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1. |
Fifty-three persons registered for the Rio Grande Branch ASM Annual Meeting, held at the University of New Mexico (UNM) on February 15-16, 2008. Thirty-three registrants attended the ASM Branch business meeting on February 16, 2008. |
| 2. |
Our thanks go to the five faculty members who judged the student presentations. They were Dr. Igor Almeida, Dr. Monica Delgado-Vargas, Dr. Paul Farnsworth, Dr. Sharon Master and Dr. Isabelle Vergne. The winners of the $100 cash award prizes for student presentations were:
Undergraduate Poster: Gloria Polanco UTEP
Undergraduate Poster: Edgar Anaya UTEP
Graduate Poster: Sergio DeHaro UNM
Graduate Poster: Christine Delgado UTEP
Graduate Oral: Armand Dichosa UNM
Graduate Oral: Linda Herrera UTEP
Undergraduate Oral Honorable Mention ($50): Monica Moya UNM
All of the winners also got free ASM student memberships. |
| 3. |
Dr. Steve Aley, President-Elect, announced that the next annual meeting for 2009 will be held at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, NM. |
| 4. |
The Treasurer reported that at the end of 2007, the Branch held a balance of $4003.79. After expenses for the 2008 annual meeting were paid, we have $2024.28. |
| 5. |
We discussed opportunities for spending grant funding for the upcoming year, including science fair awards, K-12 Outreach programs, student member recruitment, and full member recruitment. Janet Yagoda-Shagam suggested bi-annual event at the Science Café at the New Mexico Natural History Museum in Albuquerque, NM. http://www.cafescientifique.org/ http://cafescicolorado.org/ |
| 6. |
Steve Young has agreed to be the President-Elect once again, the position that was vacated by Dr. Steve Aley, when he assumed the Presidency of the Branch. |
| 7. |
Kathryn Henderson, Secretary Treasurer, will be eligible to retire in two years. As such, the position of Secretary Treasurer will be open next July. |
| 8. |
Jessica Snider, a UNM graduate student, acted as sole Press Corps member, interviewing speakers and faculty and taking pictures. These will be posted on the website as soon as they are available. |
| 9. |
We now have an operational website linked to the National ASM site. Please visit us at www.asm.org/branch/brrio. We would be interested in finding a webmaster to maintain this website. |
| 10. |
Many thanks to our outstanding speakers:
ASMBL Lecturer - Dr. Marian Johnson-Thompson
NMDOH - Dr. Steve Jenison
UNM MGM – Dr. George Kyei
UTEP – Dr. Igor Almeida
UNM & Rhizotech – Dr. Janet Yagoda-Shagam
UNM – Dr. Paul Farnsworth |
| 11. |
As clarification and documentation of our policies for our annual meetings, we agreed on the following:
- Only the attending students who are presenting posters or talks will have their $5 registration fee waived and may attend the banquet for free.
- “Press Corps” students will be treated as presenting students as above.
- Any student who attends the meeting from an institution farther than 30 miles away is eligible to receive a $25 travel allowance.
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