KHS 50th Annual Meeting

KHS ANNUAL MEETING CALL FOR PAPERS, POSTERS, AND AUCTION ITEMS:

The 50th annual meeting of the Kansas Herpetological Society will be held 3-5 November 2023 on the University of Kansas, Lawrence campus. Scientific paper sessions and general meeting activities will be held in the Burge Union, while the annual KHS Auction and associated festivities will be held in the historic Oread Hotel.
Effective immediately, the Society accepts titles for talks to be presented at the meeting.

Are you looking for an alternative to costly national herpetological meetings held in large cities with too many registrants (and where you only have a cash bar)? Try the KHS.
Regional meetings are ideal venues for graduate students. The KHS annual meeting allows herpetologists and other like-minded individuals interested in amphibians and reptiles to share and discuss. There is ample opportunity for socializing in a collegial and supportive atmosphere. Meeting registration is only $50 ($25 for students and includes membership).

Herpetologists at all levels of expertise are encouraged and urged to give scientific paper presentations. An award and stipend of $200 (The George Toland Award for Ecological Research on North American Herpetofauna) will be presented for an outstanding student presentation at the end of the meeting, so students are strongly encouraged to participate. The $100 Meshaka Award for best poster will also be awarded. The Suzanne L. & Joseph T. Collins Award for Excellence in Kansas Herpetology is also a $1,000 prize. Being an odd-numbered year, the Collins Award will be awarded for the best photograph.

On Friday, tours of the Herpetology collection and Fitch Natural History Reservation will be followed by a social that evening.

The annual fund-raising auction will held at the Oread Hotel on Saturday evening. The KHS will provide FREE BEER, SOFT DRINKS, and SNACKS. Please bring herpetological items for the auction. PLEASE DO NOT BRING LIVING OR DEAD ANIMALS. No specimens or body parts of herpetofauna will be sold at auction.”

UPDATE: Friday 13 October 2023

We’re a mere three weeks away from KHS’s 50th Annual Meeting! I can’t believe time has flown by already. The KHS Local Committee and Executive Council are working hard to wrap up loose ends and get everything in place! KHS President Rafe Brown will send out a message on Monday to help fill you in on updated details for the meeting and generally lay out a lot of information for you. Until then, I have some time-sensitive things to advertise!

Friday Afternoon Tours

Folks wishing to tour the Fitch Natural History Reserve and/or the KU Natural History Museum Herpetology Collections may SIGN UP HERE. These tours are free but require early sign-up due to the limited capacity for each group. No transportation is provided, but if you need a ride, you can likely contact someone else in the time slot you hope to attend. The meeting location and contact information for each tour are in the sign-up sheet. Tours are first-come, first-serve, so don’t dawdle!

Fitch Reserve: Four one-hour time slots are available between noon and 4 p.m. on Friday, 3 November. Each time slot has a capacity for 25 attendees. KHS President Rafe Brown and KU Field Station Education Program Coordinator Wendy Holman will guide attendees on a historical tour up the Roth Trailhead, where Henry S. Fitch conducted his more than 50 years of snake research. Due to ongoing research at the site, the KU Field Station asks that attendees not turn cover, natural or artificial.

KU Museum of Natural History: Three one-hour time slots are available between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Friday, 3 November. The University of Kansas is home to the US’s fourth-largest collection of preserved amphibians and non-avian reptiles. The collection is global in scope, with a significant sampling of the Philippines and the Neotropics. The collection is also very active, with thousands of new specimens added yearly and thousands more sent out on loan to other researchers. KU Herpetology Curator Rich Glor and Collections Manager Ana Motta will lead groups of up to 20 on behind-the-scenes peeks at these unique and diverse collections.

Friday Night Social-Trivia Sign Up

The Friday Night Social will feature a KHS favorite, Herp Trivia! Due to capacity restraints within the trivia venue, there’s only space for 80 people to participate. Please SIGN UP HERE if you’d like to form a team to test your brain against KHS’s finest! If you want to be a team of 1 to duel all the others, even better! The Social is from 6:30-9:30 and features plenty of space for non-trivia folks to mingle and chat throughout the public side of KU’s Dyche Museum of Natural History. Herp Trivia will be from ~7-9 pm.

NEW Student Travel Grants!

Due to the increased cost of this year’s meeting, KHS has solicited an anonymous donor to sponsor travel grants to help offset the costs of attendance. The donor is willing to sponsor five $100 travel grants to students but asks that we try to raise more. So, KHS is soliciting donations in multiples of $100 or more to help match this generous offer! Currently, KHS can offer six travel grants to students for $100 each!

These grants will be handed out raffle-style. Any student registered and attending the KHS meeting who wants financial help to offset costs may APPLY HERE to be included in the drawing. The application deadline is 27 October. All applicants will be entered into an online randomizer to pick the recipients. Student winners will be notified by 30 October and receive a check at the KHS Awards Ceremony.

The Gann Scholarship for Women in Herpetology

Long-time KHS member Eva Gann wants to honor and lift up the women of herpetology and has established a scholarship to support this goal! Announced at last year’s meeting, details are finally available for the Gann Scholarship for Women in Herpetology! I apologize for the lateness of this announcement; we’ve moved the general application date to accommodate this.

Nominations for the scholarship  ($300.00) are open to any AFAB or female-presenting KHS member enrolled in an accredited educational institution. The scholarship is awarded based on the potential for contributing to the science of herpetology and being a role model for the future of women in STEM. Students from high school through university are eligible. Self-nomination is encouraged. If self-nominated, a letter of reference from an academician is required. Nominations should include typewritten details of the nominee’s qualifications, plus the name and address of the nominee and nominator.

Nominations should include, but are not limited to, academic records, herpetological activities, and plans in herpetology. Academic records should address schools attended and indicate academic performance (e.g., grade point average, teacher evaluations, courses completed, etc.). Herpetological activities should include a brief narrative that details experiences and activities that demonstrate a long-term interest in herpetology and document accomplishments in herpetological study. Plans in herpetology should include a statement, not to exceed one page, written by the student about his/her future interests and plans. Applicants may include an optional appendix with photographs, awards, newspaper articles, reports written by the student, or other documents relevant to herpetological activities.

Applications should be emailed to KHS Awards Committee Chair Dan Fogell at dfogell@ southeast.edu by Nov 1st.