Societal Annual General Business Meeting Minutes
Parasitism, Immunity and Environment (PIE) Section Lunch, Wednesday May 27th, 2015
Present: Dan Barreda (Chair), as well as members and guest of the PIE section of the CSZ 2015 Meeting

1.0 Introductory comments – provided by Dan Barreda

2.0 Approval of agenda
Motion: Approval of the agenda
Moved: Lucy Lee, seconded by Barbara Katzenback, carried unanimously

3.0 Approval of minutes from the 41st Annual General Meeting (53rd CSZ Meeting) (May 29, 2014, McGill University, Montreal, QC)
Motion: Approval of the old minutes
Moved: Lucy Lee, seconded by Barbara Katzenback, carried unanimously

4.0 Business arising from previous minutes - Constitutional changes made by Todd Smith and Brian Dixon and distributed to all members

• Changes made to reflect change from PAR to PIE focus which now includes the interplay between parasites, hosts and their environment. Other changes made include clearing up textual and formatting inconsistences as well as specifying the role of officers
• Comments from Al Shostak regarding changing the by-laws to create a less rigid structure, removing the historical references from the bylaws as well as creating a statement on chain of command to give the chair commanding power
• Comments regarding the wording of the student representative role
• Discussion on these comments led to changing the constitution such that the student representative is a part of the council, and officer duties to be maintained as an appendix

Motion: Approval to accept these changes and accept the revised constitution as a working document to be worked on and discussed at the next AGM
Moved: Lucy Lee, seconded by Todd Smith, carried unanimously

5.0 Elections for Chair Elect (Vice-Chair) for 2015-2016
Nominations were made for Richelle Monaghan and Janet Koprivnikar

• Discussion around most effective and time efficient manner to allow members to anonymously vote for their candidate of choice, as well as best way to allow candidates to introduce themselves

Motion (includes all friendly amendments): Allow nominations to remain open for two more weeks so that nominations officially end on June 10th, 2015. An e-mail will be sent out to all members notifying them of this nomination period. All nominees will need to confirm they will stand, and create a short candidate statement by June 30th, 2015. Chair to e-mail ballots electronically through survey monkey as soon as all candidate statements received.
Moved: Brian Dixon, seconded by James Wasmuth, carried unanimously

6.0 Reports

6.1 News from CSZ Council meeting (May 25, 2015) & CSZ AGM lunch (May 26, 2015) – Notes given by Dan Barreda

• Discussion around having fair representation of diversity of members, extending the PDF term to 7 years (valid at time of application), and general positive feedback received from conducting a joint meeting in Montreal

6.2 Finances – Report by Al Shostak

• At the start of 2014, PIE account at $1670. $600 given from society as allotment. Expenditures for Wardle Award at $270 and Atlantic Canada Parasitology at $200. Final balance at the end of 2014 was $1800. This meant starting 2015 balance was $1800. Committed in 2015 for expenditures for Wardle Award and Symposium. With increasing membership, allotment suspected to be around $700.

6.3 Recognition Committee – Report by Dan Barreda

• No questions, members all thanked for their contributions.

6.4 Student awards – Notes given by Dan Barreda

• Discussion around giving poster and oral presentations equal weight in the awarding procedure, as well as making it clear students have the choice to either present orally or present a poster. Lucy Lee suggested creating an honorary award in Mick Burt’s name.

Motion: In addition to the Fallis Award, the Fallis Fund will also support a new PIE specific award to be created in Mick Burt’s honor for poster presentations. The Mick Burt Award will be given if the judges feel a quality standard has been met by a participating student. When awarded, the Mick Burt Award shall be equal in value to the Fallis Award.
Moved: Roger Prichard, seconded by James Wasmuth, carried unanimously

7.0 Business

7.1 Symposium 2015 – Notes from Dan Barreda for Derek McKay

• Good symposium covering a broad variety of topics

7.2 Symposium 2016

• No discussion on topics. Attendees advised to send topic ideas to incoming PIE chair, Carl Lowenberger

7.3 State of the Section – Report given by Al Shostak

• Membership sitting at 101, membership expanding, includes multi-section members

7.4 Items of new business

• Comment from Roger Prichard advising the incoming chair to write about the new Mick Burt Award

8.0 Other Business

8.1 Notice of the 2016 American Society of Parasitologists meeting in Edmonton from July 11-14, 2016 – Note given by Al Shostak

8.2 Offer of live parasite cultures being discontinued at U of A – Note given by Al Shostak, specifically outlining that if anyone wants live cultures to contact Al Shostak at the University of Alberta

• Discussion around maintaining a central resource base for all live cultures in Canada
• Add to agenda for next meeting: Discuss maintaining a current list of live cultures across Canada, which would be a central resource type page available on the CSZ website, to be discussed and updated yearly at the AGM

8.3 Mechanisms for continued value to PIE membership – Notes from Dan Barreda

• Since the number of members is increasing, Dan Barreda opened the floor for ideas to maintain and increase CSZ meeting value as well as student engagement
• Discussions involved increasing exposure through web based techniques, as well as including videos of student award winners

8.4 Extra Other Business – item not on original agenda, created here to encompass extra discussion topics

• Comment by Al Shostak regarding the possible creation of a Western Canada Parasitology group
• After a call for nominations, Dan Barreda nominated Pat Hanington to sit on CSZ council, Pat Hanington accepted this nomination in the meeting

Motion: To Adjourn Meeting
Moved: Patrick Hanington, seconded by James Wasmuth, carried unanimously