ANNUAL MEETING

C-5 Business Meeting Minutes

Denver, Colorado

1.                    Meeting was called to order by President Gwen Stahnke at 5:30 PM.

2.                    The 2002 meeting minutes taken by Dr. Roch Gaussoin were brought up for discussion. The 2002 minutes were motioned for acceptance as submitted by Bob Shearman and a second motion was put forth by Tony Koski of Colorado. The minutes were accepted as submitted.

3.                   ASA Board Reports:

ASA Board Report Denver November 2003. Roch Gaussoin

ASA General Session Business Meeting and Board of Directors Meeting were held on Sunday November 2. It was reported that membership numbers continues to decline, down 15% from previous year. This is similar to numbers reported by other scientific societies. Decrease in publication subscriptions represents a significant challenge. It appears that individual subscriptions have been severely affected by the accessibility and availability of publications via library subscriptions and on-line. Investment portfolio of the tri-societies was up 12% in 2003 which is promising but does no compensate for the losses experienced the last two years. Significant cost saving practices are being implemented. Reports shared by various committees as well as the ASA Strategic Plan are available on the ASA website. Members are strongly encouraged to review the strategic plan and contact their respective board representative for transmission of ideas, suggestions or concerns or contact Ellen Bergfeld, Executive Vice President directly at Headquarters.

Item(s) requiring action/discussion by C5. A motion was moved and seconded to “to increase, if needed, membership dues by up to 20% to go into effect in 2005”. Per the ByLaws, the Board must approve the dues increase at this meeting (i.e. 2003) for it to go into effect in 2005. During discussion of the motion some board representatives felt that information on this proposed increase should be discussed at the division business meetings. Therefore, the motion was tabled until the closing board meeting(s) to be held on Thursday. The following information was shared concerning the rationalization for the proposed increase:

Most previous dues increases were shared post approval by the Board. The action required by C5 is to discuss the increase and rationalization and share comments and concern with the Board representative for discussion at the meeting(s) on Thursday.

The membership approved a motion to forward to the BOARD that C-5 is in support of the above mentioned proposed fee increases as reasonable, customary, and worthwhile. Roch Gaussoin will take this support to the board.

4.                    CSSAA Board Report : President Gwen Stahnke reported:

Website update concerns were addressed at the BOARD meeting. Green “fill in sheets” were distributed at the business meeting to be compiled by Carl Glazner, which would be reviewed by Gwen. The information is to be compiled for an expertise data base system.

The 4^th International Crop Science Congress is being held September 26-October 1, 2004 in Brisbane, Australia. There was discussion that the effort to include turf in this program is a result of the increased interest in turfgrass science worldwide and they may try to be competing with the ITS. A brochure was available for perusal.

5.                   Historians’ Report:

Jim Beard asked President Stahnke to write a letter of congratulations and thanks to Doug Hawes regarding his recent retirement.

Professor’s Alvin Law and Ray Kean passed away in 2002 and 2003, respectively. Both were pioneers in turf education and research. They will be missed, but not forgotten. Details are in the submitted committee report below.

A list of C-5 chairs and papers accepted was provided in the historian report, along with a list of C-5 science members who have received a Fellowship Award from one of the Tri-Societies C1925 through 1988 and from 1991 through 2001.

The C-5 Turfgrass Science Division is extending congratulations to O.M. Scott and Sons Company (75 years old) and the USGA Turf Advisory Service (50 years old). The committee chair asked the president to send letters of appreciation to both organizations. At Denver 2003 there are 206 papers presented (105 posters/84 oral/17 invited symposia).

Jim Beard has served as historian of C-5 for 30 years. Records of the historian reports plan to be submitted at the MS Turf Library, ASA Headquarters and at the University of Iowa.

A “box of records” which held meeting reports, etc., from 1946 to 1993 is currently missing. Efforts were requested to all members to search for these records.

Jim Beard expressed concern regarding functioning protocol for C-5. His concerns were given as (1) records are not forwarded in a timely manner, (2) committee members receive no formal charges before the next business meeting, and (3) completed committee tasks are not always forwarded and passed onto the chair(s).

Details regarding protocol were set forth in 1967 in a set of standard operating procedures, which will be forwarded to incoming president, Jack Fry.

Committee structures are listed as “Standing Committees,” with Ad-Hoc committees listed as ‘Temporary,” which should have a specific charge and completion date. It was also noted that the C-5 chair should have a newsletter which includes, committee chairs, members, charges, and report deadlines posted (before the next business meeting), with all annual reports forwarded to the C-5 chair. ‘No’ reports should be noted as no-report submitted to the chair.

Steven Benzingen from ASA spoke next and said he appreciates the strong attendance of C-5, and that many sections of ASA and CSSA try to emulate the success of C-5. The floor was open for questions. There were no questions.

Kopec to insert Jim Beards electronics historian report here.

6.                   ITS Report:

Dr. Charbonneau and Dr. Carrow, John Cisar and others of the ITS Board went to

Wales as a pre-meeting for the July 10-15 meetings in 2005. There will be a pre-conference tour and a post conference tour.

The ITS conference will key on two symposia; maintaining turf without chemicals and turf in an urban environment. March 1, 2004 is the ‘call for papers’ online at www.aber.ac.uk/itrc2005. Bob Carrow stated the BOARD needs to maintain contacts with Chile and/or other countries for the 2009 meetings. This is to insure proper activity takes place from the appropriate nomination committee and that a back up city can be devised if needed without loss of time.

7.                    Tony Koski/Turf Tour:

The tour on Sunday included visits to Invesco Mile High Stadium and to the Denver Broncos new training center. Special thinks to Tony Koski and to tall the staff at these facilities and the nice bus drivers.

8.                    Student Papers/Awards:

Graduate Student Competition Report:

The graduate student outstanding oral and poster competition was held Monday, November 3^rd.  The 2003 oral paper judging committee consisted of Stacy Bonos, Mark Carroll, Scott Ebdon, Tony Koski, Dean Mosdell, Deying Lei, and Ron Smith.  The oral poster winters were:

1^st place:  M. DaCosta, Rutgers University

2^nd place: R.D. Havlak, Texas A&M University

3^rd place: J.T. Brosnan, University of Massachusetts

The outstanding oral presentation presented by Industry Relations Committee was awarded to:

1^st place: M.S. Woods, Cornell University

The poster judging committee consisted of Pamela Charbanneau, Jim Frelick, Paul Johnson, Haibo Liu, Zachary Reicher, Michael Sullivan and Scott Warnke awarded the following student poster winners:

1^st place:  M. DeCosta, Rutgers University

2^nd place: Y.Q.W. Wu, Oklahoma State University

3^rd place: J. Lee, University of Florida

The outstanding poster presentation presented by the Industry Relations Committee was awarded to:

1^st place: J.E. Kaminski, University of Maryland

Submitted by Karl Danneberger.

9.                   NTEP  Reports:

NTEP report - ASA 2003, Kevin Morris

1.  Current PC members:

    D. Williams (SRIEG-IEG),  G. Stahnke (WRCC-11), T. Voigt (NCR),  J. Murphy (NE),   M. Kenna (USGA), C. Throssell (GCSAA), I. Thomas (TPI), L. Brilman (TBA), ASTA ?

2..  New trials in fall 2004- perennial ryegrass.  Will need volunteers to serve on advisory committees. Also, if funded by USGA and GCSAA will have a new on-site overseeding trial for 2004.  Memos on these trials with questionnaires are being mailed this week.

3.  Nine trial locations for the Scott Ebdon stat project.  Thanks to all the locations participating.

4.  Two grants funded for Automated Sensing - Univ. of Illinois and Univ. of Arkansas.   Objective is to refine technologies to automate field data collection - make it more quantitative and less subjective.

5.        Listening session at GCSAA, San Diego, Sat., Feb. 14, AM.  Open to all to hear about NTEP, discuss issues, ask questions, etc.

10.     C-5 Division Committee Reports:

(10-1)Education Committee: Fidanza/Turgeon:

Report for Evening Program Committee 2003 REPORT (combined with Education Committee),Mike Fidanza:

The Evening Program Committee and the Education Committee have collaborated this year for an Innovative Teaching Program on Wednesday afternoon, November 5, 2003.  Sarah Clopton and Hannes Combest of the GCSAA will conduct a workshop on effective strategies for adult education.  Division C5 members who regularly conduct educational seminars for the GCSAA or those who are interested in developing educational seminars for the GCSAA are encouraged to attend.

-Mike Fidanza

(10-2)       Special symposia – Lori Trenholm.

This committee meets after the business meeting. The symposia entitled “Measuring Sports Turf Responses” was attended by almost 150 people. There were excellent presentations by six presenters with good question/answers/comments/discussions.

(10-3)        Evening Program: (see #1 above, combined report).

(10-4)     Awards and Professional Advancements:  as well as,  Nominations Committee & Awards Committee (Joint Report)

The nominations and awards committee consisting of Milt Engelke, Gwen Stanke, Jeff Nuss and Karl Danneberger met through a series of phone and email meetings in January and early February 2003.  The committee selected and forwarded Ali Harivandi and Thomas Fermanian for 2005 C5 Chair nominees.  Thomas Fermanian was elected 2005 C5 Chair.

The committee acknowledges the following C5 award recipients:

Paul Rieke – 2003 Fred V. Grau Turfgrass Science Award

Peter Dernoeden – ASA Fellow

Bingru Huang – ASA Fellow

John Cisar – ASA Fellow

(10-5)    C-5 Chair Nominees:

Ali Harivande and Thomas Fermanian. Fermanian will be incoming chair (See above, joint report filed).

Awards:           Peter Dernolden, ASA Fellow

                        Bingro Huang, ASA Fellow

                        John Cisar, ASA Fellow

Other awards from historians report:

Al Turgeon – 2002: Fred Grau, Turfgrass Science Award of CSSA

David Gilstrap – 2003: William H. Daniel, STMA Founders Award

Jim Beard. Dedication of Dr. James B. Beard room and the Beard Turfgrass Library Collection at Michigan State University.

Dr. J. Beard and Harriet Beard. Graduate fellowship. Turfgrass Physic/Biochem, College Ford, Agr. Envt’l Sciences, Ohio State University.

Wayne Hanna. USDA-ARS Coastal Plains Station. Inventor’s Award of the University of Georgia Research Foundation.

(10-6)         Contemporary Issues:

Current Committee Members and Date They Began Serving in Parenthesis:

Darin Lickfeldt, Chair, Dow AgroSciences (2002)

John Stier, Univ. Wisconsin (2001)

George Hamilton, Penn State (2001)

Clint Waltz, Univ. Georgia (2003)

Eric Miltner, Wash. State Univ. (2003)

Ron Calhoun, Mich. State Univ. (2003)

2003 Activities:

Hosted the first Contemporary Issues Symposium at the 2003 Annual Meeting on Nov. 3 in Denver. Attended by 125 conference participants. Seven nationally recognized speakers addressed the “Economic Importance of the Turfgrass Industry”.

Committee Meeting held at noon on Nov. 3, 2003 in Denver. Topics discussed included the following:

Identification of the most critical contemporary issues

Summary of 2003 symposium success and challenges

Reelection of Darin Lickfeldt as Committee Chair in 2004.

The Contemporary Issues of highest priority are as follows:

1)       Determining the Economic Importance of the Turfgrass Industry

Action: Hosted 2003 Symposium in Denver

2)       Water Conservation, Use Restrictions and Restrictive Policies for Turf Mgt.

Action: Plan on hosting a symposium at the 2004 Annual Meeting in Seattle

3)       Combating the restrictive actions of regulatory authorities, which are drastically limiting pest control and other turf management options thereby making Integrated Pest Management unfeasible. Action: None taken

We plan on hosting a symposium at the 2004 Annual Meeting on Monday, Nov. 1, 2004 in Seattle, Washington. The proposed title is: “Water As A Commodity: Policies, Use Restrictions & Conservation”

Speakers will be identified by Jan. 1, 2004

Options for sharing this symposium with other divisions are being explored.

(10-7)        Extension Report: None reported, none filled

(10-8)        )Web Page: Thomas Fermanian:

(10-9)        Turf Industry Report:  C-5 Industry Committee 2003 Report submitted by Jamie Breuninger

Industry Committee Members:

Jamie Breuninger, Chairman, Don Floyd, Jim Frelich, Chris Forth, Mark Mahady and Dean Mosdell

The C-5 Industry Commttee met 4 times this year via conference calls ( March 24, May 5, July 21 and September 29) and has been very active. Another meeting is scheduled for November 5, 2003 in Denver.

We have had 3 expected results for 2003,

First Expected Result: "What's New in Industry Forum”

This forum took place on Tuesday November 4, 2003 from 1:25 PM until 2:30 PM in room C109 of the Colorado Convention Center and focused on new technology impacting the Turfgrass Industry.

Presentations were limited to 5 minutes in a quick moving format adapted from California Weed Science Society Annual Meetings. Chris Forth has been the lead organizer done an outstanding job of making this forum a reality. This year presentations were as follows:

 Industry Committee Mission Statement, Vision and members : C. Forth

Tying the Turfgrass research Literature Together On-Line : P. Cookingham

Alternatives to MSMA for Goosegrass Control : P. Busey

What’s New in Phosphorus Management in Turfgrass : B. Hamza

Fluroxypyr Broadleaf Herbicide and Curfew Soil Nematocide for Golf Course Turf – D. Loughner

Optical Sensors and Sprayer for Use in Turf : G. Bell

RoundUp Ready Creeping Bentgrass : Environmental Risk Assessment, regulatory Update and Varietal Performance : E. Nelson

Monument 75WG Herbicide : D. Mosdell

Low Cut Bluegrass : M. Sellman

Second Expected Result: Industry Award for C-5 Graduate Student Papers/Posters.

The second expected result was to sponsor a first ever Industry Award for C-5 Graduate Student Papers/Posters I would like to thank Dean Mosdell and Jim Frelich for organizing the effort regarding this award. In the judging, Dean was the judge for the oral papers and Jim was the judge for the posters. Besides the other criteria on the award sheet, the key criteria for the award was applicability of research to turfgrass practitioners. The recipients of this award will receive $300.00 and there will one award winner for the oral papers and one award winner for the posters.  Financial contributions for this award amounted to $1200 and were received from Dow AgroSciences, TruGreen-ChemLawn, Sygenta, The Scotts Company, Pick-Seed West and Mark M. Mahady and Associates.  This money is being held at CSSA where there is an account for the award and Dave Kral as the contact for the account.

The idea behind the judging is as follows:

We include 2 judges from the industry committee (or those selected by the industry advisory committee) on the judging committee for graduate student papers (oral and written). In conjunction with the other C-5  judges, we rank all the papers. From those selected high, the industry awards be given to those papers deemed worthy from the judging committee.  In this case,  the industry judges get input from the other judges and vise versa and the award becomes part of the overall awards and appears more of a seamless selection.

Third Expected Result: Explore creation of ARPACS Certification Category for “Certified Professional Turfgrass Specialist”.

This is a longer-term initiative and is being led by Mark Mahady and Don Floyd.  Mark and Don have continued to try to understand and relate back to the committee the infrastruture requirements and finacial support for this type of certification. There was a survey sent out to C-5 membership through Ian Popowitz from CSSA to determine the interest and support for this category of certification. Overall, the results were positive and we are continuing discussions with Luther Smith who will join us in our next conference call.  Thank you Mark and Don for you efforts here.

(10-10)     Slide Monograph:  Keith Karnok:

Progress is being made toward completing the C-5 Slide Monograph. One new title, “Turfgrass Physiology”  was forwarded to CSSA Headquarters in October. The authors are Richard Hull, Haibo Liu, Bert McCarty, Bingru Huang, and Frank Rossi. The title will be available on CD sometime after the first of the year. Another title, “Mowing” was submitted by Richard Rathjens, Jim Watson, and Steve Cockerham. Additional editing may be necessary before forwarding to CSSA Headquarters. Grady Miller also submitted a rough draft of “Roadside Turf Management.” Grady is waiting for input from Dennis Martin and Tom Samples before the project goes forward. Another title, “Turfgrass Wetting Agents” by Bob Templeton and Robert Moore and edited by Keith Karnok is being reviewed and will be completed this coming year. Although good progress has been made on the Slide Monograph, there are still approximately 25 titles not completed. This is still a worthwhile project since more than 5000 slide sets and/or CDs have been sold. To help ensure progress will be made this coming year, a reminder will be sent to the authors giving them the opportunity to withdraw their name from the assigned title thus allowing it to be reassigned to new authors.

(10-11)   Turf Directory and Resource Guide: Keith Karnok

The TMID Committee met at the annual meetings. The committee members are: Keith Karnok (chair), Pete Cookingham, Tom Fermanian, James McCrimmon, Jeff Nus, and Bruce Clark. All were present at the meeting except for James McCrimmon. The third edition of the TMID was copyrighted in 2000. There is need to begin work on the fourth edition. The primary concern of the committee is locating a willing publisher. Ann Arbor Press, the publisher of the first three editions is no longer in business. John Wiley, now has rights to the Ann Arbor holdings and  has not shown much interest in publishing a fourth edition. However, a dialogue will be initiated once more this coming year with John Wiley as well as other potential publishers. The committee believes that offering TMID on CD may be the most feasible way of going about the fourth edition.

(10-12)   C-5 Technical Editors Report:  R.C. Shearman:

There were 72 papers handled by Associate Editors, Branham, Danneberger, Gaussoin, Guertal, Huang and Huff, since our last meeting in November 2002.

Of these 72 manuscripts, 24 papers are pending, 25 were accepted and 24 were released.  The release rate was 48%.  In Addition, the TE returned four manuscripts to authors prior to forwarding to an AE, due to improper format, style and other issues.

Dr. Bingru Huang has agreed to serve a second term as AE.  We appreciate Bingru’s willingness to serve again.  Dr. John Stier will replace Dr. Karl Danneberger as AE.  Dr. Danneberger has served two terms as AE for Division C-5.  We wish to express our gratitude to Karl for his service and dedication to our Society.

Old Business

(none)

New Business

Mark Seilman awarded Charles Taliaferro with the “Breeders Cup,” which was awarded by the Turfgrass Breeders Association. Congratulations to Charles!

A.       Turfgrass E-journal Committee Report .11/11/2003.

The members of this ad hoc committee for the 2002/2003 calendar year were:

John Stier, Univ. of Wisconsin (co-chair)

Doug Karcher, Univ. of Arkansas (co-chair)

Jeff Nus, USGA

Clark Throssell, GCSAA

Jeffrey Volenec, Purdue Univ.

Following the 2002 C5 business meeting, this committee was charged with exploring the feasibility of developing an electronic journal similar to those in place on the Plant Management Network by the 2003 C5 business meeting.

A proposal to develop an electronic journal for applied turf research, to be published through Plant Management Network, was developed during summer and September  2002.  The proposal was based on the platforms currently in use for Crop Management and Forage and Grazing Lands journal.  From September to November, 2003, committee members addressed concerns and ideas regarding the proposed journal through e-mail correspondence, including the potential for revenue sharing and the ability of turf research funding agencies to reprint information.  Finally, the committee met with C5 division chair, Gwen Stahnke on 11/02/03 to ensure that the proposal details would be clearly presented at the C5 business meeting.

The proposal was e-mailed to the C5 membership on 10/27/03 for review so that action could be taken at the division business meeting on 11/04/03.  A copy of the proposal immediately follows this report.  In addition, all electronic correspondences among committee members that led to the final draft of the proposal are included at the end of this report.

Footnote:  The motion to proceed with the journal passed the C5 division without any dissenting vote.

TURFGRASS ELCTRONIC JOURNAL 

22 October 2003

PREAMBLE

The Societies have been working for some time with the approval of the divisions to enhance electronic publication in order to increase awareness of the Societies outside its current membership, partly by providing useful information to non-members, and to provide a rapid outlet for applied research in a peer-reviewed setting.  A couple of years ago the C-5 membership was introduced to the plans for Crop Management, an on-line journal to be published through the Plant Management Network (PMN).  Last year Karl Danneberger discussed the option for adding a turf e-journal to provide a rapid outlet for peer-reviewed, applied research.  A similar journal, Grazing and Forage Lands, was added to the PMN this year and together with Crop Management provide a template for the turf e-journal structure and management.  A turf e-journal is seen by the Societies as an important addition to the suite of journals managed by PMN.  Having complementing journals managed under one umbrella is intended to make sure all journals are successful, financially and otherwise.  The turf e-journal could have a different structure than the other two but realize this would increase start-up cost and time.

Karl Danneberger announced the committee membership to determine the feasibility of, and a proposal for, an electronic journal last year at the C-5 business meeting.  The committee has developed the following proposal for review by C-5 membership prior to the annual business meeting on November 4.  We will have 10-15 minutes to discuss the e-journal and wish to vote for approval, with or without modification. 

Some points to consider: Is this a desirable outlet for research? Is there sufficient interest in publishing in such a journal?  Is there sufficient readership interest to justify the time and expense?  How will this journal impact other journals such as USGA’s Turfgrass Environmental Research Online, Golf Course Management, Crop Science, etc.? 

PLEASE MAKE SURE TO REVIEW THE PROPOSAL PRIOR TO THE C-5 BUSINESS MEETING. 

Any suggestions or concerns should be sent by email to John Stier at jstier@wisc.edu.

PROPOSAL FOR A TURF ELECTRONIC JOURNAL

Objective:  Development of a peer-reviewed electronic journal for applied turfgrass research with rapid turn-around time for publication. 

Committee:  Doug Karcher (co-chair), Jeff Nus, John Stier (co-chair), Clark Throssell, Jeff Volenec

About PMN:  Plant Management Network (PMN) is a non-profit enterprise owned by the American Phytopathological Society.  They are housed in the APS building in St. Paul, MN.  PMN oversees the production of several on-line journals including Crop Management.  This summer the new Forage & Grazing Lands journal was added with partial financial support from CSSA and ASA.

Audience:  Turfgrass professionals

Format and Content:  Similar to Crop Management (www.plantmanagementnetwork.org/cm/about/call/).  The journal is intended as an outlet for applied, straightforward research trials of modest page length for on-line reading with one to three Tables or Figures.  Crop Management limits articles to 3,000 words including tables and figures. Page/word limits are negotiable though restricted by cost and the goal to be user-friendly, remembering targeted audience are turfgrass professionals, not scientists.  The ASA/CSSA/SSSA style  manual is still an appropriate reference for authors to use while preparing the manuscript, although non-SI units are used in the ‘Crop Management’ e-journal.  Color figures published free-of-charge.  The images are installed in an Image Collection and available for others to use.  Research articles contain an abstract, introduction, and body which describes the specific experiments and their results.  Reviews, management guides, and management briefs could also be published as peer-reviewed articles.  Non-peer-reviewed articles could include variety trials, news (e.g., new products, label revisions, etc.), and letters to the editor.

Page Charges:  None

Editoral Policy:  Prospective papers submitted to a turfgrass electronic journal would be peer-reviewed prior to publication.  The editorial board would consist of an editor and associate editors selected by C-5. The review process will be similar to that used in ‘Crop Science’.

Reviews and Publishing:  All reviews are conducted electronically by email attachments.  No tracking software is used, though this could change in the future.  The 5 societies at APS headquarters are considering purchasing a commercial tracking software product.  This would be different than the CSSA tracking software which is not a commercial product. Once a manuscript is approved, publication will be nearly immediate following its conversion at PMN to HTML and PDF files.  There are no volumes per se, articles are published as they arrive.  There are no publication fees.

Cost:  An electronic journal published by the Plant Management Network would have a one time start-up cost of $30,000 to develop the web site.  This would be the only cost for C-5, as routine web site maintenance would be covered by subscription fees.  ASA/CSSA provided $5,000 to help startup the Forage and Grazing Lands journal and will likely assist the turf journal to a similar degree.  We will have to raise the additional monies before the journal can be started.  C-5 should as a group discuss ways to do this, then allow a new or the existing committee to follow through.  Potential contributors include national and state turf organizations and private enterprises.  The industry is sufficiently large and multi-faceted that 50 contributors providing an average of $500 would be enough to start the process, assuming ASA/CSSA provide $5,000 in seed money.  The $30,000 to start a new journal is less than 1/10^th the cost of a new hard copy journal.

PMN currently raises revenue from individual subscriptions and partnerships (see below). Individual subscriptions are $45.  Several universities and other organizations have Partnerships with PMN, their students/members receive complimentary access and receive the monthly email and newsletter services.  Advertising could be added in the future to help PMN cover costs; currently, there are no advertisements within the PMN e-journals, though Partners do have a revolving logo on the website. 

Partnerships:  Two levels exist for private, for-profit companies, $5,000 and $10,000 annual levels as outlined in Table 1.  Partnerships could be established with other non-profit organizations.  Rates would be negotiated with PMN.  Partnership rates could decrease over time as more partners and subscriptions are added.

Table 1.  Benefits provided to for-profit partners in PMN.

Subscription benefits:  1)  Subscribers can access all journals in the PMN, including fungicide and nematicide tests, other plant health journals, etc.  2) Images in an on-line collection from publications are made available to other subscribers.

Time Frame:  If C-5 votes yes and ASA/CSSA condone the journal at the November business meetings, an editorial board could be in place by February.  Fundraising efforts would start, once the money is committed PMN can begin site construction, marketing, etc.  This will take approximately 2 months since the template already exists.  If funds are committed by April, the site could be up by June 2004.  A call for papers could go out anytime before or after the site was constructed. 

Benefits of Using PMN:  1) CSSA and ASA are PMN Partners.  Both contributed $2500/yr for logos and links on PMN website—this fee has recently been waived due to their extensive involvement.  Discounts are available to members ($38 individual subscription). Could be up and running quickly (less than 12 months).  Currently they get about 18,000 visitors per month.  2) Provides a vehicle for publishing peer-reviewed journals on applied research which are targeted for the end user.

Disadvantages:  1) PMN is not yet meeting costs.  They are seeking and securing additional partners with universities, other societies, industry, and government agencies, in addition to now offering both individual and library subscriptions.  Eighteen land grant universities are now partners at $4000/yr—this provides access to all their staff, students, and county extension agents.

Caveats:  The following items should be considered as part of the proposal unless the C-5 membership specifically requests their removal.  These items are included as caveats to our proposal because they are unique to the C-5 membership structure due in part to the heavy industry involvement along with number and types of potential subscribers.

1)       C-5 will negotiate for future revenues returned from PMN on a pro-rated basis should the PMN network become financially successful.  This will be done by the fund-raising committee which may include members from non-profit organizations associated with C-5.  Reasoning:  The potential readership for the turf e-journal could become the dominant minority or even majority of PMN’s ASA/CSSA readership.  C-5 has already set a precedence in this area by having revenues generated from the Turfgrass Information Directory returned to C-5.

2)       C-5’s non-profit supporters and affiliates (including but not limited to GCSAA and USGA), if partnered with PMN, will be allowed a) Automatic permission to reprint data (tables, graphs, etc.) and images published in the turf e-journal in their own journals such as Golf Course Management and Turfgrass Environmental Research On-line as long as appropriate references to the e-journal and PMN are provided or b) the non-profit partners are allowed to list the URL and title of the article in PMN so that a corresponding article in the non-profit’s journal “points” directly to the PMN article, allowing unrestricted access for that specific article.  Option A is preferred.  Partnerships for C-5 member organizations should be offered to the non-profit organizations at a reasonable rate, similar to the rates offered to CSSA and ASA which are ½ or less than those offered to for-profit companies.  Reasoning:  Much of the research potentially publishable in the e-journal is likely to have been funded by a non-profit entity and we need to ensure their access to publish the information. 

APPENDIX

The following information is provided in response to questions raised by the committee members and is provided in case other C-5 members have similar questions.  Most of the questions were answered by or through consultation with Miles Wimer at the Plant Management Network.

1.        How many subscriptions at $45 per year will be necessary to meet the cost of routine maintenance of the web site?  PMN is an “all for one and one for all” effort.  It doesn’t look at finances individually by journal.  Rather, each journal that’s added to the network strengthens the overall prospects of the composite, by attracting new subscribers and partners from additional interest areas.  While individual subscribers are part of PMN’s revenue mix, organizational partners and library subscriptions are currently the major part of it.  The growing list of partners can be viewed at www.plantmanagementnetwork.org/partners/profile/.

2.        What is the break-even point?  If profits are realized, who gets the profits?  PMN is a non-profit entity.  While not yet at breakeven, PMN has made steady progress on an annual basis.  With the addition of Crop Management, Forage and Grazing Lands, and many other electronic resources to the original Plant Health Progress site, PMN continues to become more and more viable.  As a not-for-profit site, eventual surplus revenues will, by and large, be reinvested in further development.  APSs’s immediate mid-range objective is to recover its investment to date.  After that, any surpluses beyond development may be viewed as ongoing management fees.  The continued objective is to serve the applied plant sciences and practitioners.

3.        Who will be responsible for marketing the turf e-journal and at what cost? PMN will support this and does a fair amount of marketing of the network overall.  There are budgeted monies for these activities which have included exhibiting, direct mail, email, and work through partner organizations.  The editorial board and C-5 may also assume some responsibility for marketing the e-journal.  Some ways to do this include newsletters to local, state, and national turf/landscape organizations, articles in their journals, and press releases through the Extension services.

4.        What plans are in place if the turf e-journal is published for several years and then must cease publication for whatever reason?  This of course is a concern for all electronic-only journals, including PMN.  In such an event and because maintaining previously published materials on a static website would involve only minimal expense, APS is committed to keeping them perpetually available.  If APS were to fail, PMN would release the materials to other nonprofits, libraries, and universities.  Articles are prefixed and cited by a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) which is an international method for identifying web publications.  Thus, if the URL changes the DOI will still point to the article.

5.        How concerned should we be that PMN is currently not meeting costs?  This is a legitimate concern.  However, new journals are being added and the addition of a turfgrass journal will increase the likelihood of success by attracting additional subscribers, libraries, and partners to the overall endeavor.  There are no guarantees, however, PMNs operations and revenue-producing partnerships and subscriptions have steadily increased since its inception.

6.        Will C-5 incur any liability of PMN fails?  No, PMN assumes all liability.  If PMN were to discontinue, journal articles would still be available as discussed through the DOI.

New Business (continued)

B.       Turf Initiative:  Kevin Morris: [NTEP]

The USDA Turf initiative has a working plan to address issues in water quality and use, germplasm enhancement, pesticide us and alternatives, and environmental management. The initiative is asking for 32.4 million dollars for personnel assignments and research. The initiative was formulated by a committee comprise of A. Daetrich, M. Kenna, C. Throssell, T. Delaney, D. Fender, T. Kimball, and R. Shearman.

The committee asked 5.4 million dollars in the first installment, with no action taken yet. It is hoped that ARS will include this amount in their 2005 budget.

R. Shearman stated that for the ARS-Turf Initiative to be successful, it has to be developed and submitted in a united effort and be void of any particular interest items or locations. Implementation will take place over several years. As planned, two-thirds of the research dollars would be to ARS scientists, with one-third for Cooperative Research Agreements with state researchers. This should stimulate increased granting opportunities perhaps through other federal agencies as well (NIH, etc.). Funding for lobby programs are needed immediately. The advisory group for the Turf Initiative Program is asking for more committee members from C-5 to join them. Since the ARS submits its proposals and is regulated through the Executive Branch, it is imperative that individual states DO NOT lobby congressmen or senators for support.

RCS also announced that the CSSA board name has been changed from C-5 Turf, to C-5 Turfgrass Science. No one in C-5 remembered this being voted on in CSSA, ever. Jim Beard agreed with that recall as well. Jack Fry as incoming C-5 chair will appoint an Ad-Hoc committee in 2003/2004 to make this official.

11.                 Other discusiion, nominations, Volunteers:  (none)

12.                 Conclusion of Term, Gwen Stahnke:

Gwen Stahnke thanked all judges, session chairs and Tony Koski (Turf Town) for their service at the 2003 meetings.

A letter was read to all from George Hamilton of Penn State, who is being treated for cancer. All present wished George well and we all look forward to his return to good health and attendance in the future!

13.                 Comments and ajourment: The gavel was passed from Gwen Stahnke to Jack Fry, incoming C-5 chair.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:05 PM.

Respectfully submitted, David M. Kopec, Ph.D., Secretary – C-5 Division

FN: C-5 meeting minutes.doc  /Toshiba/c:/asa folder