The 56th Canadian
Conference for Fisheries Research (CCFFR)
Westin Hotel
Ottawa, Ontario
President David
Noakes welcomed the participants to the 2003 business meeting. He saluted several of the attendees who have
been long and distinguished members of the Canadian fisheries research
community, “the good old boys” W.B. Scott, E.J. Crossman and D. McPhail, and
the not quite as old J. Nelson and R. Beamish – several comments and jokes
about age followed. He also noted that
this years meeting would be have a special session to honour the 30th
anniversary of Scott and Crossman’s Freshwater Fishes of Canada.
President Noakes
gratefully acknowledge the efforts of this year’s organizing committee in
producing another successful joint meeting of the Canadian Conference for
Fisheries Research and the Society of Canadian Limnologists, with 408
registered participants. As usual the
success of these meeting relied upon on the hard work of these individuals:
·
John Lark and
John Curran as the local arrangements committee and who once again rose to the
challenge to provide an excellent 2004 venue in the heart of and yet kept the
registration fees at 1980’s levels.
·
John Gunn as
this year’s program chair and Seija Mallory who took the lead in program
production.
·
Chris Taggart
who continues to manage the website for CCFFR, which has served as the backbone
for communicating information for this annual meeting.
·
Julie Meloche
and J. AndrewCooper for registration.
·
Mike Mallette,
Genevieve Carr, Christine Brereton, Seija Mallory, and local volunteers for
organizing and provided excellent on-site audio-visual support.
·
Peter Leavitt
for media support.
·
Rob MacKereth
who continues as the Chair for the Clemens-Rigler Travel Fund.
·
George Morgan,
Ed Snucins, Shelley Arnott, Nick Mandrak, Warren Dunlop, John Gunn, Hugh
MacIsaac, Kim Hyatt, Mark Johannes, Jenny Winter, Antonella Cattaneo and
Frances Pick as special session chairs for this combined CCFFR/SCL annual
meeting.
Donations toward
this year’s Clemens-Rigler Travel fund came from:
·
Canadian
Conference for Fisheries Research
·
Fisheries and
Oceans, Canada
·
Halltech
Environmental Limited
·
Lotek
Engineering Incorporated
·
Smith-Root
Canada
·
Society of
Canadian Limnologists
·
The University
of Northern British Columbia
There has also been
a change to the CCFFR establishment.
Howard Powles, Director of the Biodiversity Science Branch in the
Department of Fisheries and Oceans who has held the position of CCFFR
Secretary-Treasurer for over a decade has passed these responsibilities to J.
Andrew Cooper who works in Fisheries Research Branch of the Department of
Fisheries and Oceans.
The minutes of the
2002 meeting were approved (J. Lark/A Ali).
The treasurer’s
report for the year ending March 31, 2002 was tabled (attached). The treasurer highlighted that a successful
fund-raising campaign driven by the previous year’s organizing committee
coupled by the relatively low cost for last year’s venue allowed for a surplus
of over 26K. This surplus will be used
to support 2003 and 2004 meeting expenses and the Clemens-Rigler travel
fund. The treasurer reported that fund
raising was not as successful for the 2003 meeting and that the current surplus
would be substantially diminished in the coming years unless an annual fund
raising campaign was adopted for the coming years. Treasurer’s report was approve (J. Lark/A. Ali).
R. Mackereth provided a summary of last years Clemens Rigler fund. Travel for 53 students (CCFFR 39 SCL 14) was supported for last year’s meeting with a total commitment of $18,781.00. Only 51 students claimed travel reward for at total expenditure of $17,631.00. The funding formula was based on cap at 500 for new applicants, with less provided to repeat applicants and local travel (i.e. from Kingston and Montreal). CCFFR will use a portion of the carry over in its budget to support the Clemens-Rigler travel fund due to the decline in corporate sponsors this year. A formal approach to seek sponsorship needs to be addressed as a possible solution. Travel awards for next year will likely be increased to cover the extra expense of travel to St. John’s. J. Lark commented that any new cap to St. John’s could be based on current air fair, barring blackout periods imposed by the airline. Based on estimates obtained in November airfare will be about $800.
J. Lark moved that
the cap be raised to $750. There were
further discussions on a geographic cap and comment made that there has never
been a formalized cap but awards have ranged as high as $600. H. Powles suggested that the selection
committee make a judgement on funding caps.
Other members would prefer that no formal cap be applied. The motion for a cap was withdrawn.
Officers and Arrangements - 2004 (St. John’s,
NL)
The CCFFR executive
for 2004 in St. John’s, NL is:
·
President: Moira Ferguson, University
of Guelph
·
Program Chair: Dave Scruton, Fisheries and
Oceans, St. John’s
·
Local Arrangement: Joe Brown, Bob Gregory, George Rose
·
Nominations
Chair: Bill Tonn
Officers and Arrangements - 2005 (Windsor,
Ontario)
A motion to propose
CCFFR executive for 2005 in Windsor, Ontario nominated:
·
President: Brian Shuter, Ontario
Ministry of Natural Resources
·
Program Chair: Joe Rasmusen,
McGill University
·
Local
Arrangements: Dan Heath, University of
Windsor
·
Nominations chair: Marco
Rodriguez, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières
The motion was
carried unanimously.
A motion was
forwarded to host CCFFR at the University of Calgary in 2006. Tom Post agreed to consider this and to get
back to CCFFR with a decision.
Tom post and the
University of Calgary were unanimously conscripted to host CCFFR in 2006.
Moira Ferguson
announced that changes were coming to the journal. These changes will allow for slightly larger manuscripts and
relax rules concerning number of references.
The journal will also entertain papers from a variety of
disciplines. Perspective authors are
encouraged to contact editors first for advice on submissions.
There was further
discussion regarding plans to reintroduce an opinion forum for the
journal. M. Ferguson informed the
meeting that the journal would have a section representing critical
“perspectives”. This would consist of
short opinion pieces. There was further
discussion on the review process for this opinions section. Reference was made to examples that could be
found on the CJFAS web site. M.
Ferguson advised authors to contact editors on issues you wish to present as a
perspective.
? Electronic review
what proportion are electronic?
Fund Raising for
the Clemens-Rigler Travel Fund
- The issue of developing an annual fund raising campaign was forwarded by D.
Noakes as new business. Raising funds
for the C-R has met with sporadic success from year to year. Grad students have traditionally taken up
fund raising but it would be good to formalize this process. Occasionally meeting locations (i.e. Ottawa)
do not have strong ties to Universities or grad students. A committee should be tasked every year to
ensure that corporate support for the C-R fund is found. A motion was unanimously passed for a three-person
committee to be made up of the current, past, and future presidents to head up
and organize fund raising efforts (D. Noakes/A. Curry).
H. Powles added that
we should remember to coordinate the Clemens-Rigler and CCFFR fund raising and
establish terms of reference that could guide the committee from year to
year.
Honorary life
members – A motion was
forwarded to nominate C. Lindsay, E. Crossman, W.B. Scott and D. McPhail as
honorary life members of the CCFFR (A. Ali/J. Lark).
Discussion ensued as
to whether an honorary life membership would cover travel costs to CCFFR. It was determined that such a membership
could potentially cover registration but would not be able to cover travel
costs because CCFFR is not an organization and has no budget. The motion was held for further
consideration.
Stevenson lecture
commemorative item –An issue
for consideration was forwarded for Stevenson lecturers to receive a permanent
commemorative item to accompany the present plaque since the plaque is only
retained 1 year. It was suggest that
the three previous lecturers develop a small commemorative token for lecturers
to keep.
D. Noakes reminded
participants of the special session for Scott and Crossman scheduled for the
next day. He thanked embers for the
privilege of being president for this year’s meeting and moved that the meeting
be adjourned at this time. Meeting
adjourned.