Mid-Atlantic Malacologists, Report of First Annual Meeting
 
        Yes ma'm!  The meeting was on the east coast of North America, not in the
middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
        The first meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Malacologists (MAM) was held 28
February 1998 at the Delaware Museum of Natural History in Wilmington,
Delaware.  The 30 participants at the one-day gathering included
professional, amateur and student malacologists, shell collectors and
dealers, and people from government and non-profit organizations interested
in conservation and regulatory issues.  People came from Delaware, Maryland,
New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, the farthest travel being from Pittsburg.
Interests of participants spanned the major Molluscan groups: gastropods,
bivalves, and cephalopods.  Because MAM was only one day long, even busy
malacologists were able to attend.
        The 8 lively talks (see below) generated much discussion, and the many
conversations throughout showed that this meeting was successful in allowing
local malacologists to connect with each other.  After the meeting 13
participants took the opportunity to examine specimens in the extensive
malacological research collection at DMNH.  Enormous thanks are due to staff
and volunteers at DMNH, to members of the Wilmington Shell Club for their
help, and to all the participants.
        MAM is patterned after the long-successful Bay Area Malacologists (BAM)
meeting started in the San Francisco area more than 25 years ago by Gene
Coan.  George Kennedy started the Southern California Unified Malacologists
(SCUM) meeting in San Diego in 1997.  Now with MAM such an annual meeting is
available to East Coast malacologists.  The informal nature of MAM is
evident by the lack of dues, officers, abstracts, or publications.  Since
future meetings can rotate among institutions, persons wishing to host MAM
in future years should contact Tim Pearce.
        For additional information about MAM, contact: Timothy A. Pearce, Curator
of Mollusks, Delaware Museum of Natural History, Box 3937, Wilmington, DE
19807, U.S.A., phone (302) 658-9111; fax (302) 658-2610, email:
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Talks presented at the Mid-Atlantic Malacologists meeting 28 Feb. 1998:
 
Tim Pearce - Survey of Land Snails of the Delmarva Peninsula
Betty Jean Piech - Cheilea secretes a basal plate as in Hipponicidae
Bob Prezant - Thermal impact on brood potential of the freshwater snail
    Campeloma
Gary Rosenberg - Color in Mollusks
Jim McCann - Conserving Maryland's Freshwater Mussel Fauna
Tom Grace - Variation in the Conus cardinalis complex
Randy A. Cirulino - Regulating the ranching of non-native snails
Rich Goldberg - Amphidromus land snails on Timor, Indonesia, field notes on
    shell variability.
   Timothy A. Pearce, Curator of Mollusks
   Delaware Museum of Natural History
   Box 3937, Wilmington, DE 19807, U.S.A.
   phone (302)658-5004 or 658-9111