2002 Meeting

Association of Women Soil Scientists
12th Annual Meeting
Hyatt Regency Indianapolis
Indianapolis, IN
Sunday, November 10, 2002 from 6-7 p.m.

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AWSS Annual Meeting Minutes
November 10, 2002, Indianapolis, IN

Kari Sever, Chair, opened the meeting at 6:10 pm Sunday November 10th.

Those in attendance were: Sarah Kulpa, Karis McFarlane, Amy Saunders, Heather Dion, Carol Wettstein, Jane Anklam, Tom Sims, Maxine Levin, Robyn McGilloway, Maria Nobles, Wendy Greenberg, Gaylynn Kinter, Sabine Goldberg, Jaimee Hammit, Dena Marshall, Suduan Gao.

There were no minutes to read from last year because a formal meeting was not held in 2001.

Committee Reports:

• SWCS Liaison:
  SWCS Representative Cheryl Simmons would like to step down or share responsibilities. Carol Wettstein spoke on ASA representation, which has not been filled at this time.
  
  

• Treasurer's Report:
  97 paid members 80 inactive. $14,521.00 in bank accounts. Expenses were from postage, display, web fees. Income was from dues, shirt sales. A change in dues payment was discussed, making annual dues for one year instead of multiple year options. E-mail reminders would save work for the treasurer contacting people and postage.
  
  

• Web Report:
  Chair Donna Hulka: There have been 4,000 hits since Feb. 2000. AWSS.ORG is now our official web name, this takes effect immediately. You can still access it through the old web address but after July 2003 only at AWSS.ORG. Photos are needed for web site photo gallery. Donna will take photos in any format. We are looking for an online header or update to the existing one: AWSS: A nonprofit organization encouraging women in soil science. Suggestions were to take "nonprofit" out of the initial billing.
  
  

• Membership/Directory Committee Report:
  Laura Craven needs help with the directory. We need to share some of the responsibilities. Carol Wettstein volunteered to help. Directory update was discussed with having a password protected on-line directory and newsletter. These would be password protected. In July 2003 we will look for a new server that will have these capabilities. Also discussed was having a skills file database.
  
  

• T-Shirt Committee Report:
  Susan Samson-Liebig still wants to be on the committee, but will transfer the T-shirts to Tammy Biondi's house for storage and distribution. Discussed the possibility of putting T-shirt sales on the Web site, with purchasing option through PayPal.
  
  

• Mentoring Committee Report:
  No activity. Award Committee Chair Lenore Vasilas would like to step down as chair. Cheryl Simmons is still interested in being on this committee. In a 2001 newsletter (SWCS Conservogram), nominations were requested for the 2001 award, but none were received in response. Nominations are needed for the 2003 award, which will be presented at the SWCS meeting in Spokane. GayLynn volunteered to present the award in Spokane.
  
  

• Scholarship Committee Report:
  No members present. No activity since 2000. It was suggested to request list from Dept. heads, a list from ASG Corporate underwriters for sponsorships. Sabine Goldberg volunteered to be on this committee.
  
  

• Newsletter Committee Report:
  Chair-Elect Pat Farrell will reestablish the duties of the Executive Committee and serve as Chair. Need volunteers for articles, profiles, and editors. Need a volunteer to fold newsletters, apply address labels and postage, and deliver to post office. Need to stimulate participation.

New Business:

• ASA and AWSS:
  Tom Sims, incoming president of SSSA, talked about how SSSA can be more helpful to AWSS to accomplish our goals. ASA can help by doing all the mailings and take steps to strengthen what ASA can do to support women in soils. Discussion was that AWSS does not want to get swallowed up by ASA, we still need to keep out own identity, and we are not as technical an organization as the ones in ASA.
  
  Discussion on finding corporations to support special interest groups. Discussion about Women in Agronomy changing the name to Women in Crops and Soils. Discussion about creating a liaison between Women in Agronomy and AWSS. Heather Dion volunteered to be this liaison person.
  
  ASA could help with mailing lists, e-mail lists, publication of newsletters and directories, web site maintenance, and any other staff supported duties because they already have those people in positions to do the work. This would take the physical work out of finding volunteers from AWSS.
  
  Discussion on polling the membership. It was stated that AWSS needs to list our goals and define what ASA can do to help us attain them. Need to put an article in the newsletter to our members regarding this and get feedback before any decisions of this magnitude can be made. Once AWSS comes up with a list of needs to present to ASA, then we then can go to the board of directors at ASA and they can approve our position with them, if this is desired.
  
  

• AWSS providing training:
  AWSS could provide soils training for many of the upcoming third party options to fulfill the ARCPACS continuing education requirements. This may be something we could work with in a state or region to elevate the society's standing.
  
  Discussion about paying travel expenses and a small stipend, and charge enough to cover the costs or make a little for AWSS.
  
  Wendy Greenberg taught a field morphology class on pollution control, coordinating these classes with certification credits. Carol Wettstein will approach NRCS at the state level concerning technical service providers outside the federal government.