American Fisheries Society
February 5-7, 2008
Joint Annual Meeting of the Virginia & Virginia Tech ChaptersBlacksburg , VA
Meeting Summary
A
very successful joint meeting of the Virginia and Virginia
Tech Chapters, American Fisheries Society took place on
February 5-7, 2008 in Blacksburg, Virginia. The meeting
had 82 registered participants. Of the 82 attendees, 38
of them were students (46%). This meeting featured 21 oral
presentations (13 by students) and 4 posters (all by students).
All of the presentations and posters were of exceptional
quality. In a very tight contest, the best student paper
award was shared by Shannon White and Arba
Williamson (both from Randolph-Macon College) for
their talk entitled, “Understanding why stream trout
move during summer”. The annual (and much anticipated)
Virginia Chapter raffle was held during the social on the
evening of February 6 th. One of the more entertaining raffle
prizes was a pair of socks and used Wal-Mart gift card (with
$5.95 left on it) won by Bud LaRoche (VDGIF).
Numerous members of both chapters assisted VA Chapter member
Tom Gunter (Aquatic Biological Monitoring
Services) with the excellent meal (blue catfish and pork
barbecue, with all the trimmings) provided at the social.
There was enough food to feed Cox’s Army, and nobody
left the event hungry. Virginia Chapter members Tom
Wilcox, George Palmer, and Chad
Boyce (all of VDGIF) ably handled the emcee duties
at the raffle. They were nice boys, but they made a lot
of noise.
At
the Virginia Chapter business meeting, new officers were
installed. Bob Greenlee (VDGIF) became
the President, and Eric Brittle (VDGIF)
became the President-Elect. Robert Humston
(VMI) and Steve Owens (VDGIF) continued
their terms as Secretary and Treasurer, respectively. The
Virginia Chapter awarded its Robert E. Jenkins undergraduate
scholarship to Brett Carpenter (Virginia
Military Institute), and its Robert D. Ross graduate scholarship
to Jamie Roberts (Virginia Tech). The Virginia
Chapter’s Eugene Surber Professional Fisheries Biologist
Award went to Steve Reeser (VDGIF). The
Chapter’s Natural Resource Conservationist/Citizen
Conservation Award went to Jeff Turner
(Blackwater/Nottoway Riverkeeper Program). All of the award
recipients were extremely deserving of these honors.
Overall,
the meeting was quite a success. All of the posters and
presentations were extremely good, and most folks seemed
to enjoy themselves. The collaboration between the two chapters
was quite successful, and produced outstanding results.
Submitted
by,
Scott
M. Smith, Past President, Virginia Chapter, AFS
Virginia
Tech Chapter President, Nick LaPointe, addresses the
crowd.
|
The
Virginia Chapter Excom during the business meeting.
Pictured are (L to R) Bob Greenlee, Scott Smith, Eric
Brittle, Steve Owens, and
Dan Michaelson.
|
Steve
Reeser (right) receives the Eugene Surber Professional
Fisheries Biologist Award from Paul Bugas. |
Tom
Wilcox (left), Steve Owens (center) and George Palmer
(right) ham it up a bit during the annual Chapter
raffle. |
Meeting Abstracts (WORD) Meeting Abstracts (PDF)