2022 Annual Meeting

ANNUAL MEETING OF

The Lepidopterists’ Society, Southern Lepidopterists’ Society,
and the Association for Tropical Lepidoptera
14–17 June 2022

Welcome back to an in-person annual meeting!  Please join us for the 70th Annual Meeting of the Lepidopterists’ Society, held from Tuesday, June 14 – Friday June 17, 2022 in Cullowhee, North Carolina. We will be meeting in conjunction with the Southern Lepidopterists’ Society and the Association for Tropical Lepidoptera. The meeting will be hosted by Western Carolina University and Dr. James Costa. WCU is the westernmost university in the UNC system, located in a valley between the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. Started in 1889, it is a comprehensive university for 11,000 undergraduates and graduates. Dr. Costa has been in the Department of Biology at WCU since 1996 and the director the Highlands Biological Station since 2005. He has studied and published extensively on social behavior in caterpillars and is a Darwin scholar, recently recognized as a finalist for the AAAS/Subaru Prize for his book "Darwin’s Backyard: How Small Experiments Led to a Big Theory."

Field Trips (both collecting and observing) will be organized for Tuesday (14 June).  If you plan on attending one of the Tuesday field trips or the organized Thursday moth night (after the BBQ), please fill out the field trip form (available on the website), and send it to Brian Scholtens (scholtensb@cofc.edu).  If you register for a package that includes Tuesday, you will receive a box lunch for the field trip day.

The welcome reception will be on campus Tuesday evening. The Executive Council meeting of the Lepidopterists’ Society is scheduled for Tuesday (14 June); the Southern Lepidopterists' Society business meeting will convene sometime Wednesday through Friday (to be announced). Talks are scheduled for Wednesday through Friday (15-17 June). The barbecue will be held Thursday evening (followed by blacklighting for anybody interested), and the banquet Friday evening. Main sessions, the Thursday BBQ, and the Friday banquet will be on campus, with housing conveniently located in Blue Ridge Hall on campus.

If you would rather not stay on campus, several hotels and motels are within easy driving distance.  The closest is a Comfort Inn between Cullowhee and Sylva, just a few miles from campus, and there are several other hotel options within a 10-15 minute drive.  If you Google "Sylva NC Hotels" you'll come up with that Comfort Inn, a Best Western, Holiday Inn, and smaller locally owned hotels like the Blue Ridge Inn.  Please register as a commuter if you plan on staying in one of these locations.

Online registration is now available through WCU.

The conference has 4 different package options for registration.

 

Registration Deadline is June 1

LINK
https://wcupg.wcu.edu/C20252_ustores/web/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCTID=458&SINGLESTORE=true

 

Option #1 includes the full conference with a 5-night residence hall stay checking in on Monday (6/13) and departing Saturday (6/18) with breakfasts, lunches, the BBQ and banquet. Single or double occupancy rooms available. $482 pp Single Occup/ $432 pp Dbl Occup

 

Option #2 includes the full conference with a 4-night stay, checking in on Tuesday (6/14) and departing Saturday (6/18) with breakfast, lunches, the BBQ and banquet. $409 pp Single Occup/ $369 pp Dbl Occup

 

Option #3 includes the full conference with a 3-night stay, checking in on Tuesday (6/14) and departing FRIDAY (6/17: No Friday night stay).  Includes breakfasts, lunches, the BBQ and banquet. $331 pp Single Occup/ $301 pp Dbl Occup

 

Option #4 is for commuters staying off-campus. It includes the full conference with lunches, the BBQ and banquet, but no accommodations. $199 per person

 

ABOUT ON-CAMPUS STAYS

University residence halls are wonderfully economical compared to traditional hotel prices. They are comfortable but very simple in terms of amenities. Your air-conditioned room will have 1 or 2 XL twin-sized beds with a basic linen package including a blanket, 2 sheets, a pillow w/ case and some towels and wash clothes. No more than 2 people will share a bath. Single occupancy rooms share a bath with the adjoining room (matched by gender) and double occupancy rooms have a private bath. Doubles are suited for couples. Free Wi-Fi is available to all conference guests.

 

WCU recommends bringing the following items with you for your stay:

 

  • Your favorite extra pillow
  • clothes hangers
  • soap, shampoo and other toiletries
  • an UMBRELLA
  • an alarm clock
  • a small bedside lamp (optional)
  • an XL twin sized mattress pad (optional)

 

Meals at the Courtyard dining hall offer an all-you-can eat dining experience with many different options to suite a variety of tastes and dietary restrictions. Guests will have a conference card they can swipe for their meals. This same card will serve as your access card for your residence hall. Individual rooms will have a separate key.

 

Check-In Times

IMPORTANT: Check in times for Monday (6/13) and Tuesday (6/14) will be from 4pm until 8pm EST.

 

Please note that unlike traditional hotels, university residence halls are not staffed 24 hours a day. We ask participants to make every effort to check-in during the designated check-in times. It may not be possible to accommodate very late arrivals.  If you know that you will have to arrive after these times, please let us know well ahead.

 

Directions and a map will be sent to all participants closer to the conference date.

 

If you have question about your stay or your registration please call WCU’s Educational Outreach office at 828-227-7397 or email Bobby Hensley (hensley@wcu.edu).

 

We encourage contributed papers and posters by anyone who is interested in presenting! Please use the abstract submission form (available on the website) to give either a paper or a poster.  Please submit abstracts electronically to Brian Scholtens (scholtensb@cofc.edu).  Abstract submission will be open until June 1.

Western Carolina University is part of the University of North Carolina system. The picturesque campus is situated in the western North Carolina mountains at an elevation of about 2,100 feet (640 m) but elevations up to about 6,000 feet (1,829 m) are adjacently accessible by road. Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Pisgah National Forest, and Nantahala National Forest are all within fairly close driving distance. Since WNC is located in the Appalachian Mountains, there is no direct way of travelling to Cullowhee. The closest airport is Asheville Regional Airport, in Asheville, NC, from here WCU is about 45 miles.

 

Links

Western North Carolina University: https://www.wcu.edu/

Highlands Biological Station: https://highlandsbiological.org/

North Carolina National Forests: https://www.fs.usda.gov/main/nfsnc/home

Asheville, North Carolina: https://www.exploreasheville.com/

Contact

The LepSoc 2020 meeting organizing committee consists of James Costa and Brian Scholtens. Please email scholtensb@cofc.edu with any questions regarding the meeting. Hope to see you in North Carolina this June!