Minutes of the Council Meetings and the General Assembly at the XXVIIIth Congress of the International Primatological Society Quito, Ecuador January 9–15, 2022

The Pre-Congress Meeting of the

Council of the International Primatological Society

January 9, 2022

1:45 – 5:25 pm

Quorum Quito Events Center, Conference Room 1 and via Zoom

• I.The meeting was called to order at 1:45 pm by President Strier. A special welcome to our elected President, Jonah Ratsimbazafy, and new VP for Ethics, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Susana Carvalho.
• II.
  The members of the council in attendance either in person or via Zoom were:

  • A.
    IPS officers: Karen Strier, President; Júlio César Bicca-Marques, Secretary General; Steve Ross, VP for Captive Care and Breeding; Trudy Turner, Treasurer and VP for Membership; Marina Cords, VP for Research; Patrícia Izar, VP for Education; Tatyana Humle, VP for Conservation; Cat Hobaiter, VP for Communications.
  • B.
    Representatives of affiliate societies: Inza Koné (Africa); Jesús Martínez (Bolivia); Gustavo Canale (Brazil); Baoguo Li and Songtao Guo (China); Angela Maldonado (Colombia); Felipe Alfonso Cortés (Ecuador); Jorg Massen (European Federation); Victor Narat (France); Oliver Schuelke (Germany); Stuart Semple (Great Britain); Goro Hanya (Japan); Liliana Cortés-Ortiz (Latin America); Jonah Ratsimbazafy (Madagascar); Nadine Ruppert (Malaysia); Tânia Minhós (Portugal); Ramesh Boonratana (Southeast Asia); Miquel Llorente (Spain); Lynne Isbell (USA). Absent from the meeting were representatives of the Argentinean, Indonesian, Italian, Mexican, Peruvian, and South African societies.
  • C.
    Ex officio members of the council: Anthony Rylands, Primate Specialist Group of IUCN; Tetsuro Matsuzawa, Immediate Past President of IPS.
  • D.
    Visitors and guests: Members of delegations from South Africa and Madagascar during the presentation of their bids; Jonah Ratsimbazafy (incoming President); Susana Carvalho (incoming VP for Ethics, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion).
• III.Steve Schapiro (Chair of the Scientific Program) thanked the scientific committee for their outstanding work and gave some details about the scientific program.
• IV.Brief comments from the SLAPrim President Liliana Cortés-Ortiz via Zoom. Thanks to IPS President Karen Strier for supporting the idea of having a joint IPS-SLAPrim congress and to Stella de la Torre, Steven Schapiro, and Leandro Jerusalinsky (former SLAPrim President) for their work in the organization of the joint congress.
• V.
  Brief presentation from the Malaysian team about their meeting preparations for the 2023 Joint Meeting of the International Primatological Society and the Malaysian Primatological Society to be held in Kuching, Malaysia from 19 to 23 August, and time for questions.

  • A.
    Treasurer Turner thanked the organizing team for their flexibility in working through budgetary issues and the number of participants, and asked about the timeline for receiving the contract with the venue. Turner finished by thanking for the presentation.
  • B.
    President Strier also thanked the organizers for the presentation and for accommodating IPS concerns about the budget.
• VI.Stella de la Torre, local organizer of the congress, welcomed the participants to Quito.
• VII.Jo Setchell, Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Primatology presented her report on the journal from 2019 to 2021. She highlighted the journal’s achievements (e.g., ranking among the top 10% Springer journals for editorial excellence, and the stability of the impact factor from 2018 to 2020, which reached 2.264 in 2020) and changes made since the last IPS meeting. IJOP now accepts abstracts in multiple languages and data papers, its Instructions for Authors and Reviewer Guidelines were edited to stress the importance of avoiding taking problems with the English language into the review process, and authors have the option of making an inclusion and diversity statement in their papers.
• VIII.Treasurer Turner presented highlights of her report. She informed that: (1) IPS reestablished the 501(c)(3) status that allows IPS to act as a not-for-profit organization in the USA; (2) the society now has an accountant and an attorney; (3) the accountant has reviewed the last five years of the society’s books for being in compliance with an audit; (4) Turner filed tax returns for the past 3 years; (5) the society’s investments were consolidated into a single broker;(6) we can expect to use about 5% of the money per year for grants, (7) IPS established the Heritage Fund following President Strier’s idea, whom Turner congratulated; (8) Turner distributed all the grants to recipients either via check or wire transfer; (9) Turner highlighted the exceptional situation created by the COVID-19 pandemic, which made 2021 a particularly unusual year because of the requests for refund of the registration fees – approximately 160 registrants requested and received refunds, mostly via wire transfer; (10) Turner stressed other activities that will have long-term positive impacts for IPS, particularly the establishment of a new membership and website system run by X-CD Technologies Inc., and she sincerely thanked Nancy Capitanio for working on the membership until this change; (11) Turner explained that although the International Journal of Primatology is the official journal of IPS, the society has no formal relationship with the publisher (Springer). The IPS attorney is working to solidify the relationship with Springer. IPS sent a proposal to Springer, which seems to be amenable to negotiate. The proposal is that the society receives some monetary benefit for selecting IJP as its official journal. One possibility is that IPS members may pay for the journal when renewing their membership; (12) Turner finished by reporting that IPS remains financially solvent as an organization. She explained that the society’s money comes from membership, meeting registrations, and some from donations, and that income from membership dues goes up in meeting years (when meeting registrants tend to renew their membership) and down in non-meeting years, when some memberships lapse. Paying members per country are 199 from USA, 64 from Japan, 50 from UK, 32 from Germany, 31 from Brazil, 22 from Canada, 16 from China, 14 from Malaysia, 10 from Mexico, and the remaining countries account for less than 10 paying members each. Current IPS investment is US$190,374.
• IX.President Strier reported that the Heritage Fund currently has US$32,000 and that the goal is to reach US$50,000. She mentioned that she will give additional details, including the funders’ names, in the General Assembly. She highlighted that given IPS international scope and that the fund aims to support many projects, it should have more resources. She finished by inviting anybody who wants to help fundraising to let her know.
• X.Treasurer and VP for Membership Turner suggested the creation of a membership committee for encouraging the affiliate societies to remain members of IPS. She asked who would like to be members of the committee to contact her.
• XI.
  President Strier asked if there were any questions from the Council members about the officers’ reports posted on IPS website.

  • A.
    Goro Hanya, the affiliate representative from the Primate Society of Japan, acknowledged IPS for the letter of support to the Kyoto University Primate Research Institute. President Strier explained the request for support that IPS received from the Primate Society of Japan to the Council. She told the representatives of the other affiliate societies that IPS can also send letters of support to their missions, with the process being that they send the Secretary General or the President their concerns for evaluation by the officers, and if in agreement, the letter from IPS officers could be provided.
  • B.
    President Strier thanked all officers for their great work. She gave her special thanks to the Treasurer given her responsibility in managing the society’s money. She also highlighted the amazing time investment of Marina Cords, Tanya Humle, Patrícia Izar, and Steven Ross coordinating their committees reviewing grant proposals for making sure that all the criteria for funding is met.
• XII.Anthony Rylands, Deputy Chair of the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group, presented a summary of the PSG Report 2018-2021. He stressed that during the past 3 years the PSG has worked to be more inclusive and to have more habitat country members taking on roles as part of the executive committee.
• XIII.
  IPS Congress in 2025

  • A.
    In addition to the written bids submitted and shared with the council prior to this meeting, we listened to presentations associated with the bids from:

    1. Durban, South Africa (presented by Judith Masters)
    2. Antananarivo, Madagascar (presented by Jonah Ratsimbazafy and Kim Reuter)
  • B.
    Competing proponents were kept in break-out Zoom rooms during the opponent’s bid presentation.
  • C.
    The council made questions to each presenter after their presentations.
  • D.
    After both presentations and questioning, the Secretary General Bicca-Marques shared one Google Form ballot with the IPS Officers and another ballot with one representative of each affiliate society for secret voting. He explained that the votes of the Council count as 50% and that the votes of the officers count the remaining 50%. Each voter had the option to vote for South Africa or for Madagascar to host the congress or to abstain.
  • E.
    The winning bid was Madagascar.

    1. Ratsimbazafy thanked the IPS Council and officers, the Secretary General, and Judith Masters for placing the competing bid.
    2. Bicca-Marques thanked the South African and Malagasy teams for embracing the challenge of placing a bid. He highlighted that it will be great to be back in Africa and that both Antananarivo and Durban would be great places to host the 2025 IPS Congress.
    3. President Strier thanked Bicca-Marques for running this challenging virtual balloting and Masters and her team for submitting the South African bid, and congratulated all members of the Malagasy bid.
• XIV.
  Angela Maldonado made a brief presentation of and read the policy statement on the capture of wild primates for biomedical research written by the IUCN Human-Primate Interactions group for requesting IPS support, similar to what was done in 2014 for primate trade.

  • A.
    President Strier proposed that IPS Council supports the initiative to encourage the IUCN group to develop a policy for later review. No Council member disagreed or abstained, and the President’s proposal was approved unanimously. She added that the VP for Captive Care and Breeding, Steve Ross will be the IPS officer in contact with the IUCN working group that will develop the policy.
• XV.
  Tiago Falótico presented the campaign #PrimatesAreNotPets, an initiative from the Sociedade Brasileira de Primatologia, and asked for IPS support to make the initiative global.

  • A.
    President Strier reported that the initiative had been analyzed by the IPS officers, that the two Brazilian officers (VP for Education Izar and Secretary General Bicca-Marques) have already participated in the campaign, and urged that the message could to be tailored for different cultures.
  • B.
    Falótico agreed with the President, reinforcing that this is a goal of the request for IPS support.
  • C.
    VP for Education Izar stressed the need to make this campaign worldwide including the non-habitat countries in the northern hemisphere where primates are sold as pets in stores and over the internet.
  • D.
    VP for Captive Care and Breeding Ross mentioned that many people agree on this issue, but that there are education, communication, and welfare aspects among others that have to be considered. He also highlighted the importance of having several members of the IPS Council involved in different committees.
  • E.
    Leandro Jerusalinsky commented that all Latin American primatological societies have adopted the campaign, which was translated into Spanish. According to him, the campaign has had very good repercussions in the continent without any strong criticisms as far as he was aware of.
  • F.
    Strier suggested that the officers Hobaiter, Izar, and Ross work with the Brazilian Primatological Society in developing the #PrimatesAreNotPets campaign at a broader international level.
  • G.
    The proposal was unanimously approved by the IPS Council.
• XVI.
  President Strier explained the amendment to Article 5 (Election) of the IPS Bylaws suggested by the Past ex oficio President Tetsuro Matsuzawa establishing the election cycle in which the new VP for Ethics, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion will be in. Given that the VP was first elected in the same cycle as the President, the Bylaws will be amended for containing this as the VP’s election cycle. Strier acknowledged the contribution of Matsuzawa.

  • A.
    Matsuzawa thanked Strier and the other IPS officers for their efforts and for doing a great job during a very difficult time and a 5 ½-years tenure.
• XVII.
  VP for Conservation Humle highlighted that there are affiliate societies that do not maintain IPS updated on their official representatives and that it is really important to ensure that the Secretary General is informed about any changes.

  • A.
    Bicca-Marques confirmed that the information of many affiliate societies was outdated and that Jerusalinsky had updated him on the current representative for some of them. He further highlighted that some societies had never sent him any update and had not even replied to his messages. He asked Hobaiter to include a note on IPS website stressing the importance for the affiliate societies to communicate with the IPS Secretary General about changes in their representatives.
• XVIII.
  President elect Ratsimbazafy asked about the existence of a World Primate Day.

  • A.
    President Strier informed that there is a World Primate Day – September 1^st.
  • B.
    Ratsimbazafy thanked for the information.
• XIX.President Strier reinforced the frequent IPS request for affiliates to send news, issues, and concerns for IPS to use their international platform to help advance causes about which we all agree, given that IPS cannot know what affiliate societies are working on without the affiliate societies’ communication. She further stated that she hopes that affiliate societies are aware that IPS is available to be engaged and that they can access all IPS officers.
• XX.President Strier finished by mentioning that this was the last Council meeting that she chaired as IPS President, as the Post-Congress Council Meeting will be chaired by the President elect Ratsimbazafy. She thanked everyone for being great colleagues, and thanked both the past and current officers. She mentioned that she was very excited about the incoming officers and that she felt so proud in being able to pass on the IPS leadership to competent hands, whose official passage will occur at the General Assembly. She concluded by saying that it was a great honor to work on this role for IPS and that she looks forward to participate even more in the future when she does not have the responsibility of also being the President.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:25 pm

Respectfully submitted by Júlio César Bicca-Marques, Secretary General

General Assembly of the International Primatological Society

January 14, 2022

4:30 – 6:30 pm

Quorum Quito Events Center, Conference Room 1

• I.The meeting was called to order at 4:30 pm by President Strier.
• II.
  President Strier thanked:

  • A.
    The Chair of the Organizing Committee of the 2022 IPS-SLAPrim Congress Stella de la Torre for an outstanding job.
  • B.
    The Chair of the Scientific Committee Steven Schapiro for his heroic efforts before and throughout the meeting.
  • C.
    The SLAPrim officers in the name of the past President Leandro Jerusalinsky and the current President Liliana Cortés-Ortiz for co-hosting the meeting and for all their collaboration.
• III.
  President Strier summarized actions resulting from the Pre-Congress Council Meeting:

  • A.
    Jo Setchell reported on some issues she would like IPS to know about the International Journal of Primatology. Setchell highlighted the proposal of publishing abstracts in multiple languages and shortening the delay from acceptance to publication turnaround time. President Strier thanked Jo for all her hard work as IJOP’s Editor-in-Chief.
  • B.
    The Council voted unanimously to endorse the initiative presented by the Advisor of the Asociación Colombiana de Primatología Angela Maldonado regarding the policy statement on the capture of wild primates for biomedical research (similarly to what was done in 2014 for primate trade) for the IUCN Human-Primate Interactions. Angela will lead the writing of the statement in liaison with VP for Captive Care and Breeding Stephen Ross.
  • C.
    The Council voted unanimously to collaborate with the Sociedade Brasileira de Primatologia on their initiative, the campaign #PrimatesAreNotPets. SBPr Communications chair Romari Martinez will interact with IPS VPs Stephen Ross, Patricia Izar, and Cat Hobaiter.
• IV.
  The Treasurer and VP for Membership Trudy Turner reported on several issues:

  • A.
    Given the congress postponements because of the COVID-19 pandemic that also impacted research and education projects, and the many requests for registration return, IPS had to cancel the granting of awards in 2021. She also mentioned that some registered members did not request their fees back despite not having attended the meeting in person. Despite the critical scenario created by the pandemic and given the aspects just mentioned, IPS is in good financial shape.
  • B.
    IPS reestablished the 501(c)(3) status that allows IPS to act as a not-for-profit organization in the USA.
  • C.
    IPS now has an accountant and an attorney.
  • D.
    The society’s investments were consolidated into a single broker.
  • E.
    Turner invited members to make contributions to any IPS fund.
  • F.
    IPS established a new membership and website system run by X-CD Technologies Inc. in mid-2021. Turner thanked Nancy Capitanio for her services as webmaster for many years.
  • G.
    Although the International Journal of Primatology is the official journal of IPS, the society has no formal relationship with the publisher (Springer). IPS proposed to Springer that the society receives some monetary benefit for selecting IJOP as its official journal. One possibility is that IPS members pay for the journal when renewing their membership.
  • H.
    At the end of December 2021, IPS had 757 members in good standing, which included 238 life-time members, 289 regular members, 120 student members, and 85 complimentary range country members. She invited members to participate in a committee on membership to be created during this year with the goal of increase the number of members from affiliate societies.
  • I.
    She finished by thanking the Council members for thoughtfulness, especially the President Karen Strier for her leadership during the past 5 1/2 years, and Steven Schapiro, former IPS Treasurer, for being always ready to discuss IPS matters and helping.
• V.President Strier explained the formation of the Heritage Fund and presented its founders, whom together have contributed with the first US$32,000 (thirty-two thousand dollars). The Platinum level founders are Michelle Bezanson, Russell Mittermeier/re:wild, Charles Snowdon, Karen Strier, and an anonymous donor1. The Bronze level founders are Dorothy Fragaszy and Trudy Turner. There were no Gold and Silver levels founders yet. The President invited those able to contribute to consider becoming a founder in 2022.
• VI.Schapiro reported that the Silent Auction collected about US$2,500 (two thousand and five hundred dollars).
• VII.
  Anthony Rylands reported on the activities of the Primate Specialist Group 2018-2021 (report available in the IPS webpage). He highlighted the 2022-2023 version of the 25 Most Endangered Primates and explained the idea behind the launching of the list every two years during the IPS congress instead of having a fixed list with the actual 25 most endangered taxa. The criteria used in deciding the list includes the conservation status (Critically Endangered, preferably, or Endangered), the geographic representation, the taxonomic uniqueness, and the likelihood that the listing will be used to achieve conservation objectives. The suggested regional breakdown for the 2022-2023 list is Asia (8 spp.), Neotropics (7 spp.), Africa (6 spp.), and Madagascar (4 spp.).

  • A.
    President Strier thanked Rylands for all of his amazing efforts.
• VIII.Secretary General Bicca-Marques reported on future IPS congresses. He started by inviting all affiliate societies and members in good standing with IPS to submit bids for the 2027 congress, whose selection by the IPS Council will take place in August 2023 in Kuching, Malaysia. He thanked both the South African (Durban) and Malagasy (Antananarivo) biding teams for their willingness to submit a bid and for preparing two strong bids. Finally, he announced that the 2025 IPS congress will be held in Antananarivo, Madagascar.
• IX.Given the impossibility of the participation of the Malaysian hosts of the 2023 IPS congress because of COVID-19 restrictions, we played a video sent by the Malaysian team inviting everyone to attend the meeting.
• X.President Strier congratulated the recipients of the Coimbra-Filho Travel Awards: Larissa Vaccarini Ávila (undergraduate), João Victor de Amorim Viçosa (MSc), and Anamélia de Souza Jesus (PhD).
• XI.President Strier congratulated the recipients of the donations to support young primatologists from range countries to attend the meeting: Luana Alves, Paul Tehoda, Poliana Lins, and Thiago Cavalcante.
• XII.President Strier congratulated the recipients of the IPS grants and thanked the members of the Education, Captive Care, Research, and Conservation committees (please see the names of the recipients in the reports of the respective committee chairs: VP Patricia Izar, VP Stephen Ross, VP Marina Cords, and VP Tanya Humle).
• XIII.
  President Strier presented the 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr. Vernon Reynolds, praising his long-term commitment to primatology and his many achievements as a scientist, conservationist, tutor, among other roles.

  • A.
    Dr. Reynolds, via Zoom, thanked the award and the organizers of the meeting, which he regretted for not being able to attend in person because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He called scientists to work together in networks for saving the world’s primates, stressing the importance of cooperation with and participation of Indigenous people.
• XIV.
  President Strier explained the Special Presidential Awards established in 2018 and presented the 2020 awardees:

  • A.
    Dr. Liliana Cortés-Ortiz. Dr. Cortés-Ortiz thanked the award via Zoom.
  • B.
    Dr. Inza Koné. Dr. Koné thanked the award via Zoom.
  • C.
    Dr. Leandro Jerusalinsky. Dr. Jerusalinsky thanked the award in person.
  • D.
    Dr. Ramesh “Zimbo” Boonratana. Dr. Boonratana thanked the award in person.
• XV.
  President Strier described the Outstanding Achievement Award and presented the inaugural 2020 award to Dr. Russell Mittermeier, highlighting that optimism stands out among all his characteristics.

  • A.
    Dr. Russ Mittermeier thanked the award and all in IPS, especially Karen Strier. He commented that this was his 21^st IPS congress as since the 7^th IPS Congress held in Bangalore, India, in 1979, he only missed one congress. He stressed that he values IPS highly and that the congress in Quito was his favorite. He also recognized his whole Re:wild team, the Primate Specialist team, and particularly Anthony Rylands. He finished by thanking Karen Strier, Stella de la Torre, and Steven Schapiro.
• XVI.President Strier presented all IPS officers, congratulated the reelection for second term of VPs Cat Hobaiter, Patrícia Izar and Stephen Ross, and the election of the new VP for Ethics, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Susana Carvalho and the new President Jonah Ratsimbazafy.
• XVII.
  President Strier made comments, including the importance of long-term field sites for primate conservation. She asked for additional issues or requests:

  • A.
    Angela Maldonado from the Colombian Primatological Society asked for a letter of support from IPS to the Ministry of Environment on their strategy for primate conservation in Colombia. President Strier responded that it is possible and that IPS has done that for other affiliate societies. She asked Maldonado to send a draft of the letter to any IPS officer, so that it can be analyzed and voted on by the officers.
• XVIII.President Strier made her final comments, highlighting the goals and priorities that she had when she accepted to run for IPS presidency in 2016, that she still has the same priorities, and stressing that she is very proud of what IPS has been able to accomplish. She thanked the IPS membership for their election, confidence, and support of her, the past and current officers and council members for all support, advice, and suggestions. She finished by reading the IPS mission, “to encourage all areas of non-human primatological scientific research, to facilitate cooperation among scientists of all nationalities engaged in primate research, and to promote the conservation of all primate species.”
• XIX.President Strier introduced the new IPS President Ratsimbafazy and passed the word to him.
• XX.President Ratsimbazafy made his first presidential speech thanking Karen Strier for her excellent leadership and inspiration. He praised all award recipients and highlighted that we all have the same goal of preventing the extinction of primates throughout the world. He finished inviting everyone to be together in the coming IPS congresses in Malaysia in 2023 and Magadascar in 2025.

President Ratsimbazafy adjourned the meeting at 6:30 pm

Respectfully submitted by Júlio César Bicca-Marques, Secretary General

The Pos-Congress Meeting of the

Council of the International Primatological Society

January 15, 2022

9:00 – 10:40 am

Quorum Quito Events Center, Conference Room 1 and via Zoom

• I.The meeting was called to order by President Ratsimbazafy at 9:00 am.
• II.
  Members in attendance (via Zoom or in person) were:

  • A.
    IPS officers: Jonah Ratsimbazafy, President; Stephen Ross, VP for Captive Care and Breeding (acting as secretary of the meeting); Trudy Turner, Treasurer and VP for Membership; Patrícia Izar, VP for Education; Tatyana Humle, VP for Conservation; Marina Cords, VP for Research; Susana Carvalho, VP for Ethics, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Absent from the meeting were Júlio César Bicca-Marques, Secretary General, and Cat Hobaiter, VP for Communications.
  • B.
    Representatives of affiliate societies: Stella de la Torre (Ecuador), Liliana Cortés-Ortiz (Latin America), Tania Minhós (Portugal), Victor Narat (France), Goro Hanya (Japan), Stuart Semple (Great Britain), Ramesh ‘Zimbo’ Boonratana (Southeast Asia), Jorg Massen (European Federation), Songtao Guo (China), Inza Kone (Africa), Oliver Schuelke (Germany), Lynne Isbell (USA and Canada), Gustavo Canale (Brazil), Sebastián García Restrepo (Colombia), and Jonah Ratsimbazafy (Madagascar). Absent from the meeting were representatives of the Argentinean, Bolivian, Indonesian, Italian, Malaysian, Mexican, Peruvian, South African, and Spanish societies.
  • C.
    Ex officio members of the council: Karen Strier (immediate past President of IPS) and Anthony Rylands (Primate Specialist Group of IUCN).
• III.
  Funds for IPS

  • A.
    President Ratsimbazafy thanked Past President Strier for launching the Heritage Fund and asked everyone to think of other ideas to help fund the society.
  • B.
    Past President Strier informed that the Heritage Fund will probably have another five, maybe ten, thousand dollars.
  • C.
    President Ratsimbazafy asked how much money IPS needs to run the congress successfully. Treasurer Turner answered that the registration income has been sufficient to run the congress and that IPS is not in a deficit situation. She added that IPS has a reserve fund resulting from the society’s financial prudency. She also mentioned that IPS has an accountant and an attorney that help filling annual tax returns in the USA because of the IPS’s 501(c)(3) status as a not-for-profit organization that can receive donations. The attorney has also helped with the negotiations of the contract with Springer, which may end up resulting in some monetary benefits to the society. She highlighted the annual donation by the Southwick Fund, and disclosed that the idea is to take out 5% of the society’s funds per year to run the grant programs together with the income from membership and donations, while still keeping a significant amount of funds as a reserve. She thanked Stella de la Torre for renegotiating the contract with the Quito venue to better fit the lower number of in person participants resulting from the COVID-19 restrictions and limitations. Turner finished by mentioning that the contract under negotiation with Malaysia is based on an expectation of 300 in person attendants plus 400 online participants.
  • D.
    Oliver Schuelke (Germany) questioned if the strategy of taking 5% of interests per year to run the grant programs is the best strategy as he believes that donors may want to see their money resulting in actions immediately.

    1. Treasurer Turner answered that the interest comes from long-term investments of the Jacobsen, the Southwick, and the new Heritage funds. She completed that smaller donations are immediately turned into a grant.
    2. Past President Strier added that the Heritage Fund was created as an additional opportunity to overcome the financial difficulties that IPS had in 2021 to give grants because of the crisis caused by the COVID pandemic.
    3. President Ratsimbazafy asked if the society could have access to emergency funds for this kind of situations and mentioned that he will discuss this issue with Russ Mittermeier.
    4. VP for Ethics, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Carvalho asked if IPS has an intermediate funding strategy to the annual use of the 5% interest and the immediate use of the small donations to support the grant programs. Turner answered that IPS gives the grants that it can every year and that it could have the funds to provide a continued support to grantees for a few years as Carvalho had mentioned. She completed that this would be another kind of grant and that most of the ca. 40 thousand dollars provided by IPS in its grant programs every year goes to research projects.
    5. Stuart Semple (UK) suggested IPS to target legacy donations. Turner explained that IPS is a small organization and that the Heritage Fund can receive this kind of donation, but that IPS would need a specialized attorney to work on that. Semple added that IPS should advertise on the website about the possibility of receiving legacy donations, to which suggestion Turner agreed and thanked.
    6. Victor Narat (France) asked to have access to details on IPS funds to analyze. He also mentioned that the La Societe Francophone de Primatologie does not want to invest its funds in investments that support undesirable activities. He offered financial help from his society to IPS to run a congress, if necessary. Turner expressed her thanks for the kind offer from the Francophone Society and asked Narat to encourage the members of his society to join IPS.
• IV.
  Treasurer Turner updated the council on the membership from each affiliate society. IPS has 199 members from the USA, 64 from Japan, 50 from UK, 32 from Germany, 31 from Brazil, 22 from Canada, 16 from China, 14 from Malaysia, 10 from Mexico, and all the other societies with less than 10 IPS members. She explained that the creation of a membership committee aims to increase the number of members from the societies and that there is a fluctuation in membership between congress years and non-congress years as up to about 500 members only pay their dues in congress years to take advantage of the special congress rates. She highlighted that there are affiliate societies with only four IPS members that can vote on the society’s matters.

  • A.
    Jorg Massen (European Federation) asked about the possibility of having a 2-year membership option. Turner answered that this issue can be discussed by the membership committee.
  • B.
    President Ratsimbazafy agreed that it is necessary to stimulate more primatologists from Africa, Asia, and Latin America to become members.
  • C.
    Liliana Cortés-Ortiz (Latin America) mentioned that the Latin American Society of Primatology has no income sources because of the way it was created and that the officers are discussing how to change this situation. She volunteered to be part of the IPS membership committee and suggested affiliate societies to advertise in their websites about the affiliation to IPS and the importance of their members to be active IPS members. Societies could have a few slides on how to register for IPS to help their members to work through the process.
  • D.
    VP for Education Izar also volunteered to participate in the IPS membership committee.
  • E.
    Goro Hanya (Japan) expressed that he believes that if the possibility of registering for the congress for a lower rate is the only advantage of becoming an IPS member, this stimulus probably has a very limited likelihood of convincing colleagues to join the society, particularly those that are normally not able to attend the congress. He asked what other advantages IPS offers to its members. Turner asked Strier to speak because she wrote about that for an IPS Newsletter. Strier stressed that as an international organization IPS has supported multiple causes from affiliate societies over the years. She also mentioned the grants program and the active social media with news maintained by the VP for Communications Hobaiter. She further explained that IPS officers work for the society voluntarily with no payment with the goal of supporting international primatology. She finished by saying that the society has been involved in global initiatives targeted at critical issues such as climate change and biodiversity conservation. Turner concluded by reinforcing that the grants program returns part of the funds to the members of the affiliate societies and to nationals of other countries.
  • F.
    President Ratsimbazafy mentioned that primatologists, mainly students, from developing countries may receive support from NGOs such as Conservation International, World Wildlife Fund, and Wildlife Conservation Society to attend meetings.
• V.
  President Ratsimbazafy mentioned that he believes that the IPS website needs to be made more attractive to be used by more people. He asked the council members to contribute material to the site, such as success stories. He also invited primatologists from all regions to organize annual festivals on their primates and to celebrate the Primate Day (September 1^st) to reach the laypeople and local, regional, or national authorities. He finished by asking affiliate members to feel that IPS belongs to everyone and to use it as a hub.

  • A.
    Past President Strier agreed and reinforced the importance of the invitation by saying that affiliate society officers and members need to send information to VP Cat Hobaiter about their activities for Cat to post on IPS website.
  • B.
    Schuelke questioned the relevance of the website as a source of information and a tool for communication within the society. He suggested that the website should be used as a look up device where IPS posts documents and how to’s related to its business and that the communication with young people should use different tools and strategies. Strier mentioned that VP Hobaiter also maintains a very active Facebook page and that older IPS members refuse to use Facebook and are benefitted by the website. VP Carvalho congratulated VP Hobaiter for the improvements of the IPS website and suggested that the website should be translated into other languages to increase its reach to a broader primatological audience. She added that the site could include more links to useful websites in addition to materials for download for free and use in private lectures, presentations and so on. Carvalho volunteered to help with those tasks if her proposals are approved. VP Turner thanked the offer to help make these improvements to the website. Via chat, Cortés-Ortiz volunteered to translate material into Spanish, VP Humle and Narat volunteered to help with French, Tania Minhós (Portugal) volunteered to translate into Portuguese. President Ratsimbazafy asked others to volunteer to translate into other languages.
• VI.
  VP for Ethics, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Carvalho thanked IPS for allowing her to take this new role. She also congratulated Strier for her extraordinary leadership in such extraordinary times, Jonah for his incoming responsibilities, and the officers for all work done during the past 2 years. She also thanked Susan Cheyne for offering to work together in many of the issues related to the VP position. She reinforced what she wrote in her statement for the VP election process on helping to develop codes of conduct, reporting systems for contextual field work, captive research, manuscript review, and grant review processes, and also tackle equality in field assistant work with local collaborators, and staff in temporary positions. She also mentioned creating more funding training opportunities with greater emphasis on funding for earlier career researchers, particularly from lower income countries, or maybe low income individual basis regardless of country of origin, more inclusive access to international conferences, better communication between field and captive work researchers to improve ethical standards, and addressing the increasing field experimental approach in natural settings, discussing to create mechanisms to help addressing the increasing pressure on the academics, including open science in our field, and, finally, raising the awareness of the need to reduce our experimental footprint at field stations and more generally. She said that she has already received plenty of e-mails raising important issues, highlighting the importance of this necessary new VP role within IPS. She proposed to write a draft of a survey aimed at understanding the most urgent issues and doable activities to be handled within the four topics of ethics, diversity, equity, and inclusion during her VP tenure. She also asked how the survey can reach primatologists that are not IPS members or members of affiliate societies to know their opinions. She also said that she would like the survey to have a question on whether the person would like to serve in the future committees, to mentor women etc. so that she could approach the person later. She finished by asking the council’s approval for proposing the definition of a single action in each topic based on the survey to address it appropriately instead of having many actions per topic and only addressing them superficially.

  • A.
    Via chat, VP Humle suggested that the survey could be channeled via affiliate societies, and Hanya added that it should be translated into various languages.
  • B.
    VP Izar mentioned that the IPS officers were aware of the huge task included in the new VP when it was under discussion and that the need of this VP emerged during a roundtable coordinated by the former VP for Research Joanna Setchell on the 2016 IPS Congress in Chicago and reinforced in a new roundtable held in the 2018 IPS Congress in Nairobi before being approved by the council in the Post-Congress Council Meeting. Izar further mentioned that she will send Carvalho the documents that were produced during both roundtables and proposed that the other officers help Carvalho in her discussions.
  • C.
    Past President Strier highlighted the importance of having men involved in discussing these issues. She agreed with the idea of a survey and suggested that it can be delivered through affiliate societies, IPS social media, and other professional societies that may not be primatological per se. She also explained that Carvalho can propose the committees that she believes are necessary within the domains of her responsibilities and that they would be included in IPS Bylaws after the due approvals from the council and membership.
• VII.
  Amendments to IPS Bylaws

  • A.
    VP Ross explained that the election of the new VP for Ethics, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion will be run in the same cycle as the President.
  • B.
    VP Ross proposed the change of the name of the VP for Captive Care and Breeding and it was agreed to be changed to VP for Welfare and Captive Care.
• VIII.VP Ross reminded all Council members of the importance of keeping the Secretary General informed about the changes to the officers of the affiliate societies. Turner suggested that the Secretary General should send an e-mail once a year to the representative officers of affiliate societies to remind them to inform IPS about the changes. Narat asked if the information need to include all officers or only the President. Ross answered that it is necessary to inform about the change of the representative officer only.
• IX.
  Boonratana suggested IPS to screen the background of any invited officials before inviting them to any congress that we held in order to avoid inviting officials with undesired acts or thoughts, such as actions that harm indigenous rights or that is against biodiversity conservation.

  • A.
    Strier added that the Secretary General, perhaps with the help of other officers or a small committee, should review the current guidelines for submitting bids. It is important to include the need for an explanation on how the host proposes to handle the need for hybrid or virtual meetings in addition to the in-person meetings. There are concerns about the meeting venues ranging from human rights and difficulties in getting visas. The system will be more equitable if the guidelines explain that new proposals have to include all these aspects to be considered.
  • B.
    Cortés-Ortiz agreed with the importance of reviewing the guidelines and added that it is important to include the information that the congress is of IPS and that if is run in collaboration with a regional society, it is mandatory to have the contract with the meeting venue and other contracts discussed with and signed by IPS.
  • C.
    Humle asked to also mention in the new bid guidelines the need to consider equality and inclusivity.
  • D.
    Turner acknowledged the hard work involved in preparing a bid and agreed on the importance of having all the information on the guidelines. She stressed the contract requirement to enable IPS to pay the bills.
• X.
  President Ratsimbazafy highlighted all the awards that IPS offers to the primatological community.

  • A.
    VP Izar urged all Council members to advertise the Charles Southwick Award to their membership as this award received no nomination in 2021. The award is offered to habitat country individuals who have dedicated their lives to conservation education.
  • B.
    VP Cords mentioned that members of the Research committee can give feedback on draft proposals to applicants from habitat countries to improve them if they are sent in advance.
  • C.
    VP Humle mentioned the importance of affiliate societies to also advertise the Galante scholarship for supporting training. Although IPS has received amazing candidates in past years, she stimulated people to send more applications.
• XI.Narat asked if IPS plans to have regular meetings with the Council. President Ratsimbazafy answered that he will discuss this issue with the officers with the goal of having a schedule of future Zoom meetings.
• XII.President Ratsimbazafy thanked Stella de la Torre for all her work to make the Quito congress a success and asked her to send IPS best regards to her team and the university officers. He also thanked the affiliate societies for their participation in the IPS congress. He thanked Past President Strier for her work and help, and VP Ross for taking the role of secretary in the meeting. He finished by wishing everyone a happy and successful new year.

President Ratsimbazafy adjourned the meeting at 10:40 am.

Respectfully submitted by Stephen Ross (In memoriam), VP for Welfare and Captive Care, and Júlio César Bicca-Marques, Secretary General