Meeting Minutes
Animal Behavior Society Executive Committee Meeting Via Zoom
Wednesday Jan 4th 1pm – 3pm Central Time
Present: Adriana Maldonado Chaparro (Member-at-Large 3), Delia Shelton (Member-at-Large 2), Eileen Hebets (Past-President), Emily DuVal (Second President-Elect), Julia Saltz (Parliamentarian), Nancy Solomon (Executive Editor), Noa Pinter-Wollman (Member-at-Large 1), Norman Lee (Secretary), Scott MacDougall-Shackleton (Treasurer), Susan Alberts (President), Susan Margulis (Historian), Ted Stankowich (Program Officer), Chris Schell (Diversity Officer). Melissa Hughes (Program Officer-Elect)
- ABS 2022-2023 budget options.
The Treasurer brought to the attention of the EC that based on funding requests from various committees, our current revenue projections, and assuming the meeting in Oregon is revenue neutral, we will be running an ~$34k deficit.
The Treasurer presented four different budgetary options. Most options (except A) include increases in membership dues across different membership categories. Membership dues have not been increased for about 10 years. Therefore, the EC feels that increases in dues are justified, and going forward, ABS should increase membership dues regularly to at least match rates of inflation.
Option A: Approve full requests from various committees and run $34k deficit.
Option B: No cuts from budget requests. Increase dues of ~700 regular members from $50/year to $100/year.
Option C: Reduce awards and standing committee budgets, but not increase membership dues.
Option D: Increase dues to $70, reduce awards and standing committee budgets.
Option E: Increase dues across across most categories: Developing nation $5, Developing nation students $0, Emeritus $10, Lifetime $0, Postdoc $20, Regular/Fellow $20, Student $5.
With modest decreases to committee budget requests.
Option F: Same increases in dues across categories presented in E, except: emeritus due increased to $55, and regular/fellow due increased to $75, and Lifetime membership category increased to $1250. Modest decreases to committee budget requests, except student research grant requests will be fully supported.
The EC voted unanimously in favor of Budget option F. - ABS 2023 Meeting Costs.
Based on meeting cost projections provide by Adam from SPLTrak, the 2023 meeting in Portland Oregon is expected to run a deficit of $49,600.
The EC discussed two different ways to reduce the expected deficit. First, ABS can add a hybrid virtual component of the conference (similar to the virtual conference in 2022) at an additional cost of $10,000, but this virtual component is likely to generate income that is greater than the cost. In 2022, the virtual conference registrants brought in approximately $30,000. Second, the EC discussed whether ABS should increase conference registration costs to reduce this projected deficit.
The EC voted on “moving forward with a hybrid option and not increase registration fees. 93% approved, and 7% did not approve.
A majority of the EC felt that registration fees should not be increased in an attempt to minimize the cost of attending given that the membership voted to move the 2023 conference from Knoxville Tennessee to Portland Oregon (more expensive option). - A revised version of the ABS Mission Statement was presented to the EC. Changes to the mission statement were to increase inclusivity and to support a diverse membership, to promote emerging and established scientists by sponsoring various programs (e.g. annual conferences, educational programs, student research grants, and etc.), and to ensure a safe and welcoming environment for its members.
The EC voted unanimously to approve these changes to the mission statement. [Update as of 10 Jan 2023: the mission statement has been updated on the ABS website. Note by SCA, 10 Jan 2023] -
A proposal for a new annual meeting model was presented to the EC. In this model, the format of conference meetings would alternate between fully in-person and fully virtual meetings (e.g. every third year) as an approach to enhance the access of ABS members to annual meetings, and to reduce the cost of running in-person meetings.
Several ideas were put forward by the EC. Some of these ideas include: instead of alternating, adding a second fully online conference during winter, expanded on the Twitter conference, every 4th year having ABS conference online, having conferences every other year.
The sub-committee that presented this new annual meeting model will continue to explore other creative ideas to expand on access, and to reduce costs of hosting a conference.