Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections March 2018 - 13

Society Reports
collections managers around the world
regarding best practices in entomological (and arthropod) natural history collections. The network is organized and
operated exclusively for scientific and
educational purposes.
ECN 2017
The 2017 annual meeting of the Entomological Collections Network (ECN) was held November
4-5, 2017, in Denver, Colorado, USA, in conjunction with
the Entomological Society of America. The two-day meeting
included three member symposia (26 talks), three contributed
talk sessions (20 talks) and a poster session (7+ posters). The
member symposia topics were:
MEMBER SYMPOSIUM 1: Natural History Discoveries and
their Impact on Collecting and Collections Data (8 talks)
MEMBER SYMPOSIUM 2: Tales from the Field: Volume 2
(9 talks)
MEMBER SYMPOSIUM 3: Entomological Collections,
Social Media, and YOU (9 talks)
One of the invited papers was presented by SPNHC liaison,
Daniel Young, to acquaint the ECN membership with SPNHC
and the new partnership:
The Entomological Collections Network recently signed a
Memorandum of Understanding with The Society for the
Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC), joining 20 other collections-based alliances and associations.
The newly formalized partnership provides a liaison between
ECN and SPNHC. This presentation provides ECN members
with an overview of, and introduction to SPNHC, outlining
our mutually overlapping missions as well as the organizational structure of SPNHC, membership, publications, and
meetings.
The annual ECN Business Meeting was held November 4,
2017, followed by the ECN Mixer and Poster Session and the
annual ECN Banquet. All sessions and meetings were held in
the Denver Convention Center.
Highlight from the President Report
The list of MOUs formalized in 2016 include the Global Genome Biodiversity Network (GGBN), SPNHC, the American
Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), the Natural Science
Collections Alliance (NSCA), the International Society for
Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER), and we
are the in the process of finalizing one with iDigBio, which
has been a partner with ECN for several years in terms of
providing logistical support and network access to the meetings and their talks.

Highlight from the Vice-president Report
Next year's meeting is in Vancouver, BC, Canada (see
below). Crystal Maier is in charge of local arrangements for
2018.
Highlight from the Secretary Report
There were 196 members in attendance.
Highlight from Treasurer Report
All paperwork filed to put ECN in compliance with state and
federal tax laws. Registration this year: $13,260. Sponsorships: $9,250. Total expenses: $17,159. We are in the black
for this conference: $5,351. Account total: $22,189.
Business
Vote on bylaw provisions to elect new officers for social
media position and to allow for program co-chairs. Eventually, bylaws could use a look-over, possibly an ad hoc By-law
Committee, to see if they are most appropriate and efficient
for ECN currently. - Approved
New officers approved:
*

President - Max Barclay

Vice President - Crystal Maier

Secretary - Christy Bills

Treasurer - Patrick Gorring

Program Co-chairs: Chris Grinter and Gene Hall

Communications Officer - Isa Betancourt

We reported on the second Entomological Collections Management workshop that was co-sponsored by the ECN and
the Entomological Society of America:
*

July 17-20, 2017 @Milwaukee Public Museum and the
Field Museum

5 instructors, 15 guest speakers, 23 participants

Travel scholarships: 16 @ $1000 per person

Next year: July 16-19, 2018, at Cal Academy in San
Francisco. Local host: Chris Grinter.

Still have $19676.57 available in 2018

We also had Dr. Susan Weller, ESA President, speak to the
group about the importance of collections to the rest of Entomological Science:
*

ESA Strategic Principles: Influence, Global, Social

To realize our profession's full potential, ESA must increase its influence
March 2018 * 13

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections March 2018