Every year the ERF Governing Board looks for ways to serve our membership better. The recent membership survey, described in this issue by Linda Schaffner, is one mechanism we use to determine what services you are pleased with, what you would like us to provide more of, where we need to do better. So what are we doing for you?

New Award for Estuarine Education
A good percentage of our members are involved in teaching. Over the last several years, our education committee, chaired by Linda Blum, has been working on ways to enhance estuarine education. As detailed in an article in this newsletter, we have instituted a new award to recognize excellence in the teaching of estuarine science.

You will also see a number of additions to the ERF web site which are aimed at helping students and teachers access the most important literature in estuarine science. Finally, at the 2001 conference we will continue and enhance upon the very successful education workshops that were begun at ERF '97 and expanded upon at ERF '99.

Quality of Biennial Conferences
The quality of our conferences is something that concerns everyone. The organizers of the ERF '01 conference are working very hard to make sure that the meeting in St. Pete Beach will be exciting and well organized. As our conferences are getting larger the number of poster presentations has to increase. Look for some innovative ideas on poster sessions at the next conference.

During the week of our conference in 2001, two other groups will bring their conferences to the hotel adjacent to our conference hotel at St. Pete Beach. The 7th International Conference on Estuarine and Coastal Modeling and the 4th American Meteorological Society conference on Coastal and Atmospheric Prediction and Processes will co-locate their meetings with ours so that those of you with interests in physical oceanography and modeling will find more papers in your disciplines.

Going Global
We have been working to improve ERF's international outreach. As in 1999, we hope to bring estuarine scientists from the developing world to our conference by raising outside funds to support their travel costs. We are also working with the leadership of our European counterpart society, the Estuarine and Coastal Sciences Association (ECSA) to find new areas of common interest. In addition to continuing to co-sponsor meetings with one another, with the ECSA leaders we are discussing ways we might be able to offer more educational opportunities for both students and professionals. We are also exploring ways to jointly improve the visibility of estuarine science and management throughout the world.
Members Actions Can Improve ERF's Effectiveness
Improving ERF is a two-way street and there are a few simple things you, our members, can do to help us improve the quality of the services you receive from ERF.

Renew Your Membership Early!
Early renewals help us make better plans for the year. It is now more important than ever for new and very important reasons. The first is the more frequent journal publication schedule. The best way for you to receive your issues is when they are hot off the press and when we can send them to members through a single bulk mailing. Although we send you the entire year's issues of Estuaries even if you renew in the middle of the year, it adds real costs to the Federation's limited budget. Issues sent to you after the bulk mailing has gone out must be sent first class. These late issues cost between $1.50 to $3.00 per issue. This year, late renewals required us to mail a large percentage of the membership between one to three issues by first class mail. That money could have been better spent on programs for students and other worthy causes.

Another reason to renew early is to make sure your online access to the journal continues without interruption. Members who have not renewed by the time the first issue of 2001 becomes available on-line will find that their passwords are not valid. Just like the print copy you will be able to access all of the year's issues when you later send in your membership - but why wait? Please save the Federation money and save yourself aggravation by renewing today.

Tell us if your e-mail Address Changes!
We are increasingly using e-mail to notify you of important conference information and to let you know when the next issue of the journal is available on-line. Managing Editor Steve Threlkeld has found that with each email notification approximately 7% of the email messages are returned. So when you change your email address, please let us know.

Support the Odum Fund when you renew!
Calling ERF Angels! Last spring your Governing Board decided that the interest from the Odum Fund would be used to support student travel to meetings. We set a goal of $50,000 for this fund. Once this amount is realized, the interest it yields will allow us to spend $10,000 per conference for student support - something you as members have told us you think is very important. We would really like to have this fund fully endowed before the ERF '01 conference. If each ERF member where able to make even a small donation of $10, we will probably reach our goal.

Shop through the ERF web site!
You will now be able to access some of your favorite sites, such as Amazon.com, through the ERF web site at no additional cost to you. Look for the Amazon link at the ERF web site and enter their site through ours - it's that simple. If you order a book, ERF will receive 1.5% of what you spend from Amazon.com. These funds will help offset some of our costs for further web development and we are looking for other vendors whose products and services will be a good match for our members' interests. Send your suggestions to me or Joy Bartholomew (see page 2 for contact information).

Volunteer!
We need your ideas and your energy. There are numerous ways you can help. Offer to judge student papers and posters at meetings, contribute something to the web site or the newsletter, help mentor an undergraduate student, offer to help run future conferences for ERF or for your Affiliate Society, volunteer for a committee, or help us by reviewing papers for Estuaries and Coasts.

Together we can continue to improve as a society and do a better job of meeting your needs.