WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • MARCH 2017 5 U.S. Aquaculture Society Time flies when you’re having fun. It’s been a year since I took over from our Past-President Mike Denson as President of the US Aquaculture Society, and it has been a great experience. The people on the Board who carry this Society forward are all committed to making things better and assuring that the members have benefits that give them more from membership than just another check-off on their resume. Over the past year, the Board has implemented a new activity, supporting various conferences and workshops around the country. USAS was a sponsor of the International Conference on Recirculating Aquaculture at Virginia Tech, and the Northeast Aquaculture Conference and Expo, which this year partnered again with the NOAA Milford Aquaculture Seminar. That meeting was in Providence, RI. Both conferences allowed USAS to have a booth to promote the Society, and we enlisted four students, two at each conference, to sit at the booth and talk about USAS. Both groups of students gave some useful feedback about how to make the endeavor more successful. Two new pop-up banners that describe a bit about your Society were used and they made the booths look very professional. USAS was also a sponsor of the Iowa Aquaculture Conference. It is envisioned that this type of sponsorship will continue, so if you are organizing a conference, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the Board to seek sponsorship. The Board has decided that, at least initially, USAS would sponsor at some level two conferences or meetings a year. Another exciting success in the past year was the collaboration among the USAS, the North Central Regional Aquaculture Center under Dr. Joe Morris, and the National Aquaculture Association to develop and put on a series of webinars on various aspects of aquaculture. With the excellent technical assistance of the University of Iowa’s IT group and coordination by Linda O’Dierno from NAA and USAS Board member Allen Pattillo, the aquaculture extension specialist from Iowa State, the group produced about 15 webinars that were broadcast live and then also saved for future viewing on the University of Iowa website and also linked through the USAS website. The production was done by the Brenton Center for Agricultural Instruction & Technology Transfer. The webinars included topics such as aquaponics, biosecurity, recreational fish pond management, labelling requirements, HACCP, use of social media, fish health, indoor shrimp farming and more. These videos can be viewed on the USAS website. A great accomplishment initiated by our previous President Mike Denson was the redesign of the USAS website, usaquaculture.org. The site is now being updated often and members should visit there to see what’s going on. In addition, we have a Social Media Sub-committee that has been trying to increase communication about activities of the Society and updates from other entities associated with aquaculture. The USAS also has a Twitter feed (USAquaSoc), an Instagram (usaquasoc) and a Facebook page (US Aquaculture Society). As was hoped, two new USAS student subunits have been formed in Auburn, Alabama and we thank the students there for taking up the gauntlet and getting organized. One is at Auburn University and the other at Auburn High School. Thanks to Bauer Duke, Eric Peatman and Dave Cline for helping with the formation of those groups. There are a couple other student subunits in the formative stages and hopefully they will be functional within the next few months. Recently Aquaculture America was held in San Antonio, TX and it was a resounding success. The conference committee of Mike Denson, Kathleen Hartman and Dave Straus worked very well with John Cooksey to produce a great meeting. The plenary session featured three speakers. Jonathan Van Senten from Virginia Tech talked about millennials in aquaculture, Dr. Sally Rockey, Executive Director of the Foundation for Food and Agriculture discussed her foundation and how aquaculture could fit into it, and Dr. Aoife Lyons from Alltech talked about the different generations and how we need to understand each other. They all brought a different perspective about Forging New Frontiers, the theme of the meeting. USAS awarded five Professional Achievement Awards this year. Ben Beck from Auburn University and Rafael Cuevas Uribe from Humboldt State University were awarded the Distinguished Early Career Award. Former USAS Secretary/Treasurer Reg Blaylock from the University of Southern Mississippi received the Distinguished Service Award and Sebastian Belle, the Executive Director of the Maine Aquaculture Association was awarded the Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award. Mike Freeze from Keo Fish Farm in Arkansas was given the Douglas Drennan II Industry Leadership Award. All are so deserving of these accolades and we wish them the heartiest congratulations. Biosketches of these people can be found with photos on the USAS website. There were numerous students who won awards at the meeting. Please check the USAS Facebook feed or the website for this information. This organization doesn’t function on autopilot. Taking responsibility for leadership was made so easy with the support and work of all Board members. Past-President Mike Denson helped so much, guiding me along the way. Incoming President Dave Cline had served as Vice President and was a great support to Angela Capporelli, the current VP who ran the Awards Committee and the Student Awards. Secretary Treasurer for the past two years, Gulnihal (Rose) Ozbay did a yeoman’s (or yeowoman’s) job of keeping the minutes and the books. Our outgoing board members Dave Straus and Kwamena Quagranie helped so much with the Rules and Regulations and the Promotion and Membership Committees, Allen Pattillo oversaw the webinars and Evan Durland and Carter Ullman with Eric Peatman worked the great Student Activities at Aquaculture America. And last but not least, a big tip of the hat to Carol Mendoza and Judy Andrasko from the WAS Home Office, who have been outstanding in their support and help over the past year. Serving as President of USAS for the past year capped a long career with Rutgers Cooperative Extension, and for having had this opportunity, I am most grateful. I am now an “Extinguished Professor” and will go on to other adventures but will still be involved with USAS. I urge anyone in our membership who wants to really be part of our Society and take it into the future to contact one of the Board members and express your interest. It will be a most fulfilling opportunity. — Gef Flimlin, President CHAPTER REPORTS
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