The electronic ballots have been counted, and we are very pleased to welcome to ATBC our new President-Elect Jaboury Ghazoul and 2014-2016 Councilors Jennifer Powers, Kyle E. Harms, Yadvinder Malhi, and Nobby Cordeiro. ATBC had a very strong slate of candidates and we want to thank the other Association members who agreed to be nominated for this year’s election, including Cam Webb, David Bickford, Jose Luis Camargo, and F. B. Vincent Florens. We look forward to their continued association with ATBC and involvement with tropical biology.
Richard Corlett, our out-going Past-President, deserves our gratitude for his exceptional work for ATBC during his term. Lucia Lohmann is now Past President and Susan Laurance is President of the Association.
We owe tremendous thanks to our out-going Councilors: Simon Lewis, Vojtech Novotny, Marisol Toledo, and Pieter Zuidema, who will officially end their terms after the Council Meeting in July in Cairns, Australia. The new Councilors start their three-year terms now and will serve through the end of the calendar year 2016 with participation at Council Meetings in Australia (2014), Hawaii (2015), and Montpellier (2016).
For new officers and councilors we are attaching the ATBC Handbook that includes information on the various activities and procedures of the Association. The guidelines in this Handbook are constantly being revised as new needs and situations arise. We urge those unfamiliar with the activities of ATBC to take a look at the various sections of this document.
This note is being sent by both John Kress and Robin Chazdon, who met together this week in Washington, D.C., to officially exchange the ATBC Executive Director baton. With this exchange, the transition to the new Executive Officers is now complete.
Robin looks forward to working with our new President-Elect and Councilors as well as our continuing officers to move ATBC forward in 2014 and beyond. John looks forward to seeing ATBC thrive in the years ahead. Mark your calendars now: The ATBC 2014 Council meeting will be held all day on Sunday 20 July 2014 in Cairns. More details to come. Best of wishes for this New Year; see everyone in Australia.
-Robin Chazdon, ATBC Executive Director
-W. John Kress, ATBC Executive Director, Emeritus