Building a fisheries network and community – The Taylor way

It takes a lot of thought and a very big tent to consider the many contributions that Bill Taylor has made to fisheries science as a whole and to many individuals in the fisheries profession from a career that spans all or parts of six decades. It is very difficult in a few words to encapsulate such a career. There are very few fisheries professionals that have touched more parts of the fisheries science world from his efforts which include every possible scale ranging from local to regional to national to international.An appropriate starting place is mentioning his many scientific contributions to fisheries science, by both him and his many students and colleagues, that have a huge range and touch on nearly every discipline in the profession at every spatial scale imaginable. His cosmopolitan approach to fisheries has allowed him to touch and influence far more areas than most professionals and is a quality that I have long admired and tried to emulate in my career. It is a remarkable skill to have knowledge in and close colleagues so many areas that have allowed Bill to communicate effectively with all in our field, a key skill set to build effective networks.Scientists are often depicted as being introverts that focus on their discipline and overlook that we are all part of a larger community. While Bill's science is highly regarded and important, I view his single greatest mentoring lesson and professional contribution is building professional networks and boldly going where others do not. There is no one that has made their mark more in our profession by building networks of professionals that have changed the trajectory of so many careers, programs and fisheries science. These professional networks again run an amazing geographic range from his work at Michigan State University and work in the State of Michigan to his regional work at the Great Lakes Fishery Commission to his national work on a range of boards, committees and commissions to his global work at the American Fisheries Society and FAO. He certainly taught anyone who was listening to the importance of the people leg of the three-legged fisheries science chair, the others being fish and habitat, and was clearly a lesson I learned in earnest from working for and with Bill over my 40+ years in fisheries. While some of us early in our careers were likely a bit unclear of how relationships and involvement in professional societies such as the American Fisheries Society and the International Association for Great Lakea Research will change your professional trajectory, one will certainly reap a much more engaging and fulfilling career by do so. Bill was always correct in this guidance to all that would listen even though we may have been reluctant participants at first.Bill is a par-excellence connector of ideas and people and has built many lasting institutions and information systems in fisheries. To build his networks he uses a range of approaches from reaching out and calling key individuals to carefully engaging individuals in collaborations using very approachable communication methods to bringing groups of professionals together using ice-breaking charter fishing trips on the Great Lakes to ensuring that his large cadre of former students, associates, and employees stays in touch and gathers at professional meetings. Bill always understood and conveyed the importance of communities such as the American Fisheries Society and the International Association for Great Lakea Research to engage in as a professional, not just to convey science but to build one's professional network. He intuitively knows how to cultivate relationships in a way that nurtures all and moves our profession and science forward. It has been said more than once that Bill can bring you into his network long before you realize it and it is very rare that those that have do not prosper because of it, particularly if you are willing to put a bit of energy into being a part of it. Thus, his gift of conveying the importance of relationships and networks, is one of the most important and least understood facets of our profession and is the only way we will be better as we move into the future.Fisheries is a much better place due to a lifetime of efforts by Bill with his wife Evelyn cheering on in the background. For the young professional, learn Bill's key tenet of developing professional networks that will enrich you and others, always moving the profession and science forward. I owe much to Bill as a long-term mentor, learned much from him, and wish him the very best in his well-deserved retirement. I am very honored to be one of the contributors in this special edition and have been most lucky to have known and worked for/with Bill over my career, forever indebted to him for the many lessons he has imparted to me.