Message from the President
John Pearse
I trust you have all
thoroughly enjoyed exploring our new SICB website. Not only are its
layout and rotating images attractive, its organization has been
simplified so that items of interest are more easily found. Our
gifted and responsive webmaster, Ruedi Birenheide, deserves major
credit for this reorganization. In addition, our secretary, Lou
Burnett, who worked closely with Ruedi over much of this year, should
receive huge kudos for meticulously going through every parcel of the
site, and weeding out redundancies and remnants of long ago, to
create the streamlined and up-to-date version you see now. I was
copied on many of their exchanges, and so I know better than most
what they went through. An enthusiastic thank you to both!
I trust you have also
enjoyed this year's issues of Integrative and Comparative
Biology, which have been appearing monthly on schedule since
July. By the end of the year all of the symposia to be published in
the journal from the 2007 meeting will be out. Quite a remarkable
achievement by our editor, Harold Heatwole, and our publisher, Oxford
University Press. You also can be pleased to know that all
papers published in both American Zoologist and ICB are
now online. Moreover, the impact factor for ICB rose to 2.232
in 2006 so the journal is now ranked 8th out of 114 in the Zoology
category on ISI. Clearly all the hard negotiations done by
Past-President Sally Woodin, along with Ron Dimock, our treasurer,
and Brett Burk, our executive director, are paying off now.
In early October, I met
in San Antonio with the other Executive Officers (Executive Director
Brett Burk, Treasurer Ron Dimock, Secretary Lou Burnett, Program
Officer Linda Walters, and President-Elect Rich Satterlie) to review
the state of SICB and prepare for the Annual Meeting in San Antonio.
As you can see from the other officers' messages, our Society
continues to thrive: it is fiscally sound (thanks in particular to
Ron and Brett), has vibrant Divisions, and is moving toward
broadening its scope.
Our meeting overlapped
with that of the Program Officers, who worked intensely together to
assemble the Annual Meeting's program. I can tell you that the
2008 Annual Meeting will be as full, diverse, and as exciting as
ever, and our Program Officer Linda Walters deserves major credit for
keeping on top of the never-ending details. I look forward in
particular to Past-President Sally Woodin's opening talk, as well
as to the film "Flock of Dodos," by our colleague,
biologist-turned-filmmaker, Randy Olson. I gather that the film is
mostly about us scientists, and appropriately so, I think. Be ready
to be scolded. You will also enjoy the setting in San Antonio, with
the hotel and convention center conveniently near each other and
right on (or over) the fabulous River Walk. Once again we need to
thank Sue Burk and Lori Strong for arranging such a great meeting
site for us.
I continue trying to
fill out and support our hard-working Committees. As you can see on
our website, there are quite a few of them, each working for our
diverse interests. Most have open slots, however, or will at the end
of the San Antonio meeting. If any of them appeal to you, please let
me know. Of some concern also is finding someone interested in
serving as an Archivist. Our Society has had a long and rich history
over the past century, and we want to be sure to capture that history
for future members to appreciate. Currently, it is scattered about,
electronically and on paper in a variety of files (boxes actually),
and needs careful culling and organizing. Eventually, it should all
be available to everyone on-line. If you are interested in such a
project, I am interested in you.
Of most pressing
importance, however, is the selection of candidates for our Spring
election. Positions opening for Society-wide officers include
President-Elect, Program Officer-Elect, Treasurer-Elect, one
Member-at-Large, and Chair of the Educational Council. This will
indeed be a major election! If you might enjoy serving, or can think
of people whom you would like to see in these roles, please let me
know, and I will pass their names on to the Nominating Committee.
My first year as your
President has been enjoyable and satisfying, mainly because of the
great people I have encountered. I look forward to seeing you in San
Antonio, and working with many of you during the coming year.