Present: Dr. J. Barta (Chair), Dr. R. Prichard, Mr. C. Cutler, Dr. D. McLaughlin (Secretary), Members and Guests of the Parasitology Section. Regrets: Dr. D. McCurdy.
Call to Order Dr. Barta called the meeting to order at 12:15 pm.
Copies of the Agenda were distributed to the tables. Dr. Barta asked for a motion to approve the agenda. Motion: Arai / Prichard. Carried.
Dr. Barta welcomed the members and acknowledged Dr. R.C.A. Thompson and Dr. G. Faubert, two of the Symposium speakers, who were in attendance. He thanked the Canadian Society of Zoologists and the American Society of Parasitologists for their continued financial support of the Parasitology Symposium. Dr. Barta announced that Dr. A. O. Bush was the recipient of the 2003 Wardle Award. He then welcomed the incoming executive: Dr. Douglas Colwell (Vice Chair), Dr. Bernadette Ardelli (Secretary - Treasurer) and Dr. Robin Beech (Junior Councillor) and thanked the outgoing Secretary - Treasurer, Dan McLaughlin, and Senior Councillor, Chris Cutler, for their service to the Section.
Copies of the minutes were distributed to the tables. The minutes had also been placed on the website and, as usual, hard copies were available from the Secretary on request. Dr. McLaughlin asked for a motion to approve the minutes. Motion: Arai / Burt. Carried. A few typographical errors were pointed out and these will be corrected.
Dr. Barta reported that there had been no progress in securing funding to support the prize due to the downturn in the economy. Discussion then turned to the issue of whether we should continue to offer the prize given the decline in poster presentations in general. After extensive debate, it was decided that the poster prize would be discontinued. The Fallis Prize, formerly offered for the best oral presentation, will be awarded to the best presentation overall, with the caveat that in the case of poster evaluations, emphasis will be placed on the discussion of the work with the student. A new description of the Fallis Prize highlighting these changes will be submitted to the LOC at Acadia University for inclusion in the notice of the 2004 meeting. Motion: Prichard / Shostak. Carried
Dr. Barta reported that Dr. Greg Klassen had resigned as Vice Chair. This has a significant effect on succession through the Executive ranks. Dr. Barta agreed, pending approval of the membership, to remain as Chair for another year until Dr. Colwell moves into the position. At which time he will become Past Chair. Dr. Prichard, the current Past Chair, also agreed to serve in that capacity of an additional year. There were no objections and the membership expressed their gratitude to Drs. Barta and Prichard for agreeing to stay in office for the extra year to maintain continuity within the Executive.
Dr. Arai informed the members that much of Dr. Margolis' reprint collection will housed at Malaspina College. Unfortunately, the library there will not accept photocopied articles and other arrangements will have to be made to accommodate this important component of the collection.
Copies of the financial statement for the Section and the Fallis Fund were distributed to the tables. Dr. McLaughlin reported that the ASP contribution ($250 US) had not yet been received and was not included in the report. (It has since been received). Dr. McLaughlin requested a motion to accept the financial statement. Motion: Colwell / Prichard. Carried. As this was his last meeting as Secretary - Treasurer, Dr. McLaughlin took the opportunity to thank the Section Chairs he had worked with (Drs. Khan, Cone, Marcogliese, Prichard and Barta) for their assistance and to thank the former chairs (Drs. Daphne Fairbairn and Claire Cupples) of the Biology Department, Concordia University, for underwriting stationary, copying and postage costs associated with the Newsletter and other Section Correspondence during the past five years. Dr. Mick Burt requested that Dr. Barta send a formal letter to the Biology Chair (currently Dr. Luc Varin) thanking him for the Department's support during this period.
Dr. Barta thanked the 2002-2003 Nominating Committee, chaired by Roger Prichard, for their work in obtaining candidates for the three vacant positions on the Executive. As Dr. Prichard is staying on as Past Chair for an extra year, he is again chairing the Nominating Committee. Nominations for the positions of Vice Chair and Jr. Councillor should be sent to him.
The Recognition Committee (2002) Chaired by Dr. Barta and consisting of Drs. R. Prichard, D. Brooks and A. Fernando selected Dr. A.O Bush as the 2003 Wardle recipient. The 2003-2004 Recognition Committee will be chaired by Dr. D. Colwell and consists of Dr. D. Brooks, Dr. M. Belosevic and Dr. Al Bush. Nominations for the Wardle Medal should be sent to Dr. Colwell.
Due to the small number of student papers and posters the Executive decided that only the Fallis prize would be awarded and that this would go to the best presentation overall. The judging committee was Chaired by Mr. Chris Cutler and included Dr. John Webster and Dr. Al Shostak. The presentation will be made at the Banquet.
Dr. David Marcogliese gave a brief update of activities during the past year. The full report will be posted on the Section website. Highlights included reports on the Biodiversity meetings, the Eman Protocols (authors [Dr. S. Gardner and S. Kutz] have been the mammal section), and progress on the stickleback survey. The stickleback workshop at ICOPA X was well attended. See the website for details.
Dr. Barta began by formally thanking Drs. Hilda Ching (Chair, LOC), Mick Burt (Chair, SPC), their committees and Martin Adamson for their hard work in making ICOPA X a success. Dr. John Webster, representing the LOC, reported that attendance at ICOPA was lower than hoped for and that affected revenues. The books are not yet closed however, there is a possibility that there may be a surplus which would be split equally between the Section and the ASP. He also pointed out the enormous amount of work that Hilda Ching, (Chair LOC) had put into ICOPA and requested that the Section acknowledge this. Motion: Arai / Prichard that Dr. Barta write to Dr. Ching conveying our gratitude for the work she and her committee performed in organizing ICOPA X. Carried. Dr. Mick Burt (Chair, ICOPA X SPC) Reported that the Plenary and Subplenary Sessions had been well received and that there had been 20 concurrent contributed sessions held on each of the four afternoons. He also reported that the Special Edition of the Journal of Parasitology with the Plenary and Subplenary Papers should be out soon. He acknowledged the work of the associate editors; David Marcogliese, Roger Prichard, Marilyn Scott and Martin Olivier in the preparation of the special issue. (Parenthetically, Mick also served as an associate editor of a Section in this issue). He also thanked Dr. Gerry Esch, Editor of the Journal of Parasitology, for his efforts in pulling the whole project together. He then acknowledged the work of the Scientific Program Committee for their work on the program and in editing abstracts. The members present acknowledged Dr Burt's enormous contribution to the success of ICOPA through his tireless work as Chair of the SPC.
CSZ Council discussed the progress of Bill C-10-b which has implications for researchers who use animals. At the time of the meeting, the Bill had reached Second Reading in Senate and had stalled. There seems to be difficulty in getting acceptance that researchers and institutions need protection against spurious litigation when using animals for research or teaching. Under its broadest interpretation, researchers could be charged (theoretically) with cruelty to animals. There is a strong possibility of a judicial brief that would accept the CCAC Guidelines as a reasonable benchmark for animal use. Hopefully this would prevent spurious charges. It would, however, be preferable to have protection for researchers written into the act. Copies of the draft of the CCAC's document on the use of wildlife were available at the Conference. "Wildlife" applies to any vertebrate except fish. Note: herptiles do fall under these guidelines. Further, all graduate students and individuals handling animals must be trained and follow legal due diligence for all animal care and use.
Dr. Doug Colwell will be organizing the Symposium. No topic has been selected yet, however the Conference theme deals with biology across scales. Ideas would be welcome.
Our supply of Medals is nearly exhausted. The Executive have decided to order another 50 (minimum order) at a cost of $500. This represents the best deal available to us. The Wardle Honorarium is currently $50. The Executive have decided to drop the Honorarium per se and allocate up to $200 to defray costs of travel for the Wardle recipient to the meeting. The changes are retroactive to the 2003 meeting.
Dr. Shostak advised members that the Society was re-examining the current meeting format to determine if it was still suitable or whether other formats might be more effective. One format suggested was to have papers grouped into topic areas rather than by discipline as is done now. If you like the idea, now is the time to start thinking about topic areas that would be appropriate to your kind of work. Any such changes would come into effect two years hence. Feedback is essential. So, whether you like to old system or prefer something else, let John Barta know. Your input is essential, particularly since we are now the smallest group in the Society. A second proposal was to hold the Banquet after all papers have been presented.
Our membership continues to decline. Dr. Shostak advised that the Section has 29 paid up members. If membership drops below 25 we will no longer exist as a Section. It is essential that we recruit more members and everyone is urged to try and recruit one new member or convince one lapsed member to rejoin.
Dr. Bernadette Ardelli advised the members of a Molecular Parasitology Symposium to be held June 26-27 at the Macdonald Campus of McGill University. The cost is $60. All are welcome. Dr. Barta congratulated Dr. Mike Belosevic who was the 2002 recipient of the Rudolf Hering Medal awarded by the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Water Environmental Research Institute. The award is for the best paper published in the Journal of Environmental Engineering in a given year.
There being no further business Dr. Barta asked for a motion to adjourn.
Motion: Arai / Colwell. Carried.