by Joan Hardy
The WALPA Board’s summer meetings have focused on planning for the annual conference coming up on October 20-22, which just moved online (see related story). With the theme: It Takes a Village to Understand, Protect, and Restore Lakes, conference registration has begun, and over 20 abstracts have been submitted. Special thanks to our sponsors: CD3 Systems, Herrera, and YSI at the Gold level, and EutroPHIX as a Bronze-level sponsor.
The Conference Committee announced that the conference’s plenary speaker is Justin Bush, Executive Coordinator of the Washington Invasive Species Council for the Washington Recreation and Conservation Office. Organizers have also scheduled workshops on invasive species and lake management.
Drew Stang, a new member of the Communications/Website/Social Media Committee, is updating WALPA’s approach to and use of social media. Check out the “Ask Dr. Waterline” feature making its debut in this issue of Waterline – and be sure to send the doctor your lake-related questions at walpa01@gmail.com. Also, please share any ideas for future Waterline articles with committee chair Sally Abella.
The Diversity/Equity/Inclusion Committee sent out a survey to learn more about WALPA members’ interests and backgrounds. If you have not yet completed the survey, please do so now at https://forms.gle/w1T9KLKpmDhVhCWBA. The committee suggested having a DEI workshop at the 2022 annual conference and invites your ideas about topics that WALPA members might find useful. Please send suggestions and comments to info@walpa.org.
As part of their work, the DEI committee, along with the Scholarship Committee, has asked the Board to add a WALPA scholarship for students from underrepresented populations. Board members will discuss the structure and funding of this award at our next meetings.
The Scholarship Committee selected three winners for this year’s awards: an undergraduate, an MS, and a PhD student. A special award created this year honors an undergraduate team project as well, echoing our It Takes a Village theme (see related story this issue). Congratulations to all! Next year WALPA will send the scholarship application notice out in January, with awards sorted out by end of March.
The Membership/Nominations/Election Committee is looking for nominations for president-elect and secretary for the upcoming year. Please let committee chair Katie Ruthenberg or Jen Oden know if you are interested in running for office or if you have a nomination for either position.
WALPA continues to work on developing a Western Regional Conference for lake-interested citizens. At present, the regional conference is expected to take place as an online program in February or early March 2022.
