Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections September 2017 - 8

Society Reports
Elections Committee

Emerging Professionals

Elections Online (http://www.electionsonline.us/) was used again exclusively
this year. The fee from Elections Online
was $324.47. This fee was cheaper than
previous years as we have now signed
a 4-year contract with Elections Online,
giving us a 10% discount for each election.

At SPNHC 2017, 44 individuals participated in the Emerging Professionals
committee meeting, and 26 of those
attendees expressed interested in volunteering and becoming more involved.
The SPNHC Emerging Professionals
Committee also hosted its third annual
Emerging Professionals Luncheon. The
luncheon quickly sold out, and over 50
emerging professionals attended. Six
established professionals attended the
luncheon and led group discussions
at individual tables. These included
Emily Graslie as the luncheon keynote
speaker, Gil Nelson, Anna Monfils,
Travis Marsico, Barbara Thiers, and
Andrew Bentley. The overall theme
was "Becoming Better Advocates for
Collections," and each table discussed
ways the EPs could better advocate for
themselves and their collections.

Positions filled are two Members-at-Large. The successful
candidates are:
MEMBER AT LARGE Amanda Lawrence, Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, USA
MEMBER AT LARGE Deborah Paul, Florida State University, Florida, USA
There were 14 nominations received from 14 different members. All nominees agreed to stand.
The election started with an email message sent to all members on a 'voting list' (provided to Elections Online based
on the Treasurer's most recent membership list as of April
2017). At the close of the election on May 10, 2017, the total
number of returned ballots was 269, or 52.03% of the eligible
members - an increase of 14.35% from the previous year
(which was 37.68%). The table below outlines the trends over
the last 4 elections.

During the Emerging Professionals
committee meeting in Denver, committee members voted for Mariana di
Giacomo as our new co-chair. At this point, the EPC has
three co-chairs: Kari Harris, Mariana di Giacomo, and Katie
Worthen. The committee is also served by a blog editor, Katie
McComas.

Legislation and Regulations
We were pleased to see a solid turnout at the Legislation and Regulations
(L&R) Committee meeting held on
Tuesday, June 20, 2017, during the
SPNHC Annual Conference in Denver.
Following is a summary of the meeting.
A greater number of votes was achieved than the previous
year due to reminders sent twice during the election period.
However, the membership of SPNHC decreased this year
from 544 to 517 (-27).
Results were emailed to the membership and via NHCOLLL.
Respectfully submitted,
Bethany Palumbo, Chair
8 * SPNHC Connection

After a brief report on past activities
(ABS/ABS Wiki, USDA/APHIS, the
incident with herbarium material loss in
Australia), we discussed if the visibility
of SPNHC on the international political level as a relevant stakeholder is
wanted. The group agreed that it would
be useful, and that the L&R committee should get involved. Dirk Neumann
suggested forming active subgroups that
could serve as information hubs to gather information and

http://www.electionsonline.us/ http://www.electionsonline.us/

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections September 2017