[BSW] Next meeting + Someone is looking for a speaker

[Kathy Bilton]

The last BSW mmeeting before September is coming up on Tuesday, June 5 at 
7 pm.

The speaker will be Peter Schafran and his topic will be "Botanizing in 
hostile territory: field work in Iraq and the US Deep South"

Flier for posting:  http://botsoc.org/june18.pdf

Pre-meeting dinner: 5:30 P.M. at the Elephant & Castle Pub and Restaurant, 
1201 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington. Phone 202-347-7707. The 
restaurant is diagonally across from the Old Post Office Pavilion at 12th 
and Pennsylvania, a few blocks from the Museum, with Federal Triangle the 
nearest Metro station, and Metro Center also nearby.

Location: VZ Conference Room (WG 33) Ground Floor of the West Wing, 
National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, 10th St. and 
Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC.

Please email Erika Gardner at the address gardnere at si.edu to arrange for a 
pass to get to the meeting room if you don't have a Smithsonian ID.

----------------------------------------------------------

Received from Jil via the MNPS:

Peter Schmidt <schmidt_peter at msn.com> writes:

  I am a former Chronicle of Higher Education reporter and editor and the 
founder of Profs and Pints, an innovative new DC-based company that brings 
college faculty members into bars, cafes, and other venues to give paid 
lectures or workshops. You can read more about my company at its Web site 
at http://www.profsandpints.com.

  I am looking for someone to give a family-friendly, nature-focused talk 
in early or mid July at La Pop cultural salon, a DC bar and coffee shop 
attached to and served by the Lapis Afghan restaurant in Adams Morgan. 
Given that we will be at the height of DC's growing season, I am thinking 
it would be ideal to stage a talk in the field of botany, dealing with 
local trees, or local flowers, or local edible or medicinal plants. The 
venue holds up to 100 people and I am paying speakers there 60 percent of 
revenue derived from tickets that are $10 in advance or $12 at the door. 
When dealing with speakers who are government employees or otherwise 
ethically precluded from taking payments, I hand them a check for their 
share of revenues made out to the nonprofit of their choice.

  I would very much appreciate it if you could suggest a few names and/or 
forward this email on to anyone who might be interested. My chief 
requirements of presenters are that they have taught at a college, are 
good public speakers who can engage a general audience, and can come up 
with talk that is marketable and accessible to people outside their field.

  You are welcome to call me at 202 342-9107 during regular business 
hours if you have any questions.

  Regards,

  Peter Schmidt
  Founder and CEO
  Profs and Pints

And a clarification from another email:

To clarify, I require that my speakers have taught on a college faculty, 
but am making allowances for those who hold less than a PhD. I am mainly 
seeking, for branding and quality-control purposes, to ensure that they 
are able to speak to a crowd in an engaging manner. Their teaching stints 
can be in the past, or their terminal degree less than a PhD, so long as 
they remain focused on their field. Some of my recent speakers have been 
prominent entomologists with less than a PhD who speak at colleges mainly 
as guest lecturers, or teach courses for the USDA grad program.