World Aquaculture December 2018

38 DECEMBER 2018 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WA S.ORG As I reflect on the 50-year journey of WAS, I am amazed at how far it has come. From a small group of US-based members it has become a global organization with chapters and conferences that span the globe. I am sure it will go from strength to strength and promote science-based, sustainable, aquaculture for the next 50 years and beyond. Michael Masser, 2006-2007 Any activities and changes the WAS Board undertakes is the result of years of development to complete and no single president should take credit for all that occurs during their presidency. I was fortunate for the years I served on the Board prior to my presidency as I knew most of the Board members well and understood how the Society functioned. I am very proud of my efforts to get the first WAS/Triennial meeting in San Antonio, Texas. San Antonio is a great destination and meeting venue. It turned out to be one of the largest meetings ever held in the USA with 3,250 attendees and 210 trade show exhibitors. Every WAS President gets to travel and represent the Society. I represented WAS at the 2006 Busan International Seafood Exposition and was able to promote the 2008 WAS meeting to be held in Busan. I also represented WAS at the Campus of Excellence in Fuerteventura, Canary Islands. This meeting was supported by the EU and Spain and was an opportunity to promote WAS and aquaculture to a non-traditional audience. During my Presidency the Board accomplished major bylaws changes including 1) expansion of the Secretary’s term from one year to two years, 2) establishment of criteria for the formation of chapters, 3) electronic voting for bylaw changes, and 4) abolition of the Vice President position. Duties of the VP were passed on to the President-elect. Barry Costa-Pierce was our last Vice-President and we gave him comical grief about doing such poor job that we abolished the position. Barry took it in stride and we had fun with the teasing. With the establishment of bylaws that established criteria for chapters, the first chapter to be formed was the Korean Chapter. Two new affiliates, the Society of Aquaculture Professionals (India) and the Malaysian Fisheries Society joined the WAS family during my term. Working with Blackwell Publishing, World Aquaculture magazine was published electronically on the members-only section of the WAS web site. This included some past issues, with more added over time. I thoroughly enjoyed my presidency and was sad when my eight years on the WAS Board ended in Busan but I left knowing that WAS had great leadership and was true to its vision as the world leader in education and outreach to the aquaculture community. Sungchul Charles Bai, 2007-2008 I was committed to WAS goals during my term including 1) development of international relationships to contribute to continued development of responsible aquaculture based on environmentally and economically sound science and technology, 2) expansion of aquaculture research and communication, 3) assurance of Society relevance to aquaculturists, students, researchers and industry workers in developing countries of Asia, South America, Africa, and the Middle East. I strongly believe that these goals can be achieved through commitment to the expansion of WAS membership globally, not only through increasing the number of existing chapter members but also through the launch and formation of new national and regional chapters. The minimum guidelines to form chapters were established in 2008 after a long discussion to change the WAS bylaws. During my term, we finally were able to launch the Korean Chapter in 2008. I still dream that WAS will have Chinese, Indian and African chapters and have spent a lot of time trying to launch these but have not yet been successful. As the first Asian WAS President, I organized the first (2008) and second (2015) WAS conferences in Korea. These two meetings were very successful. Korea has been the only country hosting two WAS meetings within seven years, except the USA. Without question, the strong support of Korean Chapter members was a key reason for the success of those conferences. Occasionally I had hard time as the WAS president because of my limited communication skills based on my Korean English but I have very nice memories of WAS with the Home Office director and staff as well as conference director John Cooksey and his family. The organizational system of WAS provided good support to the first WAS president from Asia but I would like to see another WAS president from Asia soon. Lorenzo Juarez, 2008-2009 The honor of serving WAS as president has been one of the defining moments of my professional life, not so much for the considerable prestige it carries, but more importantly because of the learning experience and the relationships forged with an amazing group of top aquaculture professionals. I remain deeply thankful to WAS and its members for this privilege. My presidency formally started at World Aquaculture 2008 in Busan, Korea, a conference that highlighted the dominant and growing importance of aquaculture in the region. During this conference, WAS hosted the first-ever meeting of affiliates, with representatives of 12 of the 13 societies with which WAS then had agreements of affiliation. During the year we added several affiliates and organized a second meeting of affiliates at the next annual conference in Mexico, with the goal of developing cost-effective strategies to promote responsible aquaculture through the partnership between WAS and its affiliated societies. During my presidency, we initiated a review of our strategic plan and developed a new long-term investment and financial strategy for the Society. We also supported and encouraged the development of chapters, including starting work on developing an African chapter, which has finally just now come to fruition. We also expanded membership services, including improved web access to information and publications, the journal (which expanded from 4 to 6 issues per year), the magazine and WAS books. Perhaps one of the most significant developments of 2009 was the introduction of the fellowship program, by which distinguished members are honored as Fellows of the Society, after a suggestion from Past-president Lou D’Abramo. The program recognizes outstanding WAS members whose efforts in the development of aquaculture have resulted in outstanding contributions to science, industry, governance, outreach, or extension, as recognized by their peers.