This message provides the results of the recent Phycological Society of America election and some other Society News.
1. Election News:
Paul Hayes (University of Bristol, U.K.) has been elected President, and Alison
Sherwood (Univ of Hawaii, USA) has been elected Secretary. They will begin their
terms on January 1, 2009. Sung Min Boo (Chungnam National University, South Korea),
Bente Edvardsen (University of Oslo, Norway), Kathryn Van Alstyne (Western
Washington University, USA), and Morgan Vis (Ohio University, USA) were elected to
the Editorial Board of the PSA, and their terms will begin on January 1 as well.
2. Paul Kugrens:
As many of you know, Dr. Paul Kugrens (Colorado State University, USA) died
last month after a long battle with prostate cancer. Paul served the PSA as Program
Director, President and Chair of the Board of Trustees. He was a tremendous supporter
of phycology and young students who chose phycology as a career. He will be sorely
missed.
3. PSA ListServe:
The PSA ListServe was housed at Colorado State University, and Paul Kugrens
oversaw the operations. After Paul’s death, the Executive Committee considered the
future of the PSA ListServe, and we decided to close it. The AlgaeL serves very well for
general algal notices, and the PSA can send messages to its members via our partner,
Wiley-Blackwell Publishers (e.g., this message).
4. New Chair of the Board of Trustees:
The Executive Committee is directed, by Society By-Laws, to fill the Chair of the
BOT, left by the death of Paul Kugrens. The Executive Committee assembled a list of
eleven candidates, and following discussion and a vote, Richard McCourt was appointed
to fill the vacancy. Dr. McCourt is currently a Program Officer at the National Science
Foundation (USA), and he is also a Past President of the PSA.
5. Another Election Ballot Coming Soon:
The Chair of Board of Trustees and the Fund Manager for the PSA have five-year
terms, as specified by the PSA By-Laws. For many years (and perhaps always), the two
individuals have been elected in the same year. Replacing both positions at the same
time is difficult, and it would be preferable to stagger the terms so that simultaneous
replacements could be avoided. Currently, the Chair and the Fund Manager (Timothy
Nelson, Seattle Pacific University, USA) have concurrent terms, which end December
31, 2009.
The Executive Committee would like to propose a By-Laws change that would
require staggered terms for the Chair of the BOT and Fund Manager. We would like to
achieve that goal by electing Richard McCourt to a full-five year term, thereby
simultaneously involving the By-Laws change and the membership approval of Richard
McCourt as the Chair of the Board of Trustees. The ballot will be prepared by the
Election Committee and sent to you in the coming weeks.
6. Future Meetings:
The Program Director, Terence Evens (USDA, USA) is working on future
meetings. The 2009 meeting will be held from July 18-22, 2009, at the University of
Hawaii. The local organizer will be Alison Sherwood (University of Hawaii). The 2010
meeting will be held from July 9-13, at Michigan State University. Richard Triemer will
be the local organizer. Terence Evens is currently considering sites for the 2011 annual
meeting, so please contact him if you have suggested sites.