ispi

International Society for Pest Information

Report of the 8th Meeting

Georg-August-University Göttingen
Göttingen, 18 March 2013


1 + 2. Welcome and designation of chairman and rapporteur for the meeting

The meeting was opened by Olaf Zimmermann who was also designated as chairman for the meeting. Bernhard Zelazny served as rapporteur. A list of the participants of the meeting is attached as Annex I.

3. Adoption of the agenda

The provisional agenda, which corresponded to the numbered sections of this report was adopted.

4. Election of the Executive Committee and vote on changes in the articles of the society

A total of 10 ballots were completed by the attending members or had been submitted by other members by email. The election for the President and Vice-President produced the following results:

Stefan Vidal (6 votes)
Olaf Zimmermann (4 votes)
Thus, Stefan Vidal was elected as President and Olaf Zimmermann as Vice-President and both accepted their election.

Executive Officer:
Bernhard Zelazny was elected with 8 votes.

In total 12 ballots were received on 2 proposed changes of the articles of the society. These changes are attached as Annex II and were adopted unanimously.

5. Report of ISPI activities since the last meeting, August 2012

Bernhard Zelazny explained the reasons why the election of the Executive Committee in August 2012 was declared invalid by the official registry of societies in Darmstadt (Vereinsregister) and had to be repeated. He subsequently reported on society activities between August 2012 and February 2013. These concentrated on the further development and expansion of the “Pest Information Wiki” website as part of the biowikifarm. The official ISPI report for the period August 2012 to February 2013 is attached as Annex III and was adopted by the meeting.

6. Financial report for 2012

Peter Ebling presented the financial report for 2012 on behalf of the Finance Committee. The total expenditures were 252 Euro and the complete report is attached as Annex IV. In a subsequent discussion it was proposed to add a section to the “Pest Information Wiki” which would allow users to submit donations to the Society.

7. Discussions on how to increase contributions to the Pest Information Wiki

Bernhard Zelazny summarized what contributions have been entered into the wiki so far as well as previous discussions on the subject. During the ensuing discussion the following suggestions were made:

8. Other matters

Stefan Vidal and Bernhard Zelazny would develop a new format for entering publications into the Pest Information Wiki where the pagename is only based on the journal name and the DOI number of the publication.

Mainz, August 2014, was fixed as location for the next ISPI membership meeting, in connection to the meeting of the Society for Invertebrate Pathology.

Olaf Zimmermann (Chairman)
Bernhard Zelazny (Rapporteur)


Annex I

8th ISPI meeting - participants

Members participating in the meeting:

Peter Ebling
Canadian Forest Service, Sault Ste Marie, Canada

Jürgen Gross
JKI Dossenheim, Germany

Stefan Vidal
University Göttingen, Germany

Bernhard Zelazny
Griesheim, Germany (retired)

Olaf Zimmermann
AMW Nützlinge, Pfungstadt, Germany

Guest:

Tore Kursch-Metz
University Darmstadt

Members participating in the election by e-mail, but who were not attending the meeting:

Alois Huger
Regina Kleespies
Thorsten Kraska
Marcin Nowicki
Matthias Zweigert


Annex II

8th ISPI meeting
Changes in the ISPI articles

Changes are marked in bold:

A. Size of the Finance Committee
11. The Finance Committee consists of at least three two and not more than five three members, who are not members of the Executive Committee. It verifies that the expenditures of the Society are in accordance with its aims and prepares a report to the Society members for each calendar year.
B. Election of the Executive Committee
16a. During the election of the Executive Committee the President and Vice-President are elected together and each society member has one vote for both of them. The person receiving the highest number of votes will be elected as President and the person receiving the 2nd highest number of votes will be elected as Vice-President. Should both receive the same number of votes then the members present during the meeting will elect the President in a second ballot. If the 2nd ballot also produces no decision, a draw will decide. Should an elected officer not accept the vote, then the candidate with the next highest number of votes will be considered as being elected.

Annex III

8th ISPI meeting
Summary Report on the Society Activities since August 2012

The election of the ISPI Executive Committee during the 7th meeting in August 2012 was declared invalid by the official registry of societies in Darmstadt (Vereinsregister) for the following 2 reasons:

  1. During the 6th membership meeting in Darmstadt in April 2010, the articles of the society had been amended to state that the ISPI President and Vice-President are elected together by the society members. During that meeting, 2 versions of the election procedures were discussed and voted on. In the first version every member has two votes for both positions, in the 2nd version each member has only one vote for both positions. Although we were told verbally afterwards by the registry that the 2nd version would not be acceptable because members voting by e-mail were not involved in discussing this version, it was later included by the society registry in their official records. Therefore, the election procedure in August 2012 (when the first version was used) did not follow the articles as recorded by the registry.
  2. If an elected member of the Executive Committee does not accept his/her election, then the election needs to be repeated.
Therefore, the society registry requested us in January 2013 to repeat the election of the Executive Committee as soon as possible.

As discussed during the 7th meeting in Dossenheim, the main page of the Pest Information Wiki has been changed and improved. Again, the help of Gregor Hagedorn with the new design is acknowledged. In September 2012, Olaf Zimmermann gave a well-attended presentation on the Pest Information Wiki during the German Plant Protection Conference. Until February 2013, about 110,000 literature records have been entered into this website and pages for about 2,800 pests, diseases and weeds as well as for about 500 natural enemies and antagonists have been created on the wiki. During all of 2012, the average number of visitors to the wiki website was about 10,000 per month.


Annex IV

8th ISPI meeting
Financial Summary for 2012
(currency Euro)

Item

Income

Expenses

Opening balance, 1st January 2012

5,222.23

 

Costs for internet page and e-mail account

 

149.76

Postage, telephone, bank charges

 

90.40

Other expenses

 

12.00

Total

5,222.23

252.16

Balance as of 31st Dec. 2012

4,970.07

 

Presented by the ISPI Finance Committee (January 2013):
Peter Ebling (CFS, Sault Ste Marie, Canada)
Jürgen Gross (JKI, Dossenheim)
Jürg Huber (JKI, Darmstadt)