Texas Herpetological Society

Fall Symposium

SWTSU

San Marcos

October 10th and 11th, 2003

 

The Biology department of Texas State University| San Marcos will be hosting the Texas Herpetological  Symposium  this fall.  Please see http://www.kingsnake.com/ths/ for additional updates and information. The meeting will take place on the 10th and 11th of October with an opening social on Friday evening, the 10th, at Aquarena Center beginning at 7pm. Dress is casual.   

Presentations will begin the morning of the 11th at 8:45, with registration commencing at 8 a.m. in room 116 of the Science building (Biology). Coffee and doughnuts will be available at registration.  We will take a lunch break from noon until 1:30 and papers will continue until 5:00 pm.  A short meeting for THS members will begin immediately after the last presentation.   

The Saturday night banquet meal will be catered by Fuschak's BBQ on the banks of the San Marcos river at 7:00 pm in Pavilion A of Rio Vista Park.   Bring your flashlights, if the weather is mild who knows what we might find.

Please fill out and send the Symposium registration and banquet dinner reservation form to David Haynes so that it arrives by October 9th.  Last minute dinner reservations can be taken at registration Saturday morning but the caterer will appreciate an advance head count so please send in your reservation form.

 A program of speakers for the day will be handed out at registration.  It will also be posted at our web site as soon as it is available.

The symposium title will be:

The missing pieces: rare or seldom reported aspects of herptiles and herptofaunal communities

The symposium topics will include presentations on endangered or rare species, individual populations, reptile ecology, or herptofaunal communities for areas that have been seldom reported in the literature. For example, herptofaunal array studies (drift fence surveys) have been only rarely conducted on the edges of the Texas Hill country or The ecology of juvenile Houston toads remains quite unknown.

We would request articles that provide new information, syntheses, or techniques to be submitted for consideration as 12 minute presentations with 3 minutes for questions. All papers presented must include an electronically submitted abstract for consideration.  Julie Norman will be assembling the abstracts, please send them to her at her email pwnorm@ntws.net.  The abstracts should be no more than 200 words in length and be provided as Microsoft Word or Wordperfect formatted files.  When submitting the abstract, speakers should also indicate their media needs.  We can provide slide projectors and powerpoint equipment (Mac OSX, MSOffice 2002 and XP, Office 2000) as required. We look forward to seeing you at the meeting. 

For directions to the social mixer Friday evening at 7:00 at Aquarena Center see http://maps.yahoo.com/dd_result?ed=v8f7UuV.winxr_D5Jcle9hE2tTB7p6TmnLWpO2GDVMmGbQ--&csz=Austin%2C+TX&country=us&tcsz=San+Marcos%2C+TX&tcountry=us for driving directions.  Or alternatively : 

Starting in AUSTIN, TX take I-35 SOUTH - go 27.0 mi 

Take the (TX-82-LOOP)/AQUARENA SPRINGS DR exit, exit #206 - go 0.1 mi

 Turn left on N I-35 - go 0.6 mi 

Continue on a local road - go 0.1 mi 

Continue on AQUARENA SPRINGS DR - go 1.2 mi 

Arrive at AQUARENA SPRINGS DR, SAN MARCOS  

The room for 8:00 a.m. registration and presentations on Saturday the 11th  is 116 in the Biology building, see http://maps.yahoo.com/dd_result?ed=.nTmNeV.winzlMOKgVyzTEyQRhxzH1f6vpXncQ--&csz=Austin%2C+TX&country=us&tcsz=San+Marcos%2C+TX&tcountry=us&terr=3003 for directions or : 

Starting in AUSTIN, TX take I-35 SOUTH - go 27.0 mi 

Take the (TX-82-LOOP)/AQUARENA SPRINGS DR exit, exit #206 - go 0.1 mi 

Turn left on N I-35 - go 0.6 mi 

Continue on a local road - go 0.1 mi 

Continue on AQUARENA SPRINGS DR - go 1.3 mi 

Bear left on UNIVERSITY DR - go 0.5 mi 

Continue on PAT GARRISON ST - go 0.1 mi 

Turn right on N COMANCHE ST - go 0.2 mi 

Arrive at VISTA ST, SAN MARCOS  

You make a final left onto Vista (off of Comanche and seemingly into a walkway overpass wall but there really  is a street through that concrete wall) and then right into the biology parking lot. 

Hotels that are available in the area are:  

Amerihost Inn

4210 Ih-35 South
San Marcos, Texas US 78666
Toll-Free Reservation: 1-800-523-8460
 

Comfort Inn

1611 N Interstate 35
San Marcos, Texas US 78666
Toll-Free Reservation: 1-800-523-8460
 

Days Inn

1005 I35 North
San Marcos, Texas US 78666
Toll-Free Reservation: 1-800-523-8460
 

La Quinta Inn

1619 I-35 North
San Marcos, Texas US 78666
Toll-Free Reservation: 1-800-523-8460
 

Super 8

1429 I 35 North
San Marcos, Texas US 78666
Toll-Free Reservation: 1-800-523-8460
 

I want to thank Dr. Francis Rose and Dr. Michael Forstner for making all of the arrangements for this years THS Fall Symposium.  I’d also like to thank all who are presenting papers and the Wildlife Society for volunteering to help with the meeting.