ABS Executive Committee Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
University of Iloinois at Chicago
Meeting Called to Order (John Swaddle)
Introduction and opening discussion. A major issue for the society moving forward will be our relationship with Elsevier. Many of our members—both in the US and abroad—are currently at institutions that do not have active subscriptions with Elsevier due to subscription conflicts. This is a major source of concern with the potential to affect the conducting of journal business: many of those members are decreasingly willing to volunteer labor for a journal they do not have access to and which is in direct conflict with their institutions. While there are potential options both with Elsevier and other publishers, our contract extends to 2021 so nothing can be done immediately. Moreover, any decisions regarding our relationship with Elsevier must be made in collaboration with ASAB. It is technically ASAB that owns the journal, despite our 50-50 profit sharing.
Beyond the current contract with Elsevier and the decisions that must be made prior to 2021, there was additional discussion about how the society will address the changing publication landscape. Both the current Elsevier boycotts and Plan S are signals of future shifts to broad moves to open access. This has the potential to force the society to rethink its overall funding approach and overall support activities since the bulk of our operational budget derives from profit sharing with Elsevier.
ABS and ASAB are currently attempting to communicate to develop a unified position and strategy with regard to Elsevier. The President of the society will be seeking input from society members during the 2019 meeting regarding what the society’s goals should be and how to balance fiduciary concerns and support activities of the society.
Discussion of Elsevier by the EC will be deferred for now, awaiting input from society members and further communication with ASAB.
The EC Meeting for the remainder of meeting will, first, incorporate reports from EC members and Committees. Second, the EC will form two discussion groups: one will discuss the continued development of the meeting’s code of conduct, policies for addressing allegations and findings of misconduct, and strategies to improve the society’s and meeting’s environment and to protect members. The second group will discuss social media strategies.
The president yielded the floor to the treasurer
President Elect: John Swaddle
- The President-Elect ran the Founders’ Poster Award Prize at the annual meeting. There were 29 students/postdocs who indicated at the time of registration that they wanted to enter the competition. Of these, 14 applicants submitted a PDF of their poster ahead of the annual meeting—as is required to remain in the competition. The judging committee was: John Swaddle (Chair), Liz Peterson, Molly Morris, Cassandra Nunez, Todd Freeberg, and Emma Grigg.
- The President-Elect continued with some strategic planning activities, which included administering a short survey to the membership and analyzing the results. The survey solicited feedback on the ABS Strategic Plan and asked for suggestions of specific priorities. We received over 100 responses from the membership and the vast majority of feedback aligned well with the current Strategic Plan. Specific initiatives generated from the survey will be discussed at the 2018 Executive Committee meeting. (The Full report can be found at the end of these minutes).
Activities for next year: - Continue with development and implementation of ABS Strategic Plan, following discussion of priorities with the EC
Produce one-page sheet that describes the relevance of animal behavior to society at large. This is an initiative that was generated as part of the ABS Strategic Plan.
Past-President’s Report—Nomination Committee (Jeff Podos)
- This coming year several positions will need to be filled. This includes a Member-at-Large (MAL), a Program Officer (PO), and a Second President Elect. Nominations were solicited and considered.
- The nominees for MAL are: Liz Derryberry (U. Tennessee) & Nate Morehouse (U. Cincinnati)
- The nominees for PO are: Ximena Bernal (Purdue) & Sue Bertram (Carleton)
- The nominees for President are: Susan Alberts (Duke) & Mark Bee (U. Minnesota).
- The Past-President next raised concerns regarding the status of several career awards. While very impressive Distinguished Animal Behaviorist Award and Outstanding New Investigator Award nominees are frequently put forward, nominees for the Exemplar and Quest awards are frequently limited (but always exceptional). The status of these two awards as mid-career recognition is under-appreciated by the society. The Exemplar should award sustained high-level research while the Quest should recognize a seminal contribution. The Past-President suggested the wording for the awards be modified to emphasize the mid-career nature and stature of these awards. This task will be undertaken by the incoming Past-President.
- The Past-President also requested that the 10-year post PhD restriction for the Outstanding New Investigator Award be clarified in announcements and inquired whether accommodation should be made for individuals outside of this window for familial or other reasons. Resolution was not achieved, and the discussion was tabled for the time being.
President-Elect’s Report (Jennifer Fewell)
- In collaboration with the current President, the President-Elect initiated a discussion with the National Science Foundation regarding the decision to limit submissions based on PI, co-PI, and Senior Personnel status. The President-Elect and President chose not to sign on to a letter with presidents of other societies regarding the issue, opting instead for direct discussion. Submission limits were subsequently dropped by NSF, with the Behavioral Processes NSF panel nonetheless encouraging more direct communication from behavior researchers. Specifically, the NSF would like to encourage researchers to avail themselves of opportunities like the virtual office hours now being offered. Discussion with NSF also focused on increasing communication with constituent regarding novel and less well-known funding options. The President-Elect discussed general concerns regarding declining or flat funding levels for the NSF and the importance of publicizing the importance of behavioral research. Discussion ensued and the public policy-fellowship program co-sponsored by (AIBS) was brought up. The Society has supported this program in recent years but did not in 2018, and it would be valuable to revisit. Via discussion, the importance of an ad-hoc committee for policy was raised. The EC was in consensus that this should be formed with the mandate of drafting policy letters that will be put to Society vote and initiating publicizing of member activity that will garner public and legislator support and interest. The ad-hoc committee will be comprised of: Tamra Mendelson, Patty Brennan, Danielle Whittaker, Zuleyma Tang-Martinez, and John Swallow. The members of the ad-hoc committee will be responsible for building up the membership, potentially stipulating that students who receive AIBS-Policy fellowships serve on the committee.
- The President-Elect also discussed the “Weaving Future of Animal Behavior” workshops. The first was held this past Spring in May, with approximately 40 participants. A second workshop was scheduled to run at this year’s meeting, and a third is in planning stages for next year. The program was very well received as a way to build mentoring networks for early career researchers. Several ways by which ECRs could be supported were discussed stemming from the WFAB workshop. One well-received idea was organizing ECR focused symposia. Also, a concerted effort to invite earlier career individuals as plenary speakers should be made.
Treasurer’s report (Gil Rosenthal)
- The society continues to be in a financially secure position. Revenue for the 2018-2019 year is greater than expectations, due to greater revenue from profit sharing than expected. Current levels of profit-sharing revenue are expected to be roughly stable, except that instability arising from volatility in the pound. The timing of revenue payments has often been negatively affected by this volatility and this volatility is expected to worsen in the future. Besides the general activities of the society, this revenue typically also supports activities at the meeting.
- The 2019 meeting is currently running at an ~20k deficit; however, the actual deficit may be greater than expected due to registration income sharing with the International Ethological Congress (IEC). Working with the Program Officer, the Treasurer will consult existing Memorandums of
- Understanding with the IEC and other correspondence for further details regarding this arrangement.
- Discussion then ensued regarding the relationship with IEC. The current meeting has ~1000 attendees, compared to typical attendance of ~600. This high level is thought to be due to the location but also considerably affected by the collaboration with IEC. Discussion continued regarding whether the deficit incurred due to sharing registration fees with IEC was an appropriate choice for the society. Many argued that the increased attendance and therefore visibility was a substantial benefit to our members, others argued that the potential deficit was substantial and not necessarily offset by the increased exposure. There was the suggestion that the Program Officer should work in collaboration with the Historian to determine the general effects that collaborating with IEC has historically had on attendance.
- Upon resuming reporting, the Treasurer discussed a recent substantial donation of stock to the Society. Specifically, a long-term member of the society donated stock currently valued at ~47k. Existing accounts were not set up to accept donations so a substantial amount of the Treasurer’s time this year went to facilitating this donation and all accounts can now take such donations. The donor would like to remain anonymous, but the Treasurer would like to encourage other members to consider such stock donations and that they are often beneficial from a tax perspective.
The Treasurer reported that the Society’s expected income, not counting the stock donation above, is ~430k (345k from profit sharing, 78k from membership, and 6k in cash donations. The society is carrying a cash surplus and has not taken out any investment income for the last 5 years.
The Treasurer then began discussion of Society investments. The Society’s investments (1.7 million current balance, mix of bonds and index fund stocks) have been consistently outperforming market benchmarks (e.g. the S&P 500). The yearly return has been 8.8% with a 10-year average of 9.7%. The Treasurer then initiated discussion of divesting Society investments from the standard mutual fund to funds with lower investment in fossil fuels. This is in response to member-initiated motions to divest the society from fossil fuel investments. The Treasurer reported that moving index stocks from the current Vanguard fund (1.247 million to Vanguard’s Social Index Fund would not negatively impair the Society’s finances and would, in fact yield a higher return (both 1-year and 10-year returns). The Treasurer moved to approve the divestment from fossil fuels and transfer to the Vanguard Social Index Fund. This was a table motion and thus no second was needed. The motion was unanimously approved.
Additional discussion ensued as to whether further careful investment to ensure that there are no Society investments that are indirectly in energy production or extraction. Some concern was raised that the profession of the EC was not direct managing of money. It was suggested that the role and composition of the Investment and Advancement Committee be considered. Those individuals particularly interested in further pursuing complete divestment should be encouraged to engage with this committee and perhaps to join the committee. - With discussion of income and investments complete, the Treasurer began reporting on the 2019-2020 budget and expenses. There were no major changes in the budget. The Latin Affairs, Education, and Diversity Committees requested modest budgetary increases. The Program Officers were also requesting a modest budget increase to facilitate travel to prospective meeting sites.
- A major budgetary expense for discussion is the status of the Editorial Office and Managing Editor (ME). Relationships with Indiana University (IU) have deteriorated. IU had previously supplied a grant to partially offset the ME’s salary and had provided an office to facilitate the ME’s duties. IU has now terminated this grant, requested rent/lease for the use of an editorial office, and requested indirect cost offsets for the ME in the amount of 25%. These changes were considered unreasonable and the ME has now relocated to a home office. Indirect costs were renegotiated to 2.65% (+39% fringe benefit rate). This change and IU policy forced the ME to take a 15% salary reduction. Given the vital role of the ME and their intense dedication to the success of the journal, this salary reduction was considered very unfortunate and inappropriate to have asked of the ME. The ME would prefer to maintain the IU relationship rather than becoming an independent contractor due to health and retirement benefits. The ME requested a 10% salary increase, partially remediating the salary reduction.
- Discussion ensued as to what options the Society has to remedy this situation. There is currently some ambiguity of IU institutional restriction as to what magnitude of a raise is possible. There was unanimous support for the 10% increase, but it was deemed inadequate. The possibility of a full (15%) restoration was raised and the Treasurer deemed this financially sustainable. Future 3% cost of living increases each year were also suggested, this also was deemed sustainable. The salary increases for the current year (15%) was added to the budget for later vote. 3% increases will be automatically added to the agenda for future years.
Member-at-Large Report (MaLs; Melissa Hughes)
- The Society distributed 109k in various awards with some supplementation in Student Research Grants (SRGs) from relevant donor sources (e.g. supplementation of SRGs from Latin America are supplemented with donations to the Latin America fund). 82k in SRGs were awarded.
One concern with the awarding of grant funds involved the Tuber award. The goal of this award is described as “to promote excellence in research into Applied Animal Behavior”, while noting that the award honors David S. Tuber, a leader in “clinical animal behavior” who applied “the principles of animal behavior to the behavioral problems of companion animals”. The current MaLs have been preferentially awarding these grants to those working with companion animals, even though this isn’t specifically stated in the award description. The MaLs requested feedback regarding this choice and whether members of the Applied Animal committee could perform additional reviews of relevant grants. During discussion there was consensus that the choice by the MaLs was appropriate and that during the next grant review period that the MaLs should consult with the AABC regarding pertinent grants. - The MaL also discussed disbursed care-giver grants. The 2018 meeting was the first year when all proposals could not be fully funded. The MaL prioritized grants that were complete and then grants for which how funds were going to be spent were most clearly laid out. The MaL also prioritized grants from earlier career individuals. Specifically, students were prioritized, followed by post-doc researchers, and then faculty. This prioritization was adopted due to assumed financial hardship, an assumption acknowledged as imperfect. Discussion proceeded but preferable alternatives could not be determined.
- The MaL report concluded with a discussion of survey results regarding the caregiver grants. The response was generally quite positive. Respondents appreciated the flexibility of the grant and that it could be awarded for a diversity of issues, from childcare to eldercare. In addition to the caregiver grants, the MaL also expressed considerable interest in pursuing on-site childcare during the annual meeting. The current view is that ABS is considerably behind sibling societies like ISBE and SSE/ASN that provide such services.
Discussion by the EC proceeded with general support for the goal of providing on-site care. Several key issues were raised: 1) Child-care at SSE/ASN was somewhat depressing: largely empty rooms that children didn’t enjoy (but very component care providers). 2) Holding conferences on campuses introduces different liability issues not present at conference centers. 3) Care-giving companies can have limitations on the services they provide. The EC concluded with a consensus that the MaLs should work with POs to further investigate whether onsite care can be provided. This was determined to be a Society cost for support of members rather than part of meeting budgets. - Discussion on ensuring a supportive meeting for also included new events for future conferences including parent socials and a “Kid’s Poster Session”.
- Discussion also highlighted a need to advertise already available services; e.g. lactation rooms available at the current venue.
One aspect on which there was strong consensus was that if onsite care is arranged, this must not replace the caretaker grant. This grant is flexible, and addresses concerns not addressed by onsite childcare.
Program Officer Report (Alison Bell)
- The venue for 2020 has been confirmed: UTK with Todd Freeburg as a local host. The meeting will be July 30 – August 3, 2020.
(Presented out of order: UTK concerns) The state of Tennessee has enacted policies that are actively hostile to LGTBQ+ individuals. The society needs to be sensitive to these concerns and consider approaches to properly address them and protect and welcome affected members. The E were in consensus that the POs and the local host should give extra consideration to this issue. Some potential options include: special consideration of symposia speakers and visual signaling on t-shirts, nametags of support, and a public event on the diversity of sex in biology.
The POs also reported on current issues in getting sufficient numbers of symposium proposals. This was thought to potentially be due to the late confirmation of meeting location. In consultation with the EC, the POs will be extending the deadline for symposia and workshop deadline to October 1st. Symposium organizers will be expected to have pre-vetted speakers. - Discussion of further issues for future meetings proceeded. First, the option of including carbon offset purchases as opt-in choices at the time was suggested. This option will receive further support for future voting. Second, the option of opting out of “meeting swag” was suggested. Many individuals voiced that they have sufficient reusable bags for all foreseeable future needs. Likewise, additional water bottles and printed schedules were not considered essential. The option of opting out was brought up with SPLTrack and the idea in general was viewed as possible but perhaps logistically possible due to on site customization at registration. Options were discussed and the EC concluded that the membership should be polled at the Business Meeting. Third, the possibility of allowing post-doctoral researchers to register at a reduced cost was raised. There was general support for this idea, either at the Student or Emeritus rate. The Treasurer expressed that this should not substantially affect conference revenue but noted that good data on the number of attendees that are post-docs is unclear, others brought up that even the definition of “post-doc” is unclear. It was also brought up by another EC member that as a Society we should consider whether we would like to facilitate attendance by other individuals for whom registration costs may be prohibitive, for example adjuncts and k-12 instructors. The issue will be further explored and was deemed to be an important larger discussion that needs to be had. The president suggested it may be a topic for discussion during a future online meeting.
Editor-in-Chief’s Report (Nancy Solomon)
The impact factor of the journal is slightly decreased but the journal remains comparable to Behavioral Ecology and higher than Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. Elsevier has expressed some concern over the issue but neither the Editor nor the rest of the EC was particularly concerned given that impact factors, besides general issues with their utility, are declining across biological journals due to journal proliferation. In regard to number of submissions and other editorial metrics (e.g. time to first decision, time to online publication, etc.) the journal is maintaining levels from previous years. Editor turnover is consistent but some more taxonomic foci are of concern (e.g. large mammals), as is broader representation on the committee. Discussion ensued and the topic of The Journal of Mammalogy’s “Buddy System” to assist those for whom English is not their primary language. This may improve success of papers during the review process. The mechanics of that program should perhaps be reviewed and considered for possible implementation. The EiC requests that the EC provide additional nominations to balance the editorial board and otherwise assist with building up its composition.
Latin-Affairs Committee (LAC) Report (Lilian Manica)
The LAC requested that greater visibility of LAC activities be provided at the meeting. Relevant meeting times and details were relayed to the Program Officer who will present them during morning announcements. Last year the LAC brought in a distinguished animal behaviorist from Latin America. This visit provided important networking opportunities for students and faculty and would not have been possible without financial support. Given this success, the LAC is requesting a continuing increase of 2k to their budget to facilitate these invitations. The EC was in consensus supporting this. During discussion it was suggested that the LAC also be tasked with inviting one plenary speaker each year.
The LAC Representative yielded the floor.
Additional Committee Reports
Because of scheduling conflicts with workshops relevant committees were not available to report. The only committees requesting budget increases besides the LAC were the conservation committee and the education committee. The conservation committee was requesting for support to fund open access author processing charges for a possible publication stemming from the current workshop. The education committee was requesting a budget increase, but the details were not clear and further clarification will be requested.
Discussion of Committee Reports adjourned.
Breakout Topic Discussion
The EC split into two groups, one to discuss social media strategies and the other to discuss the Code of Conduct and issues regarding impropriety by society members.
Social Media Strategy
Over the last year there has been a massive expansion of the Society’s social media presence. This has been the product of intense work on the part of the Second President-Elect and the Graduate Student Representative with almost exclusive focus on Twitter due to its broad use amongst academics. The social media strategy for the next year targets continued aggressive expansion. Specific activities include tweeting out links to forthcoming papers from the journal every day of the work week. This is currently being done via the dedicated efforts of several Society members (primarily graduate students and post-docs). “Payment” of these volunteers was requested in the form of waiving their meeting registration fees. The EC unanimously agreed on this recommendation.
The Second President-Elect and Graduate Representative will work with the Editor-in-Chief to add the option for brief, tweetable, summaries to be included during final submission of files upon paper acceptance. Following the piloting of this program and its reception by authors, the option of audio and graphical summaries in tweetable form will be explored. The EiC will work with Elsevier as they will have to modify options on the website. Twitter will also be explored as an option for addressing questions for the EC, this will be conducted in collaboration with the President.
The social media strategy group also discussed the need for decisions by the EC to be tweeted out to the society and a need to clarify publicizing activities between their group and SPLTrack. The group also discussed decisions to largely shutter the Society’s Facebook account, namely the account gets relatively little traffic and Twitter has been more successful in garnering reader participation. Another possibility is to link the Facebook and Twitter accounts so that the Twitter account generates all of the content for the Facebook account.
Expanded actions for the next year include exploring joint Twitter conferences with ASAB and livestreaming concurrent sessions at the annual meeting. This year’s Allee talks will be livestreamed and, based on viewership, the option of either posting all talks to YouTube or livestreaming and posting all talks (with presenter opt-in). Expanding livestreaming capabilities will require the purchase of video streaming equipment. For exploratory purposes the EC suggested the purchase of one streaming package.
Code of Conduct
Extensive discussion of conduct issues was had. The general sentiment is that the Society does not currently have a proactive framework with how to deal with misconduct. Many members of the EC felt that they do not currently have sufficient training regarding how best to respond to allegations but that the safety of our members must be the over-arching goal. The immediate actions of the Society will be to more broadly publicize the Code of Conduct via Twitter and announcements each morning. EC members volunteered to receive any notifications during the meeting.
Moving forward, and to be proactive, the Society will seek to contract an outside, third-party firm, regarding organizing Ally training for Society members, following a successful model used by SSE. These Allies will be point persons with whom concerns, and allegations can be shared, ensuring subsequent investigation and proper handling of concerns. A seven-thousand-dollar expenditure was proposed to be added to the budget to allow for contracting the third-party firm for training and for retainer time.
This third-party firm will also act as a screening entity which can properly communicate concerns to relevant parties in the society (paid via retainer fee). The anticipated model is that reports will be relayed from Allies and the third-party firm to an Ombudsperson (a new position to be created) and then to the EC. This framework was agreed to as it allows the preservation of anonymity for complainants while ensuring investigation of members, including the potential for investigating EC members. Moving forward, models like “SafeEvolution” will be implemented at annual meetings. A seven-thousand-dollar expenditure was proposed to be added to the budget to allow for the contracting of the third-party firm for training and retainer time.
Discussion of break-out topics concluded
Treasurer Motion:
The Treasurer moved to approve a budget of $418,509 for 2019-2020. This budget includes all new items described in the minutes, with the exception of the Education Committee’s request, from whom further clarification will be sought. The President seconded the motion and the motion was passed unanimously.
The President-Elect motioned to adjourn the meeting. The motion was seconded by the Secretary and passed unanimously.
ABS Business Meeting Minutes
Monday, July 26
University of Iloinois at Chicago
- The meeting was called to order by the President.
- The President summarized the relationship with Elsevier. The Society is very concerned regarding the relationship between Elsevier and many of our member’s universities.
- The President clarified that the journal is co-owned with ASAB and thus no decision can be made without them, nor can major changes with Elsevier until the expiration of the current publishing contract (2021). Whatever we do, the Society will have to be proactive as larger changes to publishing models are on the horizon, notably the effects of Plan S in Europe.
- The President emphasized the importance of the Code of Conduct and that the Executive Committee will be rolling out policies of addressing misconduct concerns, this will involve working with a third-party contractor, a new position of Ombudsperson, and other steps including much of what has been implemented in the “SafeEvolution” model.
- The President summarized recent efforts to increase the Society’s profile using social media. This has resulted in a substantial increase in Twitter presence (roughly four times the number of followers as last year at this time), every Animal Behaviour paper being tweeted out to followers, etc. New initiatives include the live-streaming of talks, Twitter-takeovers, and a Twitter conference.
- The President discussed recent discussions with the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the importance of talking with NSF program officers regarding the diversity of funding opportunities, many of which members may not be aware. The importance of the Society and Society members to directly lobby on behalf of NSF funding generally and specifically for behavior was also emphasized. To this end, an ad hoc committee for policy is being constructed and will be chaired by the Public Affairs officer.
- The President announced nominees for future positions:
- President: Susan Alberts (Duke) & Mark Bee (U. Minn)
- Program Officer: Ximena Bernal (Purdue) & Sue Bertram (Carleton)
- Member-at-Large: Liz Derryberry (U. Tenn.) & Nate Morehouse (U. Cincinnati)
- The Member-at-Large reported, in particular, on the disbursement of Student Research Grants and the Care Giver award. Over $72k Student Research Grants were awarded, based on the work of 98 volunteer reviewers, with 51 of 157 applicants funded. With other awards, the MALs awarded a total of $109,264 in grants.
- The Care Giver awards were, for the first time, applied to by many individuals. All complete grants were funded (some grants lacked important information) and priority of funds went to early career researchers.
- The Editor-in-Chief reported on the Journal’s status. Number of submissions, acceptance rates, and timelines remain similar to last year but down from the year before that. The current Impact Factor is 2.675, comparable to Behavioral Ecology. This is somewhat down from last year, but all journals show similar declines.
- This year saw a transition to a new submission management system and the EiC emphasized the importance of paying attention to ethical notes.
- The Treasurer discussed the current year’s income and expenses relative to approved budgets. The Society had higher than expected income (profit-sharing and increased membership) and lower than expected expenses. Consequently, carryover funds from the previous year were not used. With the high costs of the Chicago meeting and a payment to the International Ethological Congress, the Society effectively broke even this year.
- The Society is carrying an accumulated surplus and has not taken distributions from investments since 2014.
- This year a large anonymous donation of stocks was made which were transferred to the Society’s overall portfolio. The portfolio overall is doing very well and outperforming market indices. The Treasurer stated that the EC had voted, unanimously, to transfer investments to Social Index Funds, divesting from fossil fuel extraction and energy production. These funds are outperforming current accounts, making the ethical choice the more profitable one as well.
- Next year’s budget proposes a budget anticipated to deplete carry-over funds but is conservative vis-à-vis income. New budget items include Open Access Author Processing Charges for an anticipated paper from the Conservation Behavior Committee regarding the impacts of solar power on wildlife. Also included was a video streaming system, funds for the SafeBehavior initiative, and for the Program Officers to travel to future meeting sites.
- The Treasurer reported on efforts by the EC to restore salary reductions for the Managing Editor—the only full-time employee of the Society—and negotiations with IU regarding this employee’s status.
- The Treasurer concluded with the statement that the current economic picture is positive but major changes on the horizon related to income from profit sharing are uncertain but almost certainly likely to impair the ability of the Society to provide several popular programs.
- The Parliamentarian reported on conducted votes and introduced two motions for voting. The first was to allow unopposed elections for the Secretary, Treasurer, and Parliamentarian. The rationale was to address the difficulty with getting sufficient nominees. The motion was put to a vote. There were two nays and one abstention. The vast majority were in favor. The motion passed. The second issue put to vote was the language for the Buchholz award to clarify the aim. The motion was put to a vote and passed unanimously.
- The Program Officer reported on the attendance and the success of the Mentor-Mentee program and the inclusion of gender pronouns on nametags. The UTK venue for 2020 was introduced.
- The Business Meeting was closed.