October 24, 2017 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Menhaden Management Board will meet November 13-14, 2017 at The BWI Airport Marriott located at 1743 West Nursery Road, Linthicum Heights, Maryland. The meeting notice, travel authorization form and travel reimbursement guidelines are attached. Meeting materials are available on the Commission website at http://www.asmfc.org/files/
A block of rooms is being held at The BWI Airport Marriott. Cindy Robertson will make Commissioner/Proxy reservations and will contact you regarding the details of your accommodations. Please notify Cindy of any changes to your travel plans that will impact your hotel reservations, otherwise you will incur no-show penalties. We greatly appreciate your cooperation.
For all other attendees, please reserve online or call The BWI Airport Marriott at 410.859.8300 as soon as possible and mention the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission to obtain the group room rate of $159.00 plus tax single/dbl. Please be aware that you must guarantee your room reservation with a major credit card or one night’s advance payment. Hotel reservations must be made by Friday, October 27, 2017. Room availability will not be guaranteed beyond this date. Cancellations at The BWI Airport Marriott must be made prior to 48 hours of arrival to avoid penalty. If you have any problems at all regarding accommodations please contact Cindy at 703.842.0740 or at crobertson@asmfc.org.
The proceedings of the Atlantic Menhaden Management Board will be broadcast daily via webinar beginningMonday, November 13th at 1 p.m. and continuing until the conclusion of the meeting (expected to be 5 p.m.) onTuesday, November 14th. The webinar will allow registrants to listen to board/section deliberations and view presentations and motions as they occur. No comments or questions will be accepted via the webinar. Should technical difficulties arise while streaming the broadcast the boards/sections will continue their deliberations without interruption. We will attempt to resume the broadcast as soon as possible. To register, go to https://attendee.
Please note: If you intend to provide public comments on Draft Amendment 3, you must do so by 5 PM today. Comments may be submitted to comments@asmfc.org.
Public Comment Guidelines
With the intent of developing policies in the Commission’s procedures for public participation that result in a fair opportunity for public input, the ISFMP Policy Board has approved the following guidelines for use at management board meetings:
For issues that are not on the agenda, management boards will continue to provide opportunity to the public to bring matters of concern to the board’s attention at the start of each board meeting. Board chairs will use a speaker sign-up list in deciding how to allocate the available time on the agenda (typically 10 minutes) to the number of people who want to speak.
For topics that are on the agenda, but have not gone out for public comment, board chairs will provide limited opportunity for comment, taking into account the time allotted on the agenda for the topic. Chairs will have flexibility in deciding how to allocate comment opportunities; this could include hearing one comment in favor and one in opposition until the chair is satisfied further comment will not provide additional insight to the board.
For agenda action items that have already gone out for public comment, it is the Policy Board’s intent to end the occasional practice of allowing extensive and lengthy public comments. Currently, board chairs have the discretion to decide what public comment to allow in these circumstances.
In addition, the following timeline has been established for the submission of written comment for issues for which the Commission has NOT established a specific public comment period (i.e., in response to proposed management action).
1. Comments received 3 weeks prior to the start of a meeting week will be included in the briefing materials.
2. Comments received by 5:00 PM on the Tuesdayimmediately preceding the scheduled ASMFC Meeting (in this case, the Tuesday deadline will be November 7, 2017) will be distributed electronically to Commissioners/Board members prior to the meeting and a limited number of copies will be provided at the meeting.
3. Following the Tuesday, November 7, 2017 5:00 PMdeadline, the commenter will be responsible for distributing the information to the management board prior to the board meeting or providing enough copies for the management board consideration at the meeting (a minimum of 50 copies).
The submitted comments must clearly indicate the commenter’s expectation from the ASMFC staff regarding distribution. As with other public comment, it will be accepted via mail, fax, and email.