NZMSS Newsletter March 2006

It’s a Newsletter; it should contain news; so here goes …

Conference news …

We have settled on dates and a venue for this year’s annual conference, which will be held during Wednesday 20^th to Friday 22^nd September at the Rutherford Hotel in Nelson. We have a local organising committee, with people from NIWA, Cawthron and other ‘marine’ organisations and backed up by Nelson Tourism Services, enthusiastically pulling together a programme, selecting key topics and speakers, and looking for sponsorship, all with the aim of making Nelson 2006 as successful as was Wellington 2005. The scope of the conference will be as broad as always – the whole of marine science – but if you have a topic that you think should be included in the programme (particularly if you are prepared to organise a session on it) then contact Don Morrisey (d.morrisey@niwa.co.nz) or Claire Bennett (Claire.Bennett@cawthron.org.nz) with your suggestions. Get those dates marked on your calendar and plan to be in Nelson!

Student news …

* The good news for four of the Society’s student members is that they have been successful in their applications to our First Overseas Conference Travel Fund. Awards of $1000 each have been offered to Kate Steger (Victoria) and Emma Newcombe (Auckland) to attend the “7^th International Temperate Reef Symposium” in California, to Hernando Acosta (AUT) for the “14^th International Conference on Aquatic Invasive Species” in Florida, and to Craig Radford (Auckland) to attend the “Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology Conference” in Florida. We trust they will all benefit from their introduction to the international conference scene and that they will represent the Society well whilst overseas.

* Another piece of student news is that “coming shortly to a display board near you” will be a poster (developed, designed and produced by the student reps on this year’s Council) that extols the benefits to students of membership of NZMSS, and encourages them to join and become involved. The Society welcomes, and is enhanced by, the input of its students, particularly through their paper and poster presentations at our conferences, and is proud of the support that it gives to its student members.

Council news …

On-going topics of discussion at the three Council conference calls held in January, February and March have included the Society’s finances and financial management (the former being highly satisfactory, the latter rather less so but being worked on as a high priority), conference matters (with this year’s one now well in hand, and several approaches received about future meetings), the website and list server (both operating satisfactorily, we hope, now that spam etc intrusion has been minimised), potential issues on which the Society might wish to make submissions (none recently but with several coming up) and Royal Society matters (such as fellowship and award nominations, science planning, and a proposal for a joint subscription – which we plan to discuss at our AGM in September).

And not news …

… but a reminder that the Council welcomes nominations for the prestigious New Zealand Marine Sciences Society Award for “outstanding contribution to marine science in NZ”.

*******************Contact your Council if you want to know more********************