1. Call to Order and Presidential Comments - meeting was called to order at 6:00 pm by President Essie Fallahi. Essie welcomed everyone to the meeting. He commended Ed Stover and Kim Hummer for the excellent workshop they organized on behalf of APS for the 2004 Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. meeting. The workshop was #17 "Trends and Fashions in Fruit Cultivar Development" and it was held from 3:00-4:40 pm on Monday, July 19. There were 70 people in attendance. Speakers included Drs. Ed Stover, John Clark, David Byrne and Mr. Matt Harsh who spoke on citrus, blackberry, prunus and marketing, respectively. Essie encouraged APS to pursue future workshops to coincide with the annual Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. meeting. He noted that ASHS regards APS as an allied organization and that we are entitled to have a workshop each year. We are not subject to the same time restrictions of an ASHS Working Group. Essie indicated that correspondence among APS executive board and advisory committee members by e-mail had been going smoothly.
2. Secretary Report - Des Layne submitted the minutes for the 2003 Executive Board and Advisory Committee Meeting. Minutes were reviewed and accepted.
3. Treasurer/Business Manager's Report - Rob Crassweller was unable to attend the meeting but submitted a calendar year report for the period of Jan. 1 - Dec. 31, 2003. He also included a copy of the Financial Statements and Auditor's report of Dec. 31, 2003. In his report, Rob indicated that APS had a negative cash flow in 2003. With Dr. John Barden taking over editing the journal and moving the printing to Blacksburg, substantial savings in journal production costs should be realized. The latter change should substantially improve society cash flow in 2004. All reports were circulated to executive board and advisory committee members and copies are on file in the secretary's office if any questions arise. The report was reviewed and accepted.
4. Editorial Committee Report - Wes Autio announced that the transition of editorship from Dave Ferree to John Barden effective Jan. 1, 2003 was successful. Wes spoke about the "Register of Fruit and Nut Varieties" revision committee that has been chaired by Dick Okie. This registry is produced through agreement between ASHS and APS (Wes, more details here please). Wes proposed that John Clark and Chad Finn serve as co-editors of the Register to follow Dick Okie who has stepped down. This motion passed unanimously. Wes will speak with John and Chad about the particulars.
5. Editor's Report - John Barden submitted a written report. He indicated that more papers are needed and that he is looking for additional cover stories. John reported that author guidelines were printed. He said that the new printer is more convenient for him being close to his home and that they have much more modern capability. Tables will no longer need to be retyped and overall cost per issue should decrease. John shared that he has chosen to be a "gatekeeper" for quality control of the journal. Specifically, he has chosen to reject some papers outright that are unsuitable for publication in the journal rather than sending them on to reviewers. There was consensus among meeting members that this was a good approach so as not to waste time of reviewers as well. John thanked those in attendance for providing good reviews in the past.
6. Hedrick Award Committee Report - Des Layne was appointed by Essie Fallahi to serve as interim chair (2004) for the committee as there was confusion as to who would succeed John Proctor to chair this committee. One paper was submitted for the award. The manuscript was by E.T. Stafne and J.R. Clark at the Univ. of Arkansas, Dept. of Horticulture. The title of the paper was, "A retrospective of blackberry breeding and production in Arkansas". This paper was chosen to receive the 2004 U.P. Hedrick Award. A plaque and a check for $300 were prepared for presentation in the Business meeting to Mr. Stafne. Members of the 2004 committee were P. Hirst, J. Luby, M. Pritts, E. Fallahi and D. Layne. A new chair of the committee needs to be appointed for 2005.
7. Shepherd Award Committee Report - Essie Fallahi reported on behalf of Kim Hummer (committee chair) who was unable to be present at the meeting. Essie reported that the winner of the 2004 Shepard Award was M.K. Ehlenfeldt for his paper entitled "Investigations of metaxenia in northern high bush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) cultivars" published in J. Amer. Pom. Sci. 57(1):26-31. A certificate was prepared by Hummer and it will be sent to Dr. Ehlenfeldt by mail as he was unable to attend the award presentation. Members of this committee included K. Hummer, J. Hancock, S. Brown and P. Lyrene.
8. Wilder Silver Medal Award Committee Report - Des Layne reported that two nominations were received for consideration. The unanimous decision of the committee was to make the 2004 award to Dr. H. Quamme, Agriculture and Agrifood Canada, Summerland, B.C. Layne shared a biographical sketch and award write-up that will appear with a photo in an upcoming issue of J. Amer. Pom. Sci. Layne indicated that Dr. Quamme was unable to attend the meeting but that he would share prepared comments from Dr. Quamme at the Business meeting and make the presentation to Dr. Quamme in absentia. Committee members included K. Pomper, L. Cheng, K. Taylor, E. Fallahi, D. Percival, D. Archbold, M. Pritts and P. Hirst. The committee voted to hold over the other nomination that was received in 2004 for consideration in 2005.
9. Membership Report - John Barden stated that we have a current membership of nearly 450. He indicated that he was seeking ideas on how to increase membership. Ed Stover noted that a sustained strategy of interesting workshops and educational programs after the business meeting coupled with fruit tasting events should interest more new members in APS.
10. Advisory Committee - there was no report.
11. Nomination Committee - Duane Greene replaced Frank Kappel as chair of this committee. He proposed the following slate of candidates:
Executive Board:1. President: Kim Hummer (USDA-Corvallis, OR)
2. 1st Vice President: Ed Stover (Univ. of FL, soon USDA-Davis, CA)
3. 2nd Vice President: Des Layne (Clemson Univ., SC)
4. Treasurer: Rob Crassweller (Penn State Univ., PA)
5. Secretary: Kirk Pomper (KY State Univ., KY)
6. Brent Black (USDA, Beltsville, MD)Advisory Committee:
1. Patrick Conner (Univ. of Georgia)
2. Jim McFerson (WTFRC, WA)
3. Wes Autio (Univ. of Mass.)
4. Greg Reighard (Clemson Univ., SC)
5. David Himelrick (LSU, LA)
The slate of candidates was approved and will be presented to the Society at the Annual Business meeting for a vote.
1. Ideas for APS Workshop AND Business meeting speakers for 2005 APS meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada - Because the 2005 meeting will be in Las Vegas, it was decided to change the timing of our activities from evening to daytime. Thus, we decided to have the Executive Board and Advisory Committee meet during lunch (noon - 1 pm). This would be followed by a 2-3 hour workshop. Immediately after the workshop we would have our Annual Business Meeting and award presentations followed by a fruit tasting. The goal would be to end the entire afternoon at 5 pm. Dr. Stover suggested the idea for the workshop as "Fruits of Biblical Proportion". He suggested such fruits as olive, fig, date, pomegranate, etc. could be featured, and indicated that he will bring some for the fruit tasting. It was suggested that the APS Advisory Committee could function as an ad hoc program committee to assist the 1st (Stover) and 2nd (Layne) Vice Presidents in developing the program. One consensus idea based on the proposed change of timing and format of our meeting to basically "block" an afternoon for APS and use an interesting, exciting, and fun workshop to entice more people to learn about fruit and to possibly consider membership in APS as they learn about our activities.
2. Publication of APS Workshop Proceedings - The venue for publication of APS workshop proceedings was discussed. The committee consensus was that publication in HortTechnology rather than JAPS might more be more effective in broadening awareness of APS. In keeping with working group proceedings publication, it was suggested that the organizers (Vice presidents of APS) should serve as consulting editors for the proceedings manuscripts. It was agreed that Kim Hummer should be approached to take the lead for 2004 and that Ed Stover would accept this function in 2005.
3. Honoraria - honoraria for Journal Editor, Business Manager, and Secretary were approved.
Respectfully submitted,Desmond R. Layne
Secretary, American Pomological Society
8/23/2004