World Aquaculture 3 Typically this column would be the second in the WAS president’s term and would be reporting on all the great events from the annual convention. But this year I still have the conference in Veracruz to look forward to September 25-29 and I hope many of you will be joining me there. New directors and officers will begin our terms at that conference, so until then I continue to write this “president-elect’s” column. One benefit of having the conference four months late is that current board members and committees have had a little more time to reach their goals before the next report! A drawback is that I cannot yet report on their progress and on any new committee leaders until after the meeting. I am confident many of the committee leaders will remain and continue their efforts in the upcoming year. In my last column, I discussed some of the issues we will focus on, such as the means to get accepted manuscripts for JWAS published in a shorter time frame, and possible approaches to keeping the current high level of quality of World Aquaculture Magazine while enhancing its economic sustainability. We will rely heavily on input from the editors of these publications for recommendations on how to approach these tasks, and will need input from members directly and through the Publications Committee, currently co-chaired by Lorenzo Juarez and Sungchul (Charles) Bai. In a survey by the Industrial Relations Committee (see the article by L. Juarez, published in the June 2006 issue of World Aquaculture), members expressed the view that while WAS is supportive of the aquaculture industry, the society is perceived as being geared more toward support of academic activities, including research and with an orientation toward students. Personally, I think facilitating involvement and growth of student participation will benefit industry growth and is an area that WAS should continue to enhance. Other suggestions from the survey for making WAS more responsive to the needs of industry included: 1) issuing information on basic aquaculture techniques, 2) publishing lists of specialists and resources in specific areas of aquaculture, 3) having more industryoriented sessions at WAS conferences, and 4) providing white papers with the best scientific information available on aquaculture issues that are, or have the potential to become controversial. WAS emphasizes industry-oriented session development at its conferences and has many sessions scheduled for Veracruz as well as for the upcoming Triennial meeting in San Diego. These sessions have been encouraged at WAS conferences for many years and will continue to be enhanced. The other three items mentioned can be addressed at least in part by the development of publications and the approach to dissemination of the material. Online access to more published materials available to WAS through its publishing partners, solicitation of specific white papers and other items (No. 2 for example) for our magazine or journal, and possibly even incorporation of “live feed” or similar types of information on the website are all items that are being considered. We will consider these and other opportunities at the upcoming board meeting in Veracruz and I hope the outcome will demonstrate a continued high level of responsiveness to the stated needs of our members. Come to the annual WAS Business meeting, Friday, September 25, 4 to 5 p.m. at Room Olmeca #7 in the World Trade Convention Center, and tell us what YOU think. — Jeff Hinshaw President-elect Be a Show Off! The Editorial Staff of World Aquaculture would like to publish more examples of facilities. We know members are proud of their commercial and governmental facilities and we’d like to have more input into what we referred to as the laboratory series that was initiated a few years ago. Don’t be shy. Send us a description of your farm or facility along with plenty of photos. All submissions to this series should be sent to Mary Nickum (to see how to do that, you can find her contact information on page 1 of this issue). President-elect’s Column
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