Forming a California affiliate of the Estuarine Research Federation - An Update

The following article will appear in the next Interagency Ecological Program (IEP) Newsletter. The IEP program is staffed by the California Department of Water Resources and serves as a clearing house for many coastal and estuarine projects and programs.

As many readers know, over the past several months we have been working to form the California Estuarine Research Society (CAERS), which would add to the existing five local ERF affiliates. Since the last newsletter:

• Wim has revised the proposed bylaws based on comments received.
• Randy filed articles of incorporation with the Secretary of State.
• At the recent State of the Estuary Conference we met with Joy Bartholomew, ERF Executive Director, to discuss the proposed society and how it can function within ERF.
• Fred compiled a list of the email addresses of California ERF members.
• We developed a proposed slate of officers.*
• We discussed options for frequency, format and location of CAERS meetings. We are thinking about annual meetings, using an informal format, held in conjunction with other meetings and,. possibly, separate meetings to address specific topics.
• We agreed that this would be a California (and perhaps Mexico) affiliate - not just a resurrection of the old San Francisco Bay and Estuarine Association. Also agreed that CAERS would not be restricted solely to estuarine researchers. Many scientists working along the coast, and even in blue water, can benefit from informal information exchange.
• Finally we agreed that for CAERS to succeed, we will have to form and maintain an organization that provides value added. We recognize that everyone is busy and has many options for conference and meeting attendance.

The next steps are to:

• File papers to obtain tax-exempt status.
• Contact as many prospective members as possible.
• Collect dues ($10/year) from interested individuals, and elect officers.
• Establish a website. In the meantime, we will post information on the ERF website - http://erf.org
• Plan the first meeting.

Anyone interested in more information or who has ideas on how CAERS can benefit scientists and interested managers and public, e.g., suggestions for meeting topics that would have broad appeal, please contact Wim, Fred or Randy.

We will also be contacting scientists in Monterey Bay, southern California, Bodega Bay and Humboldt to solicit interest and participation in CAERS. When you receive the email from us describing the proposed organization, pass it along to colleagues you believe might be interested in becoming a member of CAERS.