2025 Midwest Bat Working Group Annual Meeting & Poster Session

2025 Midwest Bat Working Group Annual Meeting & Poster Session

April 2-4, 2025

17th Annual Midwest Bat Working Group Meeting

Purdue University Fort Wayne

Fort Wayne, IN

We invite you to join us for the 17th Midwest Bat Working Group Annual Meeting at Purdue University Fort Wayne (home of the Mastodons!), Fort Wayne, IN from Thursday, April 3rd to Friday April 4th, 2025. A pre-conference social and student workshop (potentially others) will be held on Tuesday, April 2nd. The meeting will bring together biologists, private and public land managers, private consultation organizations, educational institutions, wildlife rehabilitators, and citizen scientists from across the Midwest.

Hosted by: Purdue University Fort Wayne, Department of Biological Sciences and Ball State University, Department of Biology

- DOWNLOAD -

2025 MWBWG Annual Meeting Program and Area Guide - (Coming Soon!)

THANK YOU TO OUR 2025 MWBWG MEETING SPONSORS!

Date and Location

Thursday April 3rd, to Friday April 4th, 2025. A pre-conference student workshop and social will be held on Wednesday April 2nd.   

The meeting will take place:

• In-person: Purdue Fort Wayne International Ballroom, Fort Wayne, IN
• • Parking Garage 2: Broyles Blvd Parking Garage - Broyles Blvd, Fort Wayne, IN 46835 https://maps.app.goo.gl/JNLofiBXNsQLAF6A6 
• Virtual: In-person presentations will be streamed live for attendees with virtual registrations. There will be no virtual presentations or poster session. Login information will be emailed to all registered virtual participants approximately 1 week prior to the meeting.

Registration, Lodging, and T-shirts

• EARLY-BIRD REGISTRATION (ENDS FEBRUARY 28^th)

• • Professional/Regular In-person: $100.00
  • Student In-person: $40.00

• REGULAR REGISTRATION (MARCH 1 - CLOSES MARCH 21)

• • Professional/Regular In-Person: $140.00
  • Student In-Person: $70.00

• ON-SITE REGISTRATION (DAY OF)

• • Professional/Regular In-Person: $220.00

  • Student In-Person: $90.00

• VIRTUAL REGISTRATION (CLOSES MARCH 21)

• • Professional/Regular: $25.00
  • Student: $25.00

NOTE: One year of MWBWG membership is complimentary along with your in-person registration. This offer is valid for in-person registrations only.  

Registration

LODGING is Available at:

T-SHIRTS for the 17th Annual MWBWG Meeting are available for sale through the MWBWG Store starting at $15.00.

Purchase T-Shirts

T-shirt orders and registrations are different systems.

Please complete t-shirt order (check out) separately from registration.

Program Overview
This year's annual meeting will begin with a pre-conference student workshop on Wednesday April 2^nd followed immediately by a catered Welcome Social at the Purdue Fort Wayne Alumni Center (across the street from the hotel!); all registrants are welcome! 

Plenary, presentations, and business meetings will begin on Thursday, April 3rd in the International Ballroom of Purdue Fort Wayne University. A poster session and social will be held on Thursday evening as will an in-person student-only social event. Oral presentations will be broadcast on the internet for those registered as virtual attendees. 

Wednesday April 2nd, 2025
3:00-5:30pm	Student Workshop
6:00-9:00pm	Welcome Social (heavy hors d’oeuvres)
Thursday April 3rd, 2025
7:00-8:30am	Registration/Check-in and Breakfast (provided)
8:30-9:30am	Welcome and Speed Networking
9:30-10:00am	Break
10:00-11:30am	Plenary
11:30am-1:00pm	Lunch (on your own)
1:00-2:15pm	State Updates
2:15-3:15pm	MWBWG Business Meeting (everyone is invited!!!)
3:15-3:45pm	Break
3:45-5:00pm	Submitted Talks
6:30-9:00pm	Poster Social (heavy hors d’oeuvres)
9:00pm	Student Social (off-site)
Friday April 4th, 2025
7:30-9:00am	Registration/Check-in and Breakfast (provided)
9:00-10:00am	Federal Updates
10:00-10:30am	Break
10:30am-12:00pm	Submitted Talks
12:00-1:30pm	Student Awards and Lunch (provided)
1:30-4:00pm	Submitted Talks (as needed)

*Times, events, etc. are subject to change. All times are EST

Student Workshop: This year we are excited to offer a workshop specifically for students looking to get into the bat and/or wildlife biology field. 

Students, we know that obtaining a career post-college seems daunting and utterly confusing. However, many of us oldies (or recently oldies, depending) have been right where you are and have a ton of experience getting through that process. We are hosting this workshop to give you some training and guidance that can help you be more confident through the process, know what to look for and how to look for a job, and show potential employers that you are a great candidate. To facilitate this, we have asked several professionals from various parts of the bat field (e.g., State Agency, Federal Agency, Consulting Agency, Academia) to provide various mini-courses on topics such as: CV/Resume building, maneuvering through USAJobs and other job sites, Networking, Interviewing, etc. Students can also bring their most up-to-date CV/Resume so professionals (and potential employers) can review and critique it with the goal of making it better and more competitive.

This event will be held before the welcome social on Wednesday, April 2nd. If you are a student or an early career professional (graduated in the past 18 months) and are interested in attending this workshop please sign up.

Sign-up for this event during the regular registration process   

Speed Networking: We are excited to offer again the “Speed Networking” event that started last year! We want students and early career professionals (graduated in the past 18 months) to have the opportunity to meet and connect with MWBWG members from a variety of backgrounds. Students and early career professionals who chose to sign up for this event will rotate through 10 minute meetings with mentors and members of the MWBWG board. This is a great opportunity for students and early career members to learn more about different career paths, as well as a chance for MWBWG members to get to know each other! We hope this format will help break the ice and encourage more interaction throughout the rest of the meeting.

If you are a MWBWG member interested in volunteering as a mentor, or a student/early career member interested in participating, please indicate so with your registration. Mentors can be from any career field.

This event will be held Thursday morning, April 3rd. 

Sign-up for this event during the regular registration process   

Plenary Topic: Firefly Conservation and Wind Power vs. Bats and 

To expand our collective knowledge on other types of taxa, we have invited Sergio Henriques from the Indianapolis Zoo - Global Center for Species Survival to discuss his work on firefly conservation.  https://www.indianapoliszoo.com/gcss/about/invertebrate-conservation/

The primary topic of the Plenary is the impacts of wind farms on bat conservation and provide updates on the current status of the issue and possible remedies. Keynote speakers include: Michael Whitby, Bat Conservation International’s Director of Bats and Wind (https://www.batcon.org/about-us/our-team/) and Rhett Good, Principal Biologist at West Environmental and Statistical Consultants.

Student Social: We are excited to offer a fun student-only evening social event. This will give students and early-career professionals a chance network and have fun. 

The social will be held at Combat Ops in Fort Wayne. (Laser Tag | NERF | Virtual Reality | Arcade | Axe Throwing & More!).  Transportation to and from the event will be provided.  This event is open to all students and early-career professionals. 

Vans will leave from the University (poster session) at 9:00 pm to take participants to  Combat Ops.  Rides will be available for return every 30 min starting at 10:00pm. More details about the event are coming soon. If you are interested in sponsoring this event please contact hosts through the Vendor page.

Call for Abstracts

We are now accepting abstracts for oral and poster presentations.

We encourage professionals, students, and researchers to submit abstracts for in-person oral and poster presentations. The Wednesday evening social and poster session will be available in-person only. The schedule for oral presentations will be provided in the final agenda prior to the meeting. 

The deadline for abstract submission is February 28th, 2025 (5pm).

Abstracts will be accepted by email. Please email your abstract submissions to BOTH Dr. Allen Kurta (akurta@emich.edu) AND Dr. Joe Johnson (joseph.johnson@uc.edu). Please label the subject line as "2025 MWBWG Abstract" and include the abstract as an attachment in Microsoft Word format.

All individuals submitting abstracts must be registered for the meeting to be eligible to present. Indicate in the email whether the preferred presentation is oral or poster. Abstracts should include name, organization, address of authors, and a title. Underline the name of the author who will be presenting the poster or talk. The Abstract should (1) state the principal objective(s) and scope of the investigation, (2) briefly describe the methods employed, (3) summarize the results, and (4) state the principal conclusions. The abstract should be less than 300 words.

Follow these format guidelines when preparing your abstract (see example below):

• Title should be all capital letters, bold, and centered at the top of the page.

• Include names and current addresses of authors after the title (and underline presenter's name).

• Indicate student status with an “*” symbol after the last name if entering the student competition.

• Italicize addresses of authors.

• Use 12-point Time New Roman font.

• Use 1-inch margins on all sides.

• Left justify authors and text only.

EXAMPLE:

ALLEGHENY WOODRAT (NEOTOMA MAGISTER) HABITAT

CHARACTERISTICS IN VIRGINIA

Michael T. Mengak, Steven B. Castleberry, and W. Mark Ford.  D.B. Warnell School of Forest Resources,

University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602 (MTM, SBC); USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station,

Newton Square, PA 19073 (WMF)

Presentation and Poster Preparation Guidelines

Guidelines for Oral Presentations

A total of 15 minutes will be allotted for presentations, including time for answering questions (3 min). All oral presentations must be in Microsoft PowerPoint.

Poster Guidelines

• Should be no larger than 40 inches tall x 32 inches wide.

• Should be readable from a distance of 2 meters.

• Title should be capitalized with lettering at least 2 cm high (e.g. 72 pt).

• Authors and institutional affiliations should be in upper- and lower-case lettering at least 11 mm high (e.g. 42 pt).

• Text lettering should be at least 9 mm high (e.g. 36 pt) with a line thickness of at least 1 mm.

• Text for Literature Cited section can be smaller if space is limited (e.g. down to 20 pt).

• Information should be well organized and concisely presented. Most posters include the following sections: Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion, Conclusions, Literature Cited.

• Keep written text to a minimum (remember the rule of thumb “less is more”). “Bullets” and short phrases are effective. Consider using no more than six illustrations (large graphs, flow charts, diagrams, and photographs). Keep captions and legends short and informative.

Optional Workshops

TBA

Achievement and Student Awards

The following awards will be available this year. To learn more about these awards and to find out how to submit an application or nomination please visit our Awards and Scholarships page. The application deadline for the Dave Redell and John Whitaker awards is March 3rd, 2025.

We hope to see you at THE FORT!