Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections September 2019 - 8

Society Reports
The EPC has also joined the SPNHC
Slack workspace in the hopes of improving collaboration and communication between committee members.
Finally, the EPC has developed a new
survey for Emerging Professionals that
will be launched soon. After the success of our previous survey, we hope to
continue to gather data on our members
to provide a better service to the society.
Respectfully submitted,
Mariana Di Giacomo and Kari Harris,
Co-chairs

Legislation & Regulations
Committee
This past spring, the Legislation &
Regulations Committee worked with
the SPNHC president and Executive
Committee to submit a digital sequence
information (DSI) position statement
to the Secretariat of the Convention
on Biological Diversity (CBD). The
intention of this statement was to clarify
the concept, including relevant terminology and scope, of digital sequence
information on genetic resources, and if
and how domestic measures on access
and benefit-sharing consider digital
sequence information. The statement
additionally addressed genetic resources
and benefit-sharing arrangements from
commercial and non-commercial use
of digital sequence information on genetic resources, and is
closely aligned to the statement of the Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF), i.e., all major European
natural history collections and botanic gardens. It can be
found here https://www.cbd.int/abs/DSI-views/2019/SPNHCDSI.pdf.
At the SPNHC conference in Chicago, a closer collaboration
between SPNHC and CETAF was announced. This allows
the SPNHC Legs & Regs committee to work closer with
the Legislation and Regulation working group of CETAF,
especially in the area of the Nagoya Protocol and the ongoing
debate if digital sequence information should be regulated
under Nagoya.
The Legs & Regs committee meeting at the SPNHC annual
conference in Chicago was held on May 28, and included dis8 * SPNHC Connection

cussions on expectations of the committee's involvement in
lobbying and legislation, and on subcommittee topics such as
harmonization of shipping documents, phytosanitary issues,
fire codes, and Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS). A number
of concerns remain unresolved on these topics, so deeper engagement is necessary and will be addressed in subcommittee
phone conferences with key committee members.
And speaking of ABS, Legs & Regs is exploring ways to offer professional training to the SPNHC membership on ABS
management in scientific collections and for scientific staff.
Stay tuned for more information!
Respectfully submitted,
Dirk Neumann and Stephanie Carson, Co-chairs

Long Range Planning Committee
Not reporting.
Debra Trock and Suzanne Ryder, Co-chairs

Membership
The Membership Committee focuses
on ways to promote the Society, retain
existing members, and attract new ones.
We promote SPNHC, with members'
help, by displaying the membership
booth at conferences and advertising in
conference literature. Please contact Tiffany Adrain (tiffany-adrain@uiowa.edu)
if you would like to help promote the
Society. You may be eligible for complimentary conference
registration! Recently, we displayed the booth and a banner
for our 2019 meeting at the North American Paleontological
Convention and Botany 2019, and will be exhibiting at the
Geological Society of America annual meeting in September.
If you see the booth at a conference, please consider helping
out by stopping by and talking with visitors about SPNHC.
We also welcome recommendations for promotional venues
and any suggestions and ideas for attracting new members.
Thank you to everyone who has helped with the booth this
year. Thanks also to Ann Pinzl for continuing to contribute
her excellent Member Profiles to the SPNHC Connection
newsletter. Please contact Ann (apinzl@sbcglobal.net) to
nominate yourself or a fellow SPNHC member for a profile
feature. With the new SPNHC website imminent, we've been
busy transferring the membership database to a new system.
When the new website is announced, you will be asked to
update your password, log into your membership account and

https://www.cbd.int/secretariat/ https://www.cbd.int/secretariat/ https://www.cetaf.org/ https://www.cetaf.org/ https://www.cbd.int/abs/DSI-views/2019/SPNHC-DSI.pdf https://www.cbd.int/abs/DSI-views/2019/SPNHC-DSI.pdf

Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections September 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections September 2019