Review of the Thirty-Eighth Annual Meeting, Orlando, Florida

Abstract

Southeastern Geographer Vol. 24, No. 1, May 1984, pp. 63-64 REVIEW OF THE THIRTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL MEETING, ORLANDO, FLORIDA Charles S. Aiken The Thirty-Eighth Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Division, Association ofAmerican Geographers was held November 20—22, 1983, in Orlando, Florida at the Holiday Inn-International Drive. Hosts for the meeting were University of Florida, Florida Atlantic University, Florida State University, University of Central Florida, University of Miami, and University of South Florida. The Local Arrangements Committee , chaired by Robert B. Marcus of the Department of Geography at the University of Florida, included persons from the six host institutions . The final registration count was 303. The meeting included three field trips, four workshops, two panel discussions, and seven scheduled meetings. Sixty-nine papers were presented in seventeen sessions, including three of student honors papers and two special, thematic sessions. At the opening session on Sunday evening attendees were welcomed by Charles F. Sidman, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Florida. The opening address, "The Urbanization of Florida's Sandbar," was given by Henry F. Swanson, the former Extension Director of Orange County, Florida. The Annual Business Meeting on Tuesday morning was presided over by President Neal G. Lineback. President Lineback announced that James S. Fisher had been elected the new President and that Charles F. Kovacik had been elected to a second term as Treasurer. The new State Representatives included: David C. Weaver, Alabama; Robert O. Clark, Florida; Wilma J. Walker, Kentucky; and Robert L. Janiskee, South Carolina. Also, it was announced that Joseph T. Manzo had been elected the representative from West Virginia, which had been added to the territory of the Southeastern Division in 1983. At the Business Meeting, Richard Pillsbury, Patrick O'Sullivan, and Thomas J. Wilbanks were elected to the Honors Committee and Donald J. Patton, Susan Moorlag, and Karl B. Raitz to the Nominating Committee for 1984. Dr. Aiken is Professor ofGeography at the University ofTennessee in Knoxville, TN 37996. He served as Vice President and Program Chairman of the Division during 1983. 64Southeastern Geographer The Honors Luncheon on Tuesday afternoon concluded the ThirtyEighth Annual Meeting. Louis De Vorsey, who chaired the Honors Committee, presented the awards in the Student Honors competition. Linda Savage Hammons, University of Georgia, won the award for best paper by a Ph.D. student, and Julian John Ashworth, University of Georgia, received the prize for best paper by an M. A. student. Peirce F. Lewis, President of the Association of American Geographers, delivered the provocative address "Some New American Landscapes." A mirror of American geography in the Southeast, the Thirty-Eighth Annual Meeting reflected the issues and trends of the time. The growing interest in microcomputers was evidenced by a workshop on their use by geographers and by a meeting of those who had begun to use them. A number of papers submitted for the program had been composed on word processors. Several members of the Program Committee commented on the poor readability of some of the papers prepared with dot matrix printers, an issue of the time but one that should fade as the technology becomes more common and as the quality of inexpensive printers improves. A number of the papers presented at the Thirty-Eighth Annual Meeting were in newer areas of inquiry such as social and behavioral geography. A special panel discussion on Monday evening had "Strengthening Geography Programs" as its topic, a reflection of the retrenchment of programs and the abolishment of geography departments in recent years. Reports at the Business Meeting by President Lewis and Division Councillor Sidney R. Jumper on the redefinition of the duties of the Executive Director of the Association of American Geographers revealed the desire to make the professional organization more conscious of its public image and more aggressive in seizing opportunities available to geographers in both the public and private sectors . ...