Minutes of the ISH Business meeting 

8th International Congress of Hymenopterists, Cusco, Peru

July 25, 2014 

64 in attendance 

1. President report (John Heraty) 

Election results ISH president 

Dr Andrew Polaszek, NHM London, has been elected as the incoming president. 

Distinguished research medal 

Dr John Noyes, NHM London, will receive the Distinguished Research Medal Award on the basis of his outstanding research career: 

• John Noyes has published 90 articles and 10 monographs on Encyrtidae and Mymaridae. 
• He has published 3 books on Costa Rican Encyrtidae (1,662 pages). 
• He described about 1/4 of almost 4,000 species and 493 genera of Encyrtidae. 
• He developed the Universal Chalcidoidea Database (>35,000 references). 
• He designed the “Noyes” sweep net – the standard net for collecting microhymenoptera. 
• He added 400,000 mounted and labelled specimens of Chalcidoidea to the NHM collection.  

It is planned to have the award ceremony at the upcoming ISH business meeting during the ESA meeting in Portland, Oregon (16 Nov 2014). 

Student travel award recipients 

19 submissions for the ISH travel awards to Peru were received. Six students were selected as winners of the ISH travel awards: 

1st prizes (1000 US$ plus registration waiver): 

1. Rebecca Kittel (University of Adelaide): "Phylogenetics and biogeography of chelonine wasps (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) based on a fossil calibrated multigene analysis" 
2. Petr Jansta (Charles University, Prague): "Molecular phylogeny and evolution of the family Torymidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) - are Torymidae really monophyletic?" 

2nd prizes (500 US$ plus registration waiver): 

1. Crystal McEwen (University of Maryland): "Progress in the revision of Disholcaspis Dalla Torre and Kieffer" 
2. Bernardo Santos (American Museum of Natural History): "On the road to a total evidence phylogeny of cryptine wasps (Ichneumonidae, Cryptinae)"  Erika Tucker (University of Kentucky): "An updated phylogenetic analysis of Cremnops (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) incorporating the minibarcode region of COI" 

3rd prizes (registration waiver) 

1. Mabel Alvarado (University of Kansas): "Revision of the South American wasp genus Alophophion (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae: Ophioninae)" 
2. Candice Owen (Rhodes University): "Wingless wasps in the water -What?!?" 

8th International Congress of Hymenopterists 

160+ participants from 28 countries attended in the meeting. President Heraty thanks the local organizing committee, chaired by Frank Azorza and Dr Erick Yabar, the members of the scientific committee chaired by Marcel Hermes and Angélico Asenjo, the editor of the conference book. Thanks are also due to Lidia Sulca Garro and all volunteers for taking care of the local organization. Eight sponsors provided financial support (Bioquip, Bugdorm, CSIRO, Entomological Society of America, Entosphinx, Pensoft and Princeton University Press). 

Call for proposals for the next ISH congress 

The ISH executive has developed a set of new guidelines and deadlines for future ISH congresses: 

• announcement to membership by email and through Hamuli 
• 1-2 page proposal due January 1 following the congress to President and President-Elect (next proposals due January 1, 2015) 
• proposals to include a brief outline of reasons for location (reasons for location: unique location or long overdue, access to a unique membership, location appeal, identification of a team of local organizers and support network, potential venue, potential registration and meeting costs, and opportunities for fieldwork. All points are to be addressed. 
• proposals will be evaluated by the Executive Committee and requests for successful bidders to be returned by February. 
• successful bids would be required to submit a more complete bid by May 30 that would include more details on the hotels, room charges, registration estimates and a business plan for the meeting, post-congress activities such as collecting trips, and congress activities such as visits to nearby natural areas and tourist locations, archeological or historical sites, etc. 
• the successful bid will be evaluated by the Executive Committee and announced by July 1 of the same year. 

Discussion 

There is a brief discussion concerning the length of the ISH presidency (2 years). This means that the president who handles the applications for the upcoming ISH congress will not be in charge during the congress. It also becomes clear during the discussion that also in the future a rotation of continents will be preferred. 

2. Editor’s Report (on behalf of Stefan Schmidt) 

Journal statistics 

• Submissions, rejections, and number of published articles remained more or less stable since move to Pensoft in 2011 
• Initially 4, then 6 issues per year, including 1 special issue (monograph) in 2013 
• 6 issues expected in 2014, including 1 special issue 
• Manuscript turnover time from submission to publication decreased from 25 weeks in 2011 to about 17 weeks in 2014, mainly due to shorter time between submission and acceptance 
• Submissions, rejections, and number of published articles remained stable since move to Pensoft in 2011 
• Number of published pages has been and is still increasing 
• Number of colour plates increased dramatically (no additional costs) 
• Pensoft about to launch a new editorial system 
• Among other improvements, authors may suggest reviewers during the submission process 

Discussion 

A discount for publication costs of student papers would be desirable. The layout of the journal artificially inflates the page numbers. Pensoft seems to object to a larger page format. The 5 year contract with Pensoft ends in 2016. The new ISH executive under incoming president Jim Whitfield will prepare a document with suggestions to send to Lyubomir Penev. 

3. Treasurers Report (on behalf of Craig Brabant) 

The balance of ISH will be around $6,500 USD by the end of 2014. See slides of business meeting for details on income and expenses.

4. Endowment Report (Jim Woolley) 

The total of the ISH endowment funds is $70,130.21 USD ($70,130.21 savings, $15,364.68 time account). Currently the endowment funds do not create any interest rate. A slightly less risk-conserved strategy might be necessary to gain interest in the future.  

5. Secretary’s report (Lars Krogmann) 

The number of ISH members show a very positive trend. In 2014 ISH has 285 members (191 regular, 73 student, 12 life). This is a plus of 98 members. The reasons for the membership increase are the ISH congress and probably also the increase of reminder letters. However, 13% of former ISH members (36 in total) have still not renewed for 2014. 

A few suggestions from the webmaster, treasurer and secretary are put up for discussion:  

Occasional special issues in JHR 

• These could be on special topics (may be „non-systematics“ topics to 
  attract potential members from fields that are not well covered by ISH, yet).
  
• A „Young Taxonomist‘s Issue“ for student members (may be our student representative
  Rebecca could help editing?).
  

Review article about the history of ISH  

• Should also outline the mission of the society and the advantages of being a member. 
• Could be a task for the new archivist. 

ISH Branding 

• We should link more activities that already exist in our society (e.g., Hymenoptera course, workshops) to ISH. 

ISH topics 

• We should try to attract ISH members from fields, that are not well represented: e.g., pollination, ecology, social insects. Or do we want to be a „systematics-only“ society 

Renewing 

• Members that have not renewed, now regularly receive individual
  reminders from the secretary.
  
• May be enable automatic renewals with PayPal 

Blog 

• The Blog is now open for everyone. Members can become contributors or send content to ISH officers. 

Membership listserver 

• From now on we will maintain 2 types of lists: 
• One list that comprises only the current members (i.e. those that have renewed). 
• One list that comprises also the list of members that have not renewed for the current year. 
• Only current members will receive hamuli. Past members will still receive renewal reminders.  

Sponsorship 

• Should ISH sponsor meetings such as ECN? 

6. Student and Young professional’s report (Rebecca Kittel) 

• tasks: organization of student meetings at conferences 
• Future: poll what students want, e.g. webinars/ online meetings 

Who wants to be the next Student rep? Interested students should send one page motivation letter, including goals, cv, and supporting letter from supervisor by August 31, executive Members will make a decision by October, position will commence in November (during ESA). 

7. Webmaster report (Katja Seltmann) 

Photos of this and previous ISH congresses can be uploaded and shared among ISH members at 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hymenopterists/ 

The ISH website becomes increasingly popular with hits from most countries of the world.
The website should get a new look and should be part of a professional management site (groupspaces).
The costs would be $19.99/month. It is agreed to have the website managed by groupspaces.

8. New business 

ISH should have an archivist position, which will be advertised by the executive.  

Barbara Sharanowski suggests digitalizing the Braconid Manual and having Spanish and English pdf versions that are OCR readable and comprise hyperlinks. 

A list of recently passed ISH members will be published in hamuli. The following will be included: Dr Fred Gess, Dr Alan Hook, Dr Klaus Horstmann, Dr Charles Porter. 

John Heraty will stay as Past President in the ISH executive and welcomes Jim Whitfield as current ISH president. Jim Whitfield thanks John for his great presidency, which included the organization of the successful Cusco meeting, and closes the ISH business meeting.