Joy Bartholomew
jbarth@erf.org

Dear Federation Members:

Time flies when you're having fun. That pretty well sums up the last 10 years of my life as your executive director. Thanks to all of you wonderful members, it has been a great pleasure to be part of this excellent organization. I'd like to share with you some thoughts on the Federation's past and future activities.

The tables that accompany this article show the Federation's growth in the operations that are easy to measure: conference attendance, membership, and journal pages published. Conference attendance doubled. The number of pages published in our journal Estuaries tripled. Membership increased by more than 60%. Two new regional Affiliate Societies joined the Federation. We created four scientific awards to recognize outstanding achievements. We now have three special funds to support projects.

Is estuarine research improving because the Federation is growing or in response to other things we do? While difficult to measure, I think the answer is yes. The growing numbers indicate important momentum toward our goals of promoting estuarine and coastal research, management and public awareness of our favorite ecosystems.

In 1992 the Federation was well positioned for a growth spurt. We had a history of solid accomplishment thanks to the outstanding contributions of many dedicated volunteers. My thanks to all of you who have invested your talents and time with ERF. During the past decade a small core of staff has been added to support the volunteers' contributions.

Growth in the things that matter

The Federation has scaled up in the past decade and achieved a consistent quality in our operations. We have remained a friendly society where camaraderie and love of the pursuit of knowledge go hand in hand. We have kept close relations with the presidents of the regional Affiliate Societies who are members of the Federation's Governing Board. This relationship demands constant balancing of priorities of the Federation's increasingly international scope with regional interests.

Our journal, Estuaries, made the transition from paper to electronic format. Managing editor for 17 years, Harold Stevenson, created a policy of cherishing each author that Stephen Threlkeld has sought to continue even as the journal has tripled in size. While taking the journal electronic, Steve also produced a CD-ROM of all back issues including both Estuaries and Chesapeake Science. We provide free copies of the journal to 63 libraries and universities in currency limited countries.

While growing in size and thematic diversity, our biennial conferences have become increasingly friendly places for estuarine and coastal managers. The managers' perspectives and their urgent need for high quality information enrich our appreciation of estuaries and coasts and inform our research directions. We are grateful to our friends in federal agencies for their support of our conferences and the journal. Increasingly we are finding allies and supporters in communities and organizations in the regions were the conferences are held.

The Federation is doing more for to support students' travel to conferences, to provide career counseling and mentoring opportunities. A special thanks to all who help judge the student presentations during the conferences and Affiliate Society meetings. The first career development symposium for recent PhD's will be held this fall.

The Federation has built bridges to other organizations that share our goals. We have close communications with kindred aquatic scientific societies. Our presidents participate in the national Council for Scientific Society Presidents. We have a special relationship with the national organization, Restore America's Estuaries, whose members seek to restore one million acres of estuarine habitat by the year 2010. Other societies we routinely collaborate with are ASLO, ECSA, AFS and AIBS.

Where are we going?

Much remains to be accomplished. Coasts and estuaries will continue to be under assault by human development pressures; the need for information about all aspects of coastal ecosystem structure, function and response to management actions has never been greater.

The 1990's were a decade of exuberant growth in many aspects of human activity. The Federation was in synch with that trend. Will we continue to grow? In impact and visibility--definitely yes. You have my pledge to work hard for that. I'm counting on many of you to step forward to help.

…Dream a little dream with me…

There follows a list of some of the possible accomplishments for the 2002-2012 decade that I might report to you in 10 years:

· Membership is over 2,000 individuals
· The number of international members increased from 10% to 25%
· Opportunities for life long learning and career development are provided through the web site, at the Affiliate Society meetings, at our conferences and at special symposia to members at all stages of their careers
· Annual symposia on cutting edge research and management topics provide recommendations to funding and management agencies about research directions and findings
· The journal is monthly and international distribution has quadrupled
· The scope and name of the journal have been modified include a greater range of coastal sciences
· Conferences are held annually and attract 1,500 participants
· Lively and active exchanges and meetings are convened by ERF members in Europe, Mexico, Australia, Asia, and ???

I know we'll still be having fun and still taking our work seriously, and ourselves lightly. Please tell me your ideas about the Federation's future. It will be what we make it, together. Let's make no small plans, there's no magic in them.

Your humble ERFant,

Joy Bartholomew
Executive Director
jbarth@erf.org

ERF Biennial conference
1991 San Francisco 740 attendees
1993 Hilton Head 840 attendees
1995 Corpus Christi 706 attendees
1997 Providence 1,067 attendees
1999 New Orleans 1,191 attendees
2001 St. Pete Beach 1,380 attendees