BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON

129th Annual Meeting, 23 May 2002

President-elect Roy W. McDiarmid called the meeting to order at 11:05 a.m. in the Waldo Schmitt Room, National Museum of Natural History. Council members present: W. Duane Hope, Michael Carleton (Elected Council), Richard Sternberg (Editor), Stephen Cairns and Frank D. Ferrari (Finance Committee), Storrs L. Olson (Custodian of Publications), Richard Banks, Bruce Collette, Kristian Fauchald, David Pawson, Janet Reid, Richard Vari (Past Presidents), T. Chad Walter (Treasurer), Carole C. Baldwin (Secretary). Council members absent: Susan L. Jewett, G. David Johnson, Rafael Lemaitre, Jon Norenburg.
McDiarmid announced that due to illness, President Kensley would not be presiding over the meeting. McDiarmid noted that the Society had dealt with a number of difficult issues during the past year, including the replacement of long-time Proceedings Editor Brian Robbins and mail problems related to anthrax contamination of a postal facility in Washington, D.C.
Minutes of the 128th Annual Meeting of the Society were approved, and McDiarmid then called on Chad Walter for the Treasurer's Report (Table 1). Society income for the period 1 January 2001 to 31 December 2001 was $126,129.06; expenses for the same period were $178,033.71. Total assets for the Society as of 15 April 2002 were $107,599.72, the Society's endowment account declining by $7,942.12 because of stock-market fluctuations. Additionally, because of disruption to mail service at the Smithsonian Institution following the closure of the Brentwood mail facility after anthrax contamination, $24,953.66 was withdrawn from the Society's endowment fund to cover costs of publishing the Proceedings. By the end of April, all of the borrowed funds had been returned to the endowment account. Stephen Cairns noted that the Audit Committee had found the Treasurer's records to be in good order.
The new Editor of the Proceedings, Richard Sternberg, reported that his tenure began 1 January 2002, and that outgoing Editor Brian Robbins had handled the publication of Volume 114 and the first issue of Volume 115. Sternberg reported that four issues of Volume 114 were published comprising 85 papers and 988 pages. In addition, 31 papers and 363 pages were published in Bulletin No. 10 (S. D. Cairns and C. G. Messing, Editors), and a new Guidelines for Manuscripts (C. B. Robbins and D. B. Lellinger) was published as a supplement to Volume 114(4). As of 22 May 2002, there were 42 submissions for the year, up from 33 in May 2001; however, Sternberg noted that many of those 42 submissions were postmarked in the Fall of 2001. There continues to be no backlog for papers accepted in the Proceedings.
McDiarmid announced that the Council had voted to adopt four recommendations of the Finance Committee: (1) Increase cost of reprints by approximately 20%; (2) increase cost of library subscriptions from $40 to $50 (which still keeps the price of the Proceedings in the lowest five percentile of scientific journals); (3) re-invest $55,000 of the Society's endowment funds into the American Funds Investment Company of America; and (4) establish gift-fund categories and list benefactors on a front page of the Proceedings. These measures are designed to help the Society reach a financial goal of $200,000 in the endowment fund. McDiarmid further noted that the Council had agreed to a vote at next year's annual meeting on a change suggested by the Finance Committee in By-Law No. 8, which establishes and describes the Society's endowment fund. The proposed change would remove "and surplus funds from operations" from the first sentence of By-Law 8, and the amended first sentence would read as follows:

"Endowment Fund. There shall be an Endowment Fund which shall consist of gifts from members and miscellaneous gifts."

The Finance Committee (Stephen Cairns, Frank Ferrari, Oliver Flint, and Chad Walter, with assistance from Richard Banks) was thanked for its extended efforts on behalf of the Society.
In view of the very low attendance by members at the annual meeting of the Society, Bruce Collette suggested a single annual meeting in the future that combines the Council meeting and the annual meeting; a decision regarding a single meeting will be made after an Executive Committee examines the issue in more detail.
Results of the 2002 Election of Officers were then announced by President-elect McDiarmid: Rafael Lemaitre (President-elect), Carole Baldwin (Secretary), Chad Walter (Treasurer), Michael Carleton, G. David Johnson, Clyde Roper, Marilyn Schotte, Michael Vecchione, and Don Wilson (Elected Council). Assuming his new role as President, McDiarmid then thanked outgoing President Brian Kensley and adjourned the meeting.

Respectfully submitted,
Carole C. Baldwin
Secretary

^a - annual gain in value of Endowment

^b - annual loss in value of Endowment