Dear BSA Pacific Section Members

A small group of section members met during the Botany 2004 meeting at Snowbird. Two ideas that came out of that meeting were to create a listserv that would allow Pacific Section members to share information of particular interest to those in our geographical region. If you think this is a good idea–or if you would be interested in helping with this, please let me know.

Second, Botany 2006 will celebrate BSA’s Centennial in Chico, California–OUR SECTION! We need to think about what we can do to help the organizers–for instance organizing and leading field trips. The Pacific Section has accumulated about $1,200 in its Section Fund, and this money could be used to support a symposium, for student travel to meetings, or for some other purpose. Let me know what you suggest. I was thinking we might organize a symposium for 2006 that would focus on how Botany has developed and evolved in the west, perhaps with reference to how the Botanical Society itself has grown and changed. There are some wonderful speakers who could talk about changing landscapes over the past 10,000 years or so, changes in species composition, changes in the methods used to study plants–so many important US botanists are from the western U.S. Perhaps separate talks on Alaska and Hawaii (the Pacific Section is very big). Do you have other ideas to suggest? We need to get a proposal in for a symposium by July 1, I think.

Sectional funds could also be used to support student travel to Botany 2005 as well as 2006. Anyone who would like to work on developing a process for student travel awards please contact me. We’ll have another informal Pacific Section meeting in Austin and can discuss plans for 2006 more then, as well (except that we need that Symposium proposal in sooner).

SO: Let me know if you would like us to have a listserv, if you want to help figure out student travel awards, your ideas about a symposium for 2006. If you can help with Botany 2006 in Chico.

Thanks!

Nancy R. Morin
Nancy.Morin@NAU.EDU
Chair, Pacific Section

Cc: Mary Barkworth
mary@biology.usu.edu
Secretary, Pacific Section