First Business Meeting

       The first business meeting was called to order by President Jocelia Grazia at 9:50 on July 18, 2006 at the Wageningen International Conference Center in Wageningen, The Netherlands. Total meeting attendance was 81 people. The business meeting was preceded by presentation of the Andersen Awards by President Grazia, a brief history of this award, and a discussion of the life and work of Nils Møller Andersen by Jakob Damgaard.

In old business, the secretary’s report and reading of the 2002 minutes was given by Paula Mitchell, and the minutes were approved by voice vote. President Grazia presented a summary of IHS accomplishments in the four years since our last meeting in St. Petersburg, including an ever-growing Bibliographic Database, an expanded web page, and the establishment of the new Nils Møller Andersen Award for young heteropterists. This was followed by a reading of the treasurer’s report by Paula Mitchell, standing in for Treasurer Richard Packauskas. The treasurer’s report was approved by voice vote of the membership.

The webmaster’s report was presented by Tom Henry, who will be stepping down as webpage manager/editor after 8 years of service to the Society. Problems with the current server will necessitate moving the website. The present Smithsonian server is old and no longer secure, and is to be terminated in 2006. The membership and bibliographic databases are in Filemaker Pro version 5, which is outdated and poses security problems. Therefore, a transition to a newer version on another server is needed. David Rider, at North Dakota State in Fargo, has tentatively agreed to serve as the new webmaster and provide the server and needed support. Ernst Heiss proposed a motion, supported by the membership, to thank Tom Henry for his dedicated service as webmaster.  

In new business, President Grazia requested proposals for the meeting site location in 2010. One proposal was received from Wen-Jun Bu, for Nankai University in Tianjin City, PRC, accompanied by a thorough, entertaining, and convincing PowerPoint presentation describing the proposed location. Ernst Heiss moved to accept, seconded by Toby Schuh, and the motion to meet next time in China was unanimously approved by voice vote.  

In other new business, Gerry Cassis announced that an award of 100 € would be given for the best student talk, to be judged by Cassis, Schuh, and Grazia. All eligible student presenters were encouraged to notify this judging committee if interested in participating.

Ernst Heiss introduced a discussion of plans for Heteroptera-related activity at the 2008 International Congress of Entomology in Durban, South Africa. An informal IHS gathering in Durban is planned, and Gerry Cassis suggested a symposium on African Heteroptera. Toby Schuh promised to work toward obtaining a slot for this with Society support. Dawid Jacobs, from the University of Pretoria, offered to organize trips for collecting, but cautioned that the meeting falls during winter; July conditions will not illustrate the high diversity of the South Africa fauna.

On behalf of PBI (Plant Bug/Planetary Biodiversity Inventory), Toby Schuh announced the availability of version 2 of the new on-line database: Plant Bugs of the World (Insecta: Heteroptera: Miridae).

Announcements regarding lunch, group photo, poster session, and book stands were made by Program Chair Berend Aukema, who also announced that a “best poster” award was being offered by Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden. The winner will be awarded a copy of The Aquatic and Semi-aquatic Bugs (Heteroptera: Nepomorpha & Gerromorpha) of Malesia by Ping-ping Chen, Nico Nieser and Herbert Zettel (list price 149 €) signed by the first author.

The business meeting closed with a reminder for all members to attend the closing business meeting on Thursday, when the slate of officers for 2006-2010 would be presented for approval.

Second Business Meeting

The second business meeting was called to order by President Grazia at the close of the final session on 20 July 2006. The following slate of officers was presented to the membership.  

Past President:                         Jocelia Grazia
President:                                 Ernst Heiss
President-Elect:                        Gerasimos Cassis
Secretary:                                 Paula Levin Mitchell
Treasurer:                                 Richard Packauskas
Editor/Webpage Manager:        David Rider
Program Chair                          Wen-Jun Bu 

As no additional nominations were forthcoming from the floor, a motion to accept by acclamation was made by Toby Schuh and seconded by John Polhemus.

John Polhemus thanked Program Chair Berend Aukema for his efforts in organizing a tremendously successful meeting and asked that the members concur with a round of enthusiastic applause.

Outgoing President Grazia thanked Berend Aukema and his wife Geertje Davids and all who assisted them, for the extensive work involved in meeting preparation, for their dedication, and for the success of the conference. She invited all present to attend the Fourth Quadrennial Meeting in China in 2010.

In closing remarks, incoming President Heiss thanked the outgoing President; he expressed his hope for her support as he begins his term as IHS President, and reiterated the sincere gratitude the Society owes to Program Chair Aukema for the very difficult job of organizing the meeting and to Geertje for her hospitality. He thanked all who assisted, especially those who facilitated access to the Amsterdam, Leiden, and Wageningen collections. President Heiss expressed appreciation to Annemarie Møller Andersen for her generous donation which provided support to students and young professionals, and he asked Jakob Damgaard to convey our thanks personally. He then thanked the Andersen Award winners, Anna Namyatova, Dominik Chłond, Christiano Schwertner, Dmitry Gapon, and Qiang Xie for their assurance that heteropterology will go on into the future. He extended thanks to the members of the IHS Executive Committee, both past and present, and concluded the meeting with a multilingual “thank you” to all the IHS attendees who made the meeting a success, and invited all to meet again in Tianjin City in four years.

The final item of business, presentation of the best poster and best paper award, was delayed until after the Conference Dinner. Meeting attendees reconvened at De Blaauwe Kamer on Rijn, and Christian Fischer announced the decision of the four-person judging committee for best student paper. Nikolai Tatarnic, University of Sydney, was the recipient of this cash award for his presentation on traumatic insemination in the mirid genus Coridromius, which was judged to integrate multiple fields of biology in one inspiring talk. Ernst Heiss announced that Tadashi Ishikawa, Tokyo University of Agriculture, was the recipient of the best poster award, for his poster on Japanese assassin bugs in the genus Empicoris. Ping-ping Chen, first author, signed the award book copy presented by the Brill Academic Publishers representative. The awards ceremony concluded the Third Quadrennial Meeting.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS | ATTENDEES | PHOTOS | PROGRAM
TREASURER'S REPORT | SUMMARY | ABSTRACTS

 

updated: 26 February 2007