CO15 Turfgrass Science, Division C-5
The Div. C-5 business meeting was called to order at 4:00 p.m., November 8, 2000, by chair Jeff Nus with 125 in attendance. Announcements by Dr. Nus included description of session scheduling and the need to keep Monday and Tuesday afternoon clear for Society plenary sessions. The minutes of the 1999 C-5 business meeting were distributed via email and appeared in Crop Science. The minutes were approved as reported by Roch Gaussoin, C-5 division secretary.
Item 1. The motion to change ASA By-laws to reduce the categories of "active members" used to calculate ASA Fellows (and in effect to reduce the number of fellows awarded) was voted down by a fairly wide margin. There was considerable support from the membership to at least keep the potential number of Fellows given in any one year at the present level. However, the debate continues. Following the vote, a motion was made by the President of the SSSA for the Executive Committee to study further study the Fellows issue. The motion passed. In brief, the Executive Committee will examine the impact of changing the formula for calculating Fellows, including consideration of changes in the percentage used in the formula (currently 0.3%) and what members should be used in the formula. A report will be provided at the first Board meeting in Charlotte. Stay tuned.
Item 2. The motion to change the Board Rep cycle did not pass. The current practice of the new Board Rep becoming a voting Director at the second ASA Board meeting at the Annual Meeting (and a non-voting guest at the first Board meeting) in the year of election stands.
Item 3. There is great interest by other Divisions to create new Divisional Awards to promote members and increase activity. The C-5 student paper/poster contest was highlighted as an example of an effective award. In addition to student awards, other divisions are considering creating best paper, young scientist, gender, extension, research, and teaching awards. C-5 might want to consider these as well to promote and highlight membership achievement.
Item 4. Again, please note that the cost of meeting registration for active members will be raised by 20% over break-even to provide another revenue source (estimated at about $125,000). Also, only electronic abstracts will be available in 2001. This was estimated to provide a $30,000 savings. However, there is a cost of lost utility of having a hard abstract copy available at the meetings.
CSSA Board and Executive Committee Report.
Board representative Jeff Nus reported CSSA by-law changes including membership category changes to delete the Associate category, and to separate the student membership into graduate and undergraduate. Nus also mentioned the name changes for some of the divisions and the addition of the C-8 division. Additional information reported by Nus included the appointment of Keith Karnok to the Crop Science editorial board. The Executive Committee expressed concern on the decrease in membership, including subscriptions to Crop Science. In spite of the membership income drop, CSSA is solvent. It was also reported that the option for electronic or end year CD-ROM copies of the journals would no longer require initial purchase of hard copy. Springer-Verlag will no longer be the on-line company for Crop Science Journals. There is currently a fee for on-line journals, but post 18-months after publication the journal is free. Nus also mentioned that a new journal is being considered by CSSA, the Journal of Plant Genomics.
Historian Report
The Historian Report was written and distributed by J B. Beard with no additions or modifications.
International Turfgrass Society Report
The ITS report was given by Pam Charboneau. The conference is in Toronto in July of 2001. Charboneau went on to describe pre-conference tours involving Quebec City with a $900 Canadian registration fee. There will also be a post-conference tour on Sunday July 2, 2001 to the British Columbia - Vancouver area of Canada and down into the Pacific Northwest. Cost for the post-conference tour will be $1,400 Canadian, single occupancy and $1,800 double occupancy. Charboneau also wanted to acknowledge the ITS Net-Notes author Joseph Dipaola for his help in getting this information out. Charboneau completed her report by saying that the registration documentation will be forthcoming in the mail. It will be imperative that you get your reservation for hotels early since there is another event at the same time, which will make reservations hard to get.
Kevin Morris presented the NTEP report. Morris started by thanking the members of the NTEP Policy Committee and went on to talk about the statistical projects which had been completed. Additional information that he provided was that the USDA has agreed to fund a turf position, primarily involved with germplasm collection evaluation and to support the NTEP.
Committee Reports
Special Symposia Committee.
Gwen Stahnke gave the Special Symposia Committee report. Frank Rossi asked to be taken off of the committee, so there was at least one space left to fill on the committee. The Special Symposium that was held jointly with Division S-3 was a success. A special thanks went to Dr. Horace Skipper for his help in arranging all the speakers for the Soil Microbiology Symposium. The speakers included: Dr. Eric Nelson, Cornell; Dr. Mike Boehm, The Ohio State University; Dr. Horace Skipper, Clemson University; Dr. Gary Yuen, University of Nebraska and Dr. Joe Vargas, Michigan State University. Attendance for the symposium was 250 people. Possible Topics for the Special Symposium in Charlotte, NC, in 2001 were: 1) Water/Soil Salinity, 2) Grass/Turfgrass Taxonomy, 3) NTEP Statistical Studies, 4) Black Layer/Organic Matter Management, 5) GMO's and 6) New technologies for measuring turfgrass parameters. Four new people volunteered to be on the Special Symposium Committee. These new members are Dr. Ali Harivandi, UC Davis, Dr. Scott Ebdon, U of Massachusetts, Dr. Greg Bell, Oklahoma State, and Dr. Mike Richardson, U. of Arkansas. This will bring the number on the committee to 11 for now. Since this is a 3-year rotation, Bridgette Ruemmele, Peter Landschoot and Bruce Clarke will be rotating off the committee. The topic that was selected for planning for the Charlotte meetings is Water/Soil Salinity. Dr.Ali Harivandi and Dr. Charlie Mancino agreed to be co-chairs to arrange speakers and plan the program.
Extension Committee.
John Stier presented the Extension Committee Report. There was a Sunday evening Symposium with 4 guest speakers with approximately 60 in attendance.
Evening Program Committee.
Jeff Nus due to Frank Rossi not being present presented the Evening Program Committee Report. The topic for the Evening Symposium was turfgrass funding. Speakers included Mike Kenna, USGA; Jeff Nus, speaking on behalf of GCSAA; Jim Spindler, O.J. Noer Turfgrass Foundation; Mike Agnew, speaking on behalf of the industry; Tom Ford, TPI Foundation; Kevin Morris, the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program. Approximately 130 people were in attendance.
Education Committee.
Bruce Branham presented information concerning the Education Committee. Chair, Al Turgeon, was unable to attend. A one-hour meeting was held on Tuesday morning of the ASA meetings by the committee. It was decided to try to compile a library database of images from C-5 members. This would help facilitate presentation and accurate representation of various aspects of turfgrass science. Branham also reported on the Crop Science Journal status of C-5. Five associate editors with 30 papers submitted so far in 2000. A change in the method of submission will be implemented as soon as possible. In this new submission procedure, all manuscripts must be mailed to Karl Danneberger at the Ohio State University and he will facilitate their transfer to the appropriate Associate Editor.
Contemporary Issues Committee.
Chair, Bryan Unruh, presented information on issues the Contemporary Issues Committee was discussing. These included but were not restricted to GMOs, new alternate turf species, undergraduate and graduate education. Also discussed were web information and the intellectual property issue related to such endeavors.
C-5 Web Site Committee.
Chair, Tom Fermanian, presented information on web site activities. It was reported that currently the web site for C-5 is 3 years old. It is updated as frequently as possible primarily in the membership category with current e-mail and contact information for C-5 members. The new web address is C5turf.org. Anyone interested in content alterations or additions, please contact Tom Fermanian or any of the committee members.
Premier Web Site Committee.
Roch Gaussoin presented the report. Chair, Bob Shearman, could not attend the meeting. It was reported that there were two conference calls conducted concerning the Premier Web Site and the committee is moving forward. There was a question from the audience that a proposal would have to be brought forward to C-5 for voting. This was further discussed with no resolution.
Information Directory Sub-committee.
Chair, Keith Karnok, reported on the copy of the information directory or brochures should have been distributed to members of C-5. There was a drop in price because of the aggressive activity of many sponsors. Anyone interested in a brochure concerning the information directory should request one from Keith Karnok. The next edition will be on CD-ROM. This will be the 4th Edition. Karnok solicited help from C-5 members to facilitate the next edition. The profit from this endeavor goes to the Crop Science Division and used to further C-5 efforts.
Slide Monograph Report.
Also reported by Keith Karnok, Chair. Karnok reported that this is a very successful endeavor and has proven to make money for the C-5 Division. Many updates are long overdue as proposed by people that agreed to do the individual slide set. Karnok reported that it is either time to step down or step up and complete the process as directed. Karnok also reported that the Turf Monograph in ASA have been the best sellers. Once again, these profits are used toward C-5 endeavors.
Nominating Committee Report and Awards and Professional Advancement Committee.
Chair, Leah Brilman, reported that plans are in progress to get nominees developed and then pushed forward for Society recognition. This has proven to be very successful when done in the past. Brilman also commented on the election of Karl Danneberger as the new chair. Also suggested identifying members to bring forward for nomination for the chair and also for other awards as appropriate.
Jeff Nus added a report on the turf tour. Although Don White, Van Cline, and Jon Powell arranged tour stops for this year’s tour, the turf tour did not occur because of the scheduling conflicts.
Professional Development Initiative Update.
Presented by Hannes Combest of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America to clarify issues from previous year and give status of current PDI proposals. GCSAA members at the GCSAA annual conference in Dallas will vote the PDI proposal on. Combest emphasized that regardless of the vote for PDI educational enhancements will continue to move forward for GCSAA.
Graduate Student Outstanding Paper Awards.
Leah Brilman, chair of the committee reported that the following graduate students were awarded the following places in the C-5 poster and oral paper competition:
First Place - Stacy Boons (WA Meyer) Rutgers University. Evaluation and heritability of dollar spot resistance in creeping bentgrass genotypes.
Second Place - B.P. Horgan (B.E. Branham, R.L. Mulvaney) Univ of Illinois. Direct Field measurement of denitrification and mass balance of 15-N Labeled Potassium Nitrate applied to turf.
Third Place - Darin Lickfeldt (T.B. Voigt, A.M. Hamblin-Univ. Of IL. Determining Varietal Composition of Blended Kentucky bluegrass stands by DNA fingerprinting.
First Place - J.D. Hanks (B.L. Waldron, P.G. Johnson, K.H. Asay). Utah State and USDA - Logan Genetic variation for important low maintenance turf traits in a rhizomatous crested wheatgrass population.
Second Place - J. A. Honig (T.J. Lawson, J.A. Murphy) Rutgers University. Physical properties of sand root zone mixes varying in amendment sources.
Third Place- J.W. Pote (W.M. Sullivan, Z. Jiang) Univ. R.I., Screening creeping bentgrass for high nitrate uptake ability.
CSSA's Renaissance Initiative.
Milt Engelke attended meetings of the CSSA's Renaissance Initiative concerning drop in membership in the various societies especially CSSA. According to Engelke, the C-5 Division is looked to as the one to follow for direction of increase in membership. Engelke reported that the C-5 division is the only one that has increased in membership while the others have decreased. It was interesting to note that the C-5 Division is the only commodity-oriented division--others are discipline oriented. Discussion ensued about possible symposiums, etc. for next years meeting - discussion groups, work groups in lieu of classical papers to promote dialog.
Announcments
David Huff announced that the Center for Turfgrass Science at Penn State University has established the George Hamilton, Jr. Graduate Fellowship Award in Turfgrass Science. The purpose of this fellowship is to recognize and support excellence in graduate studies and research in Turfgrass Science at the Pennsylvania State University.
Meeting concluded with Chair, Jeff Nus, thanking the various people, including Mike Goatley as passed Secretary and the TORO Company, Turfco Company, Dow Agro-Sciences and GCSAA for sponsoring the Turf Social. Nus then passed the gavel on to the incoming chair, Milt Engelke. Engelke strongly suggested a strong attendance at the next ASA Meetings, in Charlotte, North Carolina. Engelke adjourned the meeting at 5:45 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Roch Gaussoin
C-5 Secretary