Minutes of the 4 9 th Annual Business Meeting—Southwestern Association of Parasitologists

The 49th annual SWAP meeting took place April 14-16, 2016, at the University of Oklahoma Biological Station, Willis, OK.

1. President Megan Wise de Valdez called the meeting to order at 18:33 on April 15, 2016.

2. Minutes of the 48th Annual Meeting were approved as presented. Motion to accept as read by David Shaffer, seconded by Kalin Skinner, report was approved unanimously.

3. Secretary’s Report: Presented by Tami Cook. Motion to accept by Kirsten Jensen, seconded by Scott Gardner, report was approved unanimously.

4. Treasurer’s Report: Presented by Tami Cook. By direction of the SWAP membership and request of the University of Oklahoma Foundation, Becker-Hill Endowment was closed and temporarily relocated to the SWAP checking account. Motion to accept report by Deb Clopton, seconded by Rich Clopton, report was approved unanimously.

5. Deb Clopton reported for the Audit Committee (Deb Clopton and Kirsten Jensen) that the books were examined and indicated there were no discrepancies through April 2016. A motion was made to accept the audit report by Rich Clopton, seconded by Matt Bolek. The report was approved unanimously.

6. Student Presentation Awards: The Becker Award went to Stephanie Shea for her presentation “Helminths of Northern Bobwhites from South Texas”; the Dresden Award went to Rana Eltahan for her presentation “Cryptosporidium parvum Hexokinase a Potential Drug Target for Developing Novel Therapeutics”; The Honorable Mention Graduate Student Award went to Ryan Shannon for his presentation “Amphibian Trypanosomes from North Central Oklahoma: Morphology, Motility, and Phylogenetic Relationships”; the Honorable Mention Undergraduate Student Award went to Rachel Swanteson-Franz for her presentation “Two New Species of Gordius (Nematomorpha: Gordiidae) Described from the Southwestern United States in New Mexico and Arizona.”

7. Student Research Grant Awards: Kalin Skinner, Elizabeth Racz, and Estefany Moya Aguilar were awarded SWAP student research grants

8. ASP Representative’s Report: Matt Bolek reported on the ASP meeting held in Omaha, NE and major topics were reported:

· The ASP President’s reception is held to thank those who serve the society. The ASP Council recommended that this event be included in the program/abstract book. There was much discussion regarding the source of funding for this event with proposals that the cost be budgeted in the registration fee. Council tabled this for further discussion at the next meeting.

· Council allocated $16,000 for travel grants to attend the meeting in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in July 2016.

· Much discussion about the ASP’s self-archiving policy and copyright issues. Further discussion is anticipated at the July 2016 council meeting.

· It was noted that the ASP meeting in Omaha, NE (June 2015) will include a session with speakers from the American Society of Veterinary Parasitologists.

9. The Tellers Committee reported the following election results: President Elect—Michael A. Barger with duties and responsibilities as outlined in the SWAP constitution

10. Old Business:

None

11. New Business:

· Tami Cook raised the issue of online registration and payment for future SWAP meetings and noted that there are significant hurdles because the SWAP website is hosted on a state college system server. Many of the membership feels that the “old fashioned” check/cash method of registering works just fine. President Wise de Valdez indicated that she will help secretary Cook investigate the possibility of at least on site credit card registration with some method that links directly to the SWAP bank account and charges a convenience fee.

· Tami Cook pointed out that since SWAP has no official affiliation with The University of Oklahoma, the OU Foundation requested that we move these funds out of our foundation account. This has been done and the money is temporarily residing in the SWAP checking account. Suggestions of how to invest this endowment included 1) a money market account, 2) a brokerage account, and 3) tiered CD’s. Scott Gardner moved that Treasurer Cook, and members Don Duszynski, Lee Couch, and John Janovy, Jr. will investigate options and move this endowment out of the SWAP checking account. Motion seconded by Marsha Howard. Motion passed unanimously.

· President Wise de Valdez brought to the attention of the SWAP membership a bylaw change and policy being proposed by the ASP dealing with harassment issues at meetings. She suggested that SWAP, as an affiliate of ASP, should consider also adopting this policy. Since the bylaw change and policy have yet to be voted on by the ASP membership, David Huffmann recommended SWAP should not adopt this policy until the ASP membership vote at this summer’s meeting. Rich Clopton made a motion that we table this issue until next year, seconded by Evan Valenta. Motion passed with 1 no vote and 1 abstention

· John Janovy, Jr. mentioned that A Century of Parasitology: Discoveries, ideas and lessons learned by scientists who published in The Journal of Parasitology, 1914-2014 has been published by John Wiley and Sons. Several members of SWAP are contributing authors to this book.

· Sara Brant reminded the membership that the 50th anniversary meeting of SWAP will be in 2017 and encouraged members to begin thinking of ways to celebrate this milestone.

· Given that the meeting in 2017 is the 50th anniversary meeting of the Southwestern Association of Parasitologists, incoming President-Elect Mike Barger pointed out that we need a special program and something unique to commemorate this anniversary. Marsha Howard, Autumn Smith-Herron, Kirsten Jensen, and Rich Clopton volunteered to serve on an ad hoc committee to help plan the 50th meeting of SWAP.

· Don Duszynski mentioned the locations for upcoming ASP meetings: 2016 Edmonton, Canada; 2017 San Antonio, Texas; 2018 Cancun, Mexico; 2019 Hawaii (to be a joint meeting with the Australian and New Zealand societies of parasitologists).

· Rich Clopton indicated that the SWAP membership should provide some direction for ASP Council representative Matt Bolek regarding the self-archiving/copyright issues surrounding our publishing contract with Allen Press. Rich Clopton made a motion, seconded by Scott Gardner, that the SWAP representative to the ASP council (Bolek) should argue strongly at the council meeting in Edmonton that we don’t want to give away our copyright.

12. Kristen Herrmann and Joanna Cielocha presented the resolutions, which follow:

Whereas more than 90 parasitologists gathered on the grounds of the University of Oklahoma Biological Station and convened the business of the 49th annual meeting of the Southwestern Association of Parasitologists.

Whereas the overly welcoming President Wise de Valdez kept us on time with her 90-second opening remarks prior to a record-breaking 23 oral and 14 poster presentations by undergraduate and graduate students, demonstrating the hard work and dedication to the field of parasitology.

Whereas the great flood of 2015 lead to the lush accommodations for some and crowded accommodations for others, the misty morning gave way to beautiful sunny blue skies and wind-swept shores for the President’s reception.

Whereas scientists have yet to convince all politicians that climate change is occurring, this meeting alone has provided evidence of floods, fire and drought leading to local extinctions of parasites on sky islands and spring islands alike.

Whereas cans of worms were opened to enlighten us on unconventional research methods such as specimen acquisition by classroom cadaver dissections, unzipping museum vouchers, vehicular lagomorph slaughter, using MP3 players to trap dipterans and naming of hosts, especially those of questionable sexual identity….Pat.

Whereas parasitology was fundamentally represented by puking frogs and diarrhea, included questions on intermediate, paratenic and dead-end hosts, infection extremes illustrated by bird schistosomes and bobwhite pinworms, and the take home message of - don’t taste the athlete’s foot spray when treating for chytrid.

Whereas, we are not supposed to say this, but the chaos among talks kept us on our toes with the variability of topics across the field of parasitology, including:

morphometric plasticity of trypanosomes

the life span of Huffmanella huffmani, which is not only longer than its intermediate host but also longer than the life span of a graduate student

even a great wall couldn’t prevent immigration of the mongoose to the Caribbean

whereas our broadly trained students demonstrated their love for parasites by fabulous oral and poster presentations on:

Cyptospordium, Eimeria, Trypanosoma and Hemosporidia

nematodes and nematomorphs

cestodes and trematodes

monogenes and acanthocephalans,

lice and mites alike

and the opening of our eyes to fungal symbionts.

Whereas tomorrow, we anticipate the faculty being equally prepared as their students including staying on time…[clear throat]….Drs. Jensen and Bolek, continuing to inspire the next generation of parasitologists and our incoming President Negovetich bringing to an end this almost half of a century of creative and successful contributions to the field of parasitology.

13. President Megan Wise de Valdea passed the gavel to incoming President Nicholas Negovetich who adjourned the meeting at 20:02

Respectfully submitted,

Tami Cook

Secretary-Treasurer