I agree with Wayne and defer to the wisdom of Ed Wilson. This unbending paradigm of meetings is not sustainable and does not necessarily work for everyone; face time is expensive on many fronts. Since ESA has taken a position on sustainability it would be appropriate for ESA to be a leader in providing alternatives to attending meetings, especially since the technology is available.
I think we need to revisit the long thread on sustainability that lasted for weeks last spring. Randy From: Malcolm McCallum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sun, 05 Aug 2007 21:59:15 -0500 To: <[email protected]> Subject: Re: Skipping meetings There are several reasons to go to meetings. 1. meet potential funders. 2. meet face-to-face with potential collaborators 3. see presentations of data that may not be published for a good 1-2 yrs (many journals have a pretty long delay between submission and publication). 4. recruit students 5. an excuse for a vacation. There are undoubtedly more reasons. I think most people should be going to 1-2 international/national meetings per year. These should be selected very carefully. For example, my international meetings would be one ecology-natural resource meeting (ESA, SCB, Wildlife SOc.) and the herpetology meetings. Then I may go to regional meetings when they are within a hop-skip-jump of my location. For example SWAN has been near my location three times in the last five years, and I attend. Then I try to attend one of the local state academy meetings if I have time. Needless to say, time and money are usually the determining factors. IF you are new, you need to attend on organization religiously so you get known. The old guard can pretty much do what they want as Bill stated, they have already convinced everyone of their prowess. Malcolm McCallum On Sun, August 5, 2007 5:45 pm, William Silvert wrote: > Although skipping meetings may reduce environmental impacts, I really > wonder > whether this is a wise policy. E. O. Wilson of course does not need to go > to > meetings, people go to him. As for those of you who just run back and > forth > between the presentations and your hotel without even staying for the > discussions, you won't miss much if you stay home. But if you want to hear > or participate in discussions, meet colleagues in your field and ferret > out > their ideas, interview prospective students or professors, and in general > integrate with the scientific community, I think that meetings are so > valuable that their merit outways their environmental impact. > > You could of course go all the way and not only skip meetings but > discontinue your field work, doing your research just by computer > simulation! > > Unfortunately it is already difficult enough to get funding for meeting > travel, especially for many government scientists, and Wayne's posting may > make the situation worse. A lot of scientific progress depends on the > exchange of ideas, and the internet has a long way to go before it > approximates human interaction. > > Bill Silvert > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Wayne Tyson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Sunday, August 05, 2007 8:25 PM > Subject: ECOLOGY How to Help the Ecosystem Succeed? Re: How to Succeed in > Ecology session in San Jose > > >> As E. O. Wilson has suggested, we might consider not jetting >> around the world to interesting places for meetings so much, but >> taking full advantage of modern technology like the Internet and >> teleconferencing. May I add that ecolog-l already is doing just >> that, and could do much more--with, of course, help and support. > Malcolm L. McCallum Assistant Professor of Biology Editor Herpetological Conservationa and Biology [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
