The first SWPBA newsletter of 2009 is now available! Click here to view.

Happy New Year from Kentucky!

As the SWPBA president for 2009, I just wanted to say hello and try to start the New Year off right. Thank you all so much for electing a president and secretary from Kentucky without having them present at the annual meeting due to lack of travel funds.

Kentucky has been busy making plans for the 2009 SWPBA event and we want to officially tell you to save the week of October 19th-22nd. We have found a hotel and are making arrangements to have the meeting here in the capital of the Commonwealth. The meeting will be held at the Capital Plaza Hotel in downtown Frankfort. More info about the hotel can be found at www.capitalplazaky.com.

We will try to keep the website www.swpba.org updated with additional information as it becomes available, but we have many things already in the works. We hope to offer a wide variety of agenda topics, as well as things like horse farm tours and bourbon tasting for the evening hours. We know that budgets are tight all across Region 4, so we are trying to keep costs for travel to a minimum. Additionally, the local arrangement committee has been working to try and make this SWPBA conference as Green as possible. If you have any ideas to help us along the way, please let me know.

See you in October!

2009 Newsletter Update

At the 2008 SWPBA business meeting it was decided that the newsletter take on a new format. In this format, instead of preparing updates/highlights for your state 3 times each year, each state would only be responsible for one set of updates/highlights during a specific month of the year. This would increase interest and traffic on the website, as well as cut down on the amount of work our main contacts for each state have to do throughout the year. Kentucky as the host state, will start this year and the rotation of months will be the same as the host state rotation (i.e. January – KY, February – FL, March - TN, April - AL, May - MS, June - GA, July - SC, and August – NC). Next year, Florida will start off the year in January. Your section of the newsletter can contain content in various formats. Please feel free to include pictures (interesting sites or SWPBA members at work), maps, bulleted highlights, etc. During your state’s month, please prepare a copy of your update and submit it to Jessica Bevins (KY) at Jessica.Bevins@ky.gov and Brandon Moody (GA) at Brandon.Moody@dnr.state.ga.us to be uploaded onto the website. A notice will be sent to state contacts to make them aware of the update so everyone can see our newsletters. Kentucky’s will be available shortly.

Also, please look at your contact information on our web page www.swpba.org and make sure it is current. If it isn’t, please e-mail me with the corrected information. We are trying to keep this list up to date. If there is someone new in your agency or someone has left, please make sure we have that information as well. Thank You.

ABOUT SWPBA

Founded in 1973, the Southeastern Water Pollution Biologists Association is a non-profit organization that exists to promote further understanding of the aquatic biological communities and the impact of pollutants on the aquatic ecosystems and to provide a medium for exchange of appropriate information among the membership. General membership is currently restricted to State Regulatory and Tribal Water Pollution Biologists whose programs are funded through the Region IV Environmental Protection Agency and Environmental Protection Agency Region IV Water Pollution Biologists. The Association is organized and operated exclusively for scientific and educational purposes.