Committee Chairs
Archives
John Anderson and Kate Shlepr, Co-Chairs
Preserve records, documents, electronic material and memorabilia of the Society.
Membership
John Anderson
Develop and enact strategies to maintain and enhance membership in the Society.
Nominations
Susan Elbin & Caroline Poli, Co-Chairs
Provide the slate of candidates for elective office, and ensure rigorous tallying and reporting of election results. Send nominees to Secretary by early March for mailing.
Bylaws
Chris Custer
Preserve, update and make available copies of the Bylaws of the Society as needed. Committee is also charged with noting departures from bylaws in annual meetings and alerting officers to the need to change bylaws.
Recognition Awards
John Anderson and Patty Szczys, Co-chairs
Recommend recipients of the Kai-Curry Lindahl Conservation Award and the Robert Cushman Murphy Award for Lifetime Scientific Achievement. Maintain an archive of recipients, see it is posted to the web, be responsible for the logistics of presenting the award. (See historic register for past recipients, past comm. members).
Finance and Investment
Ricardo Zambrano and Jim Fraser, Co-chairs
Develop and maintain strategy for investment of the Society’s endowment assets. Work with Treasurer to develop annual budget. Advise council on finances each year and make recommendations for expenditures.
Student Activities
Gail Fraser and Juliet Lamb, Co-chairs
Oversee the solicitation, judging and awarding of annual student travel awards to meetings, and student presentation awards at meetings.
American Bird Conservancy Representative
The Waterbird Society pays dues to the American Bird Conservancy (ABC) and appoints a representative to serve on the Policy Council and attend meetings in DC. Representative makes an annual report to the board on activities of ABC and assists ABCs mission of bird conservation.
Ornithological Council
Jeff Spendelow and Susan Elbin, Representatives
The Waterbird Society pays support to the Ornithological Council (OC) and appoints 2 representatives (has 2 votes) to attend OC Council meetings.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee
The mission of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee is to ensure that the Waterbird Society is inclusive of all waterbird biologists, policy-makers, and community members regardless of their sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, economic status, age, national origin, religion, (dis)ability status, language, political perspective, education, etc. The role of the Committee is to promote and celebrate individual and global diversity, actively advance equity, and comprehensively cultivate inclusion in the Waterbird Society.
Research Grants
Kate Sheehan and Liz Craig Co-chairs
Solicit applications for the Kushlan, Nisbet, and Waterbird Society Research Grants. Maintain archive of recipients, proposal titles and award amounts and be responsible for the logistics of presenting the award and getting reports afterwards.
Scientific Program
Current Vice President and at least one member of Local Committee (usually chair)
Responsible for developing the Scientific Program for the annual meeting of the Society, including solicitation of major symposia and speakers. Submits all meeting announcements, call for papers, meeting program, and abstracts to the Web Editor. Writes Call for Papers and submits to Secretary for mailing. Receives and abstracts, organizes meeting program, designates session chairs. Gets information to Local Committee for printing.
Web Editor
Kiah Williams
Review WS website for content, add content, solicit content, assure that annual meeting announcements are posted, updates to officer list, etc. Consider new ways to use the website to promote the goals of the Society. May appoint web manager to do actual posting as advised by Web Editor. When requesting changes to the website, please send page edits in the order that they appear on the page.
Communications and Outreach
Anna Vallery and Paige Byerly, co-chairs
Designs and develops promotional material for the Society.
Conservation
Jonathan Cohen, chair
The goals of the conservation committee are to 1) promote research relating to the conservation of waterbirds and 2) promote science-based conservation of waterbirds and the habitats on which they depend.
Publications
Erica Nol
Assist with Waterbirds journal editor and council on journal issues (e.g. electronic publishing), keep data on the appropriate statistics to help manage the journal (BioOne data, JSTOR data), and manage advertisement within the journal.
Future Meetings
Chip Weseloh and Susan Elbin, Co-chairs
Finds venues for future meetings for the society and presents them to the council for consideration.