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Minutes for NAPB

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

2011

Minutes of the joint NAPB - PBCC EC monthly phone conference
Dec. 13th 2011, 2:00 pm CST.

 

In attendance:  Liz Lee, Mike Havey, Phil Simon, Rita Mumm, David Stelley, Allen Van Deynze, Don Blackburn, Carol Moore (DOW), Pat Byrne, Donn Cummings, Marcelo Carena, Mitch McGrath, Todd Wehner, & Jamie Sherman

Regrets: Karen Moldenhauer, Steve Baenziger, & Brooks Blanche

Notes: Mike Havey is chairing this EC.  Items in the minutes that are underlined are potential action items and/or items for future teleconferences (Liz).

Agenda items:

 

 

 

The speaker committee voted on themes and arrived at three of them (see notes at the end of the minutes).  The committee is now at the stage of identifying speakers and are ready to start contacting speakers.  They have identified 2 possible evening speakers for the banquet, Jules Jannick or Julian Cribb.  Mike would like to solicit some additional suggested speakers.  Target is to finalize this in late Jan.

Donn mentioned that we should probably identify the student speakers early.  Last year we defrayed all graduate students expenses, it was less complicated. The Monsanto Fellows has committed $6000 for graduate students and would like to challenge others to contribute as part of the registration (Donn). TCAP has about $7000 to put towards funding all students participating in NAPB.  The Monsanto Fellows money will be part of the general meeting fund, whether it is targeted towards the grad students that speak or whether it is spread across all students we can decide later.

Grad students will have a lower registration.  The speaker committee will select from the abstracts several grad student speakers that we can cover a greater percentage of their travel expenses (Mike).  Possibly a 2-step abstract scenario for grad students for competing for speaking spots (Donn).  If we want all of the abstracts in the conference book, we need to have an earlier abstract deadline (Allen).

 

DOW is ready to sign a contract with University Place Conference Centre, downtown Indianapolis; may need to make a few changes to the contract as the Monday session ends with an evening at Dow, banquet will be on Tuesday instead that will work better logistically.  Banquet will be at the hotel.

Committing to 100 single and 50 double rooms for Monday & Tuesday at $125 for single, $135 for double. Are they billing for space for meeting rooms (Rita)?  No meeting room space charge (Carol).  We need to commit to rooms at least 30 days in advance. 

There was a fair amount of discussion regarding websites with regards to registration and hotel room booking. Some concerns about making sure that the registration is linked to the hotel, so that NAPB gets credit for all hotel reservations.  Link early-bird registration to the deadline for the hotel.  Do we need a link to University Place for hotel registration (Rita)?  Can we link to Carol’s site instead?  ACSESS prefers to link to their site to capture NAPB membership info (Rita).  Carol would like some info regarding arrivals and departures.  Don B. suggested that perhaps Marcelo and someone from ACSESS come to Dow to work out the details.  David felt that this could probably be done remotely.  Mike will set up a conference call between Marcelo, Seth, Ian, Don and Carol to get this sorted out.  

 

ACSESS will be using their system for meeting registration.  They will give the link to NAPB for our web site.  Marcelo is not leading the collaboration with ACSESS; he thought that Seth would be leading it.

 

David: the group felt that we should provide more than just $100 to the winners; perhaps free registration at the 2012 meeting and some PR for the winners at the business meeting.  This motion (David S.) that the 2 students will get free registration at the NAPB 2012 annual meetings passed by consensus.

The winners were, Leanna Nice (U of MN) for the logo, Terry Felderhoff for the slogan.  Both have stated that there is no IP with their logo or slogan.  Allen suggested checking the slogan to make sure that it is not protected. 

The original slogan was, “Improving Plants to Improve Lives”.  There has been a suggested a slight modification of this to: “Improving Plants Improves Lives”.  Pat liked the modification less now than when the sub-committee originally discussed it, and is suggesting that we go with what was submitted.  The motion (Pat B.) to keep the original slogan passed by consensus. 

(Note: my apologies, I should have treated both of these votes as motions and asked for a second, Liz).

Timing to announce the winners and the logo and slogan is the Jan. 2012 Newsletter.  Information about the students will be included in the newsletter as part of the write-up.

Copyrighting the logo and slogan is a bit expensive, given what David S. found through TAMU.  Perhaps we can check with ACSESS to see if they could do this more affordably.  Pat will contact Ian P. to look into this and get in touch with Brian Anderson.  It will probably have to be subsequent to us getting incorporated.

Jaime had to leave the call before we got around to discussing this, but the students were holding their own conference call during the EC call.  More on this topic at the January EC.

Other business:

From:         mjhavey@wisc.edu
Subject: NAPB/PBCC Conference call Tuesday Dec 13th
Date: December 9, 2011 5:22:44 PM GMT-05:00

Putative schedule and speaker ideas for 2012 NAPB/PBCC Annual Meeting

Potential Meeting Title:  “Sharing (Sustaining) (Improving) Life through Plant Improvement”

The committee supported opportunities for Dow and Purdue to showcase their programs.

Tentative schedule by Dow:
Monday, August 6:

Tuesday, August 7:

Wednesday, August 8:

The committee clearly supported the following topics (with some suggested speakers/topics listed):

 

 

 

Minutes of the joint NAPB - PBCC  EC monthly phone conference
Nov. 15th 2011, 1:00 pm CST.

In attendance:  Liz Lee, Mike Havey, Jamie Sherman, Tom Stalker, Allen Van Deynze, Seth Murray, Todd Wehner, David Stelly, Phil Simon, Donn Cummings, Shelley Jansky, Wayne Smith, and Don Blackburn

Regrets: Rita Mumm, Rale Gjuric, and Steve Baenziger

Notes: Mike Havey is chairing this EC, as Rita is representing NAPB at the ARS 301 Stakeholders’ Meeting.  Items in the minutes that are underlined are potential action items and/or items for future teleconferences (Liz).

Agenda items:

The committee has not really done anything since the last EC meeting.  They have identified the topics and the speaker committee will be making the recommendation to the EC for final input.  Do we have a theme (Don B.)?  No theme, but topics: education of plant breeders, IP, next gen sequencing (?) (Mike H.).  Would Dow have any input on themes (Dave S.)?  Don felt that it should be driven by NAPB.

Not much to report as Carol was not available last week.  They are still going out for bids for the hotel/meeting facilities.  Trying to bring the pricing down.  Then they will move forward with a contract.  Don is hoping that the venue will be set any time now, but needs to touch base with Carol.  They are continuing to work on some of the tour aspects.  Firming up whether people can do it.  One group has opted out. University Farm in Lafayette and Dow’s soybean transformation facility will be on the tour slate.  They are still planning on 2, ½-day tours (see Oct. minutes for details of the schedule).  And Don reminded us that logistics will be a challenge. Mike asked if flipping around the 2 evening options would help with the logistics.  Don liked that idea, as it might make it easier.  Marcelo and Seth will develop the web site in conjunction with ASCESS. Carol has requested that she have access to these design discussions regarding the registration web component as she has some questions to ask the registrants to help better tailor the meeting experience (Don).

Working with Ian Popkewitz from ACSESS to:

The plan is for the Nov. newsletter can go out via the new list server, but it just depends on how quickly Ian can get the membership list transferred over.

Encouragement needs to come from the entire EC, that we need everyone from the sub-committees’ leadership to become routinely involved in our monthly EC calls.  Jamie suggested that we set aside a time for sub-committee reports  And the general consensus was that this is a great idea, even if it is just a quick 1-liner.  Goal is to make sure that each committee has at least officer participate (Allen). One of the benefits of monthly participation in the EC is that the sub-committee’s “purpose in life” will be defined through participation.

Action item:  David S. will send out an email to the sub-committee chairs to try to encourage them to get re-engaged.

On a related issue, Janet Lewis’ status as chair of the Grand Challenges Committee (Donn):  Janet has resigned from chair of the committee as she is starting a new position in the private sector. There is a co-chair/vice-chair of this committee, Ram Perumal from KSU (perumal@ksu.edu).  How do we want to move forward with management of the Grand Challenges committee (David S.)?  Two options were discussed: (1) Ram will move up to chair and the EC will identify a new co-chair, or (2) the EC will identify an interim chair for the remainder of Janet’s term so that Ram can get his feet underneath him and then be prepared to assume the role of chair at the end of this term. Who are the other officers of this sub-committee (Donn)?  We appear to be fairly short on committee officers for Grand Challenges.

Action item:  Mike H., David S. and Rita will give Ram a phone call to talk about getting the Grand Challenges sub-committee moving and determine what support is needed. Mike, David and Rita will report back at the Dec. meeting regarding their conversations with Ram and what support he needs to get the Grand Challenges committee up and running effectively.

Grad students have been contacting Jamie about not being involved in the sub-committees that they have volunteered for. The grad students already have a NAPB facebook page.  But they are interested in trying to pull in more students.  They also expressed in interest in organizing some smaller events during the annual meeting, perhaps some online events throughout the year, and serving as advisors to the other sub-committees. The education committee talked about forming a graduate student subcommittee during their most recent meeting.  The discussion around the EC was that we were not sure of the proper procedure to establish another sub-committee, but recognized the need to create some sort of structure for the grad students to start working under that may eventually lead to the formation of another sub-committee.

Motion: that the EC permit the grad students to form a Graduate Student Working Group, which will give them some structure to work under (Jamie).  Donn seconded the motion.  Passed by consensus. 

Action item:  Jamie will communicate this back to the grad students and ask them to have at least one representative at the next EC.  It was noted that as the planning of the 2012 meetings has already begun, there are some serious time constraints that may impact any plans.  The EC would also like a short presentation from the Graduate Student Working Group at the Monday morning at the NAPB annual meeting.  This would facilitate discussions regarding whether the working group should become a sub-committee.

Pat was not able to be on the phone call.  David S. has not had real recent communication with Pat, but Pat is working on the pamphlet and had requested some photos from David S.  Should have something in a week or so.  Wayne confirmed that that this is the time line and that it will be a 3-panel pamphlet.  If you have photos that could be used for the pamphlet, please email them to Pat.

Rale was not able to make the phone call; however he sent an email around to the group regarding this issue.  The email from Rale can be found at the end of the minutes.  Rita, David S., and Liz have talked about attending this meeting, and assume that Rita will address the congress.  Allen will be there too.  Do we have someone from EUCARPIA speaking at our annual meeting (David S.)?  No, but we should reciprocate.

Action item: Mike H. or Rita will extend an invitation. (note – this was added by Liz to the minutes after the EC)

We have the ARS recommendations and that has helped getting the unified voice process moving (see Oct. minutes for the full list of recommendations).  The abbreviated list of topics is below (Liz).

1.  Germplasm:   Conserve, organize, evaluate and develop germplasm.
2.  Plant breeding capacities:  Conserve and enhance US capacities for field-based breeding of all plant species important to the US in agri-regionally relevant manners.
3.  Innovations:  Identify, research and exploit new approaches and new targets for plant breeding that enhance our economy, environment, health, sustainability and food security.
4.  Science & Technologies: Research, use and create new technologies that augment the range and speed of field-based breeding of plants of importance.
5.  Education:  Foster state-based efforts and investments to retain and strengthen plant breeding education in agri-regionally relevant manners. 
6.  Outreach:  Communicate and exemplify why society [1] needs plants, [2] needs plant breeding, plant breeders, and plant breeding programs.  

These recommendations probably just need to be refined for our unified voice (Allen).  In the next couple of weeks try to refine these topics before the CSS ASTA meetings where Rita and Liz can meet with ASTA there.  If we had to pick one topic, point 3 of these recommendations really captures what are probably NAPB’s priorities (Allen). 

Action item: Allen, Donn, David S., Don B., Liz, and Rita will work on refining these priorities prior to the ASTA meetings in Chicago in Dec.

Action item: Allen will also try to see if we can get these topics into the pamphlet too.

Dec 13th and Jan 24th, Mike H. has already secured the phone line for those dates and times.  Feb. 21st, March 20th, April 17th, May 15th are the tentative dates for our meetings.

From: rgjuric@ucdavis.edu
Subject:  RE: NAPB-PBCC Monthly EC Telecon: Nov 15th at 1p-2:30p Central time
Date: November 9, 2011 11:43:35 AM GMT-05:00

Dear all,
I will not be able to join due to travel. Re item - (Invitation to present at EUCARPIA General Congress: Rale Gjuric). Eucarpia secretary general Laszlo Lang asked if it would be possible that an NAPB representative address the Eucarpia General Congress, Budapest, May 2012.  

Action required: that NAPB executive committee identify or at least confirm that one EC member will attend the Eucarpia General Congress and address (probably) the general assembly.

Best regards,
Rale
*********************************
Dr. Rale Gjuric
Director, UC Davis Plant Breeding Academy
204-688-5116
www.pba.ucdavis.edu

 

 

 

Minutes of the joint NAPB - PBCC EC monthly phone conference
Oct. 25th 2011, 1:00 pm CDT.

In attendance: Liz Lee, Rita Mumm, David Francis, Donn Cummings, Shelley Jansky, Pat Byrne, Mitch McGrath, Seth Murray, Ann Marie Thro (from the Dubai International Airport), Phil Simon, Allen Van Deynze, Jamie Sherman, David Baltensperger, Todd Wehner, David Stelly, and Mike Havey.

Regrets: Steve Baenziger, Tom Stalker and Marcelo Carena

Note: items in the minutes that are underlined are potential action items and/or items for future teleconferences (Liz).

Agenda items:
• Updates on actions since last EC call
Pat B. gave us an update on the logo and slogan contest. They have received several logo and slogan entries. They will have a survey monkey up shortly after Nov. 1st for the exec to vote on them.

• NIFA:

a. Opportunity to serve as Representative to NIFA: 6 month to 1 year in Washington DC as per Ann Marie Thro.
Ann Marie is staying an additional year in Afghanistan and has suggested to her agency that a representative to NIFA be installed in DC starting in 2012. It will be a paid position. The person would be backfilling Ann Marie's position for 6 months to a year. Attending internal NIFA meetings and external meetings. Day to day activities are: 150-200 hatch projects to read each year; special grants that need to be processed through the funding system; the potato special grant is the main thing that is important to the agency; input with regards to plant breeding into the Farm Bill and AFRI. Ann Marie is looking for help in recruiting for this position and would like a name or two to bring to her higher ups in the agency. Not sure that there is a legal requirement to advertise this position (Ann Marie). Note: Ann Marie sent Rita an email with more on this discussion point. It has been added to the end of the minutes (Liz).

b. NAPB and PBCC liaisons to USDA NIFA in Ann Marie's absence.
NAPB liaison should be a different person than the PBCC liaison. The PBCC liaison should be someone from within the USDA. Rita: are there any volunteers? Allen suggested that we try to find someone that is already living in the DC area. There are several people at companies in the area that might fit the bill. Allen will send those names to Rita and Rita will contact them. We need to see if it is OK for a registered lobbyist to talk to NIFA. How much direction would this person need, plant breeder vs. lobbyist? NIFA needs someone who is current on plant breeding science. We should probably talk to Liang Shiou Lin, Ed Kaleikau and Shing Kwok about what they need. We need to figure out what the job is first (Jamie). No matter who we have as our liaisons, as a group we will need to give them talking points (David F.). Would this be best handled by one of our sub-committees (Liz)? We should really try to have someone in place before the next farm bill (Jan-Feb). - tabled until the next meeting.

• Secretary nomination for the Science, Technology, and Informatics Subcommittee (Mitch McGrath)
At the annual meetings at TAMU, the secretary nominated was a grad student who had not even been through his comprehensive exams. There was a discussion among the sub-committee officers that this might be unfair to the student and the student's professor. In addition, this potentially creates a problem as we probably do not have a proper order of succession for this committee. As the newly elected secretary, then becomes vice-chair the following year and chair of the committee in the 3rd year. Mitch approached a colleague to inquire if they would be willing to serve as secretary to this sub-committee. Mitch made a motion to nominate Shahryar Kianian NDSU as our new secretary for the Science, Technology and Informatics Sub-committee. Pat B. seconded the motion. Passed by consensus.

• Facilitation through ACSESS for administrative functions

a. Financial (Shelley Jansky)
Working with Wes M. from the ACSESS side. Rita and Shelley have talked to ASCESS about setting up to 2 separate funds, one an operations fund and the other a donations fund.

b. Member database (Liz Lee)
Working with Ian P. from the ACSESS side. Liz has several questions that she will sort out with Ian: who takes care of the list server for us, both updating it and hosting it? Rita felt that ASCESS will not be taking on any communications on our behalf.

c. Web page for annual meeting registration (Seth Murray & Mike Havey)
Ian P. from ASCESS will work with Seth on the technical side of creating a meeting web site.

d. Funding student travel for the annual meeting (Jamie Sherman & Donn Cummings)
Donn updated the group, ~$4200 from the Monsanto Fellows group has been raised, with some additional matching to come in it might go to $5-6000. Donn was wondering if we can create a volunteer donation option on the website for the annual meeting so that we can potentially match it again by our NAPB members. With this pool of money, we should be able to fund the students that we ask to speak at the annual meetings.

e. Incorporation (David Stelly)
Working with the lawyers provided by ACSESS.

• Unified voice: preparing message for upcoming meetings with USDA (Stakeholder's Meeting) and ASTA (Allen Van Deynze)
ASTA was asked to provide input to the USDA/ARS Germplasm Improvement NP301 goals for the next 5 years. ASTA forwarded this request to NAPB via Allen. Allen working with David S. and Rita worked on NAPB's input, circulated the draft to the EC for comment, and on Oct. 21st, sent the finalized input to USDA/ARS (see Allen's email at the end of the minutes).

In addition to this, Rita will be attending the USDA Stakeholder's meeting in person on Nov. 15, 2011. And, there will be a webinar prior to this, which is a pre-meeting on Nov. 9th both Allen and Rita will be participating in the webinar.

• 2012 Annual Meeting plans (2 pm):

a. Speaker Committee (Mike Havey)
The speaker committee is proposing to have grad students speak in session with the invited speakers with an overarching theme (Mike). Mike asked for feedback on the grad students being in the same sessions with the invited speakers, and the general consensus was yes. The committee has also kicked around several ideas about an over all theme and have not really hit upon one. Mike also mention that he is reluctant to solicit speaker ideas from the entire NAPB membership, and was wondering if it should be kept within the EC? David S. suggested that we keep it within the EC. Liz mentioned that last year the speaker committee worked in isolation from the EC and did not consult them with regards to meeting themes, topics or speakers. Mike will be soliciting the EC for specific suggestions for speakers on topics.

b. Logistics (Don Blackburn & Carol Moore)
Mike H. and Don B. met at the ASA meetings and talked about the logistics. Don was not able to make the EC, so Mike Havey shared their tentative schedule. Sunday Aug. 5th is the travel day. Don B. is finalizing the venue.

Tentative schedule by Dow:
Monday:
• 8 AM to noon: NAPB/PBCC business meeting
• 1 to 5 PM: Speakers/Posters
• Evening banquet with invited speaker (intro by Dow person followed by dinner speaker)
Tuesday:
• AM Speakers/Posters
• PM Tour to Purdue and nearby facilities
• Evening banquet at Dow Ag Sciences
Wednesday:
• AM Speakers/Posters
• PM Tour of Dow and maybe other commercial sites (Ag-Reliant-confirmed)
• 5 PM meeting concludes

Questions/comments: Can we do the business meetings from 8-12 (Allen)? Mike felt that last year's dragged on too long. Perhaps we can shift the awards into Monday evening banquet (Rita). The nominations will be done prior to the sub-committee meetings (Liz). It should be doable to fit the business meeting activities into Monday morning.

Phil S. mentioned that there is a commercial flower breeding station near Indy, which might be another tour stop.

Seth has put up a meeting inquiry on the web page with Liz and Marcelo as contacts for international visitors that might need a letter.

• Dates for upcoming EC telecons: Nov 15th, Dec? Jan?
• Nov. 15th, Mike Havey will chair the Nov. EC as Rita will be at the USDA stakeholder's meeting.
• Dec. 13th, Rita will be late for this meeting, so Mike Havey will chair the Dec. EC too.
• Jan. 24th, Rita will chair this meeting

• Other Business
(1) Motion to amend the bylaws regarding qualifications for being nominated for officer positions. Since there is a built in succession with all of the officer positions the nominees need to be able to make a 3-year commitment, which is problematic when the nominee is a grad student. – tabled for the Nov. EC meeting.

(2) Should NAPB have any presence at PAG (Allen)? Pamphlets (Pat is working on this) or perhaps someone to speak in the joint workshop on genomics and plant breeding, or perhaps a reception? Who is going? Rita, David S., Allen. Perhaps the communications committee can take this on. If we want to do a poster for the PAG meetings we need to do it soon as abstracts are due in early Nov (David S.). While we are on the topic of presence at meetings, the Corn and Sorghum ASTA meetings in Chicago in early Dec. is another meeting where we need to have a presence (Liz), perhaps at the FUSE booth at ASTA (Donn C.). – tabled for the Nov. EC meeting.

From ALLEN VAN DEYNZE
Sent: Friday, October 21, 2011
Re: ARS Customer/Stakeholder Workshop - Input Requested

The NAPB recommendations prioritized in order of highest to lowest.
Allen

NAPB Response
1. Germplasm: Conserve, organize, evaluate and develop germplasm.
• Conserve and curate existing germplasm resources and expand collections
• Objectively characterize germplasm resources genotypically and phenotypically (for biotic and abiotic stress, and quality). Note that some evaluations are only relevant with breeding into adapted backgrounds.
• Preserve biodiversity in both agricultural and natural environments
• Utilize genetic diversity for improved productivity, yield stability, nutrition and genetic discovery
• Facilitate germplasm exchange internationally

2. Plant breeding capacities: Conserve and enhance US capacities for field-based breeding of all plant species important to the US in agri-regionally relevant manners.
• The long-term sustainability of plant breeding programs requires sufficient funding to ensure that both personnel and infrastructure can meet the long-term challenges to develop and adapt emerging technologies required to sustain the increasing demand for food, feed, fiber and fuel in the US.
• These resources further provide the necessary basis for germplasm characterization, education, translation of technologies, innovation and outreach

3. Innovations: Identify, research and exploit new approaches and new targets for plant breeding that enhance our economy, environment, health, sustainability and food security.
• The evolving biotic and abiotic stresses with changes in environment, and demand for higher productivity and quality of food, feed and fiber require constant innovation in plant breeding.

4. Science & Technologies: Research, use and create new technologies that augment the range and speed of field-based breeding of plants of importance.
• The translation and integration of technologies into plant breeding is essential to develop new strategies for crop improvement to be competitive globally.

5. Education: Foster state-based efforts and investments to retain and strengthen plant breeding education in agri-regionally relevant manners.
• Participate in integrated training opportunities for students and scientists with government, academic and industry programs

6. Outreach: Communicate and exemplify why society [1] needs plants, [2] needs plant breeding, plant breeders, and plant breeding programs.
• Sustaining and building a workforce focused on crop improvement and agriculture are essential to remain competitive and meet societal demands of an increasing population with decreasing resources.

Email from Ann Marie Thro to Rita

From: ritamumm@illinois.edu
Subject: A message from Ann Marie Thro in follow-up to the Oct 25th NAPB/PBCC EC telecon
Date: October 27, 2011 1:49:53 PM GMT-04:00

Greetings, PBCC/NAPB colleagues.

Thanks to all of you on the call this Tuesday, for putting up with the phone card confusion and airport background. It was great to hear your voices.

As Rita mentioned, I have been discussing with NIFA whether or not the agency could use my temporary absence as a unique opportunity to bring in an infusion of cutting-edge plant breeding science expertise, via a 6 to 12 month temporary person (such as someone on sabbatical). This person could support liaison to PBCC (SCC 80) and help NIFA engage in upcoming national discussions about ag research and research funding, while carrying out grants management tasks. I've offered to help with terms of reference.

IMPORTANT caveat: NIFA has not yet responded to this suggestion, nor decided. It is too soon to know if NIFA can agree to the idea.

A top-quality plant breeder as a short-term Acting NPL would create long-term benefit by propelling the NIFA Plant Breeding NPL position forward. On my return I'd find new, up–to-the-minute knowledge and ideas in place. Both would draw out my renewed best for the agency and stakeholders.

Benefits from a short-term assignment with NIFA would be the opportunities a) to get to know the agency from the inside out (a benefit they can share with their home organization when they return); and b) to influence national thinking about plant breeding research and its funding. These are similar to the insights gained and given by NRI chief scientists (those were 1 or 2 yr appointments in years past). Those positions were instrumental in inspiring and designing the concept of CAP grants that have become an important award type in NRI and now in AFRI. So a person with an idea that meets a timely need can have a real impact.

If anyone has questions (or good ideas), I would be glad to try to answer them (or learn about them, respectively)! Thank you for your attention and best wishes for your work-- AMT

 

 

 

Minutes of the joint NAPB - PBCC  EC monthly phone conference
Sept. 20th 2011, 1:00 pm CDT.

In attendance:  Liz Lee, Rita Mumm, Don Backburn, David Stelly, Allen Van Deynze, Seth Murray, Jamie Sherman, David Baltensperger, Ellen Bergfeld (ASA/CSSA/SSSA CEO), Ian Popkewitz (ASA/CSSA/SSSA), Maria Salas-Fernandez, Marcelo Carena, Tom Koch, Andrea Cardinal, Janet Lewis, Mike Havey.
Regrets: Donn Cummings, Phil Simon, Tom Stalker, Pat Byrne, Shelley Jansky

Note:  items in the minutes that are underlined are potential action items and/or items for future teleconferences (Liz).

Agenda items:

None.

Rita circulated a document from the last EC meeting.  If there are any changes, please get those back to Phil so that we can finalize this document.  See attachment at the end of the minutes.  Rita will get the table table explaining the relationship between NAPB and PBCC to Seth for posting on the web.  In the text document should we put a brief description of the differences between NAPB and PBCC (David S.).

The finalized mission statements will be embedded into the table of officers (see above).  We are revisiting the finalized mission statements from the August meeting.  This will be the final attempt, after which they stand as written and pending approval of the general membership.  In general, mission statements should convey a greater purpose (David S.).  A mission statement should be something that we can actually achieve (Rita).

From Allen Van Deynze via email Sept. 20, 2011:
PBCC’s mission (Allen)
To provide a forum for leadership on issues and opportunities of strategic importance to national core competency in crop improvement, plant breeding research and education.

Allen moved to approve as read, Mike Havey seconded the motion, and motion passed by consensus.

Janet and David S. after the fact questioned the semantics of “crop” perhaps being a bit too restrictive or limiting, but then “plant” is a bit too general and redundant.  We have decided to move on.

NAPB’s mission (David S.)  We have 2 options below and we need to pick one.
1) To enhance the (U.S.) scientific and educational capacities in plant breeding by increasing knowledge, awareness and resources. (3 votes supporting)
2) To assure (strengthen) that capacities for domestic (U.S.) plant breeding research, technology, education, and public awareness are sufficient to meet domestic and international needs for plants on which our nation and world rely -- for food, feed, fiber, fuels, environmental maintenance (stewardship), aesthetics, recreation, and (human health) innumerable substances for pharmaceutical and industrial purposes. (8 votes supporting)

David B. moved to accept statement #2 as edited, David S. seconded the motion, and motion passed by consensus.

NAPB’s finalized mission statement:
To strengthen capacities for U.S. plant breeding research, technology, education, and public awareness to meet needs for plants on which our nation and world rely -- for food, feed, fiber, fuels, environmental stewardship, aesthetics, recreation, and human health.

Seth talked with Jim Hancock, resulting in some suggested structural changes to consider for the web site.  Seth is working up a mock-up of the changes for us to look at.  Jim’s question to Seth and the larger NAPB/PBCC exec is what is the audience that we are trying to target and what are the goals that we are trying to meet with the web site?

The web site is getting about 1000 hits and 134 unique visitors each day.  How much do we have to worry about media using this as a source for plant breeding?  We should have a “for media page” as well as some links to good sites for information.  And we need to try to avoid dead links.

Some purposes:  communication and information tool within our group and outside of our group, retaining historic knowledge, attracting students to the profession, helping us to define ourselves, portal for getting information out about the meeting, executive committee meets every month but website is a way others can see what the group is doing, conduit for educational information. Also noted that the meeting website will be taken over from ASA “front-office” and will not be a purpose for the website

None given.

We will take this up via email, as we have run out of time.  We are working toward a common message to be delivered with ASTA to the seed industry and to the Hill.  In addition, we have been invited to the USDA/ARS stakeholders meeting, which gives us an opportunity to provide input to research and education priorities.  We need a person to lead the effort to develop a tailored USDA/ARS message.  Andrea volunteered to participate in developing a unified voice for the USDA/ARS along with David S. and Allen.  Rita will be attending the meeting.  This would be big picture stuff rather than detailed directives.

Don updated us and we can discuss it further at the next telecon meeting.  He is still working on a venue, possibly even at the Purdue Centre.  He met with Dow AgroSciences (DAS) logistics people and looked at how the historical timelines of the NAPB meetings fit: Day 1 (Monday) business meeting and banquet, Day 2 (Tuesday) scientific talks, Day 3 (Wednesday) tours.  DAS think that they can simplify this a bit, which will make the logistics a bit easier for everyone, and break-up the sitting in rooms for 2 straight days.  They are proposing to have tours (8-5) on Day 2, with dinner at DAS’s facility; Day 3 being presentations and poster sessions. 

There were 2 alternative options put forward during the telecon.  Rita proposed that perhaps we mix presentations and tours as half days on each of Day 2 and Day 3.  Mike picked up on this suggesting that we limit the business to only Monday morning.  Have a thematic series of scientific speakers in the afternoon and dinner with awards on Monday evening; tours on Tuesday morning, speakers on in the afternoon with dinner at DAS; Wednesday morning speakers and afternoon tours for the people who can stay.  Rita felt that we probably need more like ¾ of a day for the business meeting (8-2 on the Monday, Day 1).

The speaker committee/logistics committee will kick these ideas around some more and bring back some options to the next teleconference for how to best sort this out.

From last meeting (Aug.) the EC gave Rita the mandate to pursue using ASCESS services for front office support. For a fee of $4,000 annually, ASCESS will provide accounting services, member database management, web site, and registration support for the annual meeting.  This includes importing of NAPB members into a database, setting up a web page for the meeting, processing meeting registration online including credit card payments, managing of cash receipts, and processing invoices and issuing checks after approval of NAPB treasurer.

In addition to the packaged services, ASCESS will at cost to NAPB for services:

Questions for Ellen: 

Given what we have heard, are there any objections/concerns to moving forward with ACSESS for front office support (Rita)?  None were voiced. David S. moved to use ACSESS as our front office support, seconded by Allen, motion passed by consensus.

Our goal is to be incorporated within a year, before the next set of leaders come into NAPB (Rita).  We do have bylaws established, not sure what articles of incorporation look like (Rita); Ellen will send us theirs’ as a guide.

Next step: finalize a service agreement (Rita). Both Rita and Shelley will the signatory on the contract.

Ran out of time during the telecon, but the newsletter will be out in about a week.  Pat Byrne and I are working on it jointly in consultation with the communications committee.

October 25th and November 15th are the dates of the next scheduled telecons.

Connecting with FAO, Helen Hambly-Odame mentioned this in passing to me (Liz) yesterday that FAO is very interested in connecting with us.  Helen is going to debrief me (Liz) as soon as her college P&T duties are over with.  And, Elsevier has approached her about putting a book together on Plant Breeding Education, any interest from the group?  More info at the next teleconference on both of these items.

From Phil Simon Aug. 24, 2011
DRAFT
NAPB and PBCC Scope, Organization, and Duties of Officers, Liaisons and Subcommittee Officers

NAPB
Organizational scope and focus:
NAPB represents all aspects of national plant breeding community; focuses on the state of the plant breeding community in its fullest definition including public sector plant breeders, private industry breeders, and plant breeders with non-government organizations. NAPB takes the lead in organizing an annual meeting of plant breeders, recognizing outstanding plant breeders with awards, and advocating for issues relating to plant breeding in the political arena.

The NAPB is an independent initiative of the PBCC intended to serve as a forum for leadership, regarding issues, problems, and opportunities of long-term strategic importance to the contribution of plant breeding to national goals.

Executive Committee Members and their duties
Positions 1, 2, and 3 below serve as the NAPB Officers; all positions listed below serve as the joint NAPB/PBCC Executive Committee

1.  NAPB President - serves 1-year term; organizes periodic teleconference calls of the Executive Committees, at least quarterly; helps develop the by-laws; coordinates with membership to evaluate future needs; organizes annual meeting (NAPB lead) including a PBCC business meeting (PBCC lead); serves as liaison with subcommittee chairs

2. NAPB Vice-President  - serves 1-year term; works with president/chair to help in all areas; becomes president after serving term

3. NAPB Secretary - serves 1-year term; maintains mailing list; keeps minutes of meetings; helps provide continuity with newly-elected officers; becomes vice chair after serving term

4. NAPB Treasurer-serves 2-year term; maintains financial records and facilitates distribution of funds; can be re-elected

5. NAPB / PBCC Web Editor - serves 2-year term; maintains website, web server and domain name for NAPB and PBCC; helps with the mailing list; posts minutes of meetings; can be re-elected

6. NAPB/PBCC Web Assistant - serves 2 year term; works with web editor; helps gather information and photographs for the web site; can be re-elected (could be a hired position later)

7. NAPB Archivist - serves 2 year term; maintains history and records of NAPB; photographer for meeting; adds biographies to website on famous plant breeders; works with web editor to post documents and photographs of interest to the association; can be re-elected.

8.  Past NAPB President – serves 1 - year term; organizes an elections committee to nominate and elect new leadership for all positions of the Executive Committee, except those of subcommittees which select their own leadership; leads fund-raising efforts

9. NAPB/PBCC Liaison- serves 2-year term; acts as spokesperson for the group represented; serves as ambassador from the NAPB/PBCC to the group represented

10. Subcommittee Chair - serves 1-year term; works with NAPB President and PBCC Chair to accomplish the work plan; organizes the agenda for a meeting of the subcommittee at the annual meeting (except for the Awards Panel that carries out their business before the meeting); identifies nominees to fill the Subcommittee Secretary position which becomes vacant after each annual meeting; submits an annual report for the subcommittee to be posted at our web sites; convenes conference calls of the subcommittee at least quarterly.

11. Subcommittee Vice Chair - serves 1-year term; works with subcommittee Chair to
accomplish the work plan; becomes subcommittee chair after 1-year

12. Subcommittee Secretary - serves 1-year term as secretary, followed by 1-year as Vice
Chair and 1 year as chair; coordinates communication within the subcommittee; keeps
minutes of meetings; helps the subcommittee chair

Subcommittees serve both NAPB and PBCC, but several have a predominant focus in one of these organizations

◦Science, Technology and Informatics (NAPB focus)

◦Communications and Outreach (joint NAPB and PBCC)

◦Awards Panel (NAPB focus)

 

PBCC
Organizational scope and focus: PBCC represents the national plant breeding community with a focus on training and education of plant breeders in the broader sense, including providing information to the public and administrators, and encouraging the development of formal educational opportunities, continuing education, and lifelong learning. PBCC takes the lead in fostering effective plant breeding participation and communication in the federal/state partnership, with particular reference to 1) core competency in plant breeding research, extension, and education;  and 2) the role and importance of plant breeding for the national strategic goals for agriculture and food security.

PBCC is a national coordinating committee of U.S. plant breeders established as a multistate research coordinating committee administered by the Southern Association of Agricultural Experiment Stations Directors (SCC-080) to provide plant breeders with an opportunity to work cooperatively and coordinate activities to solve problems of common interest and concern to them. 

Executive Committee Members and their duties
Positions 1, 2, and 3 below serve as the PBCC Officers; all positions listed below serve as the joint NAPB/ PBCC Executive Committee

1. PBCC Chair- serves 1-year term; organizes periodic teleconference calls of the Executive Committees, at least quarterly; helps develop the by-laws; coordinates with membership to evaluate future needs; organizes annual meeting (NAPB lead) including a PBCC business meeting (PBCC lead); serves as liaison with subcommittee chairs

2. PBCC Vice-Chair - serves 1-year term; works with president/chair to help in all areas; becomes president/chair after serving term

3. PBCC Secretary- serves 1-year term; maintains mailing list; keeps minutes of meetings; helps provide continuity with newly-elected officers; becomes vice chair after serving term

4. NAPB / PBCC Web Editor - serves 2-year term; maintains website, web server and domain name for NAPB and PBCC; helps with the mailing list; posts minutes of meetings; can be re-elected

5. NAPB Web Assistant - serves 2 year term; works with web editor; helps gather information and photographs for the web site; can be re-elected (could be a hired position later)

6. Past PBCC Chair – serves 1 - year term; organizes an elections committee to nominate and elect new leadership for all positions of the Executive Committee, except those of subcommittees which select their own leadership

7. NAPB/ PBCC Liaison - serves 2-year terms; acts as spokesperson for the group represented; serves as ambassador from the NAPB/PBCC to the group represented

8. Subcommittee Chair - serves 1-year term; works with NAPB President and PBCC Chair to accomplish the work plan; organizes the agenda for a meeting of the subcommittee at the annual meeting (except for the Awards and Nominations Subcommittee that carries out their business before the meeting); identifies nominees to fill the Subcommittee Secretary position which becomes vacant after each annual meeting; submits an annual report for the subcommittee to be posted at our web sites; convenes conference calls of the subcommittee at least quarterly.

9. Subcommittee Vice Chair - serves 1-year term; works with subcommittee Chair to
accomplish the work plan; becomes subcommittee chair after 1-year

12. Subcommittee Secretary - serves 1-year term as secretary, followed by 1-year as Vice
Chair and 1 year as chair; coordinates communication within the subcommittee; keeps
minutes of meetings; helps the subcommittee chair

Subcommittees serve both NAPB and PBCC, but several have a predominant focus in one of these organizations

◦Grand Challenges (PBCC focus)
■Interests: climate change, food security, bioenergy, global trade

◦Communications and Outreach (joint NAPB and PBCC)

◦Education and Training of Plant Breeders (PBCC focus)
■Interests: distance education, training of students in plant breeding          

           

 

 

Minutes of the joint NAPB - PBCC  EC monthly phone conference
Aug. 16th 2011, 1:00 pm CDT.

 

In attendance:  Liz Lee, Rita Mumm, Allen Van Deynze, Wayne Smith, Mike Havey, Randy Johnson, Donn Cummings, Phil Simon, David Stelly, Todd Wehner, Stephen Baenziger, Alexander Martin (ASF), David Baltensperger, Jamie Sherman.   Regets: Shelley Jansky, Karen Moldenhauer, Roy Scott, Mitch McGrath, Marcelo Carena, Seth Murray.

Agenda items:

Summer newsletter was sent to the membership, no additional updates.

After much discussion, which I have attempted to summarize below, Phil is making some additional changes to the document that he had circulated prior to the Aug. telecon.  The final copy is attached at the end of the minutes.  We will review this document and discuss it further at the Sept. telecon. 

Separate the NAPB officer from the PBCC officers.  Remove NAPB from the title. Listing the subcommittee roles and missions as well.  This may have been a major topic of discussion from the 2011 meetings.  The question of liaisons and their roles came up again.  Rita thinks that the intent of the liaisons is to actually serve both groups.  The liaisons need to help define their roles and purposes.  The diagram shows this as well (Todd).  Ad-hoc committees, e.g. meetings, awards panel, sub-committees become working groups. 

Mission statements from Allen for discussion (note I have only included the finalized ones): 

“The mission of the National Association of Plant Breeders is to advance the science, awareness and practice of plant breeding, and to enhance plant breeding capacities and educational capabilities.”

“The Plant Breeding Coordinating Committee’s mission is to provide a forum for leadership regarding issues and opportunities of strategic importance to national core competency in plant breeding research and education.”

The mission statements will be in the Sept. newsletter for comments from the membership.  The exec committee voted to approve the mission statements, which will then be ratified by the membership at the annual meetings.  Stephen B. moved to accept the mission statements (both).  Jamie seconded the motion.  Motion passed. 

The group (ASTA w/ NAPB representation) is going to Washington, D.C. in late Jan.  Specific dates for this trip are not known at this time.  Mike and Allen will be participating in a conference call later this month (Aug.) to plan for this meeting. We should know more by the Sept. joint teleconference.

How are you formulating the statements (Rita)?  Once we have an idea, Mike will bring it to the exec and then the membership to get documents to support the statements (Mike).  The issue of defining who is in the lobbying group should be done early so that the people can start planning well in advance (Rita).  Allen will definitely be going along with several ASTA members (Mike).  Allen is a PBCC officer, which may be a bit tricky, although he is not a federal employee (Mike).  If someone would like to join, they can certainly join the lobbying efforts (Mike).  Rita voiced concerns that a NAPB officer really needs to be going as part of the lobby efforts.

The structure was finalized at last meeting.  From last month’s minutes you will find Brook Blanche’s amendments to the bylaws.  There were no comments on the proposed changes, although David S. and Todd have made a few editorial changes to Brook’s amendments.  The process to change the bylaws involves publishing them in the NAPB newsletter and posting them in red on the web for comments from the membership.

The discussions under this agenda item actually covered three items: front office support, becoming a legally recognized entity (most likely a non-profit), and how to deal with donations from the Monsanto Fellows program.  I have tried to separate the three items in the minutes, but as all were discussed simultaneously I may have lost some of the content (note added by Liz in writing up the minutes).

Before we can fully engage front office support, it has come to our attention that we need to establish the organization (NAPB) identity for legal reasons.  Alexander Martin from the Agronomic Science Foundation (ASF) was invited to join the August telecon to aid in our discussion of this concept/process.  Alexander has worked with the Golden Opportunity Scholars program through ASF (Donn).  The Monsanto Fellows program has decided to fund students to attend the NAPB meetings via a charitable donation from their organization, but we will need a 5013C organizational structure (non-profit) for this to be possible.  Two options for dealing with charitable donations:  piggy back on to the Golden Opportunity Scholars Program that is already in place, the other option is to set one up for ourselves

We need to be incorporated before we can get front office support.  Need to probably find a good council for advice.  We need to probably be incorporated in a particular state and this should be the state where our front office support is located.

Rita did some investigating of the ASTA suite of services:  they outsource the web site work, they do not have a membership list that would benefit us, and in Rita’s opinion ASA is a better fit for what we need.  Rita recommended that we go with ASA (Madison, WI) for front office support and contact them to get some legal help regarding getting incorporated as a 5013C in Wisconsin.  David B. suggested that we should perhaps be incorporated as part of ASA.  Rita will follow up with ASA about getting incorporated with ASA.  The ACSESS umbrella group currently has four 5013C entities under it (Alexander).  If NAPB becomes another 5013C under it, it would perhaps work quite well.  Wayne moved that we give Rita the mandate to pursue this course of action, Donn seconded the motion, and the motion passed.

Donn reported that there has been no additional activity since the July telecon.  Do we want a theme (Donn)?  Do we want some guidance for the speaker committee (Donn)?  A leader needs to be identified (Donn).  Are there any volunteers (Donn)?  We tabled any further discussion until the next telecon.  Mike will touch base with Don Blackburn to identify the internal point person and we also need to finalize the hotel.  It was suggested that the committee include the ASTA rep, someone from the IP working group, and that perhaps we survey the membership to see if there are some topics of interest. (Note added after the telecon, the Summer Newsletter did include a solicitation for speaker topics/ideas – Liz)  Donn C. will contact Herb Ohm about serving on the speaker committee.

I am working with the communications committee on putting together a newsletter format and regular content.  The next Newsletter is slated for the end of September.  We will have a draft version of that newsletter available for comment at the Sept. telecon. (detail added after the telecon)

Does PBCC stuff belong on the NABP web site (Todd)?  This will be tabled until the Sept. meeting when Seth is able to attend.  It is probably good to have a bit of separation between NAPB and PBCC (Rita).

None given.

Next call is Sept. 20th, Oct. 25th and Nov. 15th.

DRAFT:  NAPB and PBCC Scope, Organization, and  Duties of Officers, Liaisons and Subcommittee Officers

NAPB organizational scope and focus: NAPB represents all aspects of national plant breeding community; focuses on the state of the plant breeding community in its fullest definition including public sector plant breeders, private industry breeders, and plant breeders with non-government organizations. NAPB takes the lead in organizing an annual meeting of plant breeders, recognizing outstanding plant breeders with awards, and advocating for issues relating to plant breeding in the political arena.

The NAPB is an independent initiative of the PBCC intended to serve as a forum for leadership, regarding issues, problems, and opportunities of long-term strategic importance to the contribution of plant breeding to national goals.

PBCC organizational scope and focus: PBCC represents the national plant breeding community with a focus on training and education of plant breeders in the broader sense, including providing information to the public and administrators, and encouraging the development of formal educational opportunities, continuing education, and lifelong learning. PBCC takes the lead in fostering effective plant breeding participation and communication in the federal/state partnership, with particular reference to 1) core competency in plant breeding research, extension, and education;  and 2) the role and importance of plant breeding for the national strategic goals for agriculture and food security.

PBCC is a national coordinating committee of U.S. plant breeders established as a multistate research coordinating committee administered by the Southern Association of Agricultural Experiment Stations Directors (SCC-080) to provide plant breeders with an opportunity to work cooperatively and coordinate activities to solve problems of common interest and concern to them. 

Executive Committee Members of NAPB and PBCC, and their duties
Positions 2, 3, and 4 below serve as the NAPB and PBCC Officers; all positions listed below serve as the NAPB and PBCC Executive Committees

1. Past NAPB President and Past PBCC Chair – serves 1 - year term; organizes an elections committee to nominate and elect new leadership for all positions of the Executive Committee, except those of subcommittees which select their own leadership; NAPB past-president leads fund-raising efforts

2. NAPB President and PBCC Chair- serves 1-year term; organizes periodic teleconference calls of the Executive Committees, at least quarterly; helps develop the by-laws; coordinates with membership to evaluate future needs; organizes annual meeting (NAPB lead) including a PBCC business meeting (PBCC lead); serves as liaison with subcommittee chairs

3. NAPB Vice-President /PBCC Vice-Chair - serves 1-year term; works with president/chair to help in all areas; becomes president/chair after serving term

4. NAPB Secretary / PBCC Secretary- serves 1-year term; maintains mailing list; keeps minutes of meetings; helps provide continuity with newly-elected officers; becomes vice chair after serving term

5. NAPB Treasurer-serves 2-year term; maintains financial records and facilitates distribution of funds; can be re-elected

6. NAPB / PBCC Web editor - serves 2-year term; maintains website, web server and domain name for NAPB and PBCC; helps with the mailing list; posts minutes of meetings; can be re-elected

7. NAPB and PBCC Liaisons - serve 2-year terms; acts as spokesperson for the group represented; serves as ambassador from the NAPB/PBCC to the group represented

8. NAPB archivist - serves 2 year term; maintains history and records of NAPB; photographer for meeting; adds biographies to website on famous plant breeders; works with web editor to post documents and photographs of interest to the association; can be re-elected.

9. NAPB web assistant - serves 2 year term; works with web editor; helps gather information and photographs for the web site; can be re-elected (could be a hired position later)

10. Subcommittee Chair - serves 1-year term; works with NAPB President and PBCC Chair to accomplish the work plan; organizes the agenda for a meeting of the subcommittee at the annual meeting (except for the Awards and Nominations Subcommittee that carries out their business before the meeting); identifies nominees to fill the Subcommittee Secretary position which becomes vacant after each annual meeting; submits an annual report for the subcommittee to be posted at our web sites; convenes conference calls of the subcommittee at least quarterly.

11. Subcommittee Vice Chair - serves 1-year term; works with subcommittee Chair to
accomplish the work plan; becomes subcommittee chair after 1-year

12. Subcommittee Secretary - serves 1-year term as secretary, followed by 1-year as Vice
Chair and 1 year as chair; coordinates communication within the subcommittee; keeps
minutes of meetings; helps the subcommittee chair

Subcommittees
◦Grand Challenges (PBCC focus)
■Interests: climate change, food security, bioenergy, global trade

◦Science, Technology and Informatics (NAPB focus)

◦Communications and Outreach (joint NAPB and PBCC)

◦Awards and Nominations (NAPB focus)

◦Education and Training of Plant Breeders (PBCC focus)
■Interests: distance education, training of students in plant breeding                      pws 8/4/11

 

 

Minutes of the joint NAPB - PBCC  EC monthly phone conference
July 19, 2011
1:00-2:30 pm CDT

In attendance: Donn Cummings, Mike Havey, Phil Simon, Elizabeth Lee, Seth Murray, Rita Mumm, Pat Byrne, Dave Stelly, Brooks Blanche, Karen Ann-Kuenzel Moldenhauer, Don Blackburn, Mitch McGrath

Agenda items:

How do we pass along knowledge from past to current exec members?  Can we think of some ways to do this?  Spreadsheet to keep track of on-going endeavors (Dave S.).  Database, filling out info on our membership.  We will table this for further discussion until the Aug. conference call (Rita M.).  It might be helpful to have a 1-paragraph job description and perhaps a welcome packet including expectations (Donn C.) for liaisons, officers, sub-committee/panel chairs.  Phil S. will pull together a draft of the expectations for the next conference call.  In particular we should sort out the roles of the two secretaries (NAPB and PBCC), as this is the first year with two of them and things may fall through the cracks otherwise (Liz).

Tabled for next meeting.

Regrets, tabled for next meeting.

Tabled for next meeting.

Update: we have ASA information; have made contact with ASTA, but no information yet from ASTA; another option is the botanical society (Donn C.).  The ASA options (Rita) spoke to Wes Meixelsperger, Chief Financial Officer for ASA, regarding checking account, developing our membership list, support for registration for the annual meetings, as well as potential needs for the future. 

ASA option: Checking account, with less than 20 checks written/year $200/yr, more than 20 checks $400/yr.  Populating the database and database management would be $500/yr.  Annual meeting support, $2000 for setting up the web site, $2000 for registration and credit card payments.  Bundled everything would be $4000/yr, which includes an annual audit.  Talked about potential needs for the future with them: dues collection, more involvement in the annual meetings, and web site maintenance.  They felt that they could handle all of these things.  Rita will follow up with ASTA to get their pricing information with the intent of making a final decision with regards to front office support for NAPB at the August teleconference.

Regrets, tabled for next meeting.

Meeting/speaker committee needs to get set up:  Dave S., Donn C., Seth, Mike H., Don B. will try to find someone from Dow to serve as the chair.  Possibly someone from Purdue (Herb Ohm?) and possibly a grad student from Purdue should also be on the meeting/speaker committee. Pat B. has a list that he will send to Don B. with grad students that want to be involved in the meeting. [Sara Potts, University of Illinois grad student, has indicated interest in serving as grad liaison on the speakers committee. – added after the call via Donn C.]  Jules Janick, winner of Career Award 2011, agreed to be a speaker in 2012. [Jules sent Liz an email in response to the announcement in the newsletter indicating that he would like to speak at the 2012 meeting.]   As recipient of the same award in 2010, Jim Brewbaker, who has not yet given an invited talk to NAPB, should also be a speaker.  It was further suggested that Janick's talk about ag products in historic art might even fit the occasion as an after dinner talk.

Update from Don B.:  The dates are Aug. 5-8th (Mon-Wed) 2012 and it will be on the north side of Indianapolis.  Don is still working on the hotel options, but it is down to three of them.  Dow has set up a small committee to proceed.  Don would like to get a set of guidelines for key milestones from the group.  Speaker list needs to be nailed down soon, possibly an over arching theme for the conference, possibly some half-day themes (Donn C.).  Try to get a bigger picture view perhaps.

Next month the teleconference will be on Aug. 16th at 1 pm CT.  Sept. 20th and Oct. 25th are the dates to set aside for the Sept. and Oct. meetings.  Note that the Oct. date has been moved to the 4th Tuesday to avoid conflicting with the ASA meetings.

Logo and slogan contest (Pat B.): The contest was announced at the annual meeting but Pat would like to get it out to a wider audience.  It will be sent out to the membership via the listserver.  Pat will get together with Brooks to work on the announcement and then send it to Liz.  Dave S. and Liz will get it out via the listserver.

Bi-Monthly or monthly email to the membership contents: potential speakers NAPB 2012 meeting, logo contest link to the web page, meeting reminder with greater detail to come in the future, link to the monthly minutes, reminder for sub-committee reports need to be posted on the web.  Generally should go out about a week after the teleconference.

Email from Brooks Blanche on the Awards Panel, slight edits from Liz:
The current members of the Awards Panel:
Jodi Scheffler, Past-Past-Chair?
Karen Moldenhauer, Past-Chair
Brooks Blanche, Chair
Steve Baenziger, Appointed Member (2011-2014)
Jim Brewbaker, Appointed Member (2011-2014)
Shen Ma, Appointed Member, Grad Student (2011-2014)
Phil Simon, Appointed Member, (2011-2014)

The 2 major issues that require separation from the “sub-committees” are:  a) we requested that members be appointed by the current NAPB chair, and b) we will no longer have sub-committee breakout sessions at the annual meeting.    I (Brooks) propose that we operate with this panel for the coming year.  Next year, there will be 3 new appointees and Jodi will cycle off of the Awards Panel leaving active 9 members.  Each member will vote on the award nominees for all categories.  We, the Panel members, will elect a Vice-Chair and Secretary for 2011-2012.  Karen and I (Brooks) will continue to serve on the committee until 2013, so there should be continuity while we incorporate the changes. 

Attached (Below) is a copy of the current by-laws (note that they cover both NAPB and PBCC, so that may need to be addressed in the future).

Rough proposal for the By-law Change (to separate this Panel from the Subcommittee By-laws in Section 2.7, 2.8, and 2.9):
2.10  The Awards Panel works to recognize outstanding plant breeding accomplishments made by graduate students and practicing or retired plant breeders in the public and private sector.  This Panel will consist of:  a Chair, Vice-Chair, and Secretary, and 6 additional voting members.  Each year, the current NAPB chair will appoint 3 new members to the Panel for 3-year terms.  From the pool of new members, an incoming Secretary will be elected.  The Panel Chair works with NAPB/PBCC leadership and provides feedback to the NAPB Executive Committee and is responsible for compiling the nomination packets and distribution to the voting members.   The Vice-Chair assists with accomplishing the work plan, serves as the 2nd point of contact for nomination packets, and becomes Chair after 1 year.  The Secretary records meeting minutes and other significant discussions and becomes Vice-Chair the following year.  The Annual Meeting will be held adjunct to the NAPB Annual Conference.

 

 

 

Minutes from the NABP-PBCC June Joint Teleconference
June 21, 2011
2-3:30 PM EDT, 866-773-4970, participant pass code is 8604812.

In attendance: David Stelly, Elizabeth Lee, Rita Mumm, Todd Wehner, Mike Harvey, Phil Simon, Janet Lewis, Shelley Jansky, David Baltensperger, Dave Francis, Brooks Blanche, Karen Moldenhauer, Wayne Smith, Jamie Sherman.

Agenda items:

Very good, positive comments about the meeting (Rita). Is there anything that we should do differently next year?  Dave F. - the most enjoyable aspect was the student involvement, but perhaps we need to figure out how to ratchet-up the professionalism of the student presentations.  Perhaps we should have the student speakers earlier in the program, rather than after the invited speakers.  Brooks mentioned that the awards committee was thinking about giving the student with the top poster the opportunity to speak at the conference the following year.

Awards committee members wanted to not have a subcommittee meeting at the meeting, but have their work done ahead of time (Todd).  Discussion of new awards committee structure (Brooks) dropping a secretary from the committee.  They are requesting that people be appointed to the committee for 3-yr terms to keep new blood coming through the committee, with a goal of 9 members in total, 3 appoint per year for 3-year terms.  They will go over applications for awards and aid in developing additional awards.  Brooks is chair, Karen is past chair, need to find a vice-chair.  Hoping to have either Stephen. B. or Jim Brewbaker as vice-chair.  Current chair of NAPB appoints the 3 members.  This new structure needs to be entered into the by-laws.  First we need to vote on it and Seth will then enter it on the web.  Brooks will draft the outline and circulate it to the exec.  We will finalize this and vote on it at the July meeting.

Shelley has been in touch with Kathy Ferguson (TAMU conference coordinator) for an update of the meeting dollars.  Right now our account is essentially sitting with TAMU.  While there are still some bills to be paid it looks like the balance as of yesterday (June 20th) was around $40,000, but it needs to be finalized.  We also need to make sure that we have a finalized official accounting from TAMU that will hold up to an audit considering the dollars involved. 

Much of this surplus is the result of efforts by several NAPB members and our meeting sponsors. We (NAPB/PBCC) will be writing a letter of thanks to our sponsors for all of their efforts.  David S. and Wayne S. will pull together a list of names and addresses for thank-yous and will have them put on joint NAPB/PBCC official letterhead.  Liz will coordinate the letters and circulate a draft of the text to the exec. 

Membership is up around 1100 members.  David S. is emailing Liz a database with the membership.  We need to solicit contact info for about 800 of our members, as we only have names and emails.  It was suggested that this can be added to the database once we have front office support.

Rita emailed to the exec a structure document with all of the sub-committees and liaisons for both NAPB and PBCC along with a general over-view of their roles (at the end of the minutes).  Rita asked that the subcommittees finalize their objectives, circulate them in advance of the next joint telecon meeting, and bring them to the next telecom.  We will then have a set of objectives to work on for the year and possibly develop strategies for meeting these objectives. 

Rita also asked that each liaison formulate either a mission statement if not a specific objective that they would like to accomplish this year.  In general we are finding a lot of commonality among the sister organizations.  David B. has agreed to serve as our liaison to the National Plant Germplasm Coordinating Committee.  The NPGCC requested that the NAPB put forth a nomination for the National Genetic Resources Advisory Council.  Dave F. nominated David B., Karen M. seconded it, and the nomination was acclaimed. Dave F. will write a letter of support and David S. will submit the nomination on behalf of NAPB.  Mike H. will write an additional letter of support and perhaps Bill Tracy should be approached about a letter of support.  The deadline for submission of the package is June 30th for the nomination.

NAPB and PBCC need to identify goals for this year.  Mike H. will contact the sub-committee chairs to see if they can work on individual topics and will bring those forward to the exec.  e.g., getting the you-tube videos out this year, developing a rapid response team to address issues, development of an IP fact sheet of the considerations that are important when making “your” IP decisions.

Janet was wondering how to open up the Grand Challenges sub-committee meeting to the greater membership.  Could she use a list-serve to advertise the subcommittee meeting?  Mike H. suggested formulating particular topics for the subcommittee meeting.  Rita was wondering if Grand Challenges would be interested in taking on organizing a Rapid Response group.  Mike H. thought that it could also come from the communications/outreach committee.

ASTA, ASA (official offer letter), and ASHS all offer “front office” services for organizations.  Todd had looked into having ASA keep our bank account which would costs us between $200-500/yr for accounting, for example. Rita would like to figure out what our needs are before we commit to a group.  We had dealt with this at the telecom prior to the annual mtg. (May 19th) regarding the checking account and had voted on having ASA do this activity.  However, as we have not acted on this yet, we decided to take a closer look at what our needs might be (short and long-term) and what it costs for those organizations to run a “front office” operation for us.  The list might include, a list-server, more complete membership information, membership list, website maintenance, checking account, meeting support (?), collection of dues (?).  We decided to do some price comparing.  Rita will ask each for a breakdown of costs for various services for next mtg.

We discussed the concept of a unified voice, what it is and how to works towards one. Unified voice for lobbying with ASTA, liaisons with other organizations form a committee working with the vice-pres (David S.) to work towards developing a unified voice.  Mike H. would be happy to work with the subcommittees to bring up issues and necessary information this year and then the NAPB liaisons will build a unified voice with our sister organizations.  What is meant by a unified voice (Dave F.)?  Advocacy is probably what we are mostly after (Rita).  Along the lines of what Roger Beachy spoke about.  Targeting mostly law and policy makers, but there may be instances when we want to reach the general public, too.

See section above under structure of NAPB and PBCC for detail.

Regrets, as Allen is representing us at the ASTA meetings in CA.  This topic was tabled this until the July meeting.

Don was not able to make this month’s meeting.  Rita gave us a bit of an update.  It will be held at a hotel near the airport, rather than at Purdue.  Need to strike a speaker’s committee with the meeting hosts closely involved.  This will be dealt with at an upcoming telecon.  The meeting will be Aug. 5-8, 2012 in Indianapolis, IN.

Seth sends his regrets.  This topic was tabled until the next meeting.  Hopefully Seth can address how he might envision his web assistant (Jim Hancock) working with him and possibly Tom Stalker, the archivist.

The next joint telecons will be July 19th, Aug. 16th, and Sept. 20th.  Please allow for an hour and a half.  2 pm Eastern time.

Other business:
Sub-committee officers: The suggestion was made by Liz that a slate of nominees for the sub-committees be developed prior to the sub-committee breakout meetings at our annual meetings.  Also, we have one or two subcommittees where a grad student is now the secretary.  It was suggested that they serve this year as a recording secretary for the subcommittee this year and that either an additional secretary for succession purposes will be appointed this year, or that secretary and vice-chair will be elected in 2012.

Along the same lines, we started a discussion regarding grad student liaisons on the sub-committees.  Rita suggested that the subcommittee chairs needs to touch base with the grad student liaisons as to their role and how they are not part of the succession change.  Are the students allowed to vote – yes was the consensus.  Do we have defined roles for the grad student liaisons – partially defined. For example, they would be involved in subcommittee meetings, but not the exec meetings.  As it was getting towards the end of the allotted time we decided to table this topic for more discussion at the July meeting.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Elizabeth Lee, NAPB secretary
June 21, 2011

 

 

NAPB Executive Committee Meeting Minutes
Apr. 21, 2011

=======================================------------------
Attending (On call)
=======================================------------------

Future Calls and Meetings

XC should make note of ad hoc meetings:

Minutes of Previous Meeting:

Data on Annual Meeting

We need guest accounts.  Campus has guest account system; Kathy wiil look into this.  The meeting sites may be different:  Anneberg (federal?) versus campus (TAMU-Link (Wi-Fi) for ILSB and Heep Ctr.  (Kathy)

ABSTRACTS:  51 Abstracts; 7 competing for speaking.

COMPETITION FOR INVITED TALKS:  Shelley -- will need help in selecting among the 7 for the talks.  Jamie volunteered.  It was suggested the 7 and a uniform scoring system be distribubted to the XC ... and the tallied responses would constitute a selection system.  (Shelley)

DOW-Ag is host for 2012.  Kathy is willing to serve as a reference for them in the planning process. (Rita will communicate her contact into to Dow Ag.)

$3250 - 2000 = $1200:  Co-host $2000 from AgriLife ceremonial, our function, NAPB cover $500? (Kathy will inform An. Sci. host)

Awards  --  shousupport for new awardees??:
Lifetime Achievement Awardee -- will we pay their way here:  free registration this year, and plans to invite for talk the following year.  This should be done for both awards. (David and Seth will inquire with Kathy about finances to see if we can afford the return of registration costs for this year, or not, to our early career winner (already registered).  Jodi will offer registration for this year and indicate offer to speak next year (with benefits).

Seed World Interviews:  Julie McNabb (~20 minutes per interview)

Nominations: Steve Baenziger

     (David Hole:     PBCC Secretary 2012)

Possible Nominee Changes (questions?):

Future Meetings:  develop and vote on 2013 at annual meeting (May 23rd)

 

NAPB executive committee meeting
Mar. 17th, 2011

=======================================------------------
Attending (On call)
=======================================------------------

  1. David Stelly
  2. Jamie Sherman
  3. Shelley Jansky
  4. Shelby Repinski
  5. Donn Cummings
  6. Todd Wehner
  7. Allen Van Deynze
  8. Phil Simon

CONTRACT FOR FRONT OFFICE ACTIVITIES?

As part of the follow-up to our previous meeting, we further discussed the possibility of having NAPB "front office" activities hosted by the ASA/CSSA/SSSA Tri-Societies -- Todd solicited input.

Hosting options:  Hosting could involve any of a number of various options (reviewed last meeting by Ellen Bergfeld).  Host coverage could be incremented according to NAPB membership (#) and amount of money.  Key goals would be to carry out "front office" activities and handle money more easily across time.  Currently, we resort to moving monies to different accounts, depending on who the officers are in a given year and their institutional affiliation. 

Fees:  There will likely be a fee for hosting.  For ease of budgeting, NAPB was interested in a flat fee, i.e., requiring a easily identified amount.  NAPB might be able pay costs for hosting fees from meeting registrations.  The possibility of initiating a membership dues system was considered.  It would conceivably provide a more stable source of income, and give NAPB a bit of money in the bank, which could help with other operations, e.g., initial aspects of arranging meetings.  However, it might jeopardize some membership (now over 900). 
The possibility of conducting a survey at the upcoming meeting about fees was considered.  It was deemed to be "loaded sampling" however, and perhaps not representative of NAPB overall.  On the other hand, the meeting is among the most important deliverables from NAPB --  to members and potential sponsors, so it might be suitable for a vote. 

Would the support from various entities be more inclined to support an organization or meeting? 

LIAISONS NEED TO STEP UP THE CALL FOR REGISTRATIONS ET CETERA.

Send out Newsletter. 
Send our reminder to register (early registration ends tomorrow). (Early Registration was Extended to March 31.  Notice was emailed out, again.))

Upcoming Positions and Nominees:

      FROM BAENZIGER SPREADSHEET

    1. NAPB Secretary:           Liz Lee
    2. NAPB Web Assistant     Jim Hancock
    3. NAPB Liaisons         
      1. Andrea Cardinal (2nd to CSSA)
      2. Ross Whetten (Forestry Tree Breeders)
    4. NAPB Archivist             Tom Stalker
    5. PBCC Vice Chair           Allen Van Deynze
    6. PBCC Secretary      
      1. Marcelo Carena
      2. Bob Zemetra

Liaison to USDA for plant breeding?
We discussed if a new position was needed as Liaison to USDA for plant breeding in USDA?
(Post meeting comment:  Do we need a new position to -- as Liaison to Eucarpia?)

Web-site Material Wanted: 
Please send information for posting on our Web site to Seth.  Jim Hancock will be joining as assistant webmaster.

MEETING-RELATED ITEMS:

Communications (Allen):  The Committee would like input on what might be the best ways to take advantage of Seed World's coverage of our upcoming meeting? 
[1] Interview each speaker.
[2] Interview graduate students about posters. 
[3] Have some plant breeding stories
- perhaps with Tour elements, and
- perhaps day after the meeting.
[4] Interview award winners.  
[5] Mark Hussey 

Secretary (Stelly) should send out email notices to NAPB on the following:

    1. Tomorrow is last day for early registration for NAPB meeting
    2. Newsletter for NAPB (last version sent by Allen)

Tours:
Are there Borlaug memorials at TAMU (possibly of relevance to the meeting)?  Have presentation about Beachell-Borlaug Assistantship Program? (E.g., Have Runge and/or Monsanto speak at Lunch about the Beachell-Borlaug Assistantship Program?  Poster?)

It was suggested more detail be provided regarding Tour elements and Tour schedule items, and how they will dovetail with travel options, i.e., flights and shuttles departing College Station.  (Now, difficult to assess travel options relative to the Tour, and thus ability to participate in Tour elements.)

XC Meeting (tentative) Sunday night May 22 7pm: 
Plan a Tentative pre-meeting gathering of the NAPB / PBCC XCs, Sunday night added for XC  7-9 pm  near Residence Inn:   We have traditionally planned this sort of pre-annual meeting XC meeting/gathering with option to cancel, if not needed.  Suggested venue should allow for a supper, for those who have not eaten already:    -  e.g. pub/food:  Bennigans (Kathy).

Continuing Issues with National Academy of Sciences: 
National Academy members agree that getting plant breeders inducted is relatively difficult. 

One idea is to establish an Academy of Agricultural Sciences, independent of NAS

COMMITTEE TYPES, ROLES, DESIGNATIONS AND IDENTIFYING THEIR LEADERS:
Do we need to distinguish between two kinds of Committees (permanent vs. temporary)?  Names should indicate type of committee?  What names would be appropriate (semantics could be important)

    1. Permanent (e.g. Standing Committee on Awards) and
    2. Ad Hoc (temporary) (e.g., Ad Hoc Committee on Topic-A, or Targeted Committee on Topic-A)     

Do we need to come up with a different system for identifying leaders of the committees?   (If what we have now has worked well (within committee consensus), leave it alone?  Maybe as a failsafe?)   Discuss this matter at our Business meeting in May?

NEXT NAPB CONF. CALL:    April 21 2pm EST

Todd Wehner:  asked for other business, then adjourned the meeting
===========================================================
Date: March 15, 2011 8:09:09 AM CDT
To: Todd Wehner <tcwehner@gmail.com>
Subject: NAPB conference call for March

March 15, 2011

MEMORANDUM
TO:      NAPB/PBCC executive committee meeting (SCC-080)
From:    Todd Wehner, NAPB President
Subject: NAPB conference call for March

Our conference call this month will be March 17 at 2 pm Eastern: 866-773-4970, code # 8604812.  Issues to discuss include:

- ASA hosting of NAPB
- Plans for 2011 NAPB/PBCC meeting: Dave Stelly, Seth Murray

- Minutes and roll call: Dave Stelly
- Treasurer: Shelley Jansky
- Website: Seth Murray
- Nominations: Steve Baenziger

- Public relations/newsletter: Allen VanDeynze

- Permanent committees vs. working groups
- Databases for plant breeding traits

- Wiki on crop breeding methods: Dave Stelly
- NAS for plant breeders
- Next conference calls: April 21, May 19

 

 

NAPB executive committee meeting Feb. 17th, 2011

=======================================------------------
Attending (On call)
=======================================------------------

  1. David Stelly
  2. Ellen Bergfeld (ASA-CSSA-SSSA "Tri-Societies")
  3. Phil Simon
  4. Mike Havey
  5. Tom Koch
  6. Todd Wehner
  7. Shelly Jansky
  8. Rita Mumm
  9. Fikret Isik
  10. Karen Moldenhauer
  11. Seth Murray
  12. Ross Whetten

Todd Wehner: called the meeting to order:

Mike Havey -- Progress on "one-pager" about the value of Investments in Plant Breeding:  Mike received lots of feedback on the one-pager that aims to explain and illustrate how long-term investment in plant breeding offers viable solutions to agricultural challenges  and opportunities.  He will send out a revised version M or T next week.  We need more PR.  For more information, please contact Mike.  We will post the one-page prominently on the NAPB website.  We may also want to develop a video.  Requests for ad hoc responses could go to Mike Havey.  For more general inquiries, the NAPB secretary could field and forward to appropriate individuals.  Mike will dovetail with Seth to get the one-pager onto the web.

Ellen Bergfeld  --  services potentially available through the Societies:  We would become one of a number of groups within the Alliance …., How much would we want to have the Society do for us and how much might it cost?  The item I distributed was more of meeting focus.  It did NOT include "FRONT OFFICE" or "BACK OFFICE" activities. Of the ~900 on our email list now, we suppose that maybe 200-300 would convert to being paying members.  List of possible support areas.

  1. Membership
  2. Create and maintain DB, contact info, tie into back office
  3. Accounting, dues, dates, accounting payable receivable, tracking dues, renewals, notifications,
  4. Lists for notifications -- category specific, if desired (state, topic keyword, crop…)
  5. Elections and election preach
  6. Award
  7. Committees
  8. Meeting support, e.g., for annual meeting (see contract provided): 
  9. Abstracts
  10. Talks
  11. Speakers
  12. Posters
  13. Exhibits
  14. Hotels
  15. Meeting site identification
  16. A/V
  17. Space assignments
  18. Web site management

 

Difficult to say what the costs might be without clear definition of what is needed.  Might be able to set an amount and then have some real-time feed back from the Societies.

Membership: 

  1. How many would we have enlist if we charged $50?  (This is not know.  "Guestimate" = 200-300?) 
  2. What would be membership benefits? 
  3. There was some concern NAPB would lose e-mail contact with the full list of 900, if it adopted a policy of emailing only members.
  4. If we were to use the minimum services (define those), then work with Ellen to get estimated costs, then we could determine if it might be affordable from meeting funds, without imposing fees on general membership, some of which would likely exit, if pressured for dollars.  

Meeting Related: 

  1. Put the dinner for Tuesday night on hold (find out last time to cancel without fee)? 
  2. If we cancel dinner -- change hour for student presentations from 4 x 15min, to 2 x 15 min, with 30 min for Early Career speaker.
  3. Get info from Kathy on last day to drop 2nd dinner.  (If we do -- options might include many going to eating mall near Hilton, where there are many choices in that mall, and nearby, from elegant, to sports bar to fast-food,, and many cuisines)
  4. Factor in coverage for "Front Office" aspects of meeting organization into fees.
  5. Include IP as part of the meeting (May 25 morning): 
  6. Projected waves of departures: 
    1. late afternoon the 24th, (530p shuttle, fly or drive)
    2. early afternoon 25th (after IP),   (1130p, 230 shuttle, fly or drive)
    3. mid-late afternoon the 25th, i.e., after tours (230 or 430p shuttle, fly or drive)

Getting to/from College Station:

  1. Houston IAH:  car 2 hr, commercial shuttle (see below), or fly (CO)
  2. Austin:  car 2hr
  3. Dallas DFW:  car 3-3.5 hr, or fly (AA)

Airport Shuttles between Houston (Hobby and Bush Intl (IAH) airports) and College Station:  ~$26 each way
http://www.groundshuttle.com/cs-schedule.php
The consensus was to let the commercial shuttle company worry about the logistics here. 

We (Sec.) needs to send out an ANNOUNCEMENT:    Send general notice for NAPB/PBCC to XC for approval :

  1. MEETING reminder -- 
  2. Notice about IP; tours info to be announced soon
  3. Cut off date for early registrations.  NAPB/PBCC
  4. Awards - need nominations,
  5. Officers -- we need nominations !!!! 
  6. OTHER??

 

NEXT NAPB CONF. CALL:    Mar 17 2pm EST

Todd Wehner:  asked for other business, then adjourned the meeting
===========================================================
MEMORANDUM
TO:      NAPB/PBCC executive committee meeting (SCC-080)
CC:      Ellen Bergfeld, CEO of ASA (ebergfeld@sciencesocieties.org)
From:    Todd Wehner, NAPB President
Subject: NAPB conference call for February


Our conference call this month will be February 17 at 2 pm Eastern: 866-773-4970, code # 8604812.  Issues to discuss include:

- Minutes and roll call: Dave Stelly
- ASA hosting of NAPB: Ellen Bergfeld (see ACSESS attachment)
- 2011 meeting announcement: Liaisons
- Plans for 2011 NAPB/PBCC meeting: Dave Stelly, Seth Murray

- Nominations: Steve Baenziger (liaisons, archivist, web assistant, PBCC VP, PBCC sec)
- Public relations/newsletter (capacity, careers, events): Allen VanDeynze

- Permanent committees vs. working groups
- Website: Seth Murray
- Treasurer: Shelley Jansky
- Databases for plant breeding traits
- Wiki on crop breeding methods: Dave Stelly
- NAS for plant breeders
- Next conference calls: March 17, April 21, May 19

Thank you.

 

 

NAPB CONFERENCE CALL 2011 JAN. 27

Minutes (revised)

Attending:  (guests)

  • Karen Moldenhauer
  • Rita Mumm
  • Jamie Sherman
  • Kathy Ferguson (TAMU)
  • Phil Simon
  • Ross Whetten
  • Stevan Madjarac (Monsanto)
  • Eloy Corona (Monsanto)
  • Seth Murray
  • Mike Havey
  • Steve Baenziger
  • Todd Wehner
  • Shelly Jansky
  • Donn Cummings
  • Allen Van Deynze
  • Ellen Bergfeld (ASA)

Karen Moldenhauer:  NEW NAPB AWARD FOR 2012 -- Outstanding Plant Breeder Award:  New award for 2012, in addition to others.  Prospective draft was sent out to SC.  Steve B. and others recommend limiting to 3 letters, at least one from outside institution.

Suggested Communications with NAPB Membership:

  • One-paragraph description is available on the web. 
  • Do another mailing:
  • Request nominations on Awards for 2011
  • Remind everyone that meeting registrations will be opening in mid-February.  (Kathy confirmed this date is on-target.)

Awards for 2011 --  Possible Nominees --  Seth:  De Leon?.   Due date for Nominations = March 15.  Everyone was encouraged to make nominations.

Eloy Corona, Stevan Madjarac from Monsanto – topic for discussion and possibly develop a position paper:  in Europe (Netherlands), over the past 1.5-2 yrs, a movement (Plantum ) has been developing on germplasm access and IP):
[a] proposing to breed with any germplasm, of any type, and
[b] unrestricted ability to commercialize without paying.  Essentially this revokes the idea of any plant patents. 

Plantum is an association of ~400 members, most very small, only a few have breeding components.

Allen:   Plantum (Dutch) is big in business and vegetable breeding is huge worldwide.  Business is trying to recognize plant breeder rights, not plant patents.  EU Stopped process patents (e.g., when a trait is captured from germplasm via breeding … and granted IP)

ASTA (www.amseed.org) has developed a position paper.  Seed Association of America (http://www.saaseed.org) also has developed a position paper.  International Seed Federation (www.worldseed.com) is re-developing their position on IP, too; their existing position (2009) is posted at http://www.worldseed.org/isf/on_intellectual_property.html. 

Mike suggests that we develop a forum for discussion.  (Need pro/con presentations and discussion.)  Bob Jondle (independent), maybe as moderator.  Such a discussion would be good as a learning tool for students.  Steve Baenziger suggested that perhaps we should invite a Plantum rep to discuss; maybe also Eur. PBA, Intl Seed Assn.?  David Stelly, Kathy Ferguson, Seth Murray and other discussed logistics of the add-on session:  the meeting agenda for the first two days is already full.  (Stevan will send link to Intl Seed Federation paper.)

AD HOC POST MEETING SESSION?  Wed. continental breakfast, 8-10am (at ILSB auditorium with table up front?).    Form an ad hoc committee.  Donn Cummings & Allen Van Deynze should spearhead development of a panel/committee.  (Table mic. And roving mic.)  Heep Ctr Rm 103 might suffice, as the crowd will be smaller, and hosting will easier there.  To encourage involvement, the session should be mon-competing time with tour elements. 

Allen Van Denzye inquired about NAPB support (registration and lodging (2)) for two professional video specialists to attend NAPB to develop useful footages.   The SC agreed.  The support will not include travel.  Allen will see them tomorrow and is to provide their contact info to Kathy Ferguson at TAMU for follow-through. 

Stelly:  Video Recordings / Slide&Audio Recordings:  A question has been raised if we want to make and provide video recordings of presentations:  Develop a committee to examine this

Ellen Bergfeld, joined late and asks if she can visit (about ASA hosting of NAPB) at the next NAPB Conference Call --  Feb 17 (1pm CST)

Jamie Sherman:  Triticeae CAP (“T-CAP”) Support --  Will support NAPB for next five years, esp. students and environmental speakers; approximately $8k per year.  Kathy will follow up for this year.  Grant is supporting 30 PhDs.  This could be a nice precedence for other CAP grants.   Ed Kaleiku might be able to help move this forward. 

Next NAPB Conference Call --  Feb 17 (1pm CST)

Rita:  next meeting --  bring up a topic Beachy brought up – develop a unified voice?  

TODD’S PREMEETING MEMO

January 26, 2011

MEMORANDUM

TO:      NAPB/PBCC executive committee meeting (SCC-080)
CC:      Ellen Bergfeld, CEO of ASA (ebergfeld@sciencesocieties.org )
CC:      Eloy Corona, Stevan Madjarac from Monsanto (eloy.r.corona@monsanto.com , stevan.madjarac@monsanto.com )
From:    Todd Wehner, NAPB President
Subject: NAPB conference call for January

Our conference call this month will be January 27 at 2 pm Eastern: 866-773-4970, code # 8604812.  I had to change my schedule due to adverse weather; Rita Mumm will lead the call if I cannot get on while traveling.  Issues to discuss include:

- Minutes and roll call: Dave Stelly
- ASA hosting of NAPB: Ellen Bergfeld (see ACSESS attachment)
- NAPB position on intellectual property: Eloy Corona, Stevan Madjarac (see ASTA attachment)
- 2011 meeting announcement: Liaisons
- Plans for 2011 NAPB/PBCC meeting: Dave Stelly, Seth Murray

- Nominations: Steve Baenziger (liaisons, archivist, web assistant, PBCC VP, PBCC sec)
- Public relations/newsletter (capacity, careers, events): Allen VanDeynze
- New NAPB award, outstanding plant breeder: Karen Moldenhauer (see attached)

- Permanent committees vs. working groups
- Website: Seth Murray
- Treasurer: Shelley Jansky
- Databases for plant breeding traits
- Wiki on crop breeding methods: Dave Stelly
- NAS for plant breeders
- Next conference calls: Feb 17, March 17, April 21, May 19

Thank you.