to Mark MacKenzie , Vice-Chair SEC/ESA (contact information on the first page of this bulletin).

CALL FOR PAPERS
ASB IMPORTANT DEADLINES

Association of Southeastern Biologists
The 59th Annual Meeting
Northeast Louisiana University
Monroe, Louisiana
15-18 April 1998

Please note the following deadlines concerning ASB. Blue abstract forms will be available in the October 1997 issue of the ASB Bulletin (Vol. 44 No. 4). Registration forms will be in the January 1997 issue of the ASB Bulletin (Vol. 45 No. 1).

15 November 1997
Nominations for ASB officers and executive committee

15 November 1997
Abstracts for ASB due

15 November 1997
Application for student research awards

15 January 1998
Receipt of manuscripts and application materials for Senior Research Award

1 February 1998
Receipt of manuscripts and application materials for Student Research Award and Student Research Award in Aquatic Biology

1 February 1998
Application for student travel awards

STUDENT AWARDS AT ASB

If you are a student and intend to present a paper at the annual ASB meeting at Northeast Louisiana University, you are encouraged to submit your manuscript or abstract for consideration for the following awards.

Eugene P. Odum Award - $250.00 and a plaque given by SEC/ESA for the best ecological paper presented by a student. A panel of judges will evaluate the paper at the time of presentation on the following points: (a) Significance of Ideas, (b) Creativity, (c) Quality of Methodology, (d) Validity of Results, (e) Clarity of Presentation. Eligibility requirements include: (a) Undergraduate or graduate student standing, (b) Student must be sole or senior author, (c) The paper must deal with a clearly ecological topic and be presented in one of the following sessions: Animal Ecology, Aquatic Ecology or Plant Ecology, (d) The paper must be presented in a regular contributed paper session, posters or symposia papers are ineligible, (e) The student does not have to be a member of SEC/ESA, (f) Past Odum Award winners are not eligible, (g) Submit title and abstract to program chair by 15 November 1997 to ASB program chair and Odum Award Chair (John Aho, Auburn University at Montgomery, TEL 334-244-3787.

ASB Student Research Award - $500.00 given for especially meritorious paper(s) presented orally by the student at the ASB annual meeting. The author(s) must by a member of ASB. Titles and abstracts must be submitted by 15 November and journal-ready manuscripts must by received by 1 February 1998. See the July 1997 ASB Bulletin for details. Send inquiries to Jeri W. Higginbotham, Biology Department, Jacksonville State University, Jacksonville AL 36265-9882. TEL: 205 782-5638.

PROPOSED SEC/ESA ACTIVITIES AT ASB 1997

The following two SEC/ESA sponsored activities have been proposed for the 1998 ASB annual meetings at Northeast Louisiana University. See Program (April) Issue of the ASB Bulletin (Vol. 45 No. 2) for time and place of actual occurrence. (1) SEEDS mixer/discussion. The SEEDS initiative is designed to enhance entry of minorities into research careers in ecology. A 1-1.5 hour get-together with light refreshments. All who are interested are invited. (2) Symposium concerning the vegetation and ecology of bottomland hardwoods communities.

Dr. Andrew N. Ash, Editor
ESA Southeastern Chapter Newsletter
Department of Biology
UNCP
One University Drive
P.O. Box 1510
Pembroke NC 28372-1510

HTML text created February 10, 1998 by Mark D. MacKenzie