President
Wade Harrell
Vice President
Christian Elowsky
Treasurer
Patrick Mumford
Public Relations
Ollie Meidinger
Secretary
Anette Pillau
Webmaster
Tyante
Assistant Webmaster
Mike "troll" Dame
Artist Rosemary Kraft
Robert Gale Breene III
Barbara Reger
Stephen Skinner
Elizabeth Sweeten
Editor
Rhys A. Brigida, NY
Associate Editors
Kari McWest, TX
D. Allen Dean, TX
Contributing Editors
Christian Elowsky, Wade Harrell, Tabbie Norton, Stan Schultz, Celeste Webster, Rhys Brigida
EDITORIAL BOARD: Jason A. Dunlop, Mus. für Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany; G.B. Edwards, Florida Dept. Agric., Gainesville; Richard Gallon, Llandudno, Wales; Brent E. Hendrixson, East Carolina Univ., Greenville, North Carolina; Jonathan Leeming, South Africa; Lorenzo Prendini, American Museum of Natural History; Tom Prentice; Robert J. Raven, Queensland Museum, Australia; David Richman, New Mexico State Univ.; Manny Rubio, Tucson, Arizona; Warren Savary, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA; Stan Schultz, Wherever the road may lead; Rowland Shelley, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, North Carolina Univ., Chapel Hill, NC; Fred Sherberger, Atlanta, Georgia; Cara Shillington, Eastern Michigan Univ.; Louis Sorkin, American Museum of Natural History
A "forum" is an open discussion where all interested parties are welcome. In a non-profit organization where professional and hobbyist interests mix, like the ATS, the roles of the editors and the function of the editorial board is often not understood.
This brief discussion of the roles of the ATS editors and the editorial board, will hopefully give readers and potential readers of the Forum Magazine an idea of how the process works. The ATS urges everyone to contribute material to the Forum Magazine and is grateful for all contributions. The ATS needs opinions and information from people with as many different points of view as possible.
Material is sent to, assembled, and initially reviewed by the editor. Input is often solicited from specialists on certain subjects of current interest. Contributing editors provide their columns, and the editor organizes the material until there's enough for a new issue. When the issue is complete, it's sent to the associate editors. The associate editors make editing comments and suggestions before the final preparation for printing. The latest issue of the Forum Magazine is then ready to go to press.
Highly respected individuals with expertise in a wide variety of related fields were asked to be members of the ATS editorial board. Sometimes, the best of the new arachnologists are appointed to the editorial board to help them stay in the extremely difficult career field of arachnology. Traditionally, the editorial board members function in the peer review process of our Mygalomorph scientific journal. Unless one or more individuals of the editorial board contributes to a particular issue, they usually don't see the Forum Magazine until after publication.
The ATS editorial board performs the extremely important task of correcting erroneous or misleading material that may attempt to slither its way onto the pages of the Forum Magazine. These corrections may include new discoveries and interpretations that supersede older material, misinterpretations of fact, initially plausible ideas that don't hold water under close scrutiny, focusing ambiguous material, and dealing with a host of other potential problems. Neither the ATS nor any other organization is perfect. We make mistakes. We don't mind being wrong on occasion, but being wrong and not being corrected is intolerable to us.
Editorial board members include:
Dr. Jason A. Dunlop is an the arthropod curator at the Museum fur Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany. Jason has a keen interest in fossil arachnids among many other subject areas.
Dr. G. B. Edwards serves as the arachnologist for the Florida Department of Agriculture in Gainesville, Florida. G. B. is well known for his work in spider systematics and taxonomy, specializing in jumping spiders.
Richard Gallon is a theraphosid systematics scientist and lives in Wales. He's the editor of the British Tarantula Society.
Brent E. Hendrixson earned his Master's under Dr. W. David Sissom at West Texas A&M University studying arachnid systematics. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate at East Carolina University.
Kari J. McWest received his MS under Dr. David Sissom at West Texas A&M. in Canyon, Texas. He earned a BS in zoology at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. He is currently a chemist at Tyson Food, Inc. in Amarillo, Texas.
Dr. Robert J. Raven, curator of arthropods at the Queensland Museum in Brisbane, Australia, is arguably the leading scientist of the systematics of the infraorder Mygalomorphae.
There are also many others who contribute anonymously in the same manner as those above but prefer to be left off the editorial board listing due to time constraints or other considerations.
