The Source - Newsletter of the AAG WRSG

Dear Colleagues,

Are you ready for Boston? Sleep now, for this will be a busy conference!

Eighteen Sponsored Sessions

Let me draw your attention to three important sets of sessions for you to attend. First, of course, is the Water Resources Specialty Group session. Students, faculty, and professionals will be meeting first thing on Friday morning to show off the diversity of our interests and to celebrate our students, who are competing for honors in this session. On Tuesday, Kin Ma and Bill Smith have organized a panel session on the future of water resources research. This is the second year that this panel has been organized. Last year’s panel was excellent, and I expect that this year’s will be even better. Farhana Sultana and Jessica Budds are once again organizing a fantastic set of sessions around “Water and Development”. This four-part series will occur on Saturday, starting with a panel session co-sponsored by the Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group. Please show your support for these Saturday sessions. The Water Resources Specialty Group has sponsored eighteen sessions this year, including a four-part series on Human Impacts, and a three-part series on Hydroclimatology. Please see the table below for more details.

Business Meeting and Post-Meeting Party

Once again, we have scheduled the WRSG business meeting so that it doesn’t conflict with the Geomorphology business meeting. The AAG has facilitated this by creating two preferred evenings for specialty group events. The first night, Wednesday, is when most specialty groups hold their business meeting. Friday night is for everyone else. The other nights are off-limits so they will not interfere with the ‘main events’ sponsored by the local organizing committee, like the plenary session (Tuesday night), or the AAG Banquet (Thursday night). What this means is that once again, we will hold the after-business-meeting party at the Physical Geography Reception (to which we contribute money). Is this appropriate? The Water Resources Specialty Group is composed of Geographers with cultural and physical specialties. This balance must be maintained. Please send me your comments and we will revisit this issue at the business meeting.

Elections

This year is also my last year as president. As I prepare to retire back into obscurity, I realize that I must thank Changshen He for his efforts as Secretary/Treasurer. His hard work has benefited the WRSG tremendously. Since there is no better way to reward a job well done except to hand off more work, I hereby nominate Changshen for the Chair. He would make an excellent steward of our organization. In addition to the Chair position, we will be electing people to the Secretary/Treasurer position, and to a Director position. Once elected, the new chair will be looking for volunteers for the Awards Committee, which has been run exceptionally well by Christy McMichael for many years. Finally, if you have an interest in helping out with the website, or in some other capacity, please let us know!

Thank you, everyone, for your hard work and effort this past year. Let’s have a great time in Boston.

Marty

Dr. Martin Roberge
WRSG Chair
Department of Geography and Environmental Planning
Towson University