The 2013 MN SCB Annual Meeting, Conservation in the
Anthropocene, included a stimulating symposium, contributed talks, a closing
speaker, a poster session and social, and the annual Chapter Business
Meeting. Besides highlighting aspects of
the work this past year, we asked the group of 32 Business Meeting attendees to
answer several questions. Here is a
brief summary of the responses with a few added thoughts.
Who was at the 2013
Chapter Meeting?
Half Students, Half Professionals
MN SCB continues to attract a great mix of students and
professionals. The students are almost
completely made up of graduate students (I think there was just 1 undergraduate
this year). The professionals are mostly
from state agencies (principally DNR), followed by NGOs. There are very few professors/research
associates from academia.
Potential areas for
increased outreach and recruitment:
Professionals: Professors and other academic researchers; professionals
from federal agencies and local units of government
Students: should we be recruiting
more undergraduates?
The 2013 meeting attendees were mostly new to MN SCB. The meeting continued the trend of high attendee
turnover between MN SCB annual meetings. Fifty-six percent of the meeting attendees
were new to MN SCB in the last year.
There is still a core group of about one-third of the attendees that
have been involved in MN SCB for more than three years.
Over Half of the
Attendees have Never Been SCB Members
Less than twenty percent of meeting attendees are currently
members of our chapter’s parent organization, the Society for Conservation
Biology. While this seems low it was
encouraging to see that almost half of the meeting attendees have had a
membership with SCB at some time.
SCB Chapter bylaws for all chapters actually say that all
chapter members must be members of the SCB also. This has requirement has been contentious
ever since it was established in the last 5-8 years. In fact it has not been enforced. Other approaches are being considered by
SCB’s Chapters Committee.
What Are the Primary
Activities that MN SCB Should Engage Minnesota’s Community of Conservation
Scientists and Practitioners in?
The thirty-two Chapter Meeting attendees were asked to
indicate the top three activities (in rank order) that they think MN SCB should
focus on. Of the eight activities
listed, four stood out from the others:
1)
Continue to organize annual meetings
2)
Engage in conservation policy issues and
advocacy
3)
Host lectures paired with social/networking
events
4)
Convene working groups on critical conservation
science issues
These results were largely affirming of activities that the
chapter has been engaged in the last two to five years. It is no surprise that attendees at the
annual meeting ranked annual meetings as the highest priority. But it was good to hear that hosting lectures
paired with social/networking events ranked in the top three. That is one of the main activities that the
chapter has done more of in the last two years, hosting 3-4 such events per
year. Engagement in conservation policy
issues ranked high in the past and again this year. The times that the chapter has been most
engaged in policy issues actually involved small work groups. The chapter’s Conservation Biology-based
recommendations on the 2008 U.S. Farm Bill are a case in point. I think this idea of convening working groups
on critical conservation science issues merits serious consideration by the
chapter and its membership. What are
some prime candidate issues that a MN SCB-led working group could make a
valuable contribution to?
Activities that ranked much lower included supporting public
conservation education, publishing an e-newsletter, and facilitating volunteer
conservation and restoration field opportunities. The Board has discussed doing more on each of
these, so this was very helpful input to help consider putting these ideas on
the back burner.
Ratings of Eight Activities
that MN SCB Could Engage Minnesota’s Community of Conservation Scientists and
Practitioners In
Respectfully submitted,
Andy Holdsworth
Past, Past President
