THE EIGHTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY,
27-29 SEPTEMBER 1996

The eighth annual meeting of the Society was held from 27-29 September 1996 at the Hatfield Marine Sciences Center, Newport, Oregon (Fig. 41). An "unstructured social" was held Friday evening at the Rogue Brewery warehouse prior to the Society Business Meeting.⁸⁴

President Jay Orr called the Business Meeting to order at 2037 hours. Twenty-three of the 127 Fellows of the Society were in attendance. Eight new Fellows were inducted into the Society (App. 15). Morgan Scott Busby was elected President for 1997.⁸⁵

The first item of "Old Business" concerned the proposed Society publication. A motion was made to table Fellow Pietschís proposal to initiate a scientific publication. The motion passed unanimously. A second item of "Old Business" involved eliminating the category of Foreign Fellows from the Society Bye-Laws. Fellow Fritzsche moved to accept the proposed wording of Chapter 3, Section 9. The motion passed with only Fellow Kendall opposed.⁸⁶

A third item of "Old Business" considered by the Fellows was the addition of an inactive status to Fellows who miss two consecutive meetings of the Society. After some discussion President Orr moved to accept the new addition to Chapter 7 of the Bye-Laws. The motion was unanimously accepted.⁸⁷ A fourth and final item of "Old Business" concerned combining the 1997 Society meeting with the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (ASIH) to be held in June in Seattle. All agreed that combining the two meetings would be appropriate, as Fellow Pietsch was President-elect of ASIH and was responsible for planning the 1997 Annual Meeting of both organizations.

President Orr then passed the gavel to the new President, Phillip Harris (Fig. 42). Harris appointed Washington Fellow Juan Andre¢ s Lopez (1972-) as Vice-President.⁸⁸ Harris called for items of "New Business." None of the subjects discussed resulted in new motions. The Business Meeting adjourned at 2149 hours.⁸⁹

Because of the rather low attendance at this meeting, only 16 papers were offered. The formal presentations were supplemented by "Group Participation Talks" in which randomly selected audience members not giving talks were asked to give short (3-5 minute) summaries of their current activities (App. 16).⁹⁰ A catered banquet dinner was served in the evening (Fig. 43)⁹¹ Fellow López was the post-banquet speaker. The title of his talk was "Results from the 1996 International Kuril Island Expedition" (Anon., 1997a).