38th Annual General Meeting
Parasitology Section, Canadian Society of Zoologists
May 19, 2011
University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario

Minutes DRAFT

Present: Todd Smith (Chair), Lucy Lee (Vice-chair), members and guests of the Parasitology Section (hereafter referred to as PAR)

1.0 Approval of agenda

Motion (Shostak/Lee): That the agenda be approved. Carried.

2.0 Introductory comments

Todd Smith welcomed everyone to the Annual General Meeting and gave a special welcome to Brent Dixon and Spencer Greenwood, two of the speakers at the PAR symposium. He also thanked Lucy Lee, who gave a symposium presentation in place of John Lumsden, who was unable to attend the meeting.

3.0 Approval of minutes from the 37th Annual General Meeting (May 18, 2010 at University of British Columbia, Vancouver)

Motion (Shostak/Webster): That the minutes of the 2010 AGM be approved. Carried.

4.0 Elections

The Chair for 2011-12 is Dr. Lucy Lee. Todd Smith announced a call for nominations for Vice-chair for 2011-12; this person would become Chair in 2012-13.

He announced that the main duty of the Vice-Chair is as follows:

Spencer Greenwood (UPEI) was elected Vice-Chair for 2011-12 by unanimous vote.

5.0 Reports

5.1 News from CSZ Council meeting (May 16, 2011)

CSZ PDF Award: From the virtual meeting in November, the CSZ established an award for the best presentation by a post-doctoral fellow, with the first competition at this meeting. This year, the three candidates, selected from a pool of applicants, were spread amongst different sessions, but in future, the plan is to have the three candidates give their presentations in a special session, much like that for the Hoar Award, during the meeting. The prize is $500, and as yet the award is unnamed. There is some movement to name it after one of the recently deceased long-time CSZ members, but it may yet stay as the best PDF award. Other Society awards: A reminder was sent out to all Sections to advertise specific Society Awards, particularly the Cameron Award for the best PhD thesis, the Boutilier Award for the best young investigator, and the Leo Margolis Award for a top graduate student in fisheries biology. Todd Smith noted that it has been some time since a parasitologist has won one of these awards, as Armando Jardim was the last in 2006, and he suggested that PAR members consider nominating someone in our Section who is deserving of one of these awards. Local Organising Committee: There are over 400 registrants for this meeting, which was the most ever for a CSZ conference. Considering there are only around 500 members of the CSZ, this is a fantastic showing. The number of students outnumbers that of regular members, which is typical but still impressive. CSZ 2012 in Mount Allison: Suzie Currie is the Chair of the Local Organising Committee, and she gave a short presentation at the Council meeting on plans so far for the 2012 meeting. The meeting will be held from May 7 to 11, 2012 in Sackville, New Brunswick, which is on the Bay of Fundy, minutes away from the Nova Scotia border. Accommodation at residences is very reasonable at $44 per night, and they have an exciting meeting planned, with a field trip to the Joggins Fossil Cliffs. Future meetings: The 2013 meeting will be at the University of Guelph, probably from May 6 to 10, 2013. The 2014 meeting is scheduled to be a joint conference with the Canadian Society of Ecology and Evolution in Montreal, with a prediction of nearly 1000 delegates. There was great debate in Council of the nature of the venue, whether it will be in a hotel, at a conference centre, or at a university, and whether or not it will be a May meeting or at some other time during the summer.

5.2 Finances

The Section finances stand at $1790.77 as of December 31, 2011, which is well under the CSZ Section cap.

5.3 Recognition Committee

The Recognition Committee this year consisted of Dave Marcogliese, Andre Buret and Robert Poulin, and was chaired by Todd Smith. This Committee was unanimous in its support of the Dan McLaughlin's nomination for the RA Wardle Award. The Recognition Committee next year will consist of Dan McLaughlin, Dave Marcogliese and Andre Buret.

5.4 Affiliate societies

Todd Smith contacted Roger Prichard of McGill University to serve as the CSZ Parasitology Section representative to the World Federation of Parasitologists at ICOPA XII in Melbourne. He paid our annual fee of $25, which allowed him to vote on the site for ICOPA XIII in 2014. Although Roger did not divulge his vote, the site of ICOPA XIII will be Mexico City. Todd Smith also sent the annual affiliate report to American Society of Parasitologists.

5.5 Student awards

The judges for this year's Murray Fallis Award competition were Al Shostak, Marilyn Scott and Mike Belosevic. The name of the winner will be announced at the CSZ banquet. The winner of the ICOPA Award for 2010 was Angela Rose Lapierre, who presented her research as a poster at ICOPA XII in Melbourne in August 2010. Congratulations to Angela Rose!

6.0 Business

6.1 Symposium 2011

Todd Smith thanked the speakers for presenting their research and for providing great insight into parasitology and comparative immunology in an aquatic context.

6.2 Symposium 2012

Todd Smith noted that Lucy Lee organised the 2011 symposium and indicated that although she is Chair for the upcoming year and thus technically responsible for organizing the PAR Symposium, she would likely appreciate some help with, or for someone else to take over, organisation of the Symposium in 2012. He also noted that for this year, the LOC at the University of Ottawa scheduled the symposia of PAR and EEE at the same time, which resulted in a competition for the same audience. This may happen again next year. He suggested that in 2012 PAR could perhaps consider having a joint symposium with EEE, as we did in 2009 at the Scarborough meeting.

6.3 State of the Parasitology Section (presented by Todd Smith)

The Parasitology Section currently has 69 members, of which 30 are part of PAR only, and 39 are part of PAR plus one or more other Sections. This is a modest increase from 52 last year, but we are still a long way from solid ground. In February, I sent a newsletter to members of the Parasitology section, both present and former members whose memberships have lapsed in the last five years. This newsletter contained general Section news, as well as a two-page stimulus for discussion of where we are as a Section. We have seen members of the Section drawn away by other organizations that would seem to fill a niche in parasitology and related disciplines in Canada. These include the Centre for Host-Parasite Interactions that meets in Quebec every year, the Canadian Society of Ecology and Evolution, and the Canadian Comparative Immunologists and Pathologists. As it stands, we appear to be failing as the primary venue for parasitology in Canada. As we become smaller, it is possible that our size makes it less attractive to attend the CSZ under the Parasitology umbrella. More specialised and regional meetings appear to be more attractive to hundreds of biologists that work on parasites in the country.

Of the 131 members of CSZ past and present that I contacted, I received 10 responses. Here is a list of their comments, with the commenter in the first person narrative:

Canadian parastiologists seem less likely to submit to CJZ, which parallels a decreased loyality to the section. A long and spirited discussion, ranging from a potential change to the name of the Section, to how the Parasitology Section fulfils the needs of its members, to how we can better incorporate students into the Section, followed Todd Smith's presentation. In particular, there was general agreement that the Section would have to come up with a new mission statement and vision, and that Section awards would have to be evaluated with regard to their role under a new Section name. The discussion ultimately yielded two Motions:

Motion 1 (Lee/Shostak): That the name of the Parasitology Section be changed to Parasitism, Immunity and Environment (abbreviated as PIE). Carried.

Motion 2 (Shostak/Marcogliese): That the incoming Chair of the Section (Lucy Lee) strike an ad hoc committee to implement the name change of the Section, to explore the implications of such a name change, and to report back to the members of the Section. Carried.

6.4 Structure of the Executive

Mick Burt suggested that in order to lighten the workload on the Chair, that the position of Secretary be added to the Executive of the Section. After a brief discussion, it was agreed that the ad hoc committee struck to implement the name change of the section would discuss any change to the structure of the Executive.

6.5 Items of new business

Judith Price (Canadian Museum of Nature) provided an update on Special Provision A180 of the IATA regulations on transport of dangerous goods. Non-infectious specimens, such as specimens of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, fish, insects and other invertebrates containing small quantities of UN 1170, UN 1198, UN 1987, or UN 1219 are not subject to these Regulations provided the following packing and marking requirements are met:

1: specimens are:

2: the prepared specimens are then placed in a plastic bag that is then heat-sealed

3: the bagged specimens are then placed inside another plastic bag with absorbent material, then heat-sealed

4: the finished bag is then placed in a strong outer packaging with suitable cushioning material

5: the total quantity of flammable liquid per outer packaging must not exceed 1 L

6: the completed package is marked "scientific research specimens, not restricted Special Provision A180 applies"

7: the words "not restricted" and the special provision number A180 must be included in the description of the substance on the Air Waybill

7.0 Adjournment

Motion (Lee): That the meeting be adjourned. Carried.