Category: Minutes and Notes

MINUTES OF THE ALABAMA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE

Submitted: Malia Fincher, Secretary

Executive Committee Meeting, Spring 2023

Meeting was called to order at 9:05 by Jack Shelley-Tremblay and Jeff Morris

Those in attendance were:

Jack Shelley-Tremblay
Dr. Edwards
Dr. Brown
Matthew Edwards
Jeff Morris
Larry Krannich
Mark Caulkins
Adrian
Dr. Lou
Dr. Chambers
Ellen Buckner

Vinoy Thomas

Bettina Riley

Matthew Edwards
Adriane Ludwick
Larry Krannich
Vinoy Thomas
Bettina Riley
Jeff Morris
Clark Lundell

The meeting began with the unanimous approval of the minutes from the Fall 2022 Executive Committee meeting.  There was some discussion of future hosts for the annual meeting.  One possible host for 2026 is ACCOM. Next year will be Jacksonville State.

Jeff Morris introduced Dr. Matthew Edwards, of Alabama A and M University, our new AAS associate executive director.

The nominees for open positions for the 2023-2024 year were presented, with an amendment to include Dr. Vinoy Thomas as president elect and Matthew Edwards as second vice president.  Each has agreed to serve.  Dr. Edwards moved to accept the nominations.  The motion passed.

Dr. Shelley-Tremblay will draft a proposed addition to the bylaws including the Wright-Gardner Award.

Section chairs and vice chairs will be reported by individual sections after their business meetings.

Ellen Buckner suggested that John Varner, at Auburn Archives might be willing to serve as archivist. Clark Lundell offered to reach out.

Action Items:

1. National Association of Academies of Science. We need a delegate for the National Association of Academies of Science. This group attempts to provide support and it’s developing a national lobbying voice to try and promote these types of science education programming in the State. The commitment is about 2 h twice per year, and if you’re interested in national level activities and you would like a National Level Service opportunity for your vita. Please email Dr. Shelley-Tremblay and let him know.
2. Local Arrangements Committee. Dr. Buckner detailed many of the unique program offerings and speakers for the centennial meeting, along with letters of support and speeches by several notable individuals.  She thanked the members of the committee and others for their work in putting together this meeting, along with the meeting sponsors. This is a very large meeting with record breaking attendance in spring 2023, with over 200 abstracts submitted.

Dr. Shelley-Tremblay provided details on the new streamlined judging process, where judges will enter scores into an online form.

Five special sections have been added to the program this year: neuroscience, materials science, Alabama Honors Scholars, and The Society for Physics Students.

• Science Trail. Dr. Blake and Dr. Buckner have been working to create a certificate for completing a certain number of visits to science trail sites and have a potential partnership with the Girl Scouts (for a badge).
• 100^th Anniversary Booklet Committee. Matthew Edwards and Virginia Vilardi have been working to assemble a booklet showcasing scholarship, mentoring, history, and the future of AAS. Bound copies will be available to order. The price of the book was discussed, along with contacting the University of Alabama Press for potential printing.
• Journal Editors. Historically, the editor of the Journal of the Academy of Science received a stipend that was made possible through the activities of the journal, and the fact that there were many institutions that were print copy subscribers to the journal. We have since moved into an open access model, making our articles available freely on the web. We have lost almost all our traditional subscribers. The discussion now is how to provide a small stipend to the journal editor. One solution would be to have a $50 per article processing and open access fee for submitting authors. This would pay for the hosting fees for the operation of the open Journal Systems Journal and for a journal editor stipend, consisting of the processing fees collected minus any expenses. Also, Dr. Shelley-Tremblay identified a goal to try to get this journal bundled into one of the Ebsco journal packages. Dr. Blake suggested involving section chairs as associate editors to encourage broader participation by sections in publishing in the journal.  The discussion was tabled and will be continued in email form, with a resolution for voting to follow.

There is difficulty in adding a stipend to the journal editor position unless the stipend is covered by journal revenue.

• Section Chair Workshop. Dr. Morris and Dr. Shelley-Tremblay discussed a potential workshop on best practices for section chairs, along with updating the section chairs portion of the ops manual.

The Executive Committee Report Officer reports were discussed.

Dr. Nelson thanked the local arrangements committee for their excellent work.

The meeting was adjourned.