2018 Annual Business Meeting Summary

• Outgoing President Anjan Bose gave a summary of the increased impact and visibility of the WSAS over the past two years.

• Treasurer Cathryn Booth-LaForce summarized efforts to raise external funds for our projects and staff and the need for all Members to support the organization. We are making good progress toward our financial goals and met Larry Dalton’s $25,000 matching gift challenge during the Annual Meeting and Symposium! Many thanks to Larry and the many members who contributed to this challenge.

• WSAS Officers for 2018-2019:
  • President: Ronald Thom, PNNL (retired), thom.ronald@gmail.com
  • Past President: Anjan Bose, WSU, bose@wsu.edu
  • Treasurer: Cathryn Booth-LaForce, UW, ibcb@uw.edu
  • Secretary: Don Baer, PNNL, don.baer@pnnl.gov
  • Election of a President-elect will take place during the summer of 2019.

• Reports delivered by Committee chairs Dave Eaton, Membership Committee; Phil Bernstein, Website Committee; and Roger Myers, Communications Committee. Jud Virden will be the new chair of the Membership Committee, and the responsibilities of the Website Committee will be assigned to the Communications Committee. Our thanks to Dave and Phil who have rotated off the Board after six years of service to WSAS.

• Reports from the Topical Working Groups:
  • TWG 1, Environmental Quality, Sustainability and Climate Change:  Ron Thom
  • TWG 2, Jobs, Infrastructure and Economic Development: Dan Schwartz and Ramulu Mamidala
  • TWG 3, Quality of Life, Education, Health and Workforce Development: John Roll

• Many of the 2018 activities were highlighted in the Summer 2018 Newsletter, vol 1, no. 1

• Members attending the Annual Business Meeting broke into groups representing the five WSAS Membership Sections to discuss two issues: 1) Ways to increase member involvement, including in section leadership, new member nominations, member portfolio and diversity; and 2) Identify and prioritize emerging issues for WSAS to address in 2019. Ideas that emerged were the scientific bases to improve management of fire in WA State, research on mental health in WA State, and the scientific bases about natural hazards to inform emergency preparedness and management. Two other projects that the TWGs are developing will continue — Deep Decarbonization (Lead: Dan Schwartz) and Additive Manufacturing of Advanced Materials (Leads: Amit Bandyopadhyay and Ramulu Mamidala) These issues may be considered as a topic for the 2019 Annual Symposium. If any member would like to lead or participate in any of these or other issues, please contact Donna Gerardi Riordan, donna.riordan@washacad.org

• The Annual Business Meeting packet, containing the all Committee and Officer reports, can be viewed here: Annual Meeting Packet.