The backbone of any scientific conference is the quality of the papers that 
are presented.  The local arrangements committees for the 2009 American 
Fisheries Society meeting (Aug 28 - Sep 3, 2009) in Nashville, Tennessee, 
have been working hard to put together what promises to be a very enjoyable 
meeting, and now we need the scientists to do their part.  Abstracts for 
'contributed' papers can be submitted from now until Feb. 6 through the AFS 
website (www.fisheries.org).  Proposals for symposia must be submitted by 
January 9, 2009, to the symposia coordinator (that's me!).  Abstracts for 
individual symposia presentations will be accepted from Feb 7 - Mar 6.

As the symposia coordinator, I encourage you to take a few minutes to 
seriously consider putting together a symposium for the meeting.  It takes 
some work, but the benefits to yourself and the profession are well worth 
it.  Instructions for submitting a symposium proposal can be found at the 
AFS website and in Fisheries magazine.  Please email or call me if you have 
any questions, and drop me a note if you are planning to submit a proposal 
and I haven't already heard from you.

Sincerely,
Mark Bevelhimer
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
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865-576-0266