Meetings
The Wisconsin Chapter of the American Fisheries Society holds an annual meeting to promote the conservation of fish and aquatic habitat in not only Wisconsin but around the world. These meetings have been held in all parts of Wisconsin and in conjunction with other AFS Chapters from neighboring states. Information for the current meeting is shown below while past meetings are found on our past meetings page.
53rd Annual Meeting of the Wisconsin Chapter of the American Fisheries Society
Location: Tundra Lodge, 865 Lombardi Ave, Green Bay, WI 54304
Dates: January 23 – January 25, 2024
The WI-AFS Executive Committee is excited to announce the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Wisconsin Chapter of the American Fisheries society will be held in person from 1:00 pm Tuesday 23-Jan through 12:00 pm Thursday 25-Jan. The meeting will include scientific presentations, poster session, continuing education workshops, our annual business meeting, awards presentation, and networking events.
There is a block of rooms available at the Tundra Lodge under the name “Wisconsin Chapter of the American Fisheries Society”. You must call-in your reservation and mention the room block name to get the discount. The single occupancy room rate is $93/night, Double Occupancy rate is $103/night. Call 920-405-8700. Reservations need to be made before 12/22/2023 or we cannot guarantee meeting rates and availability.
Registration is now open
The registration fee will be $50 for student members, $75 for retired members, and $150 for regular members. Registration includes meeting attendance, socials, and meals (Tuesday dinner, Wednesday breakfast/lunch/dinner, and Thursday breakfast/lunch). Members will need to renew their membership to receive email updates. More detailed information will be sent via the Google Groups email and updated here as details are finalized.
Presentation and poster abstract submissions: DUE By Friday, December 22, 2023 and final call due by Friday, January 6, 2024. Abstracts will be reviewed after each call due date, and all presenters will be notified by Friday, January 5th at the latest.
Presentations can be “Speed” talks (10 minutes total) or “Normal” talks (either 15 or 20 minutes total depending on number of presentations).
The annual scholarship supporting raffle is back! We encourage all members to submit handmade items.
WI-AFS sponsored education class: Tuesday Jan 23rd
It is our pleasure to announce an exciting Annual Meeting of the Wisconsin Chapter of the American Fisheries Society continuing education opportunity scheduled to take place from 1-4pm at the Tundra Lodge in Green Bay on January 23, 2024. This continuing education opportunity will kick off with a leadership seminar by Greg Sass. Greg will share his experiences from formal leadership training, 13 years of experience in supervisory roles, and in mentoring students and professionals in leadership with participants. The leadership seminar will be geared towards all levels of WIAFS members, from students to professionals. The second component will require participants to complete an online DiSC personality test. DiSC personality testing offers insights into your personality and the personalities of others to improve recognition and communication among different personality types. Participants should complete their free online DiSC personality test training prior to the afternoon of January 23, 2024 and bring their personality test report with them for group discussion. The online test can be found here: https://discpersonalitytesting.com/free-disc-test/. The test can be completed in about 10 minutes. The fisheries profession entails a great deal of communication among anglers, stakeholders, and professionals and we hope that understanding your own personality type will foster effective communication with others. Please note that no personality type is wrong. All of our personalities are somewhat unique with some identifiable characteristics, and this exercise aims to help us better understand our personalities and those of others. Third, Max Wolter will moderate a public meeting forum exercise. This fun, realistic, and interactive exercise will offer insight into how to manage real-world situations encountered at public meetings and how to effectively and professionally navigate them. If you plan to attend any or all three sessions, please RSVP to Greg Sass by email (gregory.sass@wisconsin.gov) to ensure we have enough meeting space. Thanks, and we look forward to seeing many of you on the afternoon of January 23.
Student Events
Student-Professional lunch on Wednesday Jan 24th. This lunch will be relatively informal as it was last year. Tables will be reserved for students and professionals to have lunch together. This is a place for students to be able to ask questions and career advice as well as network and meet professionals from different agencies.
There will be a job board or table available for professionals to post open job listings of any type. We will also have job resources available for anyone that is interested (resume and interview tip sheets, tips for applying to USA Jobs, etc.).
We are planning a cornhole tournament and student-professional mixer at the Tuesday Welcome Social. Please stay tuned for more information on how to sign up.
Cornhole Tourney Info
We’ll be having another cornhole tournament at this years welcome social, 6:00 – 9:00 pm, Tuesday 23rd at The Bar (Holmgren Way). Sign up in advance using the online form (link below). For questions contact Brandon Wambach brandonwambach@gmail.com. Brandon is looking for cornhole boards so if you have some you are willing to bring please let him know.
We have an online sign up this year so sign up here! We will be collecting the registration cost at The Bar, please check in by 6:20 so we have time to get the final organization into our bracket!
2nd Annual Wisconsin AFS Cornhole Tournament
Location: The Bar (2001 Holmgren Way, Green Bay, WI)
Time: 6:30PM to ? (The social itself starts at 6pm and goes until 9pm)
Cost: $10 for each professional, FREE for students!
Each person will receive 2 raffle tickets for participating.
The winning team will win $20 (each person) worth of raffle tickets!
Logo Contest Info
AFS has a new logo and has asked all units to update their logos with the new AFS logo. Therefore, we have decided to open up a logo design contest! The new design could be a modification of our current logo (see attachments), or something new altogether. Please see the attached examples of updated chapter logos (thanks Kristina Pechacek for rounding those up).
Design guidelines / rules:
- Use original / publicly available artwork, as we do not want to have copyright issues
- Logo should present/print well in various formats such as a website, letterhead, and merchandise
- Logos often are 2-4 inches in some of these formats and may have to change/limit colors for certain situations
- Must incorporate the new AFS logo. Various versions can be found here: https://fisheries.org/new-afs-logo/
- Must include “Wisconsin Chapter” text or state outline (or both)
- Must be submitted by Monday, January 15th, send as email to jraabe@uwsp.edu
- Must be submitted by a WI AFS member, although could be designed by someone else – will want to give them credit
- Limit two (2) submissions per person
- If we have a large number of submissions, we may do an initial screening / preliminary vote
- We may work with winning logo designer to make minor adjustments
We plan to do voting in person at the annual meeting, and also offer an online voting option for those that cannot attend. We will announce the winning logo at the lunch period at the end of the meeting on Thursday, January 25th. We will offer a prize for the winning design, such as an annual AFS membership, credits towards merchandise, etc. More details on the prize soon, but the bigger prize will be to see your logo in action!
We have a lot of creative members, so looking forward to seeing what you all come up with! Contact Josh Raabe if you have any questions, jraabe@uwsp.edu.
Resources
Your guide to the annual meeting coming soon
If you have any questions, please contact Stephanie Shaw.