The start of a new year typically marks the beginning of meeting season. At the beginning of March, the chapter hosted our annual meeting in San Luis Obispo. I would like to give kudos to our President-Elect, Steve Brumbaugh, and the 2018 planning committee for all the efforts in preparing and successfully hosting another great meeting.  Steve has provided a meeting summary that is also included in this newsletter.  Please see his article for more information about the great time that was had in SLO.  Speaking of meetings, I also look forward to attending the Western Division AFS meeting this May in Anchorage, AK and the National meeting in Atlantic City, NJ.  Both these meetings will provide the opportunity for me to represent the CA-NV chapter, connect with AFS leadership at all levels, and to continue the discussions in preparation for the next National Meeting which will be hosted by our chapter in September 2019.

I would also like to applaud the chapter’s student subunits.  Our chapter has 3 active subunits: Humboldt State University, Sacramento-Davis, and Santa Cruz Monterey Bay area.  Additionally, the University of Nevada-Reno, recently updated their bylaws and is actively recruiting. There are several other universities that are either interested in creating a subunit or are in the process of getting one up and running.  The subunit Presidents are expected to participate on the chapter’s Executive Committee and provide monthly updated.  Not only have our subunits actively participated in our ExComm calls, during this year’s business meeting, the three subunits prepared and presented 3-5 minute updates on their respected units. Everyone was thoroughly impressed and it is inspirational to hear about all the activities these students are organizing. These efforts have not gone unnoticed, as we recently heard that the Santa Cruz Monterey Bay Area subunit received the Western Division AFS Best Student Subunit award for the second year in the row.  Congratulations on the outstanding job SCMBA subunit and we encourage all our subunits to submit a nomination in the future.  Please check out the updates included in this newsletter to hear about their past events and future activities.  We should all be proud of the efforts of these students and it is exciting to see such passion in the future of our profession.

Lastly, I want to take the opportunity to update our members about some of the work I’m currently pursuing. By this summer, the chapter should have established a small grants program, in which we hope to provide funding for research and outreach for our members.  We’re also working on developing a 5-year strategic plan that will help guide the chapter leadership and the Executive Committee into the future.  Once the plan is approved by the Executive Committee, we will share it with chapter membership.  Stay tuned for more information on our website and in future newsletters. 

Enjoy the summer, whether you’re out in the field or sneaking of for vacation and please starting thinking about symposium ideas for the 2019 National Meeting!