Sweet Success on our 75th Anniversary
With more than 1,900 attendees, The Wildlife Society Annual Conference was one of the largest in terms of attendees in its 19-year history.  In terms of content, it was the largest conference we ever hosted. The program included 270 contributed papers, 280 contributed posters, six panel discussions, and five breakfast roundtables. There were 23 symposia which included 220 speakers and there were two plenary sessions.

We celebrated our 75th anniversary during the conference with plenty of networking opportunities. Hundreds of members joined voices to sing happy birthday to TWS during the Opening Night Reception, which featured a large cake and delicious food.

The second annual Women of Wildlife reception had a huge turnout of both men and women, and the Closing Night Food Carts event was an all-you-can-eat gourmet treat. Numerous associated receptions kept attendees busy during the evenings.

In honor of the 75th anniversary all attendees received beautiful lapel pins with the 75th anniversary logo and anniversary posters featuring The Wildlife Professional’s Fall 2012 cover art depicting notable TWS pioneers.

As always, there was a focus on students at the conference including the student-only field trip, career fair, resume workshops, and Student-Professional Mixer which included a speed mentoring session and Student Work-In-Progress Poster Session. We had an exciting Quiz Bowl which was won by Humboldt State University.

Thank you to our sponsors and exhibitors. This year we had the largest exhibit floor in the history of the conference with over 70 organizations represented.

A special thanks to the Portland Arrangements Committee and the Program Committee for their work on the conference. Without their countless hours spent planning for the conference, we would not have had the success we achieved.

TWS Thanks its Longest Serving Members
With the reflective mood at this year’s Annual Conference celebrating the 75th anniversary of TWS it was only natural for a good-natured competition to break out over breakfast at the retired members gathering. Who, wondered host Reed Sanderson, was TWS’ longest active member? Dale Jones and Archie Mossman shared the title. Both have been members for 62 years, joining TWS in 1950. To put that in context for our younger members, Dr. Mossman, a retired professor from Humboldt State University, was taking a class from Aldo Leopold the spring he died. We would like to thank Mr. Jones and Dr. Mossman for their long service to the society (Jones is a Past President of TWS) and to the profession of wildlife management.