"The greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to its culture..." -Thomas Jefferson   WHAT IS PLANT BREEDING? -- ASK A QUESTION ABOUT PLANT BREEDING -- WHAT IS NAPB?

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- Minutes NAPB/ PBCC
- Committees

Minutes for both PBCC and NAPB

Minutes for Teleconference (monthly) and National meeting (annually)
please contact the NAPB secretary for changes.

2010

NAPB Phone Call, Dec. 16, 2010, 1 - 2 PM CDT  

Apologies:  Abdullah A. Jaradat, Mary Lou Arpaia, Anne Marie Thro, Carla Gala, Donn Cummings, Fikret Isik, Amy Iezzoni, Jamie Sherman, Carl Glasener, Liz Lee, Linda Wessel-Beaver, Maria Salas-Fernandez, Mitch McGrath, Mitch Tuinstra, Pat Byrne, Pat Brown, Paul Gepts, Randy Johnson, Ross Whetten, Brooks Blanche, Seth Murray, Shelly Jansky, Shelby Repinski, Kevin P. Smith, Bill Tracy

Call-in data: December 16 at 2 pm Eastern: 866-773-4970, code # 8604812. 

Minutes:

1. Minutes of Last Meeting (Nov. 18): Dave Stelly  --   approved (no changes)
2. Roll call
3. Hosting of NAPB, e.g., by ASA or other organization
• ASA :
• Advantages:  front office, membership, … meetings?
• Disadvantages -- Membership cost, .  (annual fee, or derived from meeting)
• Other possibilities, besides ASA/CSSA:  ASTA (commercial group, contact:  Andy Laving or Ann Jorss),  Hort.Sci.,  NAPB can associate as needed with commercial entities.
• $50 per head was deemed to be a very acceptable annual rate for membership, to be collected as part of annual meeting cost.

4. Offices & Nominations:

Tentative schedule for Nominations: 

• Request in Jan.,
• Due Feb.,
• Extend nominations to Mar.,
• Vote April

In terms of positions that may need to be filled, Steve Baenziger and Todd Wehner noted the need to look over liaisons, and consider new positions for NAPB archivist, web assistant, and PBCC Secretary): 

LIAISONS:   

• Develop an appropriate list of positions liaison positions descriptions for inclusion in monthly NAPB mailout (Steve Baenziger and David Stelly will work on getting these prepared and included in the mailout).
• Based on responses to inquiries sent by Todd Wehner to each liaison  --  some liaisons are willing to continue in their positions after the 2011 meeting, and the rest have not answered Todd's email.
• By-laws describe the liaison positions, but we may need to add 'May be re-elected' to the By-laws. 
• TERMS:  We could have everyone serve a 2-year term if they can be re-elected, and a 1-year term if they move up through other positions.

We should keep track of the NAPB and PBCC officers and By-laws on our websites, but without letting them get shuffled together.

            OTHER POSITIONS:

• NAPB archivist - serves 2-year term; maintains history and records of NAPB; works with web editor to post documents and photographs of interest to the association.  Holder of this officer can be re-elected. 

• NAPB web assistant - serves 2-year term; works with web editor; helps gather information and photographs for the web site; somebody to actually do the web work, so that the curator would watch over; expand and maintain …. look for problems.  Can be re-elected.  (Another possibility will be to have a hired position.  This could be affected by associating NAPB with another organization, such as ASA, which might provide some web services.)

• PBCC secretary – Establishing this position will be important in terms of work load and the independence of PBCC and NAPB.  Under the modified structure, PBCC Secretary (elected) would serve sequential 1-year terms, first as Secretary, then as Vice-chair and lastly as Chair position.  This contrasts the existing structure, where the Vice-Chair is elected and subsequently moves sequentially into the Chair position.  Duties include keeping minutes of PBCC meetings.  Membership list (possibly affected by NAPB associating with another organization).  Prepare monthly newsletter.  Sending out emails, e.g., announcements and newsletters.  Helps provide continuity with newly-elected officers; becomes vice chair after serving term.  In 2011 May meeting, the PBCC will need to vote on two positions -- Secretary and Vice-Chair in May.  So, we need nominations for both. 

• PBCC Vice-Chair. --  see above paragraph on PBCC Secretary.=

5. Public relations newsletter (breeders, careers, events): Allen VanDeynze

• PURPOSE – Update membership and others on what we have been doing.
• Examples:
• First white paper published.
• May meeting.
• Web site -  specific information on numerous activities and accomplishments
• Need to reach students  and faculty, and others:  e.g., improve our University contact list via department Heads or Chairs--  Call for contacts in NAPB MAILOUT

6. ITEMS FOR MONTHLY NAPB MAILOUT:

We want to have a periodic newsletter (monthly, e.g., 3rd week of month (Post-call suggestion by DS:  maybe week following conference call, allowing preparation before call and review at time of call, similar to minutes?)
ITEMS FOR JANUARY

• Approved minutes (not draft minutes).
• Please circulate to other interested individuals.  Send to department head/chair, to faculty, post-docs and students.  (Do we need emails for Dept. Head/Chair …. t leverage their …).   Ask membership to be active. 
• Solicit membership for Award Nominations; distribute call for nominations.
• Liaison positions descriptions
• Call for NAPB membership to provide contacts to be used for external NAPB public announcements.  These should include Heads/Chairs of relevant academic departments, to reach all faculty, students and interested staff. 
• 2011-meeting announcement:

7. Next conference calls:
• Jan 27,
• Feb 17,
• March 17,
• April 21,
• May 19, 
• (Meeting May 23-25)

8. Ad hoc plant breeding capacity study (Allen Van Deynze) --  UC Proposal for people to look at.   $5k from UC Davis.  Looking for $40k for 8month FT person to work on this.  Possible dollar from USDA, and plan to look commercial companies, and CAP.  Already have accumulated data  ---  ad hoc information solicited to update and detail the program.   Breeder resources available, with support (e.g., entomologist).  Aim will be to categorize.  Fred Bliss has already heavily engaged in this activity.

9. Deferred and other items for next or other future conference call:

• Treasurer report: Shelley Jansky
• Website: Seth Murray
• Plans for 2011 NAPB/PBCC meeting: Dave Stelly, Seth Murray
• NAPB position on intellectual property: Donn Cummings (see Plantum paper)  (Can Donn talk about in January)
• Updated information on LIASONS (Todd Wehner) – Identify which current liasons will continue their service.  Identify which liason positions require nominations, et cetera.
• Wiki on crop breeding methods: Dave Stelly
• MONTHLY NAPB MAILOUT SCHEDULE?:  Stelly – should we have as a monthly schedule:  Week-1:  call to XC for newsletter items (the call would include items previously identified).  Week-2:  prepare tentative newsletter and distribute to XC before monthly conference call.  During conference call:  take any review suggestions (similar to “minutes”?).  Week-3:  modify according to suggestions and distribute to NAPB membership. 

Phil:  In the last call, Mike Havey volunteered to generate draft of 1 pager on national capacity for breeding.  Dr. Askew had asked it be developed in time for the upcoming SAES director's meeting.   Mike (unable to participate) conveyed via Phil that his efforts underway in that direction.
Pat:  Should a longer document be prepared also?  One area, for example would be education.  Maybe create a Perspectives paper into Science.  Multi-authored letter.  Strategies for high-profile report would be welcome. 
Seth, who recently has worked on 1-2 such articles, one to be in Frontiers in Ecology (widely read by policy makers), noted that topics of a controversial nature are desirable.  1.  Perrenial grains.  2.  Harmony.  It was noted that they MUST BE WRITTEN FOR THE "LAY" PERSON.  Stelly noted that we could toss in a number of hot issues like:  germplasm usage, genetic engineering,  et cetera.  It is important for us to communicate that our breeding programs MUST BE ACTIVE TO HAVE THE CAPACITY TO REACT QUICKLY. (Decades are required to develop an effective breeding program, so continuity of breeding programs is essential if there is to be a capacity to react effectively and quickly to new challenges.)(Response times to critical challenges will often be quicker via active breeding programs than transgenic approaches, although the two are not mutually exclusive results).
Todd noted the website page in which it was guestimated how many plant breeders are needed.  This kind of info would be appropriate to include.
Regionality is important to capacity, however, the capacity needed gets very big with regionality factored in.  A distributed system is important.  What would be the minimum FTE for each crop. USDA's allocation are perhaps more based on stakeholder demands than acreage or value, per se.
How does Germplasm curation fit into capacity maintenance?

ABOUT FAO STUDIES, THERE IS A LOT IS GOING ON HERE ALSO.  IT MIGHT BE USEFUL TO PROVIDE THIS LIST THAT CAN BE QUICKLY GRASPED—AND CORRECTED, IF NEED BE.  HERE IS A LIST OF THE ONES I AM AWARE OF, FYI : 

·         Capacity SURVEY – FAO’s “Plant Breeding and Biotechnology Capacity“ (PBBC database) (on the GIPB web site) –data gathered in the late 1990s and early 2000s; over 80 developing countries, found declines in human resources for plant breeding.  This was the work of Elcio Guimaraes, former FAO plant breeding officer and initiator of GIPB, now CIAT Research Director for Latin America.  

·         Plant breeding capacity planning and assessment TOOL:  presented in poster format at the PBCC meeting in Aug 2010.  Under development.  Fred Bliss is the main author involved.   
§  A global e-consulation on these materials was held in Sept-Oct. 2010.   
§  Currently in progress is an ad–hoc expert review of the materials/the tool per se (i.e., not yet actually using the tools to conduct a survey)  (That may happen at a later time.  It is under discussion, but the current step is gathering input on the tool itself). 
§  Your input to the review is welcome.  I am the contact, so just let me know if you want to receive the materials for review.  This is not for the faint hearted:  substantive rigorous comment is needed.   
§  The next step will be developing an on-line interactive version for field testing.   

·         Global DIRECTORY of Plant Breeders –GIPB was asked to do this and agreed.   I am not further in the loop on exactly who is doing it, whether someone at FAO or another partner.   
§  A U. S. directory would be an appropriate contribution from PBCC, and possibly an easy “output” win. 
§  If the software were coordinated, the two directories could be subsets of each other. 

 Fred (Bliss) has been working on "Sustainability"
Tom Stalker's efforts, which earlier led to white paper on website still has "holes" in  the numerical layout … so not a complete picture … thus there is a reluctance to push it out the door.  The statewise posters … are informative but not coverage is incomplete and inconsistent. 
On the demand side:  is it possible to determine what the commercial demand is?  How do you define a plant breeding?  Not easy to assess.  If we are going to make the case for education, don't we need that kind of data? 
Define Breeder:  developing products for producers or people managing them.  Seed companies are reluctant to reveal the breeder numbers.  Fred Bliss' definition deals with development of improved types to be used by the farmer/producer.  One can be doing plant improvement (molecular approaches) without doing plant breeding, per se. 
This topic -- capacity and definition -- is critical; it demands our attention.  There could be a continuous MSc level student in the area of monitoring training and one hiring.  ~$35k/year per student.  That could almost be supported by NAPB. 
Many European companies now have to hire  biologists and then train them to plant breeding. Major plant breeding eduation sites are now gone … so they have few alternatives.
Many of the Dutch have IR degrees, sort of like MSc, not PhD.  England, France, Germany, Dutch: all breeding education is gone.  WE PROBABLY NEED TO CONSIDER THIS AS PART OF OUR OVERVIEW.
In the context of generating documents favoring funding …. Does Dr. Askew indicated that the division between NAPB and PBCC is more important in what one does with the data, and articles than in obtaining the information or development of the articles. 
At the May Meeting:  we will have sequential meetings of the NAPB and PBCC.  Is there a need to separate activities.   It was pointed out that there probably needs to be a Secretary position established within PBCC, so that Stelly does not have to do double duty.
We need the one-pager on Capacity.  We need to state deliverables to the public …. Et cetera.  Todd:  Undersecretary of Ag  said that she would try to keep Hatch funding in place.  Askew, so far, we have been successful in keeping Capacity Funding in place, while augmenting competitive funding.
Documents for Funding:  "Healthy Populations"  document. 
Phil inquired about the White Paper on Excellence in Science and Technology, which was deemed to be in good enough shape to push it out the door.  He suggested emphasis include impacts of new tools --  as a driver and as a user ….  Biometrics, NSF report alludes to development of plant breeding tools.  Almost all projects mention breeding, but very few include breeding.  The last step of successful research is usually to translate it and render it efficient.  A lot of plant breeding is translational sciences.
Stelly (one of the S&T authors) indicated general agreement on general suitability for publication of the S&T white paper as it stands now, but felt like tabular or graphic data about Plant Breeding education and roles and impacts would greatly augment the paper, similarly to the Stalker effort.  Stelly indicated that he would contact Tom (Stalker) to see what the prospects for completion of his earlier effort might be, and when, then report back to the group.

NAPB Phone Call Nov 18 2011

The teleconference number we use for our usual monthly calls:
866-773-4970.
Participant Pass code # is 8604812

PARTICIPANTS:

• Rita Mumm
• David Stelly
• Phil Simon
• Seth Murray
• Ann Marie Thro
• Randy Johnson
• Kathy Ferguson
• (Miss anyone?)

SYNOPSIS

The group deferred discussion of most topics until our next conference call, and focused most of this meeting on pressing questions about the schedule of events within our upcoming May 2011 meeting.             

• A list of prospective speakers and topics is now available.
• There was considerable discussion as to temporal organization of meetings and speakers for our May 2011 meeting.  
• Monday morning business meetings should include whole group and breakout sessions for PBCC and NAPB.  
• Results will be summarized in the form of a revised schedule that will be communicated in written form by Kathy Ferguson (TAMU staff assisting with arrangements for our meeting) to the XC; their additional ideas will vetted and presumably lead to some revisions.   
• We discussed lodging and extending our blocks to Sunday night.  Kathy is to confer with hotels to ascertain the cutoff date at which rooms can be freed without penalty, and convey that information to the XC.
• Speaker honorarium:  There was some discussion as to whether we should allow any speakers to be paid honoraria (none has been paid in the past).  There is some reticence to establish a precedence of paying speakers.  Ultimately, however, we rationalized that if someone were from outside of our discipline and there were prospective advantage to the group, e.g., PR, that this would be a justifiable investment.
• There was also discussion about book sales, with the end result - we (Kathy) would provide the name and contact information for a local bookstore (the MSC Bookstore – TAMU) to Liz Lee who would pass this on to Susan Dworkin (prospective speaker) to arrange a book table at our event.

Future calls:
PBCC-specific conference call will be announced by Phil -- Dec 07 -- time probably 1pm CST

                NAPB  conference call -- Dec 16 -- time probably 1pm CST (PBCC officers will also also invited)

In lieu of the normal complement of preceding emails to remind everyone about the meeting, a limited meeting agenda, and the mis-direction of an attempt to send out a last-minute email reminder led the group to defer discussion of non-urgent topics.  

NAPB Executive Committee Meeting (October 2010)
 --  Phone Conference, October 21, 2010, 1 - 2 PM CDT 

Present: 

Discussion about the 2012 meeting in Florida?? (somebody walked into my office and I was away from the phone for this part of the discussion)

Discussion occurred on possible web-based resources for plant breeding, both for instruction and general interest.  Reference was made to instructional videos on plant-breeding techniques by the University of Wisconsin and cytological techniques at the ASPB (???) website.  Although the group felt that such resources would be advantageous and useful, someone will have to take leadership to develop and coordinate materials from diverse institutions and topics.  The video resources could be hosted by NAPB, GIPB, or ASPB (more???) websites.  Sources of funding will have to be secured, possibly the USDA as a part of plant-breeding education grants. 

Discussion occurred on possible efforts to promote plant breeders for membership in the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).  Conversations with current NAS members indicated that it may be difficult for plant breeders to be elected to NAS because they do not generally produce seminal research that is widely cited and recognized.  The impact of cultivar development may be more difficult to objectively assess.  Some past members (John Axell and Stan Peloquin) of the NAS were promoting the development of a National Academy of Agriculture to foster recognition of agricultural scientists.  NAS is funded by the US Congress and it may be difficult to obtain new funding for a new national academy.  The suggestion was made for the chair of NAPB, possibly with additional co-signers, to prepare a letter to Roger Beachy, presently a NAS member and USDA administrator, to ask why so few plant breeders have been elected to the NAS and if there is a role USDA could play in promoting the agricultural sciences.  This letter should be distributed to the executive committee for comments and editing before being sent to Beachy. 

Upcoming EC telecons are scheduled as follows, to be held at 2 PM Eastern, 1 PM Central, 12 noon Mountain, and 11 AM Pacific Time:

• Thursday, November 18, 2010
• Thursday, December 16, 2010

• Phone Conference of the NAPB/PBCC Executive Committee
  September 21, 2010, 1:00p-2:25p CDT

  Present:  T Wehner, AM Thro, D Cummings, J Sherman, M Havey, P Gepts, S Murray, S Jansky, S Baenziger, T Koch, CW Smith, K Ferguson, R Mumm

  As a follow-up to the 2010 NAPB/PBCC Annual Meeting, feedback by meeting participants was given.  Suggestions from students included: more opportunity for student networking, better organized talks with clear statement of research purpose (thanks to Jamie Sherman for her informal poll).  Additionally, other suggestions offered included: more poster time, more rooms available for last minute allocation,

  Notes from the Business Meeting and from each of the Subcommittee Breakout Sessions are needed for posting on the website.  Subcommittee chairs can forward these to Rita Mumm or Seth Murray.

  A total of $7200 is on account for NAPB/PBCC, with an additional $2500 still to come from DAS in support of the 2010 meeting.  These funds will be forwarded to the new account at TAMU.

  Plans for the 2011 Annual Meeting were discussed.  Meeting committee members were nominated:

  • Planning Committee: David Stelly and Mike Havey, co-chairs
  • Speakers Committee:  Liz Lee, chair (TBC – T Wehner), Jamie Sherman, Mary Peet (TBC – T Wehner)
  • Graduate Student Focus Committee:  Seth Murray (may also want to include a member from the Education Subcommittee)
  • Sponsor Committee: C. Wayne Smith, Shelley Jansky, Donn Cummings, Rita Mumm
  • Poster Point Person: tbd
  • Nominations Committee (replacements for NAPB Secretary, NAPB Web Editor, PBCC Vice Chair, Liaisons): Steve Baenziger and one of the NAPB liaisons who will rotating off this year.

  Note that regarding 2011 nominations, T Wehner will verify those liaisons willing to continue in 2011. 
  Kathy Ferguson circulated a meeting cost estimate prior to the telecon.  Based on attendance of 250 persons, the meeting is expected to run approximately $50K.  Registration fees were considered; 2010 fees were $235 and $117 for students, with the latter subsided by industry sponsors.  Registration may need to be increased to $250-regular/$125-students ($300 for late non-student registration) to ensure coverage of all 2011 costs.  Again, subsidies for graduate registration will be crucial.  Hotel costs will range from $90-$120 per night locally.  Approx. cost for round trip shuttle from Houston is $60.
  A suggestion was raised to request that CAP project representatives attend the NAPB Annual Meetings.
  Other business included discussion of the need for a Finance Subcommittee, which would focus on long term sponsorship of the organization at large.  Non-personal memberships could be a component, for example, with member industry organizations assessed $200 per year.  Appointments to be made at a future time.

  AM Thro raised the issue of travel funding availability from the Southern Region of Ag Experiment Stations.  T Wehner to query George Askew about this (action). 

  There is a need for rapid response capability on key topics relevant to plant breeding.  For example, the generation of white papers and one-pagers by experts to inform within short timeframes must be a NAPB/PBCC core capability.  A special telecon will be held to discuss approaches on October 7th (see below).    

  NAPB may want to consider a name change for our PBCC subcommittees, making some into NAPB working groups (Grand Challenges, Technology, Education), and some into NAPB committees (public relations, awards, nominations, rapid response, membership, funding).  That would clarify their permanence and membership.  Working groups could change subject area and membership as needed.  Committees would be permanent, and members would be appointed by the NAPB vice-president.

   

  Upcoming EC telecons are scheduled as follows, to be held at 2p Eastern, 1p Central, 12noon Mountain, and 11a Pacific Time:

  • Thursday, October 7, 2010 (special telecon to discuss Rapid Response capability; lead for this call is Ann Marie Thro)
  • Thursday, October 21, 2010
  • Thursday, November 18, 2010
  • Thursday, December 16, 2010

Notes from the Business Meeting of the 4th Annual Plant Breeding Workshop of the PBCC (Link and pasted below)
August 15, 2010, 12noon to 5p CDT
Johnston, IA

The PBCC Business Meeting was opened by Phil Simon, Chair, PBCC.  Tabare Abadie of Pioneer delivered a warm welcome on behalf of the meeting host, Pioneer Hi-Bred International.

Todd Wehner asked the constituency to consider creation of the NAPB.  The vote taken was unanimously in favor of this motion.  Those desiring membership in NAPB were invited to star their names in the registration key at the main desk in the meeting hall. 

With results of elections and the progression of positions according to the bylaws, the EC Committee of NAPB/PBCC includes the following:

New officers for NAPB and PBCC:

            NAPB

Todd Wehner, President
Rita Mumm, Vice President
David Stelly, Secretary
Treasurer, Shelley Jansky
Web Editor, Seth Murray
Past President (to begin in 2011)

            PBCC

Phil Simon, Chair
Mike Havey, Vice Chair

New subcommittee leadership:

            Grand Challenges
ary Lou Arpaia, Chair
Vice Chair position open due to Mike Havey’s election to Vice Chair, PBCC
Secretary to be identified                                                                              

            Science, Technology, and Informatics  
Liz Lee, Chair
Mitch McGrath, Vice Chair
Ross Whetten, Secretary

            Communications & Outreach 
Allen Van Deynze, Chair           
Linda Wessel-Beaver, Vice Chair
Maria Salinas-Fernandez, Secretary
Shelby Repinski, Graduate Student Representative

            Awards                                               
Karen Moldenhauer, Chair
Brooks Blanche, Vice Chair
Secretary to be identified

            Education                                           
Donn Cummings, Chair
Jamie Sherman, Vice Chair
Pat Brown (UIUC), Secretary
Will identify graduate student representative

Representatives and Liaisons continue to serve another year.

Subcommittee break-out sessions were held and reports were delivered when the body reconvened.

Shelby Repinski reported on the results of the Delphi Study coordinated by UC-Davis to determine the curriculum content, skills, experiences, and specialties important in the education and training of future plant breeders.

The EC recognizes the need to be able to provide spot-on information in response to various types of requests on very short notice.  Because the EC must be empowered to request and gather information as needed, a rapid response group will be formed to promptly identify experts on various topics.   The rapid response group may be a part of the Communications Subcommittee.  A model for 1-pagers will be sought from Karl Glasener (ASA). 

Future Annual Meetings of the NAPB/PBCC will be held concurrently:

• 2011 in College Station, TX; TAMU host.  May 23-25, 2011
• 2012 in Indianapolis, IN; Dow AgroSciences host.  Dates tbd.
• 2013 – An offer to host from U Florida at Tampa was received from Barry Tillman; suggesting timing in mid-February to March or October to November. 

2010 Awards were presented by Jodi Scheffler:

• Dr. James (Jim) Brewbaker of the University of Hawaii was awarded the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award for the 50 years of dedication to breeding corn and sorghum in the tropics.
• Dr. Yanqi Wu, a forage and turfgrass breeder from Oklahoma State University received the 2010 Early Career Plant Breeder Award.  

Other special recognition was given to the following for their outstanding contributions to the PBCC and the newly created NAPB:

• Ken Frey
• Ann Marie Thro
• Stephen Baenziger

The meeting was closed with summary comments by Stephen Baenziger and parting remarks by Stephen Smith. 

A date was setfor the next EC telecon (2p Eastern, 1p Central, 12noon Mountain, and 11a Pacific Time):

• Tuesday, September 21, 2010

• Phone Conference of the NAPB/PBCC Executive Committee #41 on July 15, 2010, 1:00p-2:15p CST
  • Present:  P Simon, T Wehner, S Murray, S Baenziger, A Van Deynze, AM Thro, D Stelly, D Cummings, F Isik, J Sherman, J Scheffler, K Moldenhauer, K Smith, M Havey, P Byrne, S Jansky, T Koch, M Brubaker of Pioneer (guest), R Mumm
• For the 2010 Annual Meeting, 71 registrations have been received, 33 of them from graduate students.  The poster deadline was extended to 8/2/2010; 22 poster submissions have been received to date.  Abstracts will be forwarded to M Brubaker by Aug 3rd, to be printed and included in the registration packet for each meeting participant.
• PBCC Awards: Five nominations were received for the Lifetime Achievement Award.  However, there were no nominations submitted for the Early Career Award.  There are, however, two candidates from the 2009 nominations that are still eligible and these will be considered for this year.  In the future, calls for nominations will specify that nominations will remain eligible for 3 years.  Because the 2011 meeting will be held in May, the call for nominations needs to be made in December, 2010. 
• The Awards Selection Committee will comprise J Scheffler, K Moldenhauer, S Blanche, D Stelly, and K Woeste.  2010 award winners will be announced at the annual meeting in late afternoon on Monday in Johnston IA, along with the results of officer elections.
• J Sherman solicited a $2500 pledge from Dow AgroSciences in support of graduate student expenses to attend the 2010 annual meeting.  These funds will go toward registration fees of graduate students.  Thank you, DAS!
• A Van Deynze suggested several ways to capture the events and enthusiasm of the annual meeting at Johnston:  arrange for a reporter to be present, videotape portions of the meeting, hold interviews with key members to obtain sound bites on important issues e.g. subcommittee leads.  The Communications Subcommittee will pursue possibilities with Stephen Smith, Kendall Lamkey, and Jamie Sherman.
• NAPB/PBCC Elections:   Nominations have been solicited for PBCC Vice Chair, NAPB Secretary, and NAPB Treasurer.  In August, current leadership will advance as follows: Secretary to NAPB Vice Chair, Vice Chair to NAPB Chair, Chair to PBCC Chair.  In following years, the PBCC Vice Chair will advance to PBCC Chair. 
• TAMU is hosting the 2011 Annual Meeting of the NAPB/PBCC (Concurrent) in College Station, TX.  The dates of May 23-25 were proposed and agreed.

• A tentative date has been set for the next EC telecon, if needed ahead of the Annual Meeting for finalizing plans (2p Eastern, 1p Central, 12noon Mountain, and 11a Pacific Time):

  • Thursday, August 5, 2010

• Phone Conference of the NAPB/PBCC Executive Committee #40 on June 17, 2010, 1:00p-2:15p CST

  • Present:  P Simon, AM Thro, D Stelly, J Scheffler, K Moldenhauer, K Smith, L Wessel-Beaver, M Havey, R Mumm
  • For the 2010 Annual Meeting, 36 registrations have been received, 14 of them from graduate students.  Mike Havey will contact the registered graduate students to encourage poster submissions.  The poster deadline is 7/1/2010; extending this deadline was suggested.  A reminder will go out to the full membership to encourage additional registrations and poster submissions.
  • Funds in support of graduate student attendance at the annual meeting would be helpful to increasing graduate student attendance.  Jamie Sherman is reaching out to seed/biotech companies.  Rita Mumm will look into providing an account through the U Illinois to channel funding for reimbursement.
  • The speaker listing for the annual meeting will be updated on the NAPB/PBCC website (plantbreeding.org) (Seth Murray).
  • Topics suggested for new white papers are:
  • Global trade
  • Bioenergy
  • Breeding for adaptation to climate change
  • Know your food – know your farmer: plant breeding for local adaptation

• Subcommittee leaders are invited to post minutes/updates to the NAPB/PBCC website.
• The next EC telecon is scheduled as follows, to be held at 2p Eastern, 1p Central, 12noon Mountain, and 11a Pacific Time:
  • Thursday, July 15, 2010

---

 

• Minutes of telephone conference #39 on May 25, 2010, 1:00p-2:30p CST
  • Present:  P Simon, T Wehner, S Murray, S Baenziger, AM Thro, J Sherman, J Scheffler, L Wessel-Beaver, S Smith, R Mumm
  • Planning is progressing well for the 2010 Annual Meeting: demo plots have been planted for the tour and the speaker agenda is being finalized.  So far 10 persons have registered for the meeting.  A reminder needs to be circulated to the full membership regarding the Aug 2nd deadline (RM action).  Media coverage needs to continue as well (AVD action).   Transfer of funds to Pioneer to cover costs is in progress.  Speakers at the annual meeting without Experiment Station funding will have travel costs covered. 
  • Currently, a PBCC business meeting is planned for 12p-5p on Sunday, August 15th; none planned for Tuesday, August 17th. 
  • The Education Subcommittee Secretary, Jamie Sherman, raised the issue of potential funding for graduate student travel to the annual meeting.  She indicated that she would contact several companies to request up to $5K for this purpose.  Funded students will be encouraged, but not required, to present a poster at the meeting.  A contact for graduate students requesting funding will be identified (PS action). 
  • To further enhance the new NAPB website, more photos will be posted.  The Communications Subcommittee is asked to take photos at the annual meeting that will be suitable for posting.  Also, photos of research/breeding programs could be used to link to individuals.  A photo of the first slate of PBCC officers will be forwarded to Seth Murray (LWB action). 
  • The EC discussed using the website as a bulletin board for items of general interest.  One example of the need for such is exemplified by the desire for wide circulation of the notice on the FAO opening for a Senior Policy Officer in Plant Genetic Resources, as this position is important to the global plant breeding community (3 year position based in Rome; application deadline is June 17, 2010).  Furthermore, for US-centric needs, the Plant Breeding News (Clair Hershey) is not particularly suitable as an informational vehicle as it is internationally funded.  More discussion of the options, requirements, and needs for a bulletin board is warranted.
  • A reminder of the deadline to submit nominations (June 30th) for NAPB Awards will be circulated (RM action).  The EC also agreed that, while NAPB and PBCC officers cannot be nominated for awards, they can submit nominations for other individuals.  Also, the Awards Subcommittee may consider more than one awardee per award, particularly for the Lifetime Achievement Award. The Awards Subcommittee will submit guidelines to the EC for ratification. 
  • Each year at the Annual Meeting, the NAPB Secretary position is filled via election.  A call for nominations for NAPB Secretary will be issued to elicit possible candidates (RM action); nominations can be sent to Steve Baenziger, who as Past President is coordinating the election.  In addition, the position of Treasurer, NAPB, will be created and nominations will be accepted for this leadership role as well.  Shelley Jansky was nominated by Todd Wehner.  Furthermore, with the new structure of PBCC, nominations will be solicited for Vice Chair of PBCC.
    In addition, we were reminded of the June 7th deadline of the comment period on the AFRI 2011 RFA.
• Future EC telecons are scheduled as follows, all to be held at 2p Eastern, 1p Central, 12noon Mountain, and 11a Pacific Time:
  • Thursday, June 17, 2010
  • Thursday, July 15, 2010

• Minutes of telephone conference #38 on April 22, 2010 1:00-2:15p CDT
  • Present: P Simon, T Wehner, S Murray, S Baenziger, A Van Deynze, B Tracy, D Cummings, F Isik, J Scheffler, K Smith, M Havey, S Jansky, T Koch, S Smith, R Whetten, R Mumm
  • Planning continues for the 2010 Annual Meeting: on-line registration is functional and was announced to the membership. Allen Van Deynze will coordinate further advertising of the workshop through SeedWorld, Germination Magazine, Seed Quest, and 70+ other media outlets. Liaisons to various professional groups and societies (Tom Koch, Bill Tracy, Fikret Isik) to provide notifications as well. EC members from private industry were asked to distribute the announcement of the meeting internally within their respective organizations.
  • Todd Wehner represented NAPB and PBCC at a USDA NIFA Stakeholders Meeting in Washington, DC on April 13th. His presentation is posted on the PBCC website.
  • Website update: DreamWeaver will be used to create the new site format. NAPB has a FaceBook account - members are invited to join.
  • Email distributions with topics not directly associated with PBCC/NAPB and other sharing of the PBCC mailing list were discussed, given the number of recent requests. The EC was overwhelmingly in favor of not using the mailing list in these ways. Rather, use of the Plant Breeding News (Clair Hershey) was recommended as a viable alternative for these requests.
  • A link will be added to the NAPB/PBCC website to enable new names to be submitted to the mailing list.
  • Hosts for upcoming Annual Meetings are noted as follows:
    • 2011 - Texas A&M University, College Station TX (Dave Stelly, Seth Murray) - confirmed
    • 2012 - Dow AgroSciences, Indianapolis IN (Steve Plehn) - tentative
    • 2013 - Rotation to an academic host. Consider meeting jointly with another organization. Nominations of home institutions can be forwarded to Phil Simon.
  • NAPB Awards information and pdf nomination forms will be posted on the website. The invitation for nomination, including a link to the website, will be circulated to the mailing list when finalized. The deadline for nominations has been set for June 30th.
  • Each year at the Annual Meeting, the NAPB Secretary position is filled via election. A call for nominations for Secretary of NAPB will be issued to elicit possible candidates; nominations can be sent to Steve Baenziger, who as Past President is coordinating the election.
  • Future EC telecons are scheduled as follows, all to be held at 2p Eastern, 1p Central, 12noon Mountain, and 11a Pacific Time:
    • Tuesday, May 25, 2010
    • Thursday, June 17, 2010
    • Thursday, July 15, 2010

• Minutes of telephone conference #37 on March 18, 2010 1:00-2:15p CDT
  • Present: S Baenziger, M Brubaker, D Cummings, S Murray, P Simon, S Smith, AM Thro, T Wehner, D Stelly, M Havey, K Smith
  • Monday, August 15
    • 11:00 am: Set up posters (Grand Terrace-East)
      • 11:00 am: Executive committee meeting
    • 1:00 pm: PBCC session 1 (Ballroom A) - update on what has been done; the next step for PBCC: more science (like the Plant and Animal Genome meeting); those who receive national needs grants must attend the conference
    • 2:30 pm: Break (Grand Terrace-East)
    • 3:00 pm: Subcommittee meetings (Hall of Ideas-E,F,G) - part 1 Complete previous work; part 2 Develop future plans
    • 4:00 pm: PBCC session 2 (Ballroom A)
    • 6:30 pm: Dinner - Wisconsin barbeque (Rooftop)
    • 8:00 pm: Speaker 1 (Ballroom A)
    • 9:00 pm: Cash bar (Rooftop)
  • Tuesday, August 17
    • 8:30 am: Speaker 2 (Ballroom A)
    • 9:15 am: Speaker 3 (Ballroom A)
    • 10:00 am: Break (Grand Terrace-East)
    • 10:30 am: Speaker 4 (Ballroom A)
    • 11:15 am: Speaker 5 (Ballroom A)
    • 12:00 n: Lunch (Grand Terrace-East)
    • 1:30 pm: Speaker 6 (Ballroom A)
    • 2:15 pm: Speaker 7 (Ballroom A)
    • 3:00 pm: Break (Grand Terrace-East)
    • 3:30 pm: Speaker 8 (Ballroom A)
    • 4:15 pm: PBCC session 3 (Ballroom A)
    • 6:00 pm: PBCC business meeting (Ballroom A)
    • 7:00 pm: Dinner (Grand Terrace-East)
  • Future meeting times
  • March 18, 2010 @ 1:00 p.m. Central Time
  • April 22, 2010 @ 1:00 p.m. Central Time

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• Minutes of telephone conference #36 on February 16, 2010 1:00-2:15p CDT
  • Present: S Baenziger, M Brubaker, D Cummings, S Murray, P Simon, S Smith, AM Thro, T Wehner, D Stelly, M Havey, K Smith
  • The 2010 PBCC Workshop, scheduled for August 15-17, will be held at the Pioneer Hi-Bred facility in Johnston, IA, with capacity for 236 participants. Dr. Gebisa Ejeta is confirmed as the keynote speaker for Sunday evening. Some additional subcommittees were formed around various organizational needs and these include the following:
    • Registration website: link is active; ready for review at the end of February; registration to begin in March
    • Scientific agenda subcommittee: B Tracy, T Wehner
      • Add Gebisa Ejeta to program for grad students on Sunday evening
      • Speaker: Richard Flavell at CERES in CA (molecular genetics on Arabidopsis) has been an excellent spokesperson for plant breeding, rflavell@ceres.net
    • Tours subcommittee: P Arthur, K Lamkey, B Tracy
    • Education subcommittee: R Holdren, T Abadie, R Mumm
    • A registration website has been created. Early registration discounts will be in effect through the end of May. Three hotels have reserved blocks of rooms with reasonable rates for participants. The workshop will be a product of the NAPB, at which a meeting of the PBCC will be scheduled.
  • PBCC awards. Awards are being developed by Jodi Scheffler and subcommittee for:
    • Early Career
    • Lifetime Achievement
    • Poster Award (students)
    • Suggestions for other awards can be directed to Jodi
  • Website update
    • Temporary website has been built in Dreamweaver
    • Content management software Jhawar is being evaluated
    • Plantbreeding.com and Plantbreeding.org are now linked to our website
  • White papers:
    • White paper has been revised for Excellence in Science by D Stelly
    • Nutrition paper is available online, but has not been submitted (M Havey)
    • T Stalker is working on education paper for that subcommittee
      • Add a section on grad fellowships on the website (D Cummings)
    • Food security white paper is needed (AM Thro)
    • Need to finish the white paper on evaluation of excellence in plant breeding (AM Thro)
      • The Food Security Issue of Science features scientists who are not directly involved in agricultural field research
      • Write a letter to the editor from NAPB
      • National Academy will not likely include plant breeders (perhaps the board on agriculture should include plant breeders)
      • Agriculture Academy might be developed to showcase researchers in agriculture
  • NAPB governance
    • Should we develop a scientific society for the NAPB?
  • Future meeting times
  • March 18, 2010 @ 1:00 p.m. Central Time
  • April 22, 2010 @ 1:00 p.m. Central Time

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• Minutes of telephone conference #35 on January 21, 2010 1:00-2:15p CDT
  • Present: P Simon, S Murray, S Baenziger, A Jaradat, A Van Deynze, AM Thro, D Stelly, D Cummings, F Isik, J Scheffler, ML Arpaia, M Havey, P Gepts, R Johnson, S Jansky, S Smith, R Mumm
  • The 2010 PBCC Workshop, scheduled for August 15-17, will be held at the Pioneer Hi-Bred facility in Johnston. Dr. Gebisa Ejeta is confirmed as the keynote speaker for Sunday evening.
  • Stephen Smith reported plans for discounted registration fees for graduate students and for poster/abstract presenters. Specifically for graduate student attendees, a Sunday evening event is planned, which may include a round table discussion with Stacy Bonos. Monday evening, dinner at the State House is planned for the general audience, with awards being presented at this time.
  • Mike Havey volunteered as Poster Chair.
  • Announcement of the Workshop is to go to various organization and societies through PBCC liaisons, as well as to PBCC general membership.
  • Seth Murray is coordinating the transaction to transfer ownership of the domain names (plantbreeding.org and plantbreeding.net) in support of the new PBCC website. This transfer will provide permanent legal status as follows: owner of these domain names will be the Southern Association of Agricultural Experiment Station Director, with billing to Rita H Mumm. Web hosting has been contracted for a period of 1 year (bill to come in 11 months).
  • Regarding NAPB/PBCC awards, application forms were updated to facilitate ease in nominating. Furthermore, eligibility rules have been clarified. June 15th is the application deadline for 2010. Two or more supporting letters will be required for each nomination from organizations outside the nominee’s institution. Nominator will be asked to provide a biographical sketch and photo for successful nominees by the time of the annual meeting.
  • Encouragement was provided to seek out other awards that NAPB/PBCC could promote. Allen Van Deynze requested materials in support of press releases on awards. The PBCC website was suggested as a format to feature news on award winners.
  • The importance of Hatch funds was suggested as an additional topic for white papers. Abdullah Jaradat is addressing bioenergy and food security (highlighted previously as suggested new topics for white papers) in a book chapter in progress. The white paper on Harmony between Agriculture and the Environment is going to be published in Frontiers of Ecology & Evolution.
  • Todd Wehner and Steve Baenziger are preparing a proposal on NAPB governance for the 2010 Workshop. Officer positions for NAPB are proposed as follows: President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Web Editor. Todd Wehner suggested the creation of NAPB as a scientific society. ASA could provide infrastructure and management support.
  • Todd Wehner will represent NAPB at the American Association of Plant Biologist stakeholder workshop on April 13th. The importance of Hatch funding will be emphasized.
  • Future EC telecons are scheduled as follows, both to be held at 2p Eastern, 1p Central, 12noon Mountain, and 11a Pacific time:
    • February 16, 2010
    • March 18, 2010

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