American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists

Summary of the Meetings 1997
As published in Copeia 1997(4)923-944

The 77th annual meeting of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists was held in Seattle, Washington from 26 June to 2 July 1997, in conjunction with the 45th annual meeting of the Herpetologists' League, the 40th annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, the 21st annual larval fish conference of the Early Life History Section of the American Fisheries Society, the 13th annual meeting of the American Elasmobranch Society, and the 9th annual meeting of the Gilbert Ichthyological Society. The meeting was hosted by the University of Washington. The Local Committee was chaired by Theodore Pietsch.

The meeting was called to order by President Ted Pietsch at 4:11 PM in the Husky Union Building Auditorium at the University of Washington. President Pietsch announced the assignment of Dick Rosenblatt as Parliamentarian and proceeded to an item of new business as the first order of business since the presenter of this item, Harry Green, had to leave the meeting early. Dr. Green came to the podium and explained a proposal to establish a new award similar to the Gibbs award. This award is to honor the contributions of Henry S. Fitch to herpetology. A sheet was passed around to the Governors summarizing the career achievements of Dr. Fitch. Dr. Green then moved that this award be established, Rick Mayden seconded the motion, and it was carried unanimously without further discussion.

President Pietsch asked for late additions to reports to the Governors, and there being none, Secretary Hendrickson read the list of Governors who had sent messages notifying of their inability to attend the meeting. Those who had sent their regrets to the Secretary were Alice Echelle, Carl Gans, Arnold Grobman, Robert Jaeger, E. Phil Pister, Harvey Pough, Alan de Quieroz, C. Richard Robins, Jack W. Sites, and Kirk Winemiller.

The president then called for a motion to approve the minutes of the 1996 meeting of the Board of Governors as published in Copeia 1996(4):1079-1104. Clark Hubbs so moved, R. R. Miller seconded, and the motion passed unanimously.

The appointment of the Resolutions Committee was then announced by President Pietsch. Bob Cashner was Chair, with members Maureen Donnelly, Bill Anderson and Brian Urbain. President Pietsch also announced that appointment of Stoye and Storer Award judges had been completed, but explained that, as customary, names would be withheld until the awards are made at the banquet.

Pat Gregory, Chair of the Time and Place Committee provided information on upcoming meetings. The 1998 meeting in Guelph will be followed by one at Pennsylvania State University. An invitation from the Universidad Aut¢noma de Baja California Sur to meet in 2000 in La Paz, Baja California, Mexico has been received, but a formal motion to the Board of Governors to accept it will not be made until additional details are considered by the committee. The committee continues to solicit invitations for future meetings. More information regarding future meetings will be provided at the general business meeting.

President Pietsch then called for blanket approval of the Reports to the Board of Governors which the Secretary had earlier mailed to members, exempting the report of the Long Range Planning and Finance Committee as requested by the Executive Committee. Governors speaking from the floor additionally exempted the reports of the Copeia Managing Editor, the Society Historian, the Student Awards Committee, and the Representative to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. The motion to approve all except these exempted reports was made, seconded and carried without opposition. This report presents first all approved reports, followed by exempted reports with notes on discussion of them that took place at the meeting. Complete reports to the Board of Governors, exactly as submitted, are published on the WWW (http://www.asih.org/meetings/1997/97bogrpt.htm). Accounts of reports provided here have been sometimes shortened by the Secretary.

Treasurer Lawrence M. Page presented his report on the finances of the Society which was based on audited financial statements for 1996 received from Clifton, Gunderson & Co., Certified Public Accountants & Consultants, Champaign, Illinois. As the report indicates, ASIH remains in excellent financial condition. Total net assets of the society stood at $657,302 on 31 December 1996. Values for previous years were: 1995, $544,020; 1994, $538,074; 1993, $442,144; 1992, $401,867; 1991, $366,142; 1990, $336,035.

The steady increase in assets over the last six years is attributable primarily to the low cost of printing Copeia relative to revenue generated from memberships and subscriptions, returns on investments in mutual funds ($32,242 in 1996), donations to the Endowment Fund ($8,653 in 1996), and a large attendance at the 1996 Annual Meeting in New Orleans (revenue surplus of $21,682). The Business Office was moved in 1995 from the Office of the Secretary in Austin, Texas, to Allen Press in Lawrence, Kansas. The complexity of the move resulted in a delay in deposits from memberships and subscriptions. Revenues recorded for memberships and subscriptions were lower than average in 1995 and higher than average in 1996.

Total expenses, including awards, for 1996 were $205,756 compared to $182,424 for 1995, $194,287 for 1994, $215,559 for 1993, $193,670 for 1992, $209,899 for 1991, and $231,875 for 1990. The Endowment Fund was established constitutionally in 1993. On 31 December 1996, the Endowment Fund contained $36,643 invested in mutual funds. The separate "Special Publication Fund" contains $24,000, of which $15,500 has been raised specifically for publication of Collection Building in Ichthyology and Herpetology, to be edited by T. W. Pietsch and W. D. Anderson, Jr.

Revenues and expenses for 1997 are expected to approximate those for 1996.

Secretary Dean A. Hendrickson reported that functions of the ASIH Secretary's Office (Texas Natural History Collections / R4000, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712-1100; tel. (512) 471-0998; FAX (512) 471-9775; e-mail: asih@uts.cc.utexas.edu) in 1996 included coordination with Allen Press Business Management, management of correspondence, maintenance of Society files and archives, coordination of communications among officers, Board of Governors, committees, and representatives to other societies, maintenance and growth of the ASIH World Wide Web pages (http://www.utexas.edu/depts/asih/), keeping meeting minutes and reporting on meetings, and other routine secretarial tasks of the Society. An error at Allen Press in distribution of renewal forms with mailing of Copeia 1996(3) caused some confusion and may have delayed renewals. To compensate, Allen Press did a special first class mailing (at their expense) to all members which included the renewal form and other materials, and followed with a standard set of reminder messages sent at intervals to those who failed to renew. By 31 December 1996 there was no evidence that the problem had impacted membership, since the number of members was the highest ever. On that date the Society's mailing list included 1,318 regular, 592 student, 286 foreign, 183 life, 49 associate, 29 sustaining, and 29 honorary foreign members, for an overall total of 2,486 members. Overall totals for recent years were: 1985 - 2,199; 1986 - 2,241; 1987 - 2,151; 1988 - 2,215; 1989 - 2,325; 1990 - 2,407; 1991 - 2,442; 1992 - 2,389; 1993 - 2,410; 1994 - 2,449, 1995 - 2387. As of December 1996 there were 822 domestic and 260 foreign institutional subscriptions, compared to 705 and 332, respectively in the previous year.

The total number of Copeia 1996(4) mailed was 3,578, compared with 3,429, 3,527, 3,460, 3,491 and 3,542 for the last (i.e., no. 4) issues of 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992 and 1991, respectively. In 1996, permission was granted on 9 requests to reprint 16 figures, one taxonomic key, and one article published in Copeia and four requests to make a total of 95 copies of four articles for use in formal courses on four campuses. One request was granted for use of both the Herp and Fish Animal Care leaflets in a biological field station notebook. The Adopt-A-Pond program at the Metropolitan Zoo received permission to reprint a series of maps to be used in a student study in over 5,000 schools. Two requests by graduate students for a total of two figures and one article to be used in thesis work were granted. Additionally, permission was granted on eight requests for 18 figures, one table, and two articles to be used in textbooks and other bound publications. Requests for permission to reprint should be directed to the office of the Secretary.

Seven requests for Copeia mailing list rentals were received for both the ichthyology and herpetology lists. Requests came from Sea Challengers, American Fisheries Society, Oxford University Press, Academic Press of California, Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations, University of New Mexico Press, and Cornell University Press. Income from mailing list rentals for 1996 totaled $1,660. The membership database of e-mail addresses was distributed without charge to three Committee chairs to facilitate communications with members, and to one society member conducting a survey determined by the Executive Committee to be of benefit to the society.

Beginning 1 January 1997, all distributions of the directory data in any format will exclude those members who indicate a desire to be so excluded when returning the newly revised membership application and renewal forms, which were first used in the fall renewal season of 1996.

Royalty payments from University Microfilms International from sales of microfilm and microfiche of Copeia in 1996 totaled $717.26. Herpetological and Ichthyological career pamphlets sent during 1996 numbered 655 and 623, respectively (compared to 270 and 267 in 1995). In addition, both pamphlets are now available on WWW and an unknown number of copies have been distributed via that medium.

The Secretary again solicited contributions and suggestions for improvement of the Society's World Wide Web pages, as well as offers to assist with management of portions of the system. Additional committee pages would be especially welcome additions. Long range plans for improvements in the Web offerings include posting of much of the society history recorded in files in the Secretary's office and incorporation of the Society Procedures Manual now being developed by the Long Range Planning and Finance Committee. Improved search and data retrieval capabilities for the membership database are currently being worked on. The membership database continues to be maintained at Allen Press, which provides electronic copies to the Secretary on a quarterly basis. These are used for general communications with the membership and for updates of the membership directory on WWW. Members are asked to please update their address and e-mail data via the Web (http://www.asih.org/info/how2upd.html) or via e-mail to khickey@allenpress.com.

Jose Rosado reported that the Publications Secretary office had no activity in 1996. Prior to the society's shift to Allen Press's Business Office service, no orders had been processed for back issues, and all subsequent requests were fulfilled by the ASIH Business Office. Consequently any 1996 back issue sales were reported as sales by the Business Office to the Treasurer.

George Cline, the Secretary/Treasurer then presented his report of the Southeastern Division of ASIH. The annual business meeting was held on 14 June 1996 in New Orleans, LA with President Mary Freeman presiding. After hearing announcements, the recipients of the student travel awards were announced (Chris Skelton, David Eisenhour, Elena Amesbury, Elizabeth Smithson, Kyle Piller, Bernard Kuhajada, and Kenneth Cook).

Minutes of the 1995 meeting were distributed by then Secretary/Treasurer Carol Johnston. A motion was made, seconded, and passed approving the minutes as printed. Secretary/Treasurer Carol Johnson presented the Treasurer s report after copies of the report were distributed to the members present. A balance of $161.58 was transferred from the 1995 budget. Income received from voluntary dues during 1996 totaled $541.00 Expenditures included $64.00 for postage, $350.00 for student travel awards (7 @ $50 each), and $22.74 for bank service charges. The balance after the meeting was $265.84. A motion was made, seconded, and passed approving the Treasurer's report as printed.

No Old Business was brought forward for discussion. Under New Business, Secretary/Treasurer Jonhston passed out a SEASIH mission planning statement for approval by the membership. The statement was generated as a result of a request by the ASIH Long Range Planning and Finance Committee for information necessary to develop an ASIH Procedures Manual. Secretary/Treasurer Johnston suggested that the statement might be included in the ASIH home page. No comments or objections about the mission statement were made by the members present at the meeting, and Dr. Johnston asked that if anyone would like to submit comments later, to please send them to her.

President Freeman announced the nominee for Secretary/Treasurer, George Cline (Jacksonville State University, Jacksonville, AL). A motion was made and seconded that he be elected. The motion passed by a unanimous vote. Members were reminded that the next meeting would be with ASB (Association of Southeastern Biologists) in Greenville, SC, and the meeting adjourned.

The chair of the Committee on Special Publications, Richard L. Mayden, indicated that his committee has had no publications submitted or accepted over the last year, but that some ideas/plans have been discussed regarding a revision of the previous ASIH document on careers in ichthyology and herpetology.

Tim Berra announced that the Committee to Nominate a New Honorary Foreign Member (Bruce Collette, Doug Markle, Lynn Parenti, Tim Berra) was charged with the task of providing four nominations for two vacancies created by the deaths of Dr. F. Marshall (England) and Dr. T. Abe (Japan). A call for nominations was placed in the Newsletter of Systematic Ichthyology for 1996, Copeia 1997(1), and e-mail was sent to all ASIH ichthyologists who had valid addresses on file with the secretary's office. The information circulated stated: "The definition of 'foreign' is exclusive of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Criteria include: 1) distinguished record of accomplishment in ichthyology, 2) cooperation with North American ASIH members, 3) national representation (When other considerations approach equality, preference would be given to a person from a country not already represented on the list of Honorary Foreign Members.)."

Nine candidates representing seven countries were received. After deliberation, the Committee nominated the following: Kunio Amaoka (Japan), Peter H. J. Castle (New Zealand), Maurice Kottelat (Switzerland), Robert M. McDowall (New Zealand). A short biographical sketch of each nominee is given below. Complete Curriculum Vitae for these candidates may be obtained from the Secretary's office (asih@uts.cc.utexas.edu).

Chair of the Committee to Revise the "Careers in Herpetology" Pamphlet, John E. Simmons, announced that the pamphlet was revised with the assistance of comments from members of the Board of Governors and several other ASIH members and the text is now available on the ASIH web page at http://www.asih.org/pubs/herpjobs.htm. Those lacking Internet access may obtain a copy of the text by contacting the Herpetological Information Coordinator or the Secretary's office.

Endowment Committee chair, Jay M. Savage, reported that the principal activities of the Committee involved solicitation of the membership for contributions to the Endowment in any amount. A letter requesting contributions from President Stewart, President-Elect Pietsch and the chair of the Committee was mailed to all members with their dues notice in September 1996. In addition, dues notices now have a check-off for contributions to the Endowment. A total of $8,778 was received from 155 members during 1996, a smaller total amount than from the initial Endowment Fund raising in 1994, but more individuals contributed. Total funds contributed in 1994 through 1996 were $30,321. With accrued interest, the Endowment stood at $35,183 at the end of 1996. The Committee appreciates and thanks all who have contributed but remains surprised that many present and past officers and members of the Board of Governors have failed to make even a minimal contribution. The Committee is currently exploring other sources of funding for the Endowment with emphasis during the coming year on bequests to the Endowment as part of estate planning by members and corporate giving.

Melvin L. Warren, Jr., Chair of the Environmental Quality Committee, reported that the committee prepared two letters for President Stewart that supported closure of gypsum mining in the designated protected areas of Cuatro CiÇnegas valley, Coahuila, MÇxico. As a result in part of continued and strong support by ASIH and others, Mexican authorities closed of the mines in recognition of the biological significance of this small, spring-fed desert valley ecosystem. Jack Musick, EQC member, drafted a statement on reauthorization of the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act of the United States of America. It was approved by the Executive Committee and forwarded by President Stewart to key Senate leaders. The reauthorization, hailed by the Marine Fish Conservation Network as a significant and strengthened improvement over the status quo, was passed in mid-September by the Senate. A letter initiated by Gary Meffe on the role and use of science in the Endangered Species Act commented on the proposed Saxton bill, an amendment of the Endangered Species Act of 1973. It was signed by many EQC and ASIH members and sent to key congressional members. To date, we still await Congressional action on the reauthorization of the strongest environmental law on Earth! The Committee prepared a letter for President Stewart to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service commenting on shark species being considered for CITES listings. The letter strongly supported recommendations of the Shark Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission and applauded the Service for their efforts and vision in attempting to bring the trade in sharks under the purview of CITES. A special subcommittee, lead by Selina Heppel and Phil Pister, organized a symposium for the 1997 meeting entitled "Scientists and Conservation: Tales from the Front" featuring a stellar cast of nine presenters addressing conservation advocacy, ethics, and conservation considerations for herps and fishes.

Carol Britson, chair of the Equal Participation Committee (with members Dominique Didier, and Karen Warkentin), said the ASIH Equal Participation Committee sponsors activities that increase and support the role of women in the society by involving all interested members of ASIH. At the 1997 meeting the committee coordinated a mentoring program, and held a lunchtime panel discussion. The mentoring program was designed to match mentorees (e.g., students and/or young professionals new to the society(ies) and the annual meeting) with established researchers in their field. Program participants were introduced during the mentoring program breakfast on 27 June. The 29 June lunch meeting at Ivar's Salmon House was financially supported by the University of Washington. A panel discussion and question and answer session was held on topics of interest for women in science.

Steve M. Reilly reported that the Gaige Committee received 24 complete proposals this year. Another 11 applications incomplete as of the deadline were not considered and applicants were informed. Six awards of $500 each went to: Louise M. Armstrong, Biology Department, Morrill South, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003-5810, "Patterns and processes of speciation in desmognathine salamanders"; W. Anthony Frankino, Biology Department, Indiana University, Bloomington, IA, 47405-6801, "Endocrine basis of alternative morphological development in amphibians"; Nathan J. Kley, Biology Department, Morrill South, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003-5810, "Comparative swallowing kinematics on the Florida kingsnake, Lampropeltus getula: bulky versus elongate prey"; Matthew Klukowski, Department of Biology, Jordan Hall, Indiana University, Bloomington, IA 47405, "A test of testosterone-mediated immunosupression in the fence lizard, Sceloporus undulatus"; Dusti K. Timanus, Department of Biology, University of Central Oklahoma, 100 n. University, Edmond, OK 73034, "Phenotypic correlates of male reproductive success in the eastern collared lizard, Crotophytus collaris, using DNA fingerprinting"; Stephanie M. Welter, School of Biological Sciences, 101 T. H. Morgan Bldg., University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0225, "The phenotypic and genetic integration of antipredator traits in different selective environments."

Herpetological Information Coordinator John E. Simmons replied to 61 total inquiries (23 received by letter and 38 received by email). The geographic origin of questions was: USA 30 (California 1, Colorado 1, Connecticut 1, Idaho 2, Illinois 2, Maryland 2, Massachusetts 1, Minnesota 1, Montana 1, New Hampshire 1, New Jersey 2, New York 4, North Carolina 2, Ohio 1, Oregon 1, Pennsylvania 1, Virginia 3, Washington 1, Wisconsin 2); Argentina 1; Canada 1; Germany 1; Peru 1; Portugal 1; United Kingdom 1; Origin unknown 25. Questions were asked in the following categories: general reptile and amphibian questions 12; careers in herpetology 1; colleges and universities with herpetological programs 4; salamanders 3, frogs 5; lizards 13; snakes 18; turtles 3; crocodilians 2.

Stephen J. Walsh, Ichthyological Information Coordinator received 21 inquiries in the last year, 16 by e-mail, four by snail mail, and one by phone. Requests came from 13 U.S. states, two foreign countries (Belgium and Sri Lanka), and six of unknown origin. Questions were from grade-school students and the general public (12), university staff and students (7), and museum or government employees (2). Responses covered the following topics (some requests addressed more than one category): general ecology, life history, or anatomy (7); aquaculture, aquarium management, or game fishing (6); career opportunities (3); taxonomy or nomenclature (3); electrofishing, animal care, or experimental protocols (2); museum exhibits (1), and; "do fish really sleep?" (1, representing a long-standing wager). Most requests were received directly by the ASIH business office.

The Ichthyological and Herpetological Collections Committee (Brooks M. Burr, chair), the largest committee in the Society, has been made up of our subcommittees: Policies and Practices (Douglas W. Nelson, chair); Supplies and Resources (Alexandra M. Snyder, chair); Newsletter (H. J. Walker, chair); Data Standards (Stuart G. Poss, chair). In consultation with President Theodore W. Pietsch, the committee at-large, and other Society officers, the "Supplies and Resources" and "Policy and Practices" subcommittees were combined to form a single "Supplies and Practices Subcommittee." The "Data Standards Subcommittee" was split to form an "Ichthyological Data Standards Subcommittee" and a "Herpetological Data Standards Subcommittee."

The Policy and Practices Subcommittee did not file a formal report this year, in part because of the impending reorganization of the overall Collections Committee. Many issues are in discussion and will be reported to the membership in 1998.

The Supplies and Resources Subcommittee submitted an abbreviated version of the supplies database for inclusion on the ASIH Website under "Curation." This searchable database will provide users with names of vendors for basic collection items such as jars, lids, tanks, or chemicals. Each item and vendor has a museum acronym and date associated with it so users can determine who uses the product and vendor. Updated information and more survey information will be added this summer. The Subcommittee continues to respond to queries regarding wet collection supplies and practices. Ongoing dialogue with such places as the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazona (INPA) in Manaus and the Monterey Bay Aquarium research collections resulted in the committee providing lists of supplies and vendors as well as details on accessioning and cataloguing practices. Other frequently asked questions involve collection database structures and availability of cataloguing software. The Subcommittee refers these questions to the appropriate sources.

The Newsletter Subcommittee solicited contributions for the publication of Curation Newsletter #12. As of March 1997 there were only two potential submissions. A "call for papers" announcement is in the process of being prepared for the ASIH Homepage. The announcement is expected to generate a sufficient number of contributions to publish Curation Newsletter #12 before the 1998 ASIH meeting.

The Data Standards Subcommittee is working with Stan Blum and ASC in developing collection standards. Stuart Poss and Stan Blum have been discussing the emerging cross-discipline standards and their usefulness to ASIH members who manage collections. Work continues on the editing of symbolic codes and data relating to the status of collections. Much of this work will be completed by the time of the 1997 meetings.

Thanks to the efforts of Mike Taylor, Tulane University Museum of Natural History, the entire committee has a listserv address to facilitate better communication among members and the ASIH Collections Committee Chair. Mike will continue to manage the list.

The Joint ASIH-AFS Committee on Names of Fishes and advisory subcommittee met Monday 17 June, 1200-1330 hrs at the 1996 ASIH conference, New Orleans. The following committee members were present: J. S. Nelson (Chair), E. J. Crossman, C. R. Gilbert, R. N. Lea, D. Stewart, and J. D. Williams. Several subcommittee members, including new member H. Espinosa-Perez replacing Ray Hunziker, attended and actively contributed to our decisions. A draft manuscript was circulated. Some results of the meeting are as follows: a) Intention confirmed to include Mexican fish fauna with Spanish (and English?) names and French names for species in Quebec. The title of the new list will thus be: "Common and Scientific Names of Fishes from Canada, Mexico, and the United States." b) Format and codes confirmed as previously given. Outline map to be added. c) Cephalochordates to be added with help of Drs. H. Boschung and S. Poss. d) Pros/cons discussed of having all common names treated as proper names and beginning in upper case. Most committee members favor using lower case. e) Dr. Jim Williams will research the possibility of revising Appendix 2 (Exotic Fishes). Appendix 3 (hybrids) will be revised. Appendix 4 (re publication dates) will be deleted. f) Retention of the common names jewfish and squawfish was favored (our mandate is to reflect usage), however, this decision will be re-examined.

Chair Stephen T. Ross submitted the report of the Nominating Committee with the following slate of candidates for election to ASIH offices at this meeting. Copies of more detailed information sheets were distributed to members in meeting registration packets. Candidates for 1997 are as follows: President-elect: Robert C. Cashner, University of New Orleans, New Orleans; Walter R. Courtenay Jr., Florida Atlantic University; Herpetology Book Review Editor: Kentwood D. Wells, University of Connecticut; General Herpetology Editor: Andrew H. Price, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department; The Robert H. Gibbs Memorial Award Committee: Robert C. Cashner, University of New Orleans; E. O. Wiley, University of Kansas; Richard Winterbottom, University of Toronto; Board of Governors - Herpetology: Ellen J. Censky, Linda S. Ford, L. Lee Grismer, Anna Graybeal, Craig Guyer, Joseph R. Mendelson III, Tod W. Reeder, Michael Sredl, Susan C. Walls, John J. Wiens; and Board of Governors - Ichthyology: Stephen A. Bortone, Brooks M. Burr, Robert C. Cashner, Philip A. Hastings, Edie Marsh-Matthews, Amy R. McCune, Joseph S. Nelson, Peter C. Wainwright, Mark W. Westneat, E. O. Wiley

The Raney Fund Award Committee this year included: Larry G. Allen (California State University), Dannie A. Hensley (University of Puerto Rico) and George R. Sedberry (South Carolina Department of Natural Resources; Chair). The call for applications was published in Copeia 1996(4): 1077, with a cutoff date for receipt of applications of 1 March 1997. Because of an error on the part of the Chair, the cutoff date posted on the web site was 15 March, and applications were accepted through that date. Twenty-two applications were received. With $3500 in funds to disburse in 1997, the committee was able to fund six proposals: Jay R. Hove, Department of Biology, University of California , Los Angeles ($500), "Fish locomotory efficiency: MPF vs BCF modes"; Roldan C. Munoz, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara ($500), "Social and mating systems of the Sparisoma (Scaridae): A phylogenetic perspective"; Peter A. Nelson, Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University ($665), "Behavior and ecology of nearshore, flotsam-associated marine fishes"; Robert J. Scott, Department of Biology, Clark University ($600), "Analysis of stable hybrid zones between freshwater and anadromous populations of threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) in the Chehalis River drainage of Washington state"; Shane A. Webb, Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan ($480), "The phylogenetic systematics of Goodeidae (Cyprinodontiformes: Atherinomorpha)"; Lisa Wooninck, Department of Ecology, Evolution & Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara ($755), "Relative sperm contributions and paternity distributions in a pelagically spawning fish."

During March of this year, the Gibbs Award Committee (John McEachran, chair) evaluated nominations and arrived at a decision by mail, e-mail, and telephone. This year's winner was to be announced at the annual ASIH Banquet. The committee intends to continue to announce and promote the award through publication of notices in scientific journals, including Copeia. Following the annual ASIH meeting, the chairperson will forward the announcement of the winner for 1997 to these journals along with a request for future nominations. As was done the last several years, a full page in Copeia, 1997 (4), will be devoted to a plaque bearing the name of this year's winner as well as a list of all former recipients. This year's winner and the former recipients of the award will be encouraged to submit a paper in systematic ichthyology to Copeia to appear (following the normal editorial review process) in the second year following the award as the lead ichthyological paper of the journal.

Edmund D. Brodie, III, chair of the Student Award Committee, reported that a total of 184 papers were entered into the Stoye and Storer award competitions before the deadline of March 15. Of these, 85 were declared ineligible because they did not meet the requirement that the student be the sole author and presenter thus depriving these students from competing and receiving the constructive feedback associated with the competition. It is the belief of the committee that many of these multi-authored submissions are in fact primarily the work of students and could be eligible. The committee again recommends that the eligibility criteria be printed prominently, perhaps in uppercase or bold text in future calls for papers. The committee also suggests that the announcement include the information that 30 minute symposium presentations can not be included in the Stoye Award competition because of the difficulty in comparing presentations of different lengths.

Thirty-three abstracts were submitted for the Storer Award competition: 10 in the Ichthyology category, 5 in Herpetology, and 18 disqualified for multiple authorship (10 Ichthyology, 8 Herpetology).

A total of 151 abstracts were submitted to the Stoye Award competition in 5 different categories (General Ichthyology - 26, General Herpetology - 18, Genetics, Development, and Morphology - 23, Ecology and Ethology - 63, Physiology and Physiological Ecology - 21). Of these, 56 were declared ineligible because of multiple authorship, and an additional 11 could not be judged because they were 30 minute symposium presentations. Seven abstracts were submitted in inappropriate categories, and were transferred to a more appropriate category (2 from General Herpetology to Ecology and Ethology, 2 from General Ichthyology to Ecology and Ethology, 2 from General Ichthyology to Genetics, Development, and Morphology, and 1 from Genetics, Development and Morphology to Ecology and Ethology). A total of 84 abstracts were entered into the Stoye Awards competition (General Ichthyology - 16, General Herpetology - 11, Genetics, Development, and Morphology - 14, Ecology and Ethology - 38, Physiology and Physiological Ecology - 9).

At the time of this report, student standing and membership of all competitors was being verified. As in the past, students not in good standing would be notified and given the opportunity to join ASIH. If their dues are received prior to their presentation, they would be ruled eligible to compete.

President-elect Savitzky, with the assistance of a number of others provided nominations for the student award judges. At the time of this report, the majority of judge slots had been filled.

Finally, at the suggestion of Gene Helfman, the committee considered of a new category of Stoye Awards, "Conservation Biology," to reflect the rapid increase in research in ichthyology and herpetology in this arena. Based on a cursory inspection of the abstracts, 10 of the 151 Stoye Award submissions this year would be appropriately included in a "conservation biology" category. The actual number is likely much higher. This topic was sent to the Executive Committee for action.

The Time, Place, and Program Committee's (Patrick T. Gregory, chair) main task this year had been to find a meeting site for the year 2000. Although the committee has not yet concluded this task, it had strong interest from the Universidad Autonoma de Baja California Sur in La Paz, Baja Sur, MÇxico (local chair would be Carlos Villavicencio). Committee members generally agree that, assuming the normal requirements can be met, this would be an excellent opportunity to meet in Latin America.

With respect to a meeting in 2001, there is a strong feeling that the Society should undertake an odyssey to the U.S. Midwest. In the coming year, the committee will be approaching potential meeting hosts in that region, and welcomes any invitations. The next two ASIH meetings will be held at the University of Guelph (Ontario) in 1998 and Pennsylvania State University (1999).

Alan E. Leviton reported as representative to the American Association for the Advancement of Science that AMSIE'97, the 163rd general meeting of AAAS, was held in Seattle, February 13-18 and was well attended. Because of conflicting obligations and schedules, he was unable to attend several functions held expressly for affiliated society representatives, but he did attend the Section on Biological Sciences meeting as ASIH representative.

At the Section meetings, items of general interest to ASIH members were (1) continued discussion on the subject of the Fellow's nomination process and (2) planning for the Philadelphia meetings next year (12-17 Feb.), the 150th anniversary of AAAS. Symposia proposed for the meeting included (a) Taxonomy in crisis: Prospects for the 21st century; (b) From the limited to the unlimited: A history of conservation biology; (c) The history of and changing roles for museums and living collections and the impact on the public's awareness of the biological sciences; (d) Evolution and society; (e) Progress at the interface of evolution and development; (f) Natural History: Exploration and expeditions, old and new; and (g) The history and future of women in science. Although by title these may seem to dwell heavily on historical components, this is not the case. Rather, an effort is being made to incorporate historical overviews in all programs because of the anniversary. The titles listed above are first approximations and may change. A large number of other proposals were put forth and discussed both in the Section meeting and at the follow-up Planning Meeting.

With respect to the Fellows' nomination procedures, apart from changes made last year and the general procedures outlined in the AAAS Handbook, the Section clarified that "the nominee must be a member of the AAAS and must have designated membership in the Section on Biological Sciences." It is nice to report that ASIH members Theodore Pietsch, Brian W. Bowen, Joseph J. Cech, and Gary Thorgaard were among the nominees elected this year as AAAS Fellows.

The Board of Directors of AAAS met before the meetings. Mostly routine matters were discussed and reports filed, but one item of more than passing interest was the report by the Directorate of International Programs on the success of the Kyrgyzstan initiative, a conference on high altitude science held in Bishkek. The conference attracted only a handful of North American scientists, but nearly 400 Russian, Asian, and European scientists attended. The conference dealt with a broad range of problems focusing on high altitudes, from ecology to seismology, conservation and the environment, as well as communication and education. ASIH members interested in AAAS initiatives in countries of the Former Soviet Union, contact Dr. Elizabeth Kirk, International Programs, at AAAS (ekirk@aaas.org).

The Council of AAAS considered a number of proposals at its meeting. Among those that generated some discussion were (1) a proposed change to the Constitution to permit the Board to appoint (thus bypassing the current constitutional mandate for election by the membership at-large) up to two Directors to serve three-year staggered terms, and (2) initiation of a new program, a dialogue on science and religion. The first occasioned some discussion and dissention, including an objection to the Constitution change by the ASIH representative, but when the vote was taken, the majority supported the Board-generated recommendation. The second item led to a short-lived but heated discussion, with concerns expressed that a balance in presentations be maintained and that the program not be dominated by any one denominational perspective. It was clearly stated that all papers would be reviewed by scientists for their objectivity and balance and that this would not turn into a forum for the advancement of religious dogma.

The track (AAAS organizes its sessions in tracks, i.e., clusters of symposia that look at one or more closely related themes) on Biological and Genetic Diversity included several theme sessions of interest to ASIH members: (a) Global Biodiversity Assessment: The Importance of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning; (b) Valuing Biodiversity; (c) Africa's Marine Resources as Potential Economic Assets; and (d) The Nature and Value of Ecosystems. A session on Columbia River salmon restoration and two relating to the Pacific Northwest ecosystems, one coastal marine and one wetlands, were presented under the track rubric "Natural Resources Issues in the Pacific Northwest." Apart from these selected programs, there was a potpourri of others that would easily have attracted the attention of individual members of ASIH, for instance (a) Early Maritime Adaptations in North America, 10,000 to 4,500 yr BP; (b) Priorities for Environmental and Natural Resources Research; (c) Scholarly Publishing on the Internet: What does the Future Hold.

Representative to the American Elasmobranch Society (AES), George H. Burgess reported that AES held its 12th Annual Meeting on 13-19 June 1996 concurrently with ASIH in New Orleans, LA, with more than 120 members attending. The assistance of ASIH program chairman Bob Cashner, AES liaison Bruce Thompson, and other local committee members was exceptional and duly appreciated. The meeting consisted of six sessions with 80 contributed papers, seventeen posters, and the traditional open slide/video finale. An excellent symposium addressing the biology of skates was organized by Carl Luer and Bill Raschi. Contributed sessions included papers devoted to age and growth, shark attack, behavior, demography, ecology, energetics, evolution, feeding, fisheries and management, morphology, paleontology, parasitology, physiology, reproductive biology, and systematics. Numerous presentations were made at the open slide/video session. A special meeting of the IUCN/SSC Shark Specialist Group was held on 18 June to discuss CITES issues. The Presidential Address, "Diversity of Elasmobranchs and Elasmobranch Biologists," was given by John Morrissey during the ASIH plenary session. The AES sessions were well attended by AES and ASIH members, with standing room-only houses of 200+ people present at most. Larger venues will be required for future meetings. A student workshop on finding jobs also was conducted.

The society's Executive Board and Board of Directors met on 13 June, and the Business Meeting was convened on 17 June. For the first time elections were held by mail ballot, with results of balloting announced at the Business Meeting as follows: President-elect: John F. Morrissey; Secretary: Sanford Moss; Treasurer: Franklin Snelson; Board of Directors: Enric Cortes and Charles Manire (5-year terms), Phil Motta (3-year term); Grant Fund Committee: Carl Luer (3-year term); Nominating Committee: Elena Amesbury, Dominique Didier, Dave Ebert, Rocky Strong, Gilbert Van Dykhuizen

A record crowd of 170 attended the AES Banquet on 17 June. At that time a selection committee composed of Dave Koester (chair), Todd Hopkins, Charles Manire, and John New awarded the Gruber Award for best student paper to Ken Goldman for his paper, "Swimming depth and space utilization of white sharks, Carcharodon carcharias, at the South Farallon Islands, California." Karen Maruska received second place for her presentation, "Ecological morphology of the peripheral mechanosensory lateral line in the Atlantic stingray, Dasyatis sabina." "Phylogenetic relationships of the skates and rays inferred from the mitochondrial encoded 12S rRNA gene" earned Kathy Dunn third place. As in the past three years, the evening was highlighted by the Elasmo Auction which raised over $1200 for the Student Travel Fund. An additional $1884 for the Fund was garnered in apparel sales and raffle tickets. AES extended its appreciation to ASIH for its continued support of joint meetings.

Melvin L. Warren, Jr., ASIH representative to the American Fisheries Society (AFS), reported several activities within AFS of direct relevance to ASIH, particularly those concerning conservation of aquatic organisms. The Marine Fishes Subcommittee (Jack Musick and Gene Huntsman, Co-chairs) of the AFS Endangered Species Committee (Tim Modde, Chair) is assessing the status of coastal marine fishes off U.S. waters with a projected publication date of early 1998. For the 1997 AFS meetings in Monterey, Jack Musick organized a symposium entitled "Ecology and Conservation of Long-Lived Marine Animals" that will provide valuable input into coastal marine fish status assessments and Cindy Deacon Williams has organized a symposium entitled "Protecting Vulnerable Species: On the Edge Between Biological Need and the Demands of the Real World" to address the gap between legal mandates and biological needs for species recovery. The AFS published a special issue of Fisheries [1996. 21(10)] on status of southeastern Alaska and British Columbia salmonid stocks at risk. The AFS published its final Advocacy Guidelines policy [1997. Fisheries 22(2):12-15], a document that should be scrutinized for applicability to ASIH. The AFS Resource Policy Committee published an AFS position statement on biodiversity [1997. Fisheries 22(3):16-23] that recommends international cooperation, landscape-scale planning, and increased funding for long-term monitoring and research on biodiversity.

Lawrence M. Page, representative to the Association of Systematic Collections said the minutes of the 1996 Annual Business Meeting in College Park, Maryland, contained the following information. The ASC Board has decided to establish a Leadership Council of Affiliated Societies. The council is intended to identify issues and develop grass-roots action to increase the visibility of collections-based research. The ASC Database Committee has been reactivated, and ASC is developing a taxonomic resources expertise database (TRED) and is conducting a survey of biological collection resources. Funding requests to the National Science Foundation of about $50 million in the past year for collections support far exceeded the $6.47 million available. Both the number of requests and the levels of funding are increasing. NSF will not support long-term computer projects.

A report on the Organization of Biodiversity Information (OBI) was included. OBI was formed to address needs for information on biodiversity. Included in their objectives are plans to electronically map the flora and fauna of the U.S. at the county level, and to electronically map the biota of Hawaii at a more precise level of detail.

Early Life History Section of the American Fisheries Society representative Michael P. Fahay reported that a special session on larval fish preservation and curation was planned for this year's meeting. There is also an effort being made to compile a list of reference, research, voucher or teaching collections of fish eggs, larvae and early juveniles. Members of ASIH (who are not members of the ELHS section) may wish to contribute to this effort which will eventually appear on the ASIH Collections webpage. Contact Darrel Snyder, Colorado State University. Membership in this section of the AFS now includes workers from around the world. The semi-annual newsletter, "Stages" contains contributions from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and South America, as well as from four U.S. regions. Affiliate, non-voting membership includes a subscription to this informative newsletter and is available for $10.00 a year. Contact Stanley Warlen, NMFS, Beaufort, NC 28516-9722.

As representative to the Fish Behavior Group of Animal Behavior Society, Arthur A. Myrberg stated the Animal Behavior Society had its 33rd annual meeting at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, August 4-8, 1996. Three hundred thirty-two papers were presented, a decrease of approximately 10% from 1995, continuing a gradual trend. Fifty-one papers dealt with subjects of direct interest to ASIH members: 23 (6.9%) dealt with fishes, 15 (4.5%) dealt with reptiles, and 13 (3.9%) dealt with amphibians. Papers, dealing with these three groups increased their representation to 15.3% of the total papers presented at the meeting, thereby reversing the progressive loss of representation of contributions in the last several years, i.e., 9.4% (1995), 11.5% (1994), 12% (1993).

Few families of fishes were represented. The most popular families included the poeciliids (8) and the cichlids (6). Freshwater bass and the gymnotids were the subjects of two papers each and one paper considered a percid. Herpetological groups markedly increased the number of their contributions over that provided at the 1995 meeting by more than 200%: lizards (11 papers), frogs and toads (7), salamanders (6), turtles (3) and snakes (1).

Reports were divided among the following subjects (loosely defined):

Howard Elliot Winn, a dear colleague and friend of many members of our Society and a renowned ichthyologist and behavioral scientist, passed away August 13, 1995. Howard was honored by the ABS by naming its Society's Founder Memorial Poster Award in his honor. The ABS is also collecting autobiographical materials, particularly from its long-term members, which will be housed at the Smithsonian Institution, for scholarly research on the history of the ABS. The 34th annual meeting of the Animal Behavior Society will be held at University of Maryland/National Zoological Park at College Park, MD, June 21-26, 1997; web site: http://www.bsos.umd.edu/cebh/abs97.

According to John E. Simmons, representative to the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections, the 11th annual meeting of the Society was held at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 12-15 June 1996. The meeting theme was "Historic Collections." The keynote address was by Susan Glassman and Gretchen Worden, "The Soap Lady and the Saber Tooth: The Collections of the Mutter Museum and Wagner Free Institute of Science." The meeting program included a tour of the Mutter Museum and Wagner Institute. Of particular interest to ASIH members were presentations on the roles of natural history collections; the stabilization and conservation of old anatomical specimens; the physical interactions between fluid preservatives, jars, and sealants; fluid collection containers; and requirements for digitizing natural history illustrations. The meeting workshop was "Value and Insurance of Natural History Collections." A variety of speakers presented contrasting views of issues and implications involved in the assignment of value and the insurance of natural history collections.

Alan H. Savitzky, representative to the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles and the Herpetologists' League, reported that the upcoming meetings in Seattle (1997) and Guelph (1998) will mark the first time that all both HL and SSAR have joined ASIH for joint meetings in two successive years. Although the Seattle meeting promises to be extremely large, the high number of herpetological presentations and symposia is a promising development. About a decade ago there was concern in ASIH that herpetological attendance at meetings had declined to an undesirably low level, and the promotion of frequent joint meetings, especially with HL, has coincided with much more active herpetological participation at ASIH meetings. Although such large meetings pose obvious logistic difficulties, they are beneficial from the perspective of member participation in the affairs of the Society, especially by herpetological members. Although joint participation by all herpetological societies is confirmed through 1998, neither HL nor SSAR has made a firm commitment to meet with ASIH at a subsequent meeting. Such continued participation is certainly desirable, especially by HL, whose members bolster the herpetological attendance at our meetings. SSAR, however, is unlikely to be sympathetic to another joint meeting in such rapid succession.

Past President Meg Stewart led ASIH, HL, and SSAR in the joint submission of a successful proposal to the National Science Foundation requesting support for student travel grants to the Third World Congress of Herpetology in Prague, Czech Republic this Summer. A joint committee was established to disperse those funds. The long-postponed joint herpetological directory was placed under the direction of a new individual last year. The problems of dealing with different membership files, which often contain inconsistent addresses for the same individual, makes this a fairly daunting task.

President Pietsch moved to discussion of old business, beginning with the exempted reports. Discussion began with Governor Don Buth, who had requested exemption of the report of the Managing Editor, pointing out that he had questioned the mechanism of reporting Copeia rejection rates at last year's meeting. He noted that the Managing Editor's response in the current report appeared to be erroneous and requested an explanation. The Managing Editor, Michael Douglas, was not present, and it was pointed out by several Sectional Editors that the Editorial Committee had been instructed by Dr. Douglas not to convene as scheduled at this meeting, and none could explain the mechanism of calculating rejection rates as reported in Dr. Douglas' report. Dr. Buth read from the Managing Editor's report and specifically questioned the statement that the "overall 1996 rejection rate for Copeia was 62.6% (62/99)", explaining that clearly more than 99 papers were submitted during the year. Governor Buth indicated that by his calculations, the overall rejection rate should be about 45 %. President Pietsch asked if someone from the Editorial Policy Committee could explain, but committee members present could not provide an explanation. Bruce Collette pointed out that delay time to publication in Copeia is not included in the report. Steve Ross (Ecology Editor) explained that in his section, the modal delay from receipt of a manuscript to the decision to accept or not was about 2.5 - 3 months. Subsequent delays which may total 3 to 7 months are mostly the result of authors' response time, and can not be controlled by editors. Collette requested that the Managing Editor supply information regarding delays to publication. Ross commented that he thought it was close to one year. Dan Cohen moved that the Managing Editor should discuss questions regarding rejection rates and delay to publication with the Executive Committee, and that the Managing Editor should delegate responsibility for responding to governors' questions about the report if he is unable to attend the meeting. Bruce Collette seconded the motion. Don Buth, looking for the source of the rejection rate calculation error, asked Steve Ross about the number of manuscripts he had processed. He indicated that he would have to refer to his database, and Rick Mayden indicated that he also could not supply appropriate data since he had been acting as Section Editor for only part of 1996. Vic Hutchinson suggested that the duties of the Managing Editor, including presentation of data and delegation of authority, as being questioned at the meeting, be written into the Constitution and/or Bylaws. Bill Eschmeyer commented that he thought these details would be better placed in the ASIH Procedures manual now in development. The president called for a vote on the motion made by Governor Cohen, and it carried with none opposed and one abstention. He then called for a motion to approve or pass the report of the Managing Editor. Meg Stewart moved to reject the report until amended and discrepancies in numbers and the rejection rate were resolved in consultation with the Executive Committee. Her motion was carried with 40 governors voting to accept, 3 opposed, and 4 abstentions.

Note: Following the annual meeting, the Executive Committee voted to accept the report of the Managing Editor with the following addendum, provided July 14 by the Editor in response to the governor's questions:

Of the 240 articles processed, 21% (n=51) were allocated to genetics, development, and morphology; 21% (n=51) to ecology and ethology; 20% (n=48) to general ichthyology; 20% (n=48) to general herpetology; and 18% (n=42) to physiology and physiological ecology. Rejection rates were calculated by section as number of manuscripts rejected during 1996 divided by total number for which a decision (positive or negative) was reached. These figures were as follows: Physiology/physiological ecology, 81.3% (13/16); ecology and ethology, 68.4% (13/19); general ichthyology, 58.6% (17/29); general herpetology, 56.3% (9/16); genetics, development, and morphology, 52.6% (10/19). The overall 1996 rejection rate for Copeia was 62.6% (62/99). Thus, at the time this report was written, 141 of the 240 manuscripts submitted in 1996 were still in some aspect of review.

The Copeia office prefers a three-month period to edit, compile, and copy-edit each issue. An additional month provides a "safety cushion" to deal with unforseen editorial problems (required because authors either fail to respond to editorial queries or only respond differentially). Thus, time "in-train" at the Copeia office is four months. The time required by Allen Press to produce an issue is also four months. The latter figure has decreased steadily during the past several years (i.e., from six to four months) primarily due to the efficiency with which electronic manuscripts can be processed. Thus, an issue's average time "in-train" (i.e., from acceptance at Copeia to publication at Allen Press) should be no less than eight months. For the first three issues of 1997, the average "in-train" period is as follows: 1997(1) 7.8 months; 1997(2) 7.1 months; 1997(3) 6.7 months. While there is clearly no backlog, neither is there a safety margin. The editorial office is being pushed to its practical limits.

Also in relation to Copeia, it was pointed out that Notes in Copeia do not have abstracts. The suggestion was made that adding abstracts to Notes would be useful and that doing so might add only about 2 pages per year. Steve Ross said that this was discussed at last years' editorial policy meeting, where the decision was made not to do add abstracts to Notes, but that the issue was to be re-visited at this year's meeting which had been canceled.

The Historian's report had been exempted from blanket approval by Susan Jewett, who expressed interest in the oral history project and requested more information about it. Meg Stewart described the project, explaining that it started with the Historian's list of "Threatened and Endangered" ASIH members which was produced by the Historian a couple years ago along with a questionnaire. Meg, then Society President, had called for volunteers to interview older ASIH members residing nearby utilizing the questionnaire. Bill Anderson and Meg carried out the initial legwork on this project and four interviews have now been completed. They are eager to get more volunteers. Governor Jewett suggested that an announcement about the project be put on the Web site, and Secretary Hendrickson indicated that would be done. The motion was made to accept the report of the Historian and it was carried without opposition.

Secretary Hendrickson then read minor changes to Appendix B of the Report to the Governors, "Recommended Changes in the ASIH Constitution and By-laws", which had been compiled by the Executive Committee at its meeting earlier in the day. Bob Johnson, Chair of the Long Range Planning and Finance Committee explained the Procedures Manual and its relationship to the Constitution and By-laws. Code will be in the Constitution and Bylaws, and mechanisms for carrying out the business of the society in compliance with those codes will be organized and maintained in a dynamic Procedures Manual which will be frequently updated and made available to all members via World Wide Web. Johnson then directed all subsequent discussion of his Committee's proposed changes to the Constitution and By-Laws. The proposed changes and the rationale behind them are available in the Board of Governors Report and on the WWW at http://www.asih.org/meetings/1997/97bogrpt.htm. All motions made by Dr. Johnson, since they came from a Society Committee, did not require a second, and were acted upon by voice vote, as approved by the Parliamentarian. In the ensuing discussions, many of Johnson's motions to amend portions of the Constitution and Bylaws were carried unanimously without discussion, while other were discussed as noted below.

Johnson's motion to amend Article IX produced some discussion. Governor Henry Bart asked if the proposed amendment excluded the Long Range Planning and Finance Committee. Johnson explained that he had obtained prior approval from the Executive Committee to propose these amendments and the amendment was slightly revised to then pass unanimously as printed in the revised constitution.

The proposal to amend Bylaws Article III produced some discussion. Steve Ross asked if the phrase "subject to review and ratification" referred to the report of the Secretary or to expenditures and Johnson explained that it referred to the report only. The motion then carried unanimously.

Two motions by Johnson to amend the roles of the Secretary and Treasurer regarding the Annual Audit (Bylaws: Article III - items 10 and 12 of Appendix B of the Report to Board of Governors) were then considered together. Rosenblatt questioned these proposals, pointing out that in case of a problem that requires an independent auditor, there should be someone other than the treasurer empowered to name the auditor and this motion seemed to exclude that possibility. Savitzky pointed out that this amendment was intended to deal specifically with the annual audit, and any problems might require a special audit. Governor Jewett concurred. Johnson commented that the Executive Committee can at any time call for a special audit. Treasurer Larry Page suggested that leaving these Articles as they currently are worded would be acceptable, and Johnson withdrew his motion

Johnson's next motion to constitutionally address the issue of copyright control by adding a section to Bylaws Article 3 passed unanimously after minor discussion regarding the history of administration of copyright permissions by the Managing Editor and Secretary.

Johnson next moved to eliminate the office of Publications Secretary, explaining that the tasks of this office were now handled entirely by Allen Press under the Business Management contract. Governor Bruce Collette explained some of the history of this office, noting that formerly there was considerable demand for back issues of Copeia and some were being re-printed for sale at a profit to the society, making this an important position. The motion was then carried unanimously, resulting in deletion of Article V of the bylaws and revision of Article IV of the Constitution.

Dr. Johnson's next proposed amendments, changing the title of "Managing Editor" to "Editor" together with complementary changes to the definition of editorial function, produced considerable discussion following Dr. Johnson's explanation of the intent of the amendments. Bruce Collette asked if this meant that papers are accepted by the editor and not sectional editor. Johnson pointed out there have been disagreements between the Managing and Sectional editors in the past. He explained that Sectional editors recommend acceptance and scheduling for publication to the editor and that in the vast majority of transactions that recommendation is accepted without question. Steve Ross pointed out that sectional editors "recommend" acceptance. Don Buth asked why the title should not be changed to "Editor in Chief". Johnson said that proposal had been made and rejected at the Charleston meeting and Dr. Collette said it had also been rejected once before then. Ed Wiley pointed out problems regarding issues of rejection based on quality of the science reflected in manuscripts versus other reasons for rejection. Bob Johnson suggested that this issue should be discussed in the Editorial Policy Committee. Dr. Wiley said that points of Science could come up that would result in an editor rejecting a manuscript after it had been recommended for approval by a Sectional Editor. Dr. Johnson reiterated that he feels we need the safeguard of approval by both Sectional and Managing Editors. Bill Matthews pointed out that if a sectional editor does not like the science in a manuscript, then there is no recourse for the author, who then has no choice but to submit it to another journal. Wiley said that because there is this two level procedure, the issue needs to be discussed. Mayden said that now he, as a sectional editor, makes a "recommendation" to accept, but that the ultimate decision lies with the Managing Editor. Bob Johnson pointed out that the proposed changes simply recognize the way the process now functions. Clark Hubbs reiterated that point, pointing out that the Managing Editor could also arrange for long delays, thus in effect amounting to rejection. Bill Matthews pointed out that Sectional Editors, when he was one, had the power to reject papers, and if they did so, the paper would never go to the Managing Editor. Dr. Mayden concurred that this is the way the system still works. Following this discussion, the revision to the Bylaws passed with 3 governors in opposition.

A motion to constitutionally define the mechanism of appointing the Editorial Board was then explained by Dr. Johnson. There was no discussion of this, and the motion carried unanimously.

A motion to formally define the ASIH Committee structure and tenure of service then was carried unanimously following minor discussion. Johnson then moved to revise Article IV of the Constitution to add an additional term of service on the Executive Committee for the former ASIH Past-President, explaining that would replace the Publications Secretary, the elimination of which reduced the Executive Committee by one. There was minor discussion and revision of the motion, which then carried unanimously.

Dr. Johnson then moved for acceptance of proposed revisions of the Bylaws redefining the missions of the Long Range Planning and Finance Committee and the Endowment Committee, explaining the rationale of the proposed changes in names and functions. Bill Eschmeyer asked for clarification regarding exactly what the endowed funds were, and Dr. Johnson explained that responsibility for all finances were proposed to be moved from the Long Range Planning and Finance Committee to the Endowment Committee. The motion was approved with no further discussion.

The final proposal from the Long Range Planning and Finance Committee sought to constitutionally define the mechanism by which decisions regarding Society awards are made. Governor Lynne Parenti requested clarification of the phrase "basis for award decisions" used repeatedly in the proposed amendment. Governor Richard Rosenblatt had similar questions. Bill Eschmeyer explained that the intent was that award committees develop tools such as scoring sheets for judges that would then provide the committees with the basis, or criteria for decisions. It was then asked whether the Executive Committee would be required to approve all award criteria. Dr. Johnson explained that the intent of the proposed revisions was to establish a checks and balance system for awards and the selection of judges. Governor Rosenblatt suggested that this proposed change was cumbersome. Clark Hubbs moved that the phrase "basis of" be deleted from all sections where it appeared in the proposed amendment. Governor Rick Mayden asked about the new Fitch Award, and whether it too would be affected by these revisions. Governor Stuart Poss asked if the motion was to approve all sections of the proposed revisions following the revision suggested by Dr. Hubbs. Johnson replied affirmatively to both inquiries. Upon the request of a governor, the revised text of the Section pertaining to the Gibbs Award Committee was re-read by Dr. Johnson. Al Savitzky pointed out that the coordinator of the Student Awards Committee is appointed by the President two years prior to their service. Dr. Johnson indicated that this procedure would be included in the ASIH Procedures Manual. There was no further discussion and the revised motion passed unanimously.

Dick Rosenblatt moved that the Long Range Planning and Finance Committee be thanked by the Governors for their work on these changes to the Constitution and By-laws. His motion was quickly seconded and carried unanimously.

Maureen Donnelly had requested that the Report of the Committee on Graduate Student Participation be exempted from the blanket approval. She explained that she did so to discuss the consistently large number of competitors in the Ecology and Ethology Section of the Stoye Award, the need to address the problems imposed by this, and to support the proposal to establish a new "Conservation" category. The President asked to defer discussion of the new category to new business since the Executive Committee had already included that topic on the agenda for that part of the meeting. A motion to approve the report of the Committee on Graduate Student Participation was made, seconded and passed without opposition.

George Rabb, Representative to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, had requested exemption of his own report so as to include an addendum in his original report. He indicated that the World Conservation Congress took place in Montreal in October 1996. The Congress is an opportunity for all of IUCN's members to come together. Nearly 2,700 representatives and observers attended the ten streams of technical workshops and the several plenary sessions. The 55 workshops covered numerous topics, including conservation communications, sustainable use, and regional conservation initiatives. During the plenary, more than 100 resolutions were considered, and many of them were referred to small discussion groups before IUCN members acted on them. The resolutions included broad ones dealing with trade and the rights of indigenous people, as well as specific ones concerning wildlife such as dugongs, and harmful practices such as current long line fishing techniques. In conjunction with the Congress, there was an exhibition with displays from a number of conservation organizations. Advised by DAPTF and Chair Ron Heyer, the Smithsonian Institution had a cosponsored exhibit on declining amphibian populations and the work of DAPTF.

IUCN members elected new officers Yolanda Kakabadse of Ecuador as President, replacing Jay Hair, and David Brackett, Director General of Wildlife Canada, as volunteer head of SSC. Among Regional Councilors of IUCN, Dan Martin of the MacArthur Foundation, David Smith of the Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust, and Pierre Marc Johnson of McGill University were elected as the three for the North American region.

Preceding the IUCN Congress were meetings of the Species Survival Commission, starting with a SSC staff meeting generously hosted by the Granby Zoo. A SSC Steering Committee meeting and two days of Commission meetings followed. At its meeting, the Steering Committee discussed the re-appointment of Specialist Group Chairs for the upcoming triennium, further discussed plans for restructuring the governing body of the SSC, and adopted the SSC Trade Program Strategic Plan.

During the Commission meeting, 27 Specialist Groups reported, and there were intensive training workshops on communications and on the use of the Red List categories and criteria. Talks were given by John Hart, Andrew Spalton, and Schwann Tunhikorn about SSC's work in the various regions, and by several SSC and TRAFFIC members about work with CITES and other major conventions.

A major event during the last year was release of the 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals, in October 1996. This publication is significant, because it represents the first time the new Categories of Threat had been put to use and the first time that all of the known mammal species had been assessed. The results were astonishing. Before the 1996 Red List, the birds had been the only vertebrate class to be completely evaluated in terms of degree of threat of extinction, 11% being threatened. The results of the complete mammal assessment shows that almost 25% of all mammal species are threatened with extinction. Of the fishes, amphibians, and reptiles reviewed, the proportions of threatened species are closer to the mammalian figure.

Despite this major finding, the news media at the World Conservation Congress were attracted to another new aspect of the Red List. This was the listing of a few commercially important marine fish species such as the cod and the blue-fin tuna, because of the rate of decline of their populations over the last ten years. The Canadian Ministry of Fisheries as well as the Japanese delegation protested the use of the rate of decline criterion for such widespread fecund species. The applicability of the criterion will be reviewed further in a special expert meeting, but the topic had been reviewed earlier in the year at a workshop at the Zoological Society of London, convened by Dr. Georgina Mace, the principal architect of the new listing process and its criteria.

Also in October was the release of the first-ever Action Plans focusing on plants. The following plans have been published: "Orchids: Status Survey, and Conservation Action Plan"; "Palms: Their Conservation and Sustained Utilization"; and "Conservation of Mediterranean Island Plants, Strategy for Action"; "African Primates: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan (Revised Edition)"; and and "The Cranes: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan." The Plant Conservation Subcommittee continues to work on the development of SSC's activities in plant conservation, including development of new Specialist Groups where needed.

New Chair appointments for fish and reptile and amphibian groups include: Dr. William Branch as Chair of the African Reptile and Amphibian Specialist Group, Ms. Neca Marcovaldi as Chair of the Marine Turtle Specialist Group, Dr. Michael Bruton as Chair of the Freshwater Fish Specialist Group, and Dr. John Musick and Dr. Sarah Fowler as Co-Chairs of the Shark Specialist Group.

CBSG continued their work with Population and Habitat Viability Analyses (PHVA) and Conservation and Management Assessment Plans (CAMP). In 1996, CBSG conducted PHVAs on the Orinoco crocodile, striped legless lizard, and the spotted tree frog, among others. CBSG has also been advising the Oregon Chapter of the American Fisheries Society.

The initiative to develop the Biodiversity Conservation Information System (BCIS) continues to develop at both the SSC and consortium level. At the SSC level, Luigi Boitani has developed an initial prototype which upon further refinement will be tested with select Specialist Groups. At the consortium level, development is gaining momentum, especially as BCIS was awarded a grant from NORAD for continuing the planning and development processes. Two new organizations have been accepted as consortium members: The Nature Conservancy and Conservation International.

The Sustainable Use Specialist Group (SUSG) presented several regional case studies during one of the workshop streams at the World Conservation Congress. The Congress subsequently approved continuing a "bottoms-up" regional approach to developing guidelines for sustainable use. In addition to the Congress, the Steering Committee made up of regional SUSG chairs met while in Montreal, and are planning another meeting in April in Malaysia. The SUSG is nearing completion of its work plan developed in 1994 and is now formulating a second work plan.

Dr. Rabb accepted appointment as Vice-Chair for Communications in SSC. Elizabeth McCance will continue to handle the editing of Species magazine, to promote electronic communications among the Specialist Groups, and to facilitate progress on Red List development. Her e-mail address is iucnssc@igc.apc.org.

The addendum to the Report of the Representative to IUCN read by Dr. Rabb at the meeting follows:

The meeting of the Conference of Parties to CITES 9-20 June, 1997, in Harare, Zimbabwe dealt with several matters of interest and concern to the ASIH. Among actions taken, all species of sturgeons were accepted by consensus for listing on Appendix II of the Convention. The impetus for this action came from the review of the status of the world's species by the SSC/IUCN Sturgeon Specialist Group. The action is to take full effect April 1, 1998.

A proposal by the U.S. to list all sawfish on Appendix II was defeated, mainly because of lack of documentation that international trade was an important factor.

The parties decided to continue a full-fledged review of shark fisheries with a view to improving conservation measures for sharks and their relatives. FAO was called upon to mount a work program to this end, and the SSC/IUCN Shark Specialist Group is anticipated to have a substantial role in the review.

A proposal by the U. S. to establish a Working Group for Marine Fish failed narrowly but great apprehension was expressed about further moves of CITES into marine fisheries issues.

The Parties agreed by consensus to work with the CBD on issues of international trade in potentially invasive species. SSC/IUCN was recognized as the principal adviser to the Parties in this connection.

All of the crocodilian proposals before CITES were approved. These included ranching proposals for Argentina, Uganda, and Madagascar. The decisions were achieved after extensive consultations among the proponents, CITES Secretariat, and the SSC Crocodile Specialist Group.

A proposal to downlist Cuban populations of the hawksbill turtle, for limited trade in turtle shell to Japan, was defeated, but narrowly.

The U. S. withdrew proposals to list Crotalus horridus and Macroclemmys tefflminckii, the alligator snapping turtle, on Appendix II. A proposal to list Graptemys species on Appendix II was defeated by one vote. Callagur borneoensis was accepted for listing on Appendix II. Downlisting of Varanus from Bangladesh was defeated and a proposal to list Madagascan frogs of the genus Mantella was withdrawn by the Netherlands.

ASIH members were urged to become more involved in the work of SSC Specialist Groups pertinent to CITES and to the work on sustainable use of wild living resources. A motion to accept the report of the Representative to the IUCN with the addendum was made and quickly carried unanimously.

With all reports to the Governors now having been approved or rejected, the President called for discussion of old business. Carter Gilbert pointed out that the Secretary had not circulated a sheet to obtain data on numbers of governors present in both the Ichthyology and Herpetology categories, as was customary. Secretary Hendrickson indicated that he had overlooked this custom and the data were compiled by a show of hands. There were 32 ichthyology governors present, and 20 herpetologists.

There being no other items of old business, President Pietsch moved to discussion of new business, starting with items provided by the Executive Committee. The first of these was creation by the Executive Committee of a new Stoye Award category - "Conservation". The first competition in this category will be at next year's meeting. Bill Matthew asked for definition of "Conservation" for purposes of this award. Governor Stuart Poss spoke in support of the concept, indicating that it is very difficult to arrange judging in the now always very large category of "Ecology and Ethology" (EE). He proposed that creation of a Conservation category would help reduce the number of students competing in the EE category, thus facilitating scheduling of both papers and judges. Butch Brodie suggested that it might not reduce the pressure on EE very much. Based only on titles of papers in this year's competition, he estimated that only 4 papers now in EE would have been appropriate for the Conservation category. He suggested adding additional awards in EE, and it was also suggested that the Conservation and/or EE competitions might be split along taxonomic or other appropriate divisions. Meg Stewart pointed out that a nice thing about the Conservation category as currently proposed is that it transcends traditional taxonomic boundaries, and she would prefer not to split it further. Bill Matthews suggested a stepwise process, first establishing a Conservation category and considering further actions once it is seen how that action affects the number of competitors in EE. Maureen Donnelly agreed that it is perhaps not optimal to split along taxonomic lines and asked whether having separate Ecology and Ethology competitions might help alleviate the current problems. A motion was made to add the Conservation section to the Stoye Awards. It was quickly seconded and carried without opposition. Maureen Donnelly then moved to divide the current EE award section into separate competitions in each Ecology and Ethology. Meg Stewart seconded this motion, but Dave Greenfield suggested that many "behavioral ecology" papers might fall easily in either category. Al Savitzky suggested that we were adding award categories very quickly. He too supported a stepwise process, creating the Conservation section this year and revisiting the issue in a couple years. Stewart Poss suggested the issue of size of the EE competition and consequential judging and scheduling problems should be addressed now. Dick Rosenblatt seconded Greenfield's earlier comment. Clark Hubbs suggested that the President appoint a committee and moved to table the standing motion. His motion was seconded and passed. President Pietsch appointed Gene Helfman to chair an ad hoc committee to define "Conservation Biology" for the new Stoye Award category, and appointed Maureen Donnelly to chair a committee of herself and two others of her choice to examine the proposal to split the EE Stoye Award category to make it more manageable and to make a recommendation to the Board of Governors at the next meeting.

President Pietsch then announced that the Executive Committee would like to offer a challenge grant to the Graduate Student Participation Committee, which would match, dollar for dollar, all funds raised by the committee through its raffle or other activities at annual meetings, up a total of $2,000 annually. The President moved for approval of this motion from the Executive Committee, explaining that the funds would come from the general funds. Treasurer Page was asked how much the new checkoff on the membership application generated. Given that the checkoff was new and data had not been specifically compiled, he guessed that it had generated about $400 to $500. The motion to offer this matching grant was seconded and carried.

Dr. Pietsch explained that the Endowment Fund Committee had expressed an interest to the Executive Committee to start spending some of the endowment. The Endowment Fund Committee would be meeting tomorrow to develop guidelines for long range expenditures of endowment funds, but planned also to develop plans for short term expenditures. Both plans would be developed in line with the mission of the fund, and recommendations will be made to the Governors at next year's meeting. He explained that the Executive Committee would like to request approval of the Governors to authorize the Executive Committee to expend this year up to 4% of the total value of the Endowment Fund during the next year. Ed Wiley (as non-governor) asked what interest the Endowment earns and requested other details regarding the fund and long-range plans. Bill Eschmeyer described the history of the fund and his Committee, and the current lack of procedures regarding how to spend the funds. He explained that the Committee would like to be able to spend a small amount of money soon to demonstrate that something is being done with the funds. Wiley suggested that procedures for spending the endowment be drafted and approved before any funds are spent. The Parliamentarian pointed out that discussions had gotten out of order and agreed that procedures should be determined before any funds are spent. George Rabb commented that use of the working capitol of the Society should also be considered, pointing out that there is a sizable accumulation. The motion was made to allow the Executive Committee to spend $1600 if an appropriate activity was offered this year by the Endowment Committee. This motion was seconded, but few were in favor and it was not carried.

Gene Helfman read a statement from the Environmental Quality Committee which proposed that the Committee draft guidelines for reducing the environmental impact of annual meetings and moved that this be done. The Parliamentarian pointed out such a motion was not required since it came from a committee, but "blessed" Helfman's proposal. The President asked that the proposal be re-drafted as a resolution and given to the Resolutions Committee for presentation at the general business meeting. Helfman agreed to do so. There being no additional new business, Governors were asked to vote for a new members of the Gibbs Award Committee. As subsequently announced at the banquet, the new member of the Gibbs Award Committee is Bob Cashner.

President Pietsch then called for nominations for election to the Nominating Committee, explaining that in accord with the mechanism outlined in the by-laws for composition of this committee, Alan de Quieroz had agreed to move from member to Chair, Meg Stewart (current ASIH Ex-President) will serve as member, and that nominations of at least two persons are required from the Governors for the single position for a herpetologist, and four nominations are required for the two ichthyology positions. Maureen A. Donnelly and David L. Cundall were nominated for the Herpetology position, and Richard L. Mayden, Deanna J. Stouder, Stuart G. Poss and Henry L. Bart, Jr. were nominated for the two ichthyology positions. All provided agreements to run to the Secretary.

There being no further business, a motion to adjourn was requested, made, seconded and carried unanimously, thus ending the meeting at 6:20 PM. The board of Governors, however, was reconvened briefly on 30 June (below).

Though in previous years the complete program of papers presented at Annual Meetings has customarily been published here, a decision was made by the Executive Committee to move the program to electronic publication to save publication costs. As such, the complete program for this year's meeting can be found on the World Wide Web at: http://www.asih.org/meetings/meetings.html, or copies may be obtained by writing the ASIH Secretary's Office, Texas Natural History Collection, University of Texas / R4000, Austin, TX 78712-1100.

President Pietsch called the meeting to order at 3:19 PM in room 110 of Kane Hall.

Bruce Collette announced that he strongly protested the holding of a business meeting during paper sessions and pointed out that this had never been done before. The President (and local host) explained that no other options were available given the large number of papers and other scheduling limitations.

President Pietsch then pointed out availability of printed copies of the full text of the proposed amendments to the constitution as finalized at the Board of Governors meeting. These were distributed to all who requested them.

The President requested a motion to approve the minutes of the last business meeting as published in Copeia 1996(4):1097-1100. Maureen Donnelly made the motion, which was seconded and carried unanimously.

Secretary Hendrickson was called to read the minutes of the Board of Governors meeting, and upon completion of this, the motion to approve the minutes as read was made, seconded and passed unanimously.

Bob Cashner, Chair of the Resolutions Committee, was called upon to read the resolutions.

WHEREAS Allen Press and its staff, especially Sharon Kindall but also others too numerous to name, worked diligently, efficiently and with alacrity to complete the production of COLLECTION BUILDING IN ICHTHYOLOGY AND HERPETOLOGY in order that the volume might be made available to the membership at the 77th annual meeting of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists in Seattle, Washington,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists express its gratitude to Allen Press and its staff, particularly Sharon Kindall, for their efforts on behalf of the Society.

WHEREAS Dr. William J. Richards has faithfully and on a volunteer basis served as Editor of the BULLETIN OF MARINE SCIENCE for the past 24 years, without benefit of release time or assignment by his employer, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and

WHEREAS Dr. Richards devoted many "lunch", evening, and weekend hours to reading manuscripts and comments from reviewers to determine which were deserving of publication, revision or rejection, and

WHEREAS William J. Richards has done this task for over two decades, both as a labor of love and in the belief that marine biology deserved a quality scientific journal, and

WHEREAS he devoted time to special issues of Studies in Tropical Oceanography and other special publications of particular interest to our Society,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists acknowledge its deep debt of gratitude to Dr. William J. Richards for his selfless efforts to build the Bulletin of Marine Science into one of the most respected journals in marine biology and one of the finest outlets in marine ichthyology and herpetology, and for editing and overseeing publication of important ichthyological volumes,

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Society thank Dr. Richards for many years of a job well done.

WHEREAS the annual meeting of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists attracts an average of over 1000 members from all over the world to the host site, and

WHEREAS such an assemblage cannot help but have certain detrimental effects on the environment of the meeting site and the location of other society activities,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Environmental Quality Section of ASIH develop a list of potential actions that might be taken during the planning stages of future annual meetings to mitigate likely negative environmental impacts and to present said list to the membership at the Business Meeting of next year's ASIH conference.

WHEREAS the Southeastern Fishes Council (the Council) recognizes the importance of other scientific societies in achieving its stated mission of conservation of southeastern fishes through dissemination and exchange of scientifically based information, and

WHEREAS The American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (ASIH) has within its societal structure the Environmental Quality Committee that actively pursues dissemination of scientifically based information to the public, resource managers, researchers, and governing bodies,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Council respectfully requests that ASIH accept to their Environmental Quality Committee a representative from the Council to be appointed by the Chair of the Council for two year terms under condition that the appointee shall be a member of both the Council and ASIH during the term of office.

The acceptance of these four resolutions as written above was moved, the motion seconded and carried without objection.

A fifth resolution concerning the collection, shipping, and trade of specimens led to some discussion. Bruce Collette voiced that regulations have made it almost possible to do research and that the Society should word this resolution more neutrally to reflect its concerns. Susan Jewett agreed there are many problems, but last year's Fish and Wildlife Service changes were advantageous to us. Clark Hubbs moved the resolution be tabled. There were 22 in favor, but many more opposed. Bill Matthews asked if Sue and Bruce could work on wording and bring the revised resolution back to the membership later in the meeting. They agreed to do so (see below).

The President then moved to Old Business, announcing that the ASIH History Project was seeking volunteers to interview long-time members. Meg Stewart said that volunteers who reside close to senior members and who are willing to interview them should contact her. Dave Wake asked about the questionnaire. Meg explained that it contained questions about ASIH history and about the general histories of ichthyology and herpetology. The methods of analyzing the data are not yet determined, but the historian will produce a summary document once enough interviews are completed. Don Buth asked who has been interviewed to date and who the Society sought to have interviewed. Buth volunteered to interview Boyd Walker.

Information regarding future meetings was provided by Pat Gregory, Chair of the Time and Place Committee. Since Jim Bogart, host of next year's meeting was not present, but had provided complete information during the Time and Place Committee meeting, Gregory provided a summary. The meeting will be in Guelph, 16-22 July with housing available in dormitories and nearby hotels. A large meeting is anticipated. Jay Stauffer, chair of the local committee for the 1999 meeting at Pennsylvania State University, indicated that he was meeting with his conference people in two weeks and would soon confirm prices for housing and registration, dates, and other aspects of the meeting. The Web page for the 1999 meeting will be available by about the end of August of this year.

The President called for any other old business. There being none, he moved to the matter of amendments of the Constitution and Bylaws as proposed by the Executive Committee and Board of Governors. Bob Johnson, Chair of the Long Range Planning and Financing Committee, explained that his committee had been charged with development of a Procedures Manual for the Society and that in the process of developing this, they encountered the need to make a number of relatively minor changes in the Constitution and Bylaws. He reiterated that the full text of these changes was available in the packet that was circulated at the start of the meeting, and explained the first proposed change; to officially recognize and define the mission of the Time, Place and Program Committee. His motion to amend the Constitution by adding a section to Article VI was carried unanimously.

Tim Berra then put forth a motion to approve all changes proposed by the Governors with a blanket vote. Maureen Donnelly seconded this motion. Bill Matthews asked about the item regarding the Southeast Division which requires members to reside in the states which that section serves. Some persons might live elsewhere but be working in that region and so wish to be members. Johnson explained that the change did not require residence in one of the states listed.

Clark Hubbs moved that Berra's motion be amended to allow for a blanket vote to pass all changes as written after members were given a chance to exempt any items they wished to so exempt from the blanket approval. It was agreed to so amend the motion. Bill Eschmeyer pointed out that the date on the text of the changes made available to members at the start of the meeting, was April 1. Johnson indicated that was an error and that the text in the handout reflected all changes passed by the Board of Governors in its meeting of June 26.

The motion to vote on these changes with a single blanket vote was passed unanimously.

Jay Stauffer asked about the definition of quorum and wondered whether a quorum would be present at this meeting if the amendment setting a new definition of quorum was passed. It was determined that a quorum was present. Members were asked by the President if they wished to exempt any items from the blanket approval. None were exempted and a vote was requested to approve all changes as recommended by the Governors without modification. All changes were then passed unanimously by blanket vote. The revised Constitution and Bylaws following this meeting report reflects all amendments made during this meeting.

The President then turned to new business. Gene Helfman said he would get a note to Secretary Hendrickson to place on the Environmental Quality Committee's Web page. This would solicit ideas to lessen the environmental impact of annual meetings.

Meg Stewart suggested that Bob Johnson should be formally thanked for his hard work as chair of the Long Range Planning and Finance Committee which had drafted the amendments to the Constitution and bylaws. The members responded with a round of applause.

The revised resolution about shipments, collection, etc., which had been revised during the meeting by Susan Jewett and Bruce Collette, was read by Bob Cashner as follows:

WHEREAS biological specimens are the subject of study by members of the American Society Ichthyologists and Herpetologists and are invaluable as research materials, and

WHEREAS national and international laws regulate trade to prevent illegal activities in order to protect wildlife, and

WHEREAS it is incumbent upon ASIH members to respect national and international law,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that ASIH encourages all zoologists to support the efforts of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other regulatory agencies, to act in good faith, and to understand and comply with national and international regulations pertaining to the collection, possession, and transportation of all biological specimens,

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the ASIH encourage the U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service to work with ASIH and other scientific organizations to promote the conservation of fishes, amphibians and reptiles without unnecessarily hindering research on their biology.

Cashner's motion to accept this revised version of the resolution was then carried unanimously without discussion.

President Pietsch then called for elections and asked for nominations from the floor. Larry Page nominated Carol E. Johnston for the Board of Governors (Ichthyology section). Members had received ballots as they entered the meeting and Clark Hubbs pointed out that the constitution requires that officers be elected annually, yet the ballot did not provide for that. He moved to close nominations for Secretary and Treasurer and other officers, and moved that members vote now by voice to elect all incumbent officers to new terms. His motion was seconded and passed unanimously. Officers re-elected under the blanket election are:

• Treasurer: Lawrence M. Page
• Secretary: Dean A. Hendrickson
• Copeia Managing Editor: Michael E. Douglas
• Society Historian: Mark R. Jennings
• General Ichthyology Editor: Richard L. Mayden
• Ecology and Ethology Editor: Stephen T. Ross
• Genetics, Development and Morphology Co-Editors: John R. Gold and John McEachran
• Physiology and Physiological Ecology Editor: Richard G. Bowker
• Index Co-Editors: Frances Cashner and James W. Orr
• Ichthyology Book Review Editor: Tim M. Berra.

Maureen Donnelly moved that all nominations be closed. Her motion was seconded, and carried. Members completed and submitted their ballots, electing the following (as later announced at the banquet):

• President Elect: Robert C. Cashner
• Herpetology Book Review Editor, Copeia: Kentwood D. Wells
• General Herpetology Editor, Copeia: Andrew H. Price.
• 1998 Nominating Committee: Alan de Quieroz (chair), Margaret M. Stewart (automatic appointment as ex-president), ichthyology representatives Richard L. Mayden and Deanna J. Stouder, and herpetology representative Maureen A. Donnelly.
• Board of Governors
• Class of 2002 - Brooks M. Burr, Robert C. Cashner, Ellen J. Censky, Linda S. Ford, Anna Graybeal, Craig Guyer, Amy R. McCune, Joseph S. Nelson, Susan C. Walls, and E.O. Wiley
• Class of 2001 - L. G. Allen, H. L. Bart, W. E. Cooper, M. L. Crump, A. F. Echelle, D. M. Green, R. G. Jaeger, J. C. Mitchell, S. G. Poss, and K. Winemiller
• Class of 2000 - W. D. Anderson, Jr.; J. P. Bogart; A. De Queiroz; W. N. Eschmeyer; H. W. Greene; G. S. Helfman; L. R. Parenti; E. P. Pister; A. H. Savitzky; and D. B. Wake
• Class of 1999 - M. Benabib; M. A. Donnelly; R. Etheridge; D. M. Hillis; M. H. Horn; F. J. Irish; T. Iwamoto; S. L. Jewett; R. L. Mayden; and J. F. Webb
• Class of 1998 - E. D. Brodie, III; D. G. Buth; D. Cannatella; D. R. Frost; R. B. Huey; J. G. Lundberg; W. J. Matthews; T. W. Pietsch; J. W. Sites, Jr.; and M. L. J. Stiassny

Committees and representatives appointed by President Pietsch are:

• Committee on Special Publications: Richard L. Mayden (chair), Theodore W. Pietsch, and Linda Trueb
• Committee on Graduate Student Participation: Adam Summers (chair), Bradford Hollingsworth, J. Andres Lopez, Duane E. Stevenson, Christopher Tracy, Kevin Jansen, Jeff G. Stewart, Robert Espinoza, and Jackie Webb (Faculty Representative)
• Committee to Revise the Careers in Ichthyology Pamphlet: Richard H. Rosenblatt (chair), Robin Waples, and Larry G. Allen
• Committee to Revise the Ichthyological Animal Care Leaflet: Steve Walsh and Elena Amesbury
• Committee to Revise the Herpetological Animal Care Leaflet: Robin Andrews (chair), Joseph J. Schall, and Harvey Pough
• Endowment Committee: Robert J. Lavenberg (1996-2001, chair), David C. Heins (1995-2000, chair-elect), Aaron M. Bauer (1996-2001), Margaret A Neighbors (1998-2003), George Rabb (1998-2003)
• Environmental Quality Committee: Melvin L. Warren, Jr. (chair), Jonathan N. Baskin (Neotropical Ichthyological Association Liaison); Jacque Carter, Walt Courtenay, E. J. Crossman, C. Kenneth Dodd, Jr., Alex Flecker (Ecological Society of America Liaison), Thomas H. Fritts, Karsten Hartel, Gene Helfman, Selina Heppel (Graduate. Student Representative), Frank McCormick (EQC Home Page Manager), W. L. Minckley, Joseph C. Mitchell (Herpetologists' League Liaison), Henry R. Mushinsky, John A. Musick (AES Liaison), Joseph S. Nelson, Edward P. Pister (Desert Fishes Council Liaison), George Rabb, Gerald R. Smith, Glenn R. Stewart, and James D. Williams
• Equal Participation Committee: Carol Ann Britson (chair), Dominique Didier, and Christine Bridges
• Gaige Fund Award Committee: Kiisa Nishikawa (chair), Karen Lips (chair-elect), and Lee Fitzgerald
• Ichthyological and Herpetological Collections Committee: Brooks Burr (chair), Newsletter Subcommittee: H. J. Walker (chair), Cynthia Klepadlo, John Simmons, George H. Burgess, Lou Van Guelpen, Susan Jewett, and Julian Humphries, Supplies and Practices Subcommittee: Alexandra M. Snyder (chair), Mary Anne Rogers, Lou Van Guelpen, Gregory Schneider, Susan Jewett, Barbara Brown, Mike Taylor, Douglas W. Nelson, and Steven M. Norris, Ichthyological Data Standards Subcommittee: Jeffrey Williams (chair):, Stanley D. Blum, Paulo Andreas Buckup, David Catania, Dean Hendrickson, and Richard Pyle, Herpetological Data Standards Subcommittee: Linda S. Ford (chair), David Cannatella, John E. Simmons, Robert P. Reynolds, and Jens V. Vindum
• Joint ASIH-AFS Committee on Names of Fishes: Joe Nelson (chair), Robert N. Lea, Carter Gilbert, Ed Crossman, Hector S. Espinosa-Perez, Donald J. Stewart, and Jim Williams
• Local Committee Chair: Theodore W. Pietsch (1997), James P. Bogart (1998), and Jay Stauffer (1999)
• Long-Range Planning and Finance Committee: Robert K. Johnson (1995-1998, chair), Deanna J. Stouder (1995-1998), Joseph Travis (1995-1998), Larry G. Allen (1996-1999), Maureen A. Donnelly (1998-2000), Kassi Cole (1998-2000), and David W. Greenfield (1998-2000)
• Raney Fund Award Committee: Larry G. Allen (chair), George Sedberry, and John E. Olney
• Resolutions Committee: William D. Anderson, Bob Cashner, Maureen A. Donnelly, and Brian Urbain
• Student Awards Committee: Paula Mabee (chair), Steven J. Beaupre (chair-elect), and Adam Summers (Graduate Student Representative)
• Time, Place, and Program Committee: Pat Gregory (chair), Joe Mitchell (HL Representative), Ellen J. Censky (SSAR Representative), Sanford Moss (AES Representative), Christopher Tracy (Graduate Student Representative), Bob Cashner, Theodore W. Pietsch, James P. Bogart, and Jay Stauffer
• Herpetological Information Coordinator: John Simmons
• Ichthyological Information Coordinator: Steve Walsh
• Representative to the American Association for the Advancement of Science: Alan E. Leviton
• Representative to the American Elasmobranch Society: George H. Burgess
• Representative to the American Fisheries Society: Mel Warren
• Representative to the Association of Systematic Collections: Lawrence M. Page
• Representative to the Early Life History Section of the American Fisheries Society: Michael Fahay
• Representative to the Fish Behavior Group of the Animal Behavior Society: Arthur Myrberg
• Representative to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature: George Rabb
• Representative to the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections: John Simmons
• Representative to the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles and Herpetologists' League: Alan H. Savitzky.

President Pietsch called for a motion to adjourn. It was so moved and seconded, and the president declared the meeting adjourned at 4:11 PM.

The Board of Governors was convened immediately following the General Business meeting to address two issues not taken up at the earlier meeting. President Pietsch called the meeting to order at 4:15 PM, with 9 herpetological and 24 ichthyological governors present. Pat Gregory was called upon to present a motion to meet in the year 2000 in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico. He presented the history of the invitation from the Universidad Aut¢noma de Baja California Sur and explained that Carlos Villavicencio of that institution would be the local host. He then moved acceptance of the invitation subject to presentation of a detailed plan by the next year's annual meeting. Governor David Cannatella asked what was meant by the phrase "subject to presentation of details". Gregory indicated that if the Time and Place committee did not like the meeting details or had significant questions after considering the report that will be provided during the next year, they would come back to the Governors. If the details were acceptable they would proceed with plans to meet in La Paz. Carter pointed out that when the Caracas meeting proposal fell through, a new site (Austin, Texas) was arranged on short notice. Invitations will be made to all societies which ordinarily meet with us. There were questions about the capacity of the institution and city to accommodate a large meeting. Housing is no problem, but availability of appropriate meeting rooms may be, so the meeting will likely be distributed across several sites. Reeve Bailey pointed out that there are direct flights from Tucson, and Secretary Hendrickson pointed out direct flights also leave from Los Angeles and San Diego. Bruce Collette asked if other societies had been invited and Gregory replied that they will be. There was no further discussion and the motion carried unanimously.

Ballots for election of new honorary foreign members were distributed. Governors voted and elected Kunio Amaoka (Japan) and Robert McDowall (New Zealand).

Clark Hubbs moved to adjourn, Maureen Donnelly seconded, and the meeting adjourned at 4:24 PM.

The banquet was called to order at 1800 when Master of Ceremonies Melanie Stiassny went to the podium and confided to the crowd with some difficulty and hesitation that she was, as everyone suspected, an ichthyologist. She also announced that there were 1,662 registrants at the meeting, making it the largest ASIH meeting in history. Students comprised 45% of the total registration.

Stiassny then asked for a big hand for President Ted Pietsch and his local committee in appreciation for a fantastic meeting. President Pietsch was introduced and thanked members of the local committee: Society Liaisons: HL: Bill Leonard and Larry Jones, SSAR: Bill Leonard and Larry Jones, ELHS-AFS: Art Kendall, AES: John Rupp, and GIS: Jay Orr; Artwork: Ray Troll; Publications: Announcement: The Local Committee and UW Extension; Program/Abstracts: The Local Committee and UW Extension; Printing: UW Publication Services; Local Subcommittees: General Oversight: Ted Pietsch, Brian Urbain, and Jay Orr; Scientific Scheduling: Brian Urbain, Jay Orr, Duane Stevenson, and Ann Matarese; Internet: Brian Urbain; Workshops: Duane Stevenson; Posters: AndrÇs L¢pez; Field Trips: Mike Adams and AndrÇs L¢pez; Graduate Student Participation Committee: AndrÇs L¢pez and Duane Stevenson; Donations: Stella Spring; Social Events: Joe Schumacher; Music: Joe Schumacher; Beverages: Brian Urbain; Alternative/Family Activities: Therese Littleton and Karin Snelson; Audio-Visual: Dan Stearn; Exhibitors, Vendors, and Advertising: Jay Orr; News Media: Sandra Hines; Live Amphibian and Reptile Display: Larry Jones, Kathryn Kelsey and Mike Adams; SSAR Auction: Mike Adams and Terry Steven-Ayers; Troll-Shirt Sales: Therese Littleton and Karin Snelson; Baseball: Art Kendall; Copeia Sales: Jay Orr, Morgan Busby, and Susan Picquelle; Transportation: Dan Stearn and Duane Stevenson; Assistance throughout: Mike Adams, Beth Babcock, Dianne Baker, Laurie Bauman, Erica Briese, Jeremy Brower, Morgan Busby, Shannon Claeson, Deanne Clare Drake, Tony Han, Ivan Henry, Michael J. Hickerson, Greg Hood, Kirt Hughes, Danika Blythe Jauch, Amy Karpenske, Kathryn Kelsey, Art Kendall, Mike Kinnison, Tom Knight, Shawn Larson, AndrÇs L¢pez, Mike Mason, Ann Matarese, Michele McGrady, Jay Orr, Bill Pinnix, Rebecca Reuter, Justin Rhodes, Renee Ripley, Todd Ritchie, Cassandra Sandkam, Joe Schumacher, Adrian Spidle, Dan Stearn, Terry Steven-Ayers, Duane Stevenson, Laura Swaim, Allison Whitmer, and Brian Urbain.

Stiassny introduced everyone at the head table, starting with Professor Kunio Amaoka and his wife Keiko. Professor Amaoka came to the podium and he expressed his delight at being there and gave a brief speech expressing his sincere appreciation for the special invitation to the meeting. Others at the table were then introduced (and abused, in particular Larry Page.). They were: Henry and Patricia Mushinsky, Ted Pietsch and Diane Rubiano, Al and Barbara Savitzky, Philip Harris (President of the Gilbert Ichthyological Society), Meg Stewart and George Martin, and Larry Page.

It was announced that the meetings were attended by representative from all 50 states, the Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico. Foreign countries represented were: Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium. Brazil, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Portugal, Russia, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and Vietnam.

In deference to Joe Nelson and his buddies Stiassny noted that it was Canada Day and many cheers echoed through the hall.

Larry Page was called upon to give the results of elections at Board of Governors Meeting and General Business Meeting. Page read the results of the ASIH elections (see above). Larry commented that although only one of the nominees for president wins the election, it is a tremendous honor to be nominated for president of ASIH and suggested that those present acknowledge the nomination of Walter Courtenay and his many contributions to our society. Courtenay was given a standing ovation.

Stiassny then called upon Raney Fund Award Committee member Larry Allen to announce the recipients of the Raney Award. Allen read the names of 1997 recipients (listed in the report of the Raney Fund Award Committee to the Board of Governors, above) and asked them to stand and be acknowledged.

Steve Reilly then read the names of 1997 recipients of the Gaige Fund Award (listed in report to Board of Governors, above) and asked them to stand for acknowledgment.

John McEachran, chair of the Robert H. Gibbs, Jr. Memorial Award Committee, came forward and announced that the 1997 winner of this award was Daniel Cohen. Dan received a standing ovation as he walked to the podium where he thanked the society for the recognition.

Edmund D. (Butch) Brodie III, chair of the Student Awards Committee, announced that there were 95 contestants for the 1997 Stoye and Storer awards and read the names of the chairs of the various award committees.

Lynne Parenti, chair of the judging panel for the Storer Award in Ichthyology, acknowledged her panel of judges (Edie Marsh-Matthews and Madeline Oetinger) and announced the winner, Thomas J. Near, Illinois Natural History Survey, for his paper "Sampling of partial vs. complete DNA sequences of mitochondrial genes: implications for estimating phylogenetic relationships of fishes."

The Stoye Award in General Herpetology was presented by Linda S. Ford on behalf of the other judges, Hinrich Kaiser and Susan C. Walls. The winner was Steven J. Poe, University of Texas for his paper "Skull characters and the cladistic relationships of the Hispaniolan dwarf twig Anolis, and a preliminary analysis of higher level Anolis relationships." Honorable mention went to Humberto Wong, La Sierra University, for "Mitochondrial DNA Phylogeography of the Sand Snakes, Chilomeniscus (Serpentes: Colubridae) from northwestern Mexico and southern Arizona."

The Stoye Award in General Ichthyology was presented by Carole Baldwin, chair of the judging committee consisting of Henry L. Bart and Jeffrey Williams, to winner Amy Downing Meisner, George Washington University, for "Systematics of the halfbeak genera Dermogenys and Nomorhamphus (Hemiramphidae) including a preliminary phylogenetic analysis." Honorable mention went to Shane A. Webb, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology for "The phylogenetic systematics of the viviparous Goodeidae (Cyprinodontiformes) based on morphology and mitochondrial DNA sequence."

Jaqueline Webb announced the winner of the Stoye Award in Genetics, Development, and Morphology on behalf of the other judges William A. Velhagen, Jr. and Chris Schneider. Michelle M. McClure, Cornell University, won with "Heterochrony in the evolution of pigment patterns of fishes of the genus Danio (Teleostei: Cyprinidae)." Honorable mention went to Lisa M. Kerr, Boston University Marine Program, for "Embryonic abnormality rates for the damselfish, Abudefduf sordidus (Pomacentridae), relative to polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contamination at Johnston Atoll, Central Pacific Ocean."

The Stoye Award in Physiology and Physiological Ecology was presented by Steven J. Beaupre, chair of the judging panel made up of Frederic J. Janzen and Eric T. Schultz, to Jean M. Billerbeck, State University of New York, for "Growth rate evolution in the Atlantic silverside: does a trade-off exist between swimming performance and food consumption or growth?" Honorable mention went to D. Mason Posner, University of Southern California, for "The concentration of pigment molecules by the fish ocular lens: biochemistry and ecology."

The Stoye Award in Ecology and Ethology was announced by the chair of the judging panel, Deanna J. Stouder. Other judges were Janalee P. Caldwell, Marion R. Preest, Gordon Rodda, Rodney Rountree, and William J. Matthews. The winner was Michael R. Crossland, James Cook University of North Queensland, with "Impact of the introduced cane toad Bufo marinus on native Australian anuran larvae." Two Honorable mentions went to James C. O'Reilly, Northern Arizona University, for "The evolution of aquatic prey capture behavior in anurans" and Cynthia Gerstner, University of Michigan, for "Bobbing behavior by wrasses and parrotfishes in the presence of a lizardfish predator: tests of signal function."

Stiassny then called on David Green to announce the recipient of Herpetologists' League Awards. Green, after acknowledging the superior job being done by the dominatrix of this year's banquet, announced the recipients of this year's awards from The Herpetologist's League. Six finalists were chosen by the judging panel: Green (chair), P. Stephen Corn, and Charles R. Peterson. The following five finalists received travel grants from HL: Ronald Gutberlet, "An evaluation of Porthidium (Squamata: Crotalinae) monophyly: resolution of the Porthidium hydropora problem"; Lara Hansen, "Measuring sublethal stress in developing Hyla regilla tadpoles"; Peter Lindeman, "Evolution of relative width of the head and alveolar surfaces in map turtles (Graptemys)"; Matthew Parris, "Larval performance in leopard frogs (Rana blairi and Rana sphenocephala): effects of pond drying"; and Leslie Rye, "Contact between distinct lineages of garter snake, Thamnophis sirtalis: a test of neutral introgression." Kelly Zamudio, the sixth finalist, was the winner of the HL Award for Graduate Research with "The evolution of the rock-paper-scissors game of alternative mating strategies in a lizard: a paternity analysis using microsatellites.".

Dawn Wilson then announced the recipients of the SSAR Henri Seibert Award.

Bob Cashner, Chair of the Resolutions Committee, was called upon to read this year's resolutions. First, he called up Gene Helfman, who, after explaining the origin of the Carter Gilbert Bounds of Decency Award, announced that this year's recipient was Ed Wiley, for a lifetime of effort. Ed accepted and commented that he had worked hard for the award. Bob Cashner then read the resolutions:

WHEREAS the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists has chosen in its infinite wisdom the Emerald City, Seattle, Washington, as the site of its 77th annual meeting in conjunction with the Herpetologists League, the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, the Early Life History Section of the American Fisheries Society, the American Elasmobranch Society and the Gilbert Ichthyological Society, and

WHEREAS Seattle has already experienced two disasters in 1996-97, the Seahawks and the Supersonics, and

WHEREAS we are indeed grateful that this city has decided to throw caution to the wind and warmly embrace over 1600 scientists who study sharks, bony fish, fish larvae, salamanders, frogs, snakes, lizards and turtles (rather than wear them), and

WHEREAS Seattlites are exceptionally friendly and those in cars display amazing courtesy to pedestrians, and

WHEREAS many of us have never associated the screeching of brakes and the squealing of tires as we enter crosswalks with broad smiles and friendly waves from drivers,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that future local committees contact the Seattle Dept. of Pedestrian Safety for rules of the road or find out what substances these drivers are taking.

WHEREAS this city, nestled between the mountains and the sea, has a rich cultural heritage, typified by a music scene that started with Hendrix, grew into the epicenter of "grunge" , which in turn spawned the legendary Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Sound Garden and, of course, the Rappin' Ratfish Brothers, and

WHEREAS our own local host was once a talent scout of sorts and found a young woman in a Ft. Worth bar, in 1980, who could mimic precisely the sound of a bull frog; and

WHEREAS a then much younger Ted Pietsch invited the young woman to attend the ASIH banquet as his guest and sit at the head table; and, at his request she treated all those assembled to her remarkable vocalizations, and

WHEREAS the Resolutions Committee tried in vain to convince the Texas Frog-Lady to come to Seattle for a command performance for President and Local Host Pietsch, but found that "Ribbet" McIntire has a singing career of her own, and

WHEREAS the Local Committee and UW Security had to turn away thousands of young Seattlites who tried to crash the first coffee break because they heard there was a "Phish" Concert, rather than a Fish Conference,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that Tim Berra be commended for his effort to relate to the youth of Seattle by offering to have his nose pierced with the clip-on microphone.

WHEREAS while on the subject of piercing please note that the recent primitive attempt to pierce Evander Holyfield's ears was done by Mike Tyson and not our own Tyson Roberts,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that we commend Tyson Roberts on his restraint and good behavior.

WHEREAS the Pacific Northwest is the home of the Gilbert Ichthyological Society, and

WHEREAS Charles Henry Gilbert's twin brother, Carter R. Gilbert, has for more than 100 years continued his vigorous pursuit of ichthyology and decency, and would never bite anyone's ear,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the WBA, WBC and all of boxing's governing bodies would do well to consider Carter R. Gilbert's simple rules for staying within the "Bounds of Decency".

WHEREAS this urban jewel of the Pacific Northwest is famous also for rainfall, which, albeit is well-suited for an international conference on largely hydrophillic vertebrates, and

WHEREAS the threat of high water did naught but inspire the local committee to plan two major social events al fresco, and

WHEREAS even though the city's reputation held fast and dumped copious amounts of water on the Graduate Student Reception; rather than dampen the spirits of those assembled the rain led to a bonding of participants that challenged salmon spawning runs and ritual dances of hylid frogs, and

WHEREAS many of the students were latter heard to brag that they were "Soaked in Seattle" and seemed to have been thoroughly refreshed, if not sobered by the experience,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that future local committees use water cannons at all Graduate Student Receptions to simulate the "Seattle Effect" and reveal more details of the behavior of these budding scientists.

WHEREAS imitation is the purest form of flattery, and

WHEREAS pristine Seattle demonstrated its envy of older and more mature cities, such as Charleston and New Orleans, by attempting to emulate the ambiance generated in those coastal cities, and

WHEREAS Seattle has obviously failed to grasp the concept of humidity,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that Seattle Officials watch the Weather Channel closely until they learn that humidity is vaporous and not precipitous.

WHEREAS the roadways, pathways and bikeways of the UW Campus resemble an experimental psychologist's delight and a cartographer's nightmare; and

WHEREAS the UW Extension Service hosted its own version of the X-Games by not providing directional signs, and

WHEREAS the attendees of these meetings have taken a full week to master navigation of this maze,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that future local committees wishing to host their own versions of alternative "games" issue participants GPS portable navigational units and the coordinates of all sites for paper sessions, or a crash course in celestial navigation.

WHEREAS Dick Rosenblatt entered an elevator on the 4th floor of Hagget Hall, and

WHEREAS Dick was seeking only to go to the 1st floor, and

WHEREAS he watched as a large group of non-English speaking U of W students rushed into the elevator and demanded that the device go skyward, and

WHEREAS Dick, realizing that he was the first aboard and had the right of way, pointed to the floor and shouted at the myriad of students surrounding him, "DOWN!", "DOWN!", and

WHEREAS, the students responded by acting as one and slid down to the elevator floor to watch in silence as Dick victoriously punched the 1st floor button,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that Dick Rosenblatt be named Supreme Commander of lifts and elevators at all future ASIH host dormitories.

WHEREAS the Hotel Intercontinental pioneered the quad arrangement for room occupancy, and

WHEREAS those accommodations were not commodious in the least, and

WHEREAS the Resolutions Committee from last year urged the Seattle Local Committee to find an alternative to the expensive, small room,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that this year's Local Committee deserves praise for solving half the problem by securing at the University of Washington dorms with cheap, small rooms, and

WHEREAS these aforementioned dorm rooms of Lilliputian dimensions, have a certain mystique, which includes closets equipped with seats, and

WHEREAS members of the Resolutions Committee have not a clue as to why closets in UW dorms are equipped with a place to sit unless it is the last refuge during an earthquake or therapy for excessive indulgence in Starbuck's "Death by Latte",

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that all future ASIH local hosts find accommodations equipped with closet seats so members can occasionally go into the closet for meditation or to use the seats for whatever other purposes they have found them best suited for.

WHEREAS H. J. Walker, is a noted gourmand and a native of south Louisiana, where the locals eat things that people in Seattle call Orkin for, and

WHEREAS H. J. Walker is the reputed inventor of "Road-Kill Helper", and

WHEREAS H. J. Is reported to have left more food on his plate than what was originally dispensed to him in the dorm cafeteria,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that ASIH instruct H. J. to visit perspective meeting venues to evaluate the quality of the dorm food before the Society accepts food and residence packages.

WHEREAS Seattle is world famous for high quality coffee, and

WHEREAS high quality coffee is expensive, and

WHEREAS many members of ASIH require massive quantities of caffeine just to turn off the alarm in the morning, and

WHEREAS UW Catering seemed unresponsive to this manifest need by providing cups of hemi-demi-tasse size; brewed in urns with minuscule capacities,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that next year's Local Committee for Guelph secure Bunyonesque coffee urns and Blue-oxian mugs.

WHEREAS Seattle is home to a multitude of micro breweries and wineries, and

WHEREAS the members of the ASIH and affiliated societies require voluminous quantities of ethanol in order to balance the effects of the aforementioned caffeine, and

WHEREAS the combination of caffeine and ethanol that strikes the balance between manic and catatonic states may explain the previously mentioned friendly demeanor of Seattlites; and

WHEREAS the variety of alcoholic beverages available in the Emerald City nearly rivals the variety of caffeine containing beverages ("double, tall, latte"),

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that future local committees work closely with iochemists (using Seattlites as the standard) to ensure that appropriate titer of caffeine and ethanol are maintained throughout the meeting.

WHEREAS some of the meeting rooms, especially those assigned for systematic papers, have a configuration resembling a house trailer, and

WHEREAS some older members can only find seats in the very back of the trailer, I mean room, which is at the limits of their visual and auditory perceptions,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that all future local hosts equip tunnel-shaped rooms with binoculars and hearing aids,

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that all chairs of sessions in long, narrow rooms be certified as qualified for giving safety instructions before take-off on 747's.

WHEREAS most ASIH members have considerable taxonomic expertise; and

WHEREAS amphisbaenians are, admittedly, unusual vertebrates, and

WHEREAS they are not amphibians, and

WHEREAS fish are not amphibians either, and

WHEREAS with the number of talks by molecular systematists increasing each year,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that all future Local Committees review basic animal classification before assembling the program

WHEREAS David Starr Jordan, George Boulenger, Albert Gunther, C. Tate Regan, Thomas Eaton, Leo S. Berg, P. Humphrey Greenwood, George Myers, Stanley Weitzman, Donn Rosen, Joe Nelson, Joe Jones, Joe Quatro, John Bruner, Dick Robins annnnd Reeve M. Bailey all hold a heartfelt conviction that Elassoma is a "pygmy sunfish", and

WHEREAS G. David Johnson and Victor G. Springer have clearly and eloquently demonstrated that Elassoma is nothing more than an ontogenetically challenged stickleback,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that from this day forth, sticklebacks be referred to as "naked giant pygmy sunfishes".

WHEREAS the meetings have become progressively larger and more complicated and scheduling concurrent sessions presents an ever increasing challenge to the Local Committee (as evidenced by the scheduling of the ASIH Business Meeting this year), and

WHEREAS Dr. G. David Johnson, Chair of the Dept. Of Vertebrate Zoology at the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution, requires, and, yes, deserves much more time than is available under the current scheduling restraints,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that at all future ASIH meetings that there be only two paper sessions sandwiched between a week of drinking and, let's be real, drinking,

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that one of these sessions be assigned to a graduate student who will read all titles of papers that would have been presented under the historic format; and that the other session be devoted exclusively to said Dr. G. David Johnson in order that he may present his yearly update on his studies of global phylogeny.

Bill Anderson was then called to the podium to read a proposal from the Ad Hoc Resolutions Committee:

WHEREAS Eugenie Clark has enjoyed a year-long tenure as titular head of the "Eugenie Clark and the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists", and

WHEREAS Bob Cashner has been nominated for the office of President-Elect for the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, and

WHEREAS Bob Cashner has been nominated for the Robert H. Gibbs Memorial Award Committee, and

WHEREAS Bob Cashner has been nominated for the Board of Governors of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that for 1997-1998 the Society be renamed "Bob

Cashner and the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists".

Resolutions from the duly appointed Resolutions Committee resumed.

WHEREAS Margaret McBride Stewart has had an illustrious career, spanning 40 years, and

WHEREAS 12 papers were presented in a special symposium to honor and celebrate Meg's contributions to herpetology, and

WHEREAS Meg has been and continues to be an active participant in Society concerns,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the body assembled here acknowledge Meg for her considerable efforts.

WHEREAS the 77th annual meeting, held in Seattle, Washington enters the annals of ASIH as one of best meetings in the organization's storied history, and puts in end to the dispute between Austin and New Orleans as to which one had the highest attendance; let us recognize and thank our host, the University of Washington, for providing a magnificent setting for this conference,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that Local Chair, Ted Pietsch has done an incredible job in organizing and hosting this meeting and that he was ably assisted by the following list of Local Committee members: Brian Urbain, Bill Leonard, Lawrence Jones, Art Kendall, Jay Orr, Ann Matarese, Duane Stevenson, Andres Lopez, Mike Adams, Joe Schumacher, Dan Stearn, Therese Littleton, Kathryn Kelsey, Terry Steven-Ayers, and Morgan Busby,

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this joint conference could not have run so smoothly without the help in times of crisis of Bob Lauth, Susan Picquelle, Beth Babcock, Diane Baker, Laurie Bauman, Erica Briese, Jeremy Brower, Shannon Claeson, Jon Drake, Deanne Drake, Ivan Henry, Michael Hickerson, Diego Holmgren, Greg Hood, Kirk Hughes, Danila Jauch, Mike Kinnison, Shawn Larson, Michele McGrady, Bill Pinnix , Justin Rhodes, Renee Ripley, Todd Ritchie, Cassandra Sandkam, Adrian Spidle, Yvonne Dettlaff; Amy Ambler, Greg Mackey, Heather Higgens, Laura Klahre, Laura Swaim, Katie Dodd, and Allison Whittmer,

AND BE IT EVEN FURTHER RESOLVED that we thank Kip Davis and Ron Sieker, from UW Physical Plant, for painting the big logo in Red Square and Brad Kadyk for supervising the hanging of the 12' diameter banner and that ASIH is grateful that so many UW students and faculty now know that ichthyology is not a disease of aquarium fish and that herpetology is not sexually transmitted disease.

WHEREAS the incredible art work created for the Meeting was most generously donated by Ray Troll, and

WHEREAS this is the highest quality creative effort ever to grace an ASIH meeting and associated paraphernalia,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that those assembled here signify their appreciation with a round of applause.

James Bogart was then invited to the podium to extend his invitation to next year's meetings in Guelph, Ontario, Canada.

Larry Page then came forward to announce the winners of the Graduate Student Book Raffle. He announced that the graduate students had raised $2,048 for the Graduate Student Travel Fund through their book raffle, and that, as agreed at this year's Board of Governors meeting that amount would be supplemented by another $2,000 from the general operating fund of the Society, giving the Graduate Student Committee a total of $4,048 to distribute to students for future travel to meetings. Larry also commented that in addition to Bob Cashner being elected President of ASIH, a member of the BOG, and a member of the Gibbs Award Committee, he had won two books at the student raffle.

Melanie Stiassny then recognized Ray Troll, designer of the logo for the 1997 meeting, for his contributions to this year's meeting. Brian Urbain brought up purchased raffle tickets for the huge ASIH Logo banner (a large banner with this year's logo hanging behind the head table - hand painted by Troll). The winning ticket was drawn and the banner went to Lynne Parenti.

Next, Lawrence Jones came to the podium to announce the winners of the "Guess the weight of the giant salamander" competition. Brian Fedorko with a guess of 162.5g won the competition, with Eric Wallace as the runner-up (162.0g). The actual weight was 164.44g.

On that high note Stiassny drew a wonderful evening to a close and the banquet adjourned.

-Dean Hendrickson, Secretary

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