American Phytopathological Society

Potomac Division

The 2000 meeting of the Potomac Divisions was held on March 22-24 at the Clayton Conference Center of the University of Delaware in Newark. Bob Mulrooney served as both program chair and local arrangements chair. Attendance was 82, including 17 students.

The programs started Wednesday afternoon with a tour of Longwood Gardens in nearby Pennsylvania, where attendees were guided around by IPM coordinator Casey Sclar. This was followed by an Extension/Industry Update, chaired by A. Grybauskas and E. Stromberg. After a welcome social, the Wednesday evening symposium was entitled "Successful Application of Biotechnology," organized by V. Damsteegt.

The Thursday morning session was opened by Potomac Division President and Local Arrangements Chair Bob Mulrooney, who introduced Dr. Donald Sparks, Chairperson of the Plant and Soil Science Dept, University of Delaware, to give a brief word of welcome. The Thursday morning symposium was entitled "Advantages and Pitfalls using Biotechnology," organized by Bob Mulrooney and chaired by Tom Evans. Nina Moliver, M.Sc.(A), Holistic Nutritionist and member of EarthSave International, presented an address "Agricultural Biotechnology: Sound Science?" in which she described some of the risks and uncertainties surrounding the widespread utilization and release of genetically engineered organisms. Despite the absence of the other main speaker, who had a last-minute conflict, the pro-biotechnology side was well represented by questions and comments from the audience.

The rest of Thursday morning and the afternoon were devoted to 7 contributed papers, 7 graduate student papers, and 13 posters. In the Graduate Student Paper Competition, the first place award went to Merrilee Anderson, The Pennsylvania State University, for her paper "Etiology and epidemiology of Trichoderma green mold in association with the cultivated mushroom, Agaricus bisporus," coauthored by D.M. Beyer and P.J. Wuest. Second place awards went to Debbie Glenn, Virginia Tech, for her paper "Seed transmission of Cylindrocladium parasiticum and its importance to peanut production in Virginia", co-authored with P. M. Phipps and R. J. Stipes, and to Krista Kinneer, West Virginia University, for her paper "Functional diversity of small soil bacteria," coauthored with Kelly M. Heldreth-Fleming, Daniel G. Panaccione, and Alan J. Sexstone.

The technical program concluded on Friday morning with an outreach symposium on "Management of Newly Emerging and Recurring Diseases in the Greenhouse," organized by Jim Locke, which in addition to the Potomac Division attendance, drew another 24 attendees from the regional greenhouse industry.

The business meeting was held on Thursday during and after lunch. Potomac Division President Bob Mulrooney called the meeting to order. Marguerite Benedict reported that she had no deaths to report, but announced the retirement of long-time Division member and past president Tom van der Zwet. Michelle Bjerkness, of APS Headquarters described some of the new image collections, books, workshops, and a major teleconference on plum pox that are available or will be in the near future. She also announced the impending major update of APS’s website. In his Councilors Report, Erik Stromberg announced the impending launch of an electronic journal "Plant Health Progress".

The Minutes of the 1999 meeting and Treasurer’s Report were presented by Secretary-Treasurer Anton Baudoin. The Division’s operating account had a surplus of $722.22, while the Memorial Fund increased by about $1900 due to favorable stock market results. Both reports were accepted. Neither Diane Reaver nor Jay Stipes, the two members of the Auditing Committee, were present but President Mulrooney read their written report which was accepted. On behalf of the Local Arrangements Committee, Bob Mulrooney mentioned that the last meeting in Delaware (1992) had the exact same number of student papers. On behalf of Nikki O’Neill, Chair of the Nominations Committee, Ethel Dutky reported that both races for officer were uncontested and that both candidates were elected. For the Industry Relations Committee, Erik Stromberg thanked Zeneca, Novartis, and Rohm and Haas for their support of the meeting.

Proposed change to the Division Constitution: the Division officers proposed to amend the Division Constitution by adding the Immediate Past President to the Executive Committee. This codifies current practice. The motion to approve this change was seconded and passed. The following shows deletions by strikethrough and additions by underlining:

Article 3. Officers and Their Duties. The officers of the Division shall consist of President, Vice-President, Secretary-Treasurer, and Councilor, and Immediate Past President. Their duties shall be those usually performed by such officers. The officers shall constitute the Executive Committee of the Division. The President, and Vice-President, and Immediate Past President shall serve for a term of one year, and ...

Under New Business, Erik Stromberg brought up a request from the APS Foundation that the Divisions participate in a new program to make low-cost, introductory APS memberships available to undergraduate students and first-year graduate students. Each Division is asked to contribute $300 per year for 2 years to the program, and to provide a free Division membership to any student who receives one of the low-cost memberships. The motion to approve this request was seconded and passed.

Some discussion followed on how to spend some of the funds that have been accumulating in the Division’s operating fund, which stands at over $10,000. Suggestions included: supporting high school students from the Division’s region to attend a meeting, fund speakers for meeting programs, provide prizes for high school science fairs, fund a Vo Ag contest, fund student posters at division meetings and institute an award for best contributed paper. It was moved and seconded to appoint a committee to make recommendations regarding this matter, and this motion passed.

There was no definitive information on the location and time for the next meeting. Tentative plans call for a joint meeting to be hosted by the Northeastern Division. If this does not materialize, the next Potomac Division meeting would be hosted by Virginia.

At the Thursday evening banquet, the Potomac Division presented its Distinguished Service Award to Erik Stromberg, in recognition of his service to the Division. The Memorial Fund Graduate Student Travel Award was presented to Veronica Basnayake of the University of Delaware. APS President Neal van Alfen presented the presidential address, and the traditional Resolutions, including some of the most hilarious in years, were read by Mannon Gallegly.

New Officers of the Division are:

President	Vern Damsteegt, USDA, Frederick
Vice-President	Anton Baudoin, VPI&SU
Secretary/Treasurer	Jim Kotcon, West Virginia University
Councilor	Erik Stromberg, VPI&SU
Immediate Past President	Bob Mulrooney, Univ. of Delaware