Division of Systematic and Evolutionary Biology (DSEB): 2007 Fall Newsletter

In this newsletter:

• Message from the Chair
• Message from the Program Officer
• Message from the Secretary

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Message from the Chair

Don Swiderski

Now that everyone has settled into their fall schedules, and we hope, made plans to attend the meeting in beautiful San Antonio, it is time to find candidates for the spring election. This spring we will need to choose a new chair-elect, secretary-elect, and student affairs rep-elect. If you would like to serve your division in one of these important offices (and I know you do), please email Marta (demainte@hawaii.edu) or me (dlswider@umich.edu) to put your name on the list of candidates.

While you are in San Antonio, please find time to attend the divisional business meeting. Rachel Collin, our able program officer, has promised a cheese plate, so you won't have to go hungry; and if you bring an appropriate beverage we may just have an interesting discussion - of symposia (especially 'late-breaking' symposia) and ceiling being imposed on student support and social functions at the annual meeting - please see Treasurer Ron Dimock's message from this spring. Please come to the business meeting and voice your opinion - whether it is thumbs up or thumbs down, we want to hear from you.

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Message from the Program Officer

Rachel Collin

It looks like the 2008 meeting will be exciting and unique. The venue - San Antonio, the convention center, the Marriott, and the Riverwalk - looks wonderful, offering many fine restaurants. The hotel is only two blocks from The Alamo.

During the Program Officer's meeting in early October, we scheduled over 1000 abstracts for the contributed sessions, eight symposia and four half-day, late-breaking symposia. DSEB is co-sponsoring two symposia: "Decapod Phylogenetics" and "Teaching Evolution." DSEB will be co-sponsoring a divisional social with DIZ, AMS, DEE and several other divisions.

The 2008 meeting will have several new and unique features. Two movies will be screened. The Imax movie "Deep Sea Volcanoes" by Richard Lutz will be shown at a reduced price of $10 (including a discussion with the director). Randy Olsen's "Flock of Dodos" will be shown five times and Randy will be there to participate in discussions of the movie. I would strongly suggest that any of you who haven't yet seen that to plan to attend one of the showings. To avoid conflict with these activities as well as the usual packed SICB schedule "Phylogenetics for Dummies" will be suspended for the 2008 meeting.

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Message from the Secretary

Marta deMaintenon

Aloha! Looking forward to seeing everybody in San Antonio! Nothing much from my office, but please do consider running for an office in the upcoming elections, as Don has mentioned above. We do need a number of officer-elect candidates. Because all of these positions are elect, the person elected will have a year to learn the ropes before automatically moving into and actively serving in the position. Most of these are two year posts, with the exception of secretary, which is three years.

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Link to officer list on DSEB page