American Phytopathological Society
Potomac Division
The 2006 meeting of the Potomac Division was held March 15-17, 2006 at the Atlantic Sands Hotel and Conference Center, Rehoboth Beach, DE. Tom Evans served as the chair of the Local Arrangements Committee. The other members of the Local Arrangements Committee were Kate Everts, Nancy Gregory, Bob Mulrooney, Nikki O'Neill, Dan Roberts, and XinGen Zhou. The Program Committee consisted of Jay Norelli, Chair, Kristi Bottner; Dave Clement; Christopher Dardick; Bob Davis; Tom Evans; Kate Everts; Chuck Johnson; Jim Kotcon; Talo Pastor-Corrales; and Inga Zasada. The Executive Committee consisted of Jay Norelli, President; Bob Davis, Past President; Kate Everts, Vice President; and Dan Roberts, Secretary-Treasurer. Attendance was estimated at 75 people (including invited speakers). One graduate student was in attendance.
The Program started Wednesday afternoon (March 15th) with opening remarks from Jay Norelli, President, Potomac Division. The first session consisted of the Industry-Extension-Emerging Problems Update, chaired by Bob Mulrooney. The Wednesday program concluded with Symposium I, "APS Potomac Division: Outstanding Research and Extension Programs in Plant Pathology," chaired by Jay Norelli. Talks were presented by Arv Grybauskas, University of Maryland; John McDowell, Virginia Tech; and John Hartung, USDA-ARS, Beltsville. The program commenced Thursday morning with Symposium II, "Impact of Plant Pathology on Technology and Human/Animal Health," chaired by Chris Dardick. Lunch and the Business Meeting followed Symposium II. Symposium III, "Socio-Economic Impact of the Methyl Bromide Phase Out," was held Thursday afternoon. Symposium III was chaired by Inga Zasada. The first Contributed Papers session, chaired by Kate Everts, was held following Symposium III. This Contributed Papers Session was followed by the presentation "A perspective on Plant Pathology: origin, status and future prospects" by Dr. John Andrews, APS President. The Poster Session/Social and Banquet concluded Thursday's program. The social was sponsored by Applied Biosystems, Arysta LifeScience, BASF, and Dow AgroSciences. The meeting program concluded Friday morning (March 17th) after the second Contributed Papers Session and Symposium IV, "New Technologies in Molecular Biology."
The 2006 Memorial Fund Student Travel Award went to Luisa Santamaria, University of Delaware. Three Memorial Fund Student Travel Awards for 2005 went to Rachel Melnick, Penn State; William Rittenour, West Virginia University; and Jiahuai Hu, Virginia Tech. There was no Graduate Student Paper Competition due to lack of entrants. Inga Zasada was elected Secretary-Treasurer for 2006-2007. The Potomac Division Distinguished Service Award for 2006 was presented to Tom Evans, University of Delaware. Resolutions, assembled by The Resolutions Committee (Erik Stromberg), were read by Erik Stromberg and enjoyed by all. The spoon (the gavel did not make the trip) was presented to Kate Everts, the President for 2006-2007, by Jay Norelli.
The 62nd Annual Business Meeting of the Potomac Division was called to order at 12:30 PM Thursday, March 16th by Potomac Division President Jay Norelli.
Tom Evans presented the Potomac Division Councilor's report. APS finances are strong, with a $4 million budget approved for next year. Last year APS was $50,000 in the black due, in large part, to a good meeting in Austin and strong journals.
APS journals are available electronically with free access to journal articles 18 to 24 months after publication. Back issues of journals are being scanned for APS by the University of Wisconsin Agricultural Library for no charge. The journals Biological and Cultural Tests for Control of Plant Diseases and Fungicide and Nematicide Tests are being renamed Plant Disease Management Reports to better reflect content. Submissions for publication will be accepted twice yearly. APS net will now have a search engine.
Annual APS meetings have been booked through 2010. Annual APS meetings will be held July 29-August 2, 2006 in Quebec City, Quebec; July 28 - August 1, 2007 in San Diego, CA; July 26 - July 30, 2008 in St. Paul, MN (APS Centennial); July 30 - August 1, 2009 in Portland, OR; and August 5 - August 12, 2010 in Nashville, TN. Planning for the APS Centennial in St. Paul in 2008 is well under way. Please plan on attending.
Kate Everts presented the Graduate Student Awards Committee Report. In addition to making selections for the 2005 and 2006 Memorial Fund Student Travel Awards (see above) the committee discussed ideas directed at improving graduate student participation at the Potomac Division Meeting. Ideas included waving registration fees for graduate students; hosting a "jeopardy-like" event at the meeting; having graduate students plan a social-networking activity; providing an incentive for major professors to get their students involved; advertising the meeting early and often; sending notices about the travel award and/or paper competition separate from the general meeting email; and creating a pdf document that is a little flashier with details about prizes, application requirements and deadlines, etc.
Dan Roberts presented the Minutes from the 2005 Potomac Division Meeting. The 2005 Minutes were approved after members offered editorial suggestions. Dan Roberts presented the Treasurer's Report for 2005. The Treasurer's report was approved. The Treasurer's report was audited by Inga Zasada and Susan Meyer. It was noted that the Potomac Division was in good financial shape and that the financial stature of the Potomac Division allowed inviting a number of prominent speakers to increase interest in the annual meeting. It was also noted that we need to be careful not to overextend ourselves with financial obligations in order to keep the Potomac Division in good financial shape.
A number of motions were presented to the Potomac Division membership by the Executive Committee for approval/rejection. The motions and status of these motions are as follows:
Issue 1: The APS has requested that the Potomac Division consider becoming financial sponsors of the 2008 APS Centennial.
Motion 1. The Potomac Division of the American Phytopathological Society (APS) will provide financial sponsorship for the 2008 APS Centennial. The level of sponsorship will be $3,000 to be paid in three installments in 2006, 2007 and 2008. The exact level of each installment will be determined by the Executive Committee of the APS Potomac Division based upon available finances. The Motion was approved by the Potomac Division membership.
Issue 2: At the 2005 Business Meeting the membership proposed that the APS-POT fund a travel award to foreign students to support participation in the national meeting of the APS. The motion was tabled until 2006. Because there was no consensus among the Potomac Division Executive Committee or the membership-at-large regarding the most appropriate target candidates for the travel award, two motions to sponsor a Potomac Division Foreign Collaboration Travel Award were offered to the membership. Motion 2a was targeted toward a wider group of foreign scientists collaborating with Potomac Division members. Motion 2b was targeted specifically to foreign students with current or former association with Potomac Division members. Jay Norelli explained that the members of the division may reject both motions or adopt one of them, but the Executive Committee does not recommend that two separate awards be sponsored.
Motion 2a. The Potomac Division of the American Phytopathological Society (APS) will sponsor the Potomac Division Foreign Collaboration Travel Award. The purpose of the award will be to foster collaboration between Potomac Division members and foreign scientists by supporting travel from a foreign country to the national meeting of the APS. Awards will be made based upon potential contribution to professional development, proposed level of participation (papers, committees, etc.) in the Annual Meeting, the strength of ongoing collaborations within the Potomac Division and the need for financial assistance. Priority will be given to current and former students of the Potomac Division. If strong applications were not received, no award would be made. The Executive Committee would determine on an annual basis if sufficient funds were available for the award and the award amount that would range from $500 to $2,000. The APS Potomac Division, Graduate Student Award Committee would be responsible for soliciting applications and selecting the recipient. The motion was rejected by the Potomac Division membership.
Motion 2b. The Potomac Division of the American Phytopathological Society (APS) will sponsor the Potomac Division Foreign Collaboration Travel Award. The purpose of the award will be to foster the professional development of foreign students with current or prior collaboration within the Potomac Division by supporting travel from a foreign country to the national meeting of the APS. Students working on their M.S. or Ph.D. at a foreign university in collaboration with a Potomac Division member, and former students who received their degrees within the Potomac Division and are working outside the United States or Canada at the time of application, would be eligible for the award. Foreign students studying within the Potomac Division at the time of application would apply for the standard Potomac Division Graduate Student Travel Award. The Executive Committee would determine on an annual basis if sufficient funds were available for the award and the award amount that would range from $500 to $2,000. The APS Potomac Division, Graduate Student Award Committee would be responsible for soliciting applications and selecting the recipient. Awards will be made based upon potential contribution to professional development, proposed level of participation (papers, committees, etc.) in the Annual Meeting and the strength of ongoing collaborations within the Potomac Division. If strong applications were not received, no award would be made. The motion was rejected by the Potomac Division membership.
Issue 3: The Potomac Division Graduate Student Travel Award currently is $500. Kate Everts explained that this amount, which is adequate for some meetings, does not significantly defray the cost of many of the more expensive meetings. To address this issue, the Graduate Student Award Committee discussed proposing a fluctuating award amount. However, the Committee was concerned that there may be problems with fairness (or perceived fairness) if the award amount fluctuates. In addition, it felt that the student's meeting choice should be based on the meeting's relevance to their research interests, not the amount of the award. It concluded that the award should be increased in an equitable way to insure a greater part of the meeting cost is covered. Meeting registration can be a substantial amount. An increase in the award to cover meeting registration in addition to $500 travel expenses would assist graduate students, and be an equitable solution. While this amount would not completely defray the cost of many meetings, it would provide additional support, and may give students more leverage when seeking other funds or awards to support their travel.
Motion 3. The Graduate Student Travel Award will be $500.00 plus the cost of the meeting registration, not to exceed the student member registration cost for the annual APS meeting in the year prior to the award. The Motion was approved by the Potomac Division membership.
Finally, a motion to grant honorary membership in the Potomac Division to APS President John Andrews was adopted unanimously.