Fall Meeting Canceled, Plans Postponed to 2019 Spring

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2018 Fall Meeting

Cancellation

By default, registrations for this meeting will be held for the 2019 Spring meeting, with no need to re-register. Alternatively, you may send a substitute attendee in your place, or you may request a refund of meeting registration up to October 12, 2018.  Membership dues are not refundable.

Lodging

The following hotels had room blocks reserved for the 2018 Fall Meeting, and we will leave their contact information here in case you need to speak to them about cancellations. We will need to confirm if these or other hotels will be available for us in the spring.

Best Western Plus
5600 Carolina Beach Rd.
Wilmington,NC 28412

Phone:910-796-0770

Hampton Inn & Suites- Carolina Beach Oceanfront
1 Harper Avenue
Carolina Beach, NC 28428

Phone: 910-707-1770

2019 Spring Meeting

The 2019 Spring SEERS Meeting will be held at the Center for Marine Science at the University of North Carolina – Wilmington. We will try to keep the same plans as we had for the 2018 Fall Meeting, but we will need to confirm availability of venues, speakers, caterers, etc. after everyone has a chance to recover from the effects of Hurricane Florence. Therefore please consider all information below to be tentative for now. Dates will be announced as soon as we can.  Dr. Devon Eulie, Assistant Professor of Natural Sciences, is our local host.

Theme

The Art of Resilience will be our special session theme. Resilience is the ability of an ecosystem to absorb a disturbance, but also to maintain the quality of its pre-disturbance structure and functions. Our challenge is applying this to coastal systems where the intersection of land and sea, and people and the environment, creates complex interactions and synergies. For coastal communities and ecosystems, we can view this through the lens of adaptability and durability. Communities and ecosystems need to be durable (resistant) to disturbance events, and able to adapt to changing baselines. The ‘art’ is in balancing the needs and resilience of communities with that of ecosystems to the benefit of both.

Preliminary Schedule

Thursday

Sponsor presentations, plenary talk, poster previews, and a hearty reception

Friday

Student Networking Breakfast

Oral Presentations

Poster Session: Posters can remain on display the entire time, although judging of student posters will occur during the late afternoon on Friday.

Banquet

Saturday

Oral Presentations

Business Meeting

Student Awards

Special Events

Plenary Speaker

Our Thursday evening plenary talk will be given by Dr. Rachel Gittman, an Assistant Professor of Biology at East Carolina University. She is interested in understanding how humans modify the coastal environment and how best to manage or mitigate the ecological consequences of those modifications to sustain ecosystem structure, functions, and services. She is particularly excited about identifying novel approaches for conserving and restoring coastal habitats and supported services in the context of developed coastal areas (e.g., evaluating designs and implementation of living shorelines; testing the methods and criteria for successful ecosystem restoration). Through collaborations with fellow ecologists, social scientists, policymakers, and coastal engineers, she is continuing to explore the ecological and social drivers of coastal development and associated shoreline hardening, as well as identifying ecological, engineering, political, and socioeconomic barriers to the implementation of natural and nature-based alternatives. Dr. Gittman earned a Bachelor of Science in environmental science from the University of Virginia in 2006 and a Ph.D. in ecology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2014.

Student Networking Breakfast

Are you unsure about the career paths available to you after graduating? Come to the Student Networking Breakfast that will take place around 8am (time and location will be finalized as the program is finalized) Friday. Participate in a round-robin event where students can move from table to table, while eating breakfast, and learn about the variety of career paths available in the estuarine and coastal sciences. Professional participants will range from academia to non-profits to state and federal employees. There is a question on the registration form where you can indicate your interest in participating in this event.

Friday Night Banquet

Our Friday night social will be held on the USS North Carolina (http://www.battleshipnc.com/ ), a World War II battleship that was active in almost every major Pacific naval offensive. The USS North Carolina has a long history extending past WWII as a Naval Reserves Training Ship until she was decommissioned in 1958. Thanks to the Save Our Ships program, she arrived in Wilmington at her current place in 1961. Food will be catered by favorite local restaurant, Capt’n Bill’s.

Field Trips

(Possible) Saturday Brewery Tour

The Wilmington Craft Beer Scene has exploded. The city and surrounding areas boast about a dozen craft breweries and taprooms. Perhaps extend your SEERS weekend one more night and check out the Wilmington Ale Trail with new SEERS friends: http://wilmingtonaletrail.com/. There is a question on the registration form where you can indicate your interest in participating in a brewery tour. If we have enough interest, details will be provided at a later time.

Registration

Deadlines

New dates will be announced as soon as they are determined. Members must be current in their dues prior to meeting registration in order to receive reduced member pricing. We no longer bundle membership and meeting registration as a single payment option: they are separate transactions.

Instructions

Our new meeting registration system can send invoices to third parties and can accommodate multiple registrations on the same invoice. In general, the invoice goes to the person who is logged in. Registration price visibility is tailored to each person who is registered for the meeting based on their status as student/professional and member/nonmember. Here are a couple of common scenarios:

A professor registers themselves and several students on one invoice: If membership needs to be paid or updated, make sure each person has done that first. For meeting registration, the professor should log in and will receive the invoice. You will be prompted again for an email address to register for the meeting. Register the first person, for example the professor. Student member pricing would not be visible for this registration. At the end, there will be a button for “new registration”. Click that to be prompted for the registration information for the second person, for example a student. If the student is already a member, student member pricing will be visible. You may register as many people as you like in this manner, and you will see the invoice accumulate all the charges. You may, of course, log in separately for each registration if you would prefer to have separate invoices.

One or more attendees are registered by an office manager who will not attend: If membership needs to be paid or updated, make sure each person has done that first. For meeting registration, the office manager or other payer should log in. If they do not have an account with us from a prior meeting, they should contact secretary@seers.org with the billing name, address, and email and request a login for this purpose. Once logged in, this person can register one or more other people for the meeting. The pricing available for each person will depend on their status as student/professional and member/nonmember. At the end of each registration, there is a button for “new registration” to add another person to the invoice. You may register as many people as you like in this manner, and you will see the invoice accumulate all the charges. You may, of course, log in separately for each registration if you would prefer to have separate invoices.

Prices

Full meeting registration prices include the Thursday evening reception with hors d’oeuvres and beverages; Friday breakfast, lunch, and evening banquet; Saturday breakfast; coffee breaks each day; and the program book. Reception-only and banquet-only tickets may be purchased individually or for guests. Members must have paid dues and be listed as Active members prior to meeting registration in order to access member pricing for the meeting. Registration will re-open on our new Member and Meeting Services website in Spring 2019.

Cancellation

After registering, if you are not able to attend the meeting, we encourage you to send a substitute attendee in your place.  You may substitute at any time, even on-site at the time of the meeting.  If you must cancel, a refund of meeting registration (less a $10 cancellation fee) may be requested (date to be provided).  No refunds will be issued for cancellation after (date to be provided).  Membership dues are not refundable.

Abstract Submission

Abstracts are submitted during the registration process, which will be available at seers.wildapricot.org. Abstracts for oral or poster presentations should highlight scientific research, education, or outreach in the field of estuarine science and are limited to 250 words. SEERS generally accepts all submitted abstracts that meet these guidelines, so do not wait for abstract acceptance before registering for the meeting. If you have any questions about whether your topic meets these guidelines, please contact the program chair well ahead of the submission deadline. The deadline for abstract submission will be provided as meeting plans are confirmed.

The list of authors of the abstract are provided at the time of submission. Please format as Author 1, Institution; Author 2, Institution, and so on. Graduate student authors should be denoted with a single asterisk (*) after the respective last name, while undergraduate authors should be denoted with double asterisks (**) after the respective last name. Each abstract may be submitted only once for presentation at the conference, i.e., an abstract with multiple authors needs to have one designated presenter.

Membership

SEERS has recently changed its membership policy: starting Jan. 1, 2018, annual dues secure your membership for the 12-month period after joining rather than the calendar year. Current and recent SEERS members should already be in our database and have their renewal dates set to their last date of payment. Please LOGIN to check your profile information and renewal date and to pay dues if you need to renew. Every effort has been made to update the membership records and payment dates, but if you believe your renewal date is in error, please contact the SEERS Secretary and provide proof of payment (e.g., dated receipt from SEERS or CERF, canceled check, credit card statement).

Student Travel Awards

Student travel award information will be updated as meeting plans are confirmed.

Presentation Guidelines

Oral

Oral presentations are limited to a 15 minute time block, which includes a 12 minute talk and 3 minutes for questions.  Presentations should be prepared in a Windows compatible format (ppt, pptx, or pdf).  Awards will be given for best undergraduate and graduate student oral presentations.

Poster

Maximum poster dimensions are 36″ x 48″.  Awards will be given for best undergraduate and graduate student poster presentations.

Lodging

Room blocks at area hotels will be arranged after meeting plans are confirmed.

Sponsorship

Meeting sponsorship supports student attendance and travel to our meetings. Sponsorship inquiries can be directed to any SEERS Board member. Sponsors may sign up and pay through our Services website.