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Home > Labstracts
Fall 2015
Secretary's Report, Judy Guinan
- Minutes of the ABLE General Business Meeting
Association for Biology Laboratory Education
Judy Guinan
Radford University
- Boston University Wednesday, June 24, 2015
- Call to order & approval of agenda—Ralph Preszler
The meeting was called to order at 12:03 pm and the agenda was approved.
Reports from Officers and Committee Chairs
President—Ralph Preszler
Ralph welcomed all of the participants to Boston and the ABLE meeting.
Secretary – Judy Guinan
Judy reported that the minutes for the 2014 meeting were available on the ABLE webpage for members to read.
She announced that she was stepping down as Board Secretary on June 30, 2016, and encouraged ABLE members to consider running for the position.
Vice President – Carl Stiefbold (ABLE 2014)
Carl announced that last year’s meeting in Eugene, Oregon had 201 attendees, including 70 new ABLE members. The meeting was a success and would be returning a financial surplus to the ABLE account.
Kathryn Spilios and Angela Seliga (ABLE 2015)
Angela and Kathryn thanked the participants of this year’s meeting. Angela announced that there were 254 attendees at this meeting with 22 major workshops and 48 mini workshops being offered. She thanked the presenters of those workshops.
Ralph thanked Angela and Kathryn and complimented them on the wonderful job they had done organizing the meeting.
Treasurer’s Report—Alec Motten
Alec announced that Brian Sato had been elected as the new Treasurer, and Murielle Hoefnagels would be assuming a new Board position as Assistant Treasurer.
He reported that ABLE is in excellent financial health and that income is exceeding outflow by more than $16,000, due to membership dues and successful conferences.
Upcoming expenses include refunds to members whose Calgary field trips had been cancelled.
He thanked contributors of $1,100 to the Roberta Williams Laboratory and Teaching Initiative Fund and the Charlie Drewes Waiver of Registration Fund.
Last year, ABLE was able to fund 2 Laboratory and Teaching Initiative Grants for a total of $3,200.
Ralph thanked Alec for his years of service.
Membership—Laurel Rodgers and Randi Mewhort
Randy and Laurel announced that ABLE has 460 members, and 7 institutional memberships.
In-memory of Bob Hodson—Todd Nickle, Kate Verville, Bob Ketcham, & Kathy Nolan
Several members shared their memories of Bob Hodson, recognizing his many years of service to ABLE as a long-term member, Board Secretary, and ABLE Conference host.
Nominations—Amy Marion
Amy announced the election of Brian Sato as Treasurer, Marielle Hoefnagels as Assistant Treasurer, Susanne Altermann as Member-at-Large. For the upcoming year, there will be elections for President-elect, Secretary, and First Year Member-at-Large.
Major Workshops Committee—Kate Verville & Janice Bonner
Janice and Kate announced that this year there were 30 major workshop applications, with 22 being accepted for presentation.
They encouraged members to continue to submit their ideas for workshops. They also encouraged mini-workshop presenters to consider submitting major workshops.
Mini workshops Committee—Kristen Miller, Sylvie Bardin, Mindy McCarville, & Joe Newsome
Joe reported that there were 48 mini workshop proposals this year, including 10 on this year’s Writing theme, and thanked all of the presenters.
Ralph encouraged ABLE members to attend the workshops on Friday.
Poster Session Committee—Tom Fogle, Sue Karcher, and Dianne Jennings
Dianne announced that there were 21 posters for the session on Friday.
Proceedings Committee—Karen McMahon
Karen reported that this year’s volume would be available within a month.
She announced that she would be sending out workshop and poster evaluations to presenters in July, with a deadline for submitting manuscripts for volume 37 on October 1. She encouraged authors to follow the guidelines on the website.
Communications Committee—Barbara Stegenga
Barbara announced that she produces the newsletter, Labstracts, once a year, available online, and acts as a clearinghouse for members’ questions. She also posts information on other conferences, ABLE updates, and news online.
She asked the members to forward feedback on other conferences, ABLE workshops, and book reviews.
Grants-in-Aid Committee—Isabelle Barrette-Ng
Isabelle encouraged members to apply for the grants available from ABLE.
She reported that the committee received 10 applications for the Charlie Drewes Waiver of Registration Grants this year, of which 5 were awarded. This year’s awardees were: Karin Kram, California State University Dominguez Hills, Suzanne Thuecks, Washington College, Alma Rodriguez Estrada, Aurora University, James Buescher, University of Nebraska at Lincoln, and Cindy Achat-Mendes, Georgia Gwinnett College.
She also announced the three winners of the Roberta Williams Laboratory and Teaching Initiative Grants. Jenean O’Brien, University of Wisconsin Superior, Fardad Firoorznia, City College of New York, andVeronica Segarra, High Point University. A total of 5 applications had been submitted this year.
Publicity & Marketing Committees—Kathy Nolan and Bill Glider
Kathy offered postcards about ABLE to any members who would be interested in distributing them to colleagues and at other conferences they attend, as a way of recruiting new members.
Website Committee—Mark Walvoord
Mark reported that in the past year, the ABLE website had 6,175 visitors (66% from the US; 12% from Canada).
The committee is currently working on making the website more mobile app-friendly.
He encouraged members to send position announcements to him for the job listserv.
Mark highlighted several parts of the website, including the new Table of Contents page for the Proceedings, which makes it easier to browse, a new section on the history of ABLE, and a place to upload images from the conference. He encouraged members to visit the webpage , and to “like” us on Facebook.
Ralph thanked Mark and Chris Beck for all of their efforts on the website
Regional ABLE (RABLE) Committee—Joe Newsome
Joe thanked Brian Sato and the team from UC Irvine for organizing the RABLE conference in February, which welcomed 60 participants, and encouraged members to consider hosting a RABLE.
ABLE 2016—Donna Pattison, Ana Medrano, and Tejendra Gill.
Donna and Ana reported that the ABLE 2016 conference will take place June 22 – 26 at the University of Houston. They described the facilities for hosting the workshops and other events, housing options and the field trips planned for the conference.
3. Unfinished Business – no unfinished business
4. New Business – no new business
5. Adjournment – the meeting adjourned at 1:03 pm.
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