Often, electrofishing is unsatisfactory (low effectiveness, high variance) due to reasons that include an insufficient understanding of electrofishing principles, equipment limitations, and lack of guidance regarding proper settings given prevailing conditions and target species. Other important concerns are creating a safer working environment, limiting effects on fishes, trouble-shooting, and equipment purchase. The workshop purpose is an overview of electrofishing principles and practices with hands-on training on testing equipment for use in the field. Outcomes are increased abilities to plan sampling approaches, evaluate gear performance, select appropriate equipment, trouble-shoot, assess likelihood of fish injury and use approaches to minimize the potential for stress and injury, and provide a safer operating environment for crews.

Instructors: Jim Reynolds, USGS (retired) and Alan Temple, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Cost: $60
Contact: Alan Temple ([email protected])
Maximum Attendance: 24
Time of Workshop: 8am – 5pm
What to Bring: Laptop
Sponsor: SDAFS

This workshop will provide a basic introduction to R and RStudio. It is intended for students and professionals who are interested in beginning to use R for summarizing, analyzing, and visualizing data. We will describe selected examples and associated code in detail.Topics will include an overview of R object types, general approaches to working with data frames, use of built-in functions, and selected R packages. Coding exercises may include use of queries, sub-setting data, conditional statements, logical tests, or simple statistical analyses. Content will be presented through mini lectures and demonstration of code. Participants will have opportunities to practice skills and ask questions.

Instructor: Brian Irwin, U.S. Geological Survey, Georgia Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit , Athens, GA
Cost: $50 professional, $25 student
Contact: Brian Irwin
Maximum Attendance: 50
Time of Workshop: 8am – 5pm
What to Bring: Each participant should bring a laptop computer with R and RStudio pre-installed.

This workshop will focus on giving participants the basic skills to design, construct, and implement effective surveys. Participants will learn the components involved in survey design and will create their own survey instrument over the course of the workshop.

Instructor: Nia Morales, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
Cost: Professional – $50, Student – $25
Contact: Nia Morales ([email protected])
Maximum Attendance: 25
Time of Workshop: 8am – 5pm

Traditional public participation methods utilized by fisheries agencies have been criticized for allowing the agencies to nominally meet their statutory requirements for public involvement while effectively continuing to dispense predetermined management decisions. Researchers and decision-makers increasingly recognize the importance of public participation in decision-making. However, there is little agreement in theory or consistency in practice about how to involve the public. Particularly problematic is the question of how to involve stakeholders in the analysis function of the policy process. That is, to what extent should stakeholders be involved in the generation of information upon which policy decisions are made? This workshop explores a variety of public participation and stakeholder engagement techniques to improve communication with stakeholders and policy decisions.V

Cost: FREE
Contact: Vic DiCenzo ([email protected])
Maximum Attendance: N/A
Time of Workshop: 1pm – 5pm
What to bring: No Laptop Required

This workshop will cover what students need to know to enter the job market. Topics covered include interviewing skills, cover letters and resumes, how to get into graduate school, and what federal and state employers are looking for in new hires. Target audience is graduate students, undergraduate students, young professionals.

Instructor: Patricia Mazik, USGS, WV Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit, West Virginia University
Cost: FREE
Contact: Patricia Mazik ([email protected])
Maximum Attendance: 30
Time of Workshop: 2 – 5pm

This workshop covers a variety of equipment and software available through VEMCO.

Being able to communicate to your deployed receivers from the surface greatly enhances the field experience, potentially improving your study design and making your field work more efficient. Learn how to use watch tables, gather receiver stats and other information without retrieving your receivers. Our latest receivers can record and report on the acoustic noise in your study environment. Learn how you can use this new information to assess your study location and provide added insights to your data analysis. Do you get the most out of VUE? We’ll cover how to use the False Detection Analyzer, Residency Search and Time Correction Tools to speed up your data analysis and provide more accurate results. New receivers and tags from VEMCO offer the ability for vastly finer temporal and spatial resolution with larger numbers of tags– come found out how this new technology works. We are working towards a new suite of software tools to help with data analysis and handle larger data sets. Come get a sneak preview. Come find out what’s coming next? UserVPS, Mobile Apps, New Sensor Tags (Predation) and more!

Instructor: VEMCO (Fish Tracking and Monitoring Equipment)
Cost: FREE
Contact: Denise King ([email protected])
Maximum Attendance: 30
Time of Workshop: 8am – Noon

This workshop is designed for new and emerging leaders in the AFS. It addresses the need for new and emerging leaders to better understand how AFS functions, the roles of unit leaders in the AFS, and how to be an effective leader in an all-volunteer organization like the AFS. Topics addressed will include leadership principles in work places and volunteer organizations; strategic direction of the AFS; development of work plans; roles and responsibilities of AFS officers, Governing Board, and staff; recruitment and retention of volunteers; how to run an effective meeting. All topics will be addressed through a combination of lecture and discussion.

Instructor: Steve McMullin, President-AFS and Douglas Austen, Executive Director-AFS
Cost: FREE
Contact:  Steve McMullin ([email protected])
Maximum Attendance:  50
Time of Workshop: 1 – 5 pm

This workshop introduces leadership principles to biologists who must address crucial challenges in natural resource ecology and management. These challenges are difficult to solve because they involve differences in beliefs, attitudes and values held by stakeholders both internal and external to their organizations. Using experiential learning, biologists will explore the adaptive leadership principles, competencies and tools necessary to make meaningful progress on issues they care deeply about.

What you can expect to leave with:

• An appreciation for the importance of acquiring management and leadership skills
• Insight into the root causes of why a challenge you face continues to persist, despite your best efforts
• An understanding of the five principles that are essential for exercising leadership
• The ability to observe, explore and diagnose an issue from multiple perspectives
• Increased self-awareness and the ability to do things differently in order to make progress on vital issues

Instructors: Gina Main and Mary Hughes
Cost: $50
Contact: Cecil Jennings ([email protected]); Gina Mann ([email protected]); Mary Hughes ([email protected])
Maximum Attendance: 45
Time of Workshop: 9am to 5pm