2025 Annual Meeting

SCAN 2025 Annual Meeting

Saluda Shoals Park

The River Center, TD Bank Room

5605 Bush River Rd, Columbia, SC 29212

GPS Coordinates: 34.0524, -81.1819

January 25, 2025 at 9am to 5:30pm

When you arrive, tell the attendant at the gate you’re with SCAN, and they’ll let you in for free. This year we’re at the River Center, which is on top of the hill on the left after you come in through the gate. We’ll be in the TD Bank Room. Lunch is a potluck, so bring a dish to share with the group!

2025 Annual Meeting Agenda

9:00 – 10:00:            Socializing and refreshments (Coffee and breakfast snacks provided)

10:00 – 10:15:          Welcome and introductions

10:15 – 11:05:          Kevin Kubach, SCDNR

Subject of Talk: Environmental DNA (eDNA) as a Conservation Tool: Finding a Freshwater Needle in a Haystack

Bio: Kevin Kubach has worked as a research biologist in freshwater stream and river conservation for over 20 years with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. He works primarily on statewide studies aimed at enabling proactive, watershed-scale conservation of aquatic resources, as well as efforts to understand and protect freshwater fish species of greatest conservation need. Although Kevin’s interest in nature has always involved the water and its finned inhabitants, his understanding of the natural world took a monumental leap when he picked up binoculars and began looking more closely at birds.

11:05 – 11:55:          Andy Jones, Spring Island Trust and LowCountry Institute

Subject of Talk: Migration All Around Us: How Birds Navigate the Americas

Bio: Dr. Andy Jones is a lifelong naturalist, with a passion for the biodiversity of the southeastern United States. He has worked as curator of ornithology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and was one of the team leads on Lights Out Cleveland, a group working with building managers to turn lights off during migration as well as coordinating volunteers to recover injured and dead birds that collided with buildings. He has served as a board member of Black Swamp Bird Observatory and the Winous Point Marsh Conservancy, and as Secretary of the American Ornithological Society. He has been recognized as a Fellow of the American Ornithological Society for his contributions to ornithology. In May 2022, he joined the Spring Island Trust and LowCountry Institute as Executive Director.

11:55 – 12:15:          Break 

12:15 – 1:30:            Potluck Lunch (Don’t forget a dish to share!)

1:30 – 2:20:              Paul Baker, Clemson Pee Dee Research and Education Center

Subject of Talk: Longhorn Beetles in South Carolina

Bio: Paul Baker is an entomologist at the Clemson Pee Dee Research and Education Center complex just outside of Florence, SC. He works with Clemson Extension Professor Dr. Muhammad “Zee” Ahmed, who is a Turf and Ornamental entomologist. Most of his research work revolves around monitoring beetles that are either pest species of tree nurseries or surveys of beneficial beetles within forests.

2:20 – 3:10:              Madison Janakis, University of South Carolina

Subject of Talk: Visual Ecology of Two South Carolinian Tidal Creek Crabs

Bio: Bio: Maddy graduated from DePaul University in Chicago with her B.S. in Biology and Environmental Science in 2020. She is currently a fifth year PhD student in the biological science department at USC Columbia. (Go Cocks!) Maddy resides in Dr. Daniel Speiser’s lab which investigates the visual system of marine invertebrates. Her research is focused on the compound eyes of crabs captured off the coast of Georgetown at Baruch Marine Field Lab.

3:10 – 3:30:              Break

3:30 – 5:00:              Business Meeting

• Approval of 2024 Annual Meeting Minutes
• Treasurer’s Report
• Election of Officers – nominations will be accepted from the floor, provided that the nominee has agreed prior to the nomination. The proposed slate is:
  • President – Lee Morris
  • Vice President – Scott Wietecha
  • Secretary – Kim McManus
  • Treasurer – Seat Open (BACK-UP: Gordon Murphy)
  • Historian – Gordon Murphy
  • Database Manager – Tom Austin
  • Webkeeper – Kim McManus
  • Northern Regional Director – Seat Open (BACK-UP: Rita Zollinger)
  • Western Regional Director – Ron Ahle
  • Central Regional Director – Dave Kastner
  • Eastern Regional Director – Seat Open (BACK-UP: Todd Johnston)
  • Southern Regional Director – Tom Austin
• 2024 Field Trips in review
• 2025 Itinerary of field trips
• Old Business
  • Proposed Revisions to Bylaws and Constitution
  • SCAN Book 4 Update
  • SCAN Book 5 Preparations
• New Business

5:00 Adjourn