Annual Report 2002 Biological Anthropology Section

Annual Report 2002 Biological Anthropology Section

The Biological Anthropology Section has continued to recruit both regular members and student members. We are trying to increase involvement at the annual AAA meetings through both a Student Paper Award (formerly the Student Poster Award, but broadened to include podium presentations this year) and a Distinguished Lecture and reception. Announcements about the student award, meeting sessions, and the Distinguished Lecture were sent electronically this year. Another strategy has been, whenever space permits, to staff an information booth at the Annual Meetings of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, in an effort to increase visibility of BAS activities and recruit new BAS/AAA members. Our website also was much improved and expanded this year.

Membership is up to 567 members as of October 31, 2002, compared with 448 a year ago. This includes 423 Regular Members (this number is down slightly) and 144 student members, a new category introduced in 2002 to increase involvement of biological anthropologists with the section and the AAA. The number of student members far exceeds our Executive Committee expectations for the first year, and we feel it bodes well for the future of the section.

We contributed $500 to help GAD pay for a speaker at the 2000 AAA meetings, and hope to continue to provide such support for AAA speakers in the future as needed.

We continue to seek candidate books for the WW Howells Book Award, which is given to the author(s) at the annual meeting. This year the winner was Kenneth Kennedy of Cornell University.

The Distinguished Lecture and Cash Bar Reception begun in 2001 continued during the 2002 Annual Meeting. This was instituted to raise the profile of BAS during the meeting and provide more incentive for members to become involved with the section. This is a major annual meeting budget item for the section now but is expected to be paid through the yearly revenues of the section. This year the lecture was given by Dr. Eugenie C. Scott of the National Center for Science Education. The attendance at the lecture and for the reception was good and is expected to increase on a yearly basis. Planning for a Distinguished Lecture for the next annual meeting is already underway.

Officers of the section for 2002:
President Sara Stinson SStinson@Qc1.Qc.Edu
President-Elect Wenda Trevathan wtrevath@nmsu.edu
Sec/Treasurer Rebecca Storey rstorey@uh.edu
Members-at-Large D. Andrew Merriwether andym@umich.edu
James M. Calcagno jcalcag@luc.edu
Student member Jennifer Johnson jjohnson@chass.utoronto.ca

In conclusion, the Biological Anthropology Section has been mostly concerned with increasing the number of members and increasing involvement in the AAA and the annual meeting. We will be urging members to submit session for the meeting, run for office, and join the section and the AAA. We expect these efforts to be reflected in the continuing increase in membership and revenues for the section in the future.

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