President President Amy Thompson called the meeting of the Tennessee Academy of Science (TAS) Executive Committee to order at 3:03 PM CST via Zoom video conferencing. Attendees were President-elect Greg Vieira, Past President Darlene Panvini, Secretary Marcia Schilling, Treasurer C. Steven Murphree, Managing Editor Justin Oelgoetz, Collegiate Division Director Fred Matthews, Junior Academy Director, AAAS Representative, and Chair-Resolutions Preston MacDougall, Annual Meeting Coordinator and Chair-Nominating J. Allyn Smith, Members-at-Large Aruna Kilaru (2019-2021), Nikki Glenn (2020-2022), and Maryam Farsian (2021-2023), Chair-Auditing and Financial Oversight Committee Tommy Wooten, Chair-Membership Karen Kendall-Fite, Electronic Communications Director and Chair-Electronic Communications Gilbert Pitts, and Local Meeting Coordinator Jeffry O. Boles representing the host institution for the November 2021 meeting at Tennessee Tech University. After President Amy Thompson welcomed all, with special introductions for Member-at-Large Maryam Farsian, Chair-Auditing and Financial Oversight Tommy Wooten, and Local Meeting Coordinator Jeffry O. Boles, President-elect Greg Vieira made a motion to accept the minutes from the 20 November 2020 meeting. Treasurer Steven Murphree seconded the motion, and the motion carried.President Amy Thompson thanked all those who supported the 2020 TAS Virtual Annual Meeting success, and she sent letters of appreciation to members of the Virtual Annual Meeting committee (Past President Darlene Panvini, Electronic Communications Director Gilbert Pitts, Annual Meeting Coordinator J. Allyn Smith, Treasurer Steven Murphree, Local Meeting Coordinators Gary Henson & Rico Ignace, Secretary Marcia Schilling, and President Amy Thompson), as well as the plenary speaker, Dr. Lev Yampolsky. Past President Darlene Panvini was gathering information from committee chairs and others to clarify roles for each TAS committees, to add to the TAS Operations Manual. President Amy Thompson was focused on recruiting more people for involvement in TAS, especially at universities who are not as heavily involved. Maryam Farsian from Volunteer State Community College was recruited to serve as 2021-2023 Member at Large, hoping to increase VSCC student involvement at future Annual Meetings.Past President Darlene Panvini reported working with Electronic Communications Director Gilbert Pitts to update the TAS website, as well as President Amy Thompson to finish committee descriptions. Darlene responded to emails regarding the Journal, the upcoming fall Annual Meeting, and other TAS details. Furthermore, she proposed clarifications to the TAS Awards process (detailed in New Business).President-Elect Greg Vieira reported that the Local Arrangements Committee Chairperson is Jeff O. Boles (TTU) for the 2021 Annual Meeting. The Program Coordination Committee has considered that the theme for the meeting would be either “emergence” or “re-emergence”, depending on the state of the world regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Candidate speakers include Barry Wilmore (TTU graduate, astronaut), Adam Holley (TTU Physics recent NSF CAREER Award Winner), Justin Murdoch (TTU Ecology), Ismail Fidan (TTU, Manufacturing Technology, 3D printing, food printing), Lori Bruce (TTU Provost, VP Academic Affairs, Electrical and Computer Engineering, remote sensing UAVs and applications in agriculture). While Barry Wilmore was supported, Annual Meeting Coordinator J. Allyn Smith cautioned that members of NASA and possibly Boeing needed approval from their organizations before accepting speaking engagements. President-Elect Greg Vieira, Local Meeting Coordinator Jeffry Boles, and Annual Meeting Coordinator J. Allyn Smith will work together to finalize the decision for the plenary speaker. Future locations for meetings are Tennessee State University (2022) and Rhodes College (2023). Annual Meeting Coordinator J. Allyn Smith planned to meet with the dean at TSU in the future to secure a commitment. In a meeting on April 8, 2021, President-Elect Greg Vieira proposed to hold the 2023 Annual Meeting at Rhodes College to Associate Provost Tim Huebner and Senior Director of College Events and Leadership Projects Nikki Moore.Secretary Marcia Schilling shared that the Annual Report required by the State of Tennessee was filed for TAS for reporting year 2020 (always due by April 1 of the following year), but needed a revised list of Board of Directors on the form. She appreciated continued patience during transitioning between secretaries, as past-secretary Teresa Fulcher sent her a written note that she had not yet returned to Pellissippi State Community College since the COVID-19 pandemic social distancing measures were enacted. A construction project has continued to exclude past secretary Teresa Fulcher from accessing the physical TAS files that need to be passed forward.Treasurer Steven Murphree discussed the Treasurer's report provided below:Treasurer Steven Murphree noted that the Journal printing was most costly. He admitted that splitting payments for meetings and renewal fees via PayPal remains an accounting challenge. Steven Murphree reported that TAS has 468 members (114 life memberships, 354 non-life memberships that include students and JTAS). Annual Meeting Coordinator J. Allyn Smith questioned whether TAS honors those with lifetime memberships, and Steven noted only the overall monetary savings for long term membership if paid early in a person's membership. Annual Meeting Coordinator J. Allyn Smith made a motion to approve the Treasurer's report and the motion was seconded by Collegiate Division Director Fred Matthews. The motion carried.Managing Editor Justin Oelgoetz reported that the Journal of the Tennessee Academy of Science was now officially converted to processing via Allen Press beginning with Volume 95 Issue 1, with plans to work historically backwards (starting with Volume 94 Issue 4) to eventually have all prior volumes online as well. In response to a query by Treasurer Steven Murphree, Justin indicated that hard copies were still being printed, but a process for diminishing printed copies would be pursued. Preference for hard copies or digital versions may need unique member numbers to keep such records in Excel to make that transition. Justin reported that 3 articles were currently under review, as more reviewers for the journal were found. In the process of building a stable group of reviewers, email requests for reviewing articles generated by the system were in many cases being directed to spam emails.Collegiate Division Director Fred Matthews reported that in 2019 meetings were held, but not in 2020 due to COVID-19, and none were held/planned for 2021 as there was no interest in holding virtual student meetings. He questioned whether the meetings should resume, but deferred the decision to the Executive Committee as he requested to be released from the position of Collegiate Division Director. He planned to share prior correspondence during his time of service in the position to ease transitioning in a new Collegiate Division Director. President Thompson thanked him for his time of service, and Collegiate Division Director Fred Matthews acknowledged his support from Treasurer Steven Murphree, as well as the Tennessee Academy of Science.Electronic Communications Director Gilbert Pitts reported regular updates to the website. Website visits were monitored using MidPhase. He found a mis-scanned article from March 1960, but also indicated that our past publications of the Journal were used to support other publications. Historic issues of the Journal were scanned according to their starting page. The social media platform FaceBook indicated a peak of interest in November suggesting interest in the Annual Meeting. No new email accounts were needed on the website for executive committee members. A Google business account was created with folders to store files, but to verify the file, it required postal services (“snail mail”). At some point the account was suspended for suspicious activity, but then the suspension was removed as of 7 April 2021.Director Pitts was working on a Past Presidents page, but pictures were needed. President-Elect Greg Vieira was thanked for a noncopyrighted generic female icon that could be used for our web page, but pictures of all females relevant to the current TAS web page had submitted photos. Director Pitts also plans to create both Instagram® and Youtube® accounts.Director Preston MacDougall reported that the meeting of the Tennessee Junior Academy of Science winners and runners-up were announced via Facebook, Twitter, and the JTAS web page.Director Tony Johnston was absent and did not submit a report. However, Managing Editor Justin Oelgoetz and Electronic Communications Director Gilbert Pitts suggested the use of unique member numbers supporting publication in the Journal might also be useful for requests for the Visiting Scientist Program.Annual Meeting Coordinator J. Allyn Smith reported Tennessee Tech University was the intended location for the November 2021 meeting. He was yet seeking a commitment from Tennessee State University for the November 2022 meeting. President-Elect Greg Vieira was speaking with administrators at Rhodes College for the November 2023 meeting. An Engineering Technology section chair was needed. Daniel Mayo, coordinator and section chair for Math & Computer Science, experienced and continued to experience severe health issues over the past year.The chair remained vacant.Chair Mandy Carter-Lowe sent a publicity report. In her report she reminded Local Arrangement Committee Chair(s) of the need for a printer at the upcoming 131st Meeting of the Tennessee Academy of Science, so certificates could be printed and given to presentation winners.No report was submitted.Liaison Brian Caine submitted no report and was absent.Director Preston MacDougall reported that the 2021 meeting of the American Association for the Academy of Science was held through virtual video conferencing in February and hosted by Haverford College. Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, gave the plenary address. The National Association of Academies of Science (NAAS) announced changes per the Executive Director of the Junior Academy, but the detailed changes would be shared once clarified in the fall of 2021.Chair Tommy Wooten reported that an audit of the financial records of the Tennessee Academy of Science revealed just one outstanding check of small monetary value written to Director Preston MacDougall as the sole issue for full reconciliation.position remained vacant.Chair Charles McGhee submitted no report and was absent.Past President Darlene Panvini requested job clarifications for committee members. Collegiate Division Director Fred Matthews clarified the cycle for meetings has been historically East – Middle – Middle – West – Middle – Middle – East – Middle – Middle – West -….. Both Tennessee Tech University and University of the South in Suwanee are classified as Middle Tennessee institutions. The Cumberland Mountains and the Tennessee River were notable geographical dividers for classifying participating colleges and universities.Chairs Gary Henson and Richard Ignace of East Tennessee State University, site of the 2020 Annual meeting, deferred their report to New Business.Chair Karen Kendall-Fite requested a list of consistent members and section chairs. The committee wished to outreach to colleges with diminished membership in TAS. Director Preston MacDougall suggested outreach at the Tennessee Science Teachers Association Meetings. President Amy Thompson offered to work with Chair Karen Kendall-Fite on this endeavor. The Kentucky/Tennessee virtual meeting(s) would be held one week after this meeting of the TAS (that is, the second week in April).Chair Martin Stewart was absent.Past President Darlene Panvini indicated development of the processes to streamline TAS Awards was in the works.Mandy Carter-Lowe sent a report.Director Preston MacDougall indicated nothing new to report, but invited suggestions for potential resolutions for fall.Electronic Communications Director Gilbert Pitts indicated no additional information to report from this committee.President Amy Thompson reminded all that a vote to amend the Constitution would occur at the November 2021 meeting to clarify current practices of publishing the Journal of the Tennessee Academy of Science.Managing Editor Justin Oelgoetz suggested the process of publishing the Journal of the Tennessee Academy of Science using Allen Press alleviated responsibilities indicated for an Assistant Editor. He suggested establishing an editorial board for the appeals process in lieu of the Assistant Editor, since the Journal currently published only about 10 papers per year. Electronic Communications Director Gilbert Pitts clarified the Assistant Editor needed to be an executive committee member, and the Managing Editor is an officer for TAS, but that did not necessarily mean that the managing editor was an executive committee member. Managing Editor Justin Oelgoetz also suggested that by moving the Journal online, no page charges would incur as a result of classification as a 3rd tier journal, and eliminating page charges may increase the number of articles submitted.Past President Darlene Panvini worked on edits for the Operations Manual and Consitution amendments, particularly the criteria for selection onto committees, as well as defining the roles. For instance, Chair Karen Kendall-Fite mentioned that the role of the Education & Research Chair was left open for interpretation in the Operations Manual, so President Amy Thompson and Past President Darlene Panvini were working on descriptions. Annual Meeting Coordinator J. Allyn Smith suggested Dr. Soma Banerjee to fill the Necrology Committee Chair role since he has a background in science and history. Director Preston MacDougall was working on reporting the next generation science standards.The protocol for submitting abstracts intended for presentation that might quickly translate to journal publication after the meeting. A subcommittee consisting of Mandy Carter-Lowe, Managing Editor Justin Oelgoetz, Annual Meeting Coordinator J. Allyn Smith, and Past President Darlene Panvini would meet to work through issuing doi's using a specific URL, a formal time line, and a protocol for rejecting an abstract. This approach would streamline publishing abstracts following the Annual Meeting.Local Meeting Coordinator Jeffry O. Boles discussed the planning for the November 2021 Meeting of the Tennessee Academy of Science at Tennessee Tech University.Treasurer Steven Murphree shared a note of appreciation from past secretary Teresa Fulcher after recognition by resolution and award of the gift of binoculars at the November 2021 Annual Meeting.Treasurer Steven Murphree requested guidance for providing a TAS donation to Tennessee Conservationist Magazine. Collegiate Division Director Fred Matthews moved to approve $250, Chair Karen Kendall-Fite seconded the motion, and the motion carried with unanimous approval.President Amy Thompson requested clarification regarding our involvement in the National Association of Academies of Science (NAAS). Director Preston MacDougall attended their meeting along with a collection of state academics who assisted junior scientists. He served on the board and helped with the American Junior Academy of Science in planning and recruiting, as well as worked fundraising for assisting state junior scientists to attend national meetings. Treasurer Steven Murphree noted we pay $225 for annual dues, and that contact information for TAS should be modified from past secretary Teresa Fulcher to current secretary, Marcia Schilling.Secretary Marcia Schilling requested clarification regarding names that could be eliminated from the State of Tennessee Annual Report for TAS. Names that had carried over past their duties with TAS included Sandy Melhorn, Dan Swartling, Kim Sadler, Rachel Rigsby, and Linda Jordan.Past President Darlene Panvini solicited nominations for Distinquished College Professor and received three: Aruna Kilaru (self-nominated), Gore Ervin, and Steven Wright. These nominations would be considered via Google form with the options of yes, no, or I'd like to discuss with the Executive Committee. Awards will be determined by majority vote unless discussion is requested.Past President Darlene Panvini proposed to clarify the process for awards in the Operations Manual, to include the following: 1) The Past President would receive applications for awards by March to present at the April meeting, with approved honors awarded at the November meeting in the same calendar year; and 2) Promotion and collection of applications for awards would be added to the duties of the Chair of the Nominations Committee. Electronic Communications Director Gilbert Pitts moved to accept these changes to the process and Operations Manual, Annual Meeting Coordinator J. Allyn Smith seconded the motion, and the motion carried by unanimous vote.Past President Darlene Panvini shared that Liaison Brian Caine recommended a K-12 education leader from our academy. Director Preston MacDougall requested to defer additional conversation on this business until Liaison Brian Caine could clarify his recommendation.The current guidelines for term limits for individuals serving on committees is clear only for the Nominating Committee. Treasurer Steven Murphree suggested that defined term limits might not be in the academy's best interests at this time.Executive and subcommittee meetings should be held, which include Local Meeting Coordinator Jeffrey O. Boles to prepare for the November meeting. These would be conducted on a more regular basis.Electronic Communications Director Gilbert Pitts suggested TAS could become more relevant in the state by improving its visibility using public science talks, similar to Science On Tap series in Clarksville presented by APSU scientists. He suggested, for examples, a talk about entymology by Dr. Steven Hamilton or the Southern Grasslands Initiative by Dr. Dwayne Estes (and others from our institutions) for public outreach.President Amy Thompson entertained a motion to adjourn, made by Director Gilbert Pitts and seconded by Member-at-large Aruna Kilaru. The motion carried and the meeting was adjourned at 5:11 PM CST.Respectfully SubmittedMarcia M. SchillingAustin Peay State UniversityClarksville, TN