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Bulletin of the Ecological Society of Australia 41(4) December 2011 1 EDITORIAL Sue Murray-Jones, Hon. Bulletin Editor ESA11 gave all we expect of our annual unsuccessfully and not very convincingly conference and more—great program, nice trying to resign for the last few years, the time mix of talks and socialising, and even has finally come, and this is my last issue. magnificent weather. I managed to squeeze in Megan Evans is going to take it over, and the ‘Wild West Coast’ pre-conference tour, move us into a new and more exciting format, which was amazing. Not very coastal, but in this age of electronic media. included a nature walk on the Franklin River, Also ending is the contribution of a trip to a sub-alpine mine site, and walks at Bernie Masters, who has tirelessly kept us Cradle Mountain, it was well run, and its updated on what’s happening with other leader, John Davey, had lined up a societies for longer than I have been editing remarkable variety of experts and experiences the beast. Thanks Bernie, I have always for us. I also went to the Southern Forests enjoyed your contribution, and particularly with Simon Grove, another enjoyable trip. appreciated its timely arrival. I’d like to take Conference tours are always good value, and this opportunity to thank everyone who’s a chance to learn heaps because most of the contributed over the past 10 years, and made others along are ecologists. the job so easy. Particular thanks to our It’s the end of an era, at least for me. finance officer, Lyn, for sorting out printing At the 2001 AGM in Wollongong, suffering a issues, and our exec officers Gail, and rush of sugar to the brain (which was all Rob previously Larelle, for proof reading and Whelan’s fault, for handing out chocolate as providing material, usually without much an inducement to get people to attend said nagging. It’s been a lot of fun, and AGM), I said I’d edit the ESA Bulletin if no surprisingly I will miss it, even though I one else put their hand up. I didn’t realise I haven’t always appreciated it at the time! was signing up for a 10 year stint! After Copy Deadlines keep formatting to a minimum Material for publication in the March 2012 issue of the no extra lines between paragraphs Bulletin, including regional reports, should be sent to the use single spacing Editor, email: [email protected]) by Friday February 10 2012. Note that material for ‘Ecology Advertising around Australia’ should go directly to Regional The Bulletin is an A5 size publication delivered to more Councillors, not the Editor. Contact details inside back than 1500 individuals and institutions. The rates for cover. camera-ready copy printed in the Bulletin are: Instructions to authors One issue Four issues The preferred format is a minimally formatted text or RTF 1/2 page $100 $300 file submitted as an attachment to an email message. Full page $150 $400 Please avoid sending copy as text within email messages. Attachment file names should include the author’s family General guidelines for Bulletin deadlines: Second Friday name and the issue for which copy is intended. Please do of February, May, August, and November. not use names such as ‘abstract.doc’ or ‘bulletin.doc’. Please observe the following conventions when preparing your contribution. single font (Times New Roman 12 point) throughout italicise all scientific names give the full wording of acronyms for organisations, agreements etc. on first mention Bulletin of the Ecological Society of Australia 41(4) December 2011 2 SOCIETY NEWS PRESIDENT’S REPORT Kris French Our conferences really are great, aren’t they? the process of doing ecological research, of They are a mix of research: Some talks you understanding pattern, then process, of setting know a lot about which are near to your own up questions to investigate a model, has not research field and some talks are about changed. Good science in the 1970s is still ecosystems or concepts which you know good science now. I still enjoy hearing about nothing about. That is the good thing about it. a study that uses a tape measure and a pen and The conference provides one with brand new pad as much as I enjoy listening to someone things to think about. New techniques, new using GIS technology to investigate landscape concepts, new ideas presented provide you scale processes or some other analytical tool. with new ideas for directions in your own I like the way the data helps reveal new research. New connections with researchers knowledge about the world. with complementary ideas provide new One of the other consequences of this collaborations, new opportunities. I always technological and digital era is the way we come back invigorated, wanting to start lots communicate. I haven’t sent a letter in ages; I of new experiments and eager to get some of only found out the other day that postage has these new projects going. gone up (quite a few months ago!!) I used to Malcolm Gill reminded me of how so send lots of letters…now it is email or a text. many things have changed in ecological It is just so much faster. And it is time that research over the past 50 years. The digital this bulletin caught up with the new way age arrived in my lifetime as an ecologist. members communicate. The next bulletin you Modelling was something for the future, and get will be sent to you on email or you can my ANOVAs were all done by hand!! This download it from the net if you want to print made you keep your experiments relatively it out. Exactly what it looks like and how it simple! While my honours theses (yes, there connects with blogs, the web, twitter etc are were 2!) were typed up by my dad’s typist, being left to Megan, our new bulletin editor my PhD was done on a computer with those who is the right age to implement such variety large truly floppy discs. As I was doing my in communication. Combined with the new PhD, there were a range of other students in webpage, the following year will see our my cohort struggling to investigate freshwater membership communication opportunities communities with virtually no capacity to reach new and exciting heights. A learning analyse the multivariate data. curve for us ‘oldies’ but always exciting. But while our tools and techniques See you next time…electronically. have changed, his talk also reminded me that Bulletin of the Ecological Society of Australia 41(4) December 2011 3 EXECUTIVE OFFICERS’S REPORT Gail Spina It is with a mixture of sadness and excitement forward any nominations to Glenda Wardle at that I write this Executive Officer’s report for [email protected] by close of business what is our last hard copy edition of the April 30. Society bulletin. Sadness because it is the end of an era where print was the primary means Student Awards Closing of communicating with our members and date recording the Society’s history, and Student Research Grants Round 1 April 30 excitement because this change is part of our Jill Landsberg Trust Fund May 31 new member communication strategy built Scholarship around the almost limitless multimedia Student Travel Grants July 1 interactive scope offered through online NT Student Travel Award July 31 communication. The Nature Conservancy Applied July 31 While planning has already started on Ecology Award implementing this central change, our Student Research Grants Round 2 October 30 business as usual continues alongside. Our weekly e-news is back online and items from So there’s plenty happening – keep up members are always welcome. We are happy to date on facebook and e-news and please to receive anything from job vacancies, contact me [email protected] student scholarships, volunteer opportunities, with any suggestions or concerns, and stay conference updates or general ecology news tuned for our new website and bulletin which may be of interest to our members. formats—2012 will be another big year! ESA’s student program of awards and And finally I would not like to send grants continues and a table of relevant this last printed report to press without deadlines for 2012 is listed below. See the including a very big thankyou to our retiring website for more details on the awards and for Bulletin Editor, Sue Murray-Jones, who has applications forms. coordinated this document for over ten years. Nominations are also now invited for Sue’s input to Council will be sincerely the 2012 Australian Ecology Research Award missed and we wish her well in filling her (AERA). The AERA Lecture recognises bulletin-free spare time ! excellence in research in Australian ecology, for a specific body of recent work by a mid- Gail Spina, December 2011 career researcher, and is delivered annually as a Plenary at the Society’s conference, next year in Melbourne, December 3-7. Please SECRETARY’S REPORT Raghu Sathyamurthy Ecological Society of Australia Council Meetings COUNCIL MINUTES 1.2 Attendees & Apologies Friday 12 August 2011 (Meeting #3) Present: Kris French (President), Nigel Meeting started at 11:05 AEST Andrew (Treasurer), Liz Tasker (VP-Public Liaison), Glenda Wardle (VP-Research), Ian 1.0 WELCOME AND APOLOGIES Williamson (VP-Student Affairs), Michael 1.1 Chairperson’s Welcome and Introduction Bull (Austral Ecology – Chair, Editorial Bulletin of the Ecological Society of Australia 41(4) December 2011 4 Board), Gary Luck (EMR – Chair, Editorial any meetings.
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