Do you have plans for November 5th and 6th?
Join AFS for a Continuing Education course before the Baltimore Annual Meeting! Register for courses along with your meeting registration!
The Baltimore Continuing Education planning team spent some time getting to know some of our course instructors. Learn more about a few of our instructors in the Q & A below!
Hadley I. A. Boehm
2021 AFS CE Course: ArcGIS/QGIS for Fisheries Biologists
AFS: Why are you excited to teach this class?
HIAB: I enjoy being part of the learning process. There are so many potential GIS applications in fisheries science, but learning a new software/program can seem daunting. I am looking forward to the opportunity to work with students and professionals who are interested in broadening their skillset to take advantage of those possibilities.
AFS: What are some of the most important things your attendees should take away from your class?
HIAB: I think a take away from this workshop will be the importance of persistence and continuing to practice (self-teach) after the class is over. We’ll be exposing participants to some basics, but there are so many possibilities once you start.
AFS: What are you most looking forward to doing at the annual meeting in Baltimore, besides teaching an awesome class?
HIAB: Seeing people in person again, of course! But, more specifically I enjoy the opportunity to both share and get feedback on the results of my own research and to learn what else others are doing. I sometimes get in my own bubble, so exposure to the variety in types of work being done out there and meeting the dedicated professionals doing it is inspiring and I always learn new things!
Jason Cope
2021 AFS CE Course: An Introduction to the FishPath Decision-Support Process and Tool
AFS: Why are you excited to teach this class?
JC: The FishPath tool has been designed to empower the user to efficiently and objectively design harvest strategies (connecting data, stock assessments and management measures) no matter the fishery type, resource availability and/or data limitations. Interacting with the tool and talking with each user about their specific situation creates an energy fueled by hope and discovery of possibilities. I really look forward to interacting with participants, hopefully using their real situations or one’s they anticipate could benefit from Fishpath guidance.
AFS: What are some of the most important things your attendees should take away from your class?
JC: That in a short amount of time it takes to apply the FishPath a user can gain important insight into the data collection, stock assessment and management measures options that best fit their specific situation. That this tool is a powerful elicitation tool for expert opinion and organizer of current possibilities, while also outlining future options. And that it can serve as a repository of information for future research.
Steve McMullin
2021 AFS CE Course: Plain, Simple, and Concise Writing
AFS: Why are you excited to teach this class?
SM: I’m excited to teach Plain, Simple, and Concise Writing because previous participants have enthusiastically embraced the principles and techniques I gave them to write more clearly and reduce their word counts by 25-30% without losing any critical information.
AFS: What are some of the most important things your attendees should take away from your class?
SM: Attendees will learn a few, simple techniques that, with practice, will greatly improve the quality of their writing.
AFS: What are you most looking forward to doing at the annual meeting in Baltimore, besides teaching an awesome class?
SM: I love going to the AFS annual meeting to meet new people and to reconnect with old friends.
Richard Methot
2021 AFS CE Course: Introduction to Stock Synthesis: A Stock Assessment Modeling Approach
AFS: Why are you excited to teach this class?
RM: I love to help students learn about the challenges faced in the field of fish stock assessment.
AFS: What are some of the most important things your attendees should take away from your class?
RM: The flexibility and capability of the Stock Synthesis model to investigate fish population dynamics and conduct stock assessments. The need for informative data in order to accurately and precisely calibrate parameters of a model.
Clint Morgeson
2021 AFS CE Course: ArcGIS/QGIS for Fisheries Biologists
AFS: Why are you excited to teach this class?
CM: I love working with GIS, so being able to share that with others makes me happy. Having the opportunity to teach this course using free, open-source software means anyone with a computer and internet connection can be a GIS pro!
AFS: What are some of the most important things your attendees should take away from your class?
CM: Besides the ability to navigate and apply GIS programs for their everyday work, I hope attendees will take away an increased appreciation for the application of GIS for solving spatial problems. Incorporating a tutorial for free, open-source software means anyone can visualize, edit, and analyze geospatial data and produce top-quality maps!
AFS: What are you most looking forward to doing at the annual meeting in Baltimore, besides teaching an awesome class?
CM: I’m looking forward to seeing good friends and colleagues after not being able to do so for such a long time. That, and eating as many crab cakes as I can get my hands on while I’m in Baltimore!
James Thorson
2021 AFS CE Course: Spatiotemporal Analysis of Ecological Data
AFS: Why are you excited to teach this class?
JT: I’m excited to show the flexibility, broad-scope, and ecological insight that can be incorporated and/or gained from using modern spatio-temporal methods for modelling spatial dynamics for populations and communities.
AFS: What are some of the most important things your attendees should take away from your class?
JT: A basic familiarity with analyses that are feasible using the Vector Autoregressive Spatio-Temporal (VAST) package, including the resources for learning more.
AFS: What are you most looking forward to doing at the annual meeting in Baltimore, besides teaching an awesome class?
JT: Catching up with old friends from other regions, who I haven’t seen over the past year and a half.
Register Now for the Annual Meeting and CE Courses!
Questions about Baltimore?
Contact the Baltimore registration team for assistance with registering and Lauren Maza with CE questions.
2021 Baltimore Continuing Education Planning Team
Lee Benaka, NOAA Fisheries
Maurice Crawford, University of Maryland Eastern Shore
Laura Keeling, NOAA Fisheries
AFS: Why are you excited to teach this class?
AFS: Why are you excited to teach this class?
AFS: Why are you excited to teach this class?
AFS: Why are you excited to teach this class?
AFS: Why are you excited to teach this class?
AFS: Why are you excited to teach this class?
