Jacksonville, Florida

February 14, 2003

President Al Hamill called the meeting to order at about 7:40 a.m. on February 14. Board members attending were Roger Becker, representing NCWSS; Jeff Derr, representing NEWSS; Steve Dewey; Mike Foley; Jerry Ivany substituting for Neil Harker of CWSS; Nelroy Jackson, representing SWSW; Jim Kells; Joyce Lancaster; Brad Majek; Carol Mallory-Smith, Tim Murphy, representing SWSS; Dale Shaner, Horace Skipper, Reid Smeda; Don Thill; Phil Westra; and Laura Whatley. Rob Hedberg, WSSA Director of Science Policy, and Rhonda Green, Business Manager, attended portions of the Board meeting.

Introduction. All attendees were introduced.

Summer Board Meeting. The summer meeting will be held July 25-27 in Kansas City. An optional tour of Allen Press will be offered the afternoon of July 25.

Local Arrangements Committee. Majek and Rich Bonanno will find a chair for the 2006y meeting in New York; if unable to find a chair they have volunteered to co-chair the committee.

Program Committee 2004. Suggested changes for LCD presentations at the 2004 meeting include submitting all presentations to section chairs no later than one week before the meeting; presentations must be 25 megabytes or less. Dewey recommended that back-up copies of the presentations be available to cover any computer or disk malfunctions. Section chairs will provide a 50-foot cord to connect the projector and LCD; with the laptop at the podium, no pointers will be needed.

Possible symposium topics include jointed goatgrass, water quality, applications of biotechnology, precision agriculture and remote sensing, invasive species management, weed biology and ecology, and weed management in organic farming.

It was suggested that the number of oral presentations be decreased and number of posters be increased to allow additional time for discussion.

Wynn John will be working to make the business meeting more attractive to members, and to better involve sustaining members in Society business.

ACTION: Hamill will tell John to proceed with ideas on improving Busines meeting attendance.

The number of volunteered papers and posters that are dropping from the program is increasing. For papers with multiple authors, it was suggested that a junior author be designated to present if the senior author is unavailable.

The suggestion was made to schedule the Turf and Ornamental Section on Tuesday afternoon so some Golf Course Superintendent Association (GCSA) members could attend. Since the GCSA annual meeting typically overlaps with the WSSA meeting, a schedule accommodation would likely encourage attendance at WSSA.

Approving symposia earlier in the year would help the Program Chair with room and section scheduling.

Board coordinators are expected to provide an overall report for their committees.

However, in some cases the coordinator rotates offf the Board before making a report. This conflict needs to be resolved.

ACTION: Hamill will revise the coordinator list so assignments are more equally distributed.

It was suggested that each committee have a designated vice-chair so there is an orderly transition when the chair completes his/her term.

It was also suggested that new Board members be directed to the Manual of Operating Procedures so their coordinator duties are clear.

Executive Secretary’s Report. About 200 to 250 of the 553 people registered for the Jacksonville meeting attended the Society social. Unfortunately, WSSA did not meet its room block at Adams Mark.

The state of Florida granted WSSA tax-exempt status.

Treasurer’s Report. A library subscription agency, Divine/Rowscom, has gone bankrupt. As a result, some libraries that paid for WSSA journals are not receiving them. The Finance Committee recommends that we send journals to the affected libraries anyway, to maintain good will and possibly future subscription revenue. There was general agreement among Board members to follow Finance’s recommendation. WSSA should not expect any income from investments this year, reflecting the U.S. economic situation.

ACTION: At the summer Board meeting, Lancaster will provide figures on number of members using credit cards for WSSA items, and the required percent give-back to the credit card companies.

The WSSA calendar lost between $2500 and $3000 this past year. Thus, for a 2004 calendar, Finance recommends supporting the calendar with $4000 only if the calendar is ready for production by September 1, 2003. It was moved (Majek), seconded (Skipper), and passed that the calendar project be supported with $4000 if it is ready for printing by September 1.

ACTION: Hamill will notify Shawn Askew of the Board’s decision.

Mallory-Smith noted that there would be no fund allocated for the Intel Science Fair. Additionally, it was noted that the ‘Kid’s Journey to Understanding Weeds’ video project does not have a defined end, time-wise; some of the materials already need revision. Therefore, Finance does not recommend continued funding of the project at this time.

The Board reconfirmed its policy of not refunding meeting registration fees.

Finance recommends that WSSA eliminate the spouse program and tours in the future. It was moved (Murphy), seconded (Mallory-Smith), and passed unanimously that the spouse program be eliminated.

ARCPACS has asked WSSA to endorse a crop Service Award. One award will be granted annually and WSSA members would be eligible for nomination. There is no cost to WSSA for the endorsement.

ACTION: Hamill will write a letter to ARCPACS endorsing the award.

The International Affairs Committee would like to use proceeds from the tee shirt sale to ship journals overseas.

ACTION: Mallory-Smith will present options for using the tee shirt profits at the July Board meeting.

Committee Coordinator Reports. Thilll, reporting for Eberlein, discussed items from Committees falling under ‘External Activities.’

Chris Parker will continue his work on the weediness potential for plants.

The Asian-Pacific Weed Science Society is interested in pursuing a joint activity with WSSA.

ACTION: Mallory-Smith will serve as the contact the Asian-Pacific Weed Science Society and will bring information on possible joint projects to the summer Board meeting.

The CAST Oversight Committee is looking for agricultural research success stories and needs two examples from WSSA by March 1, 2003. The success storeis need only be two to three sentences long.

ACTION: Hamill will send a message to WSSA members requesting that success stories be sent to Jill Schroeder or Hedberg.

The Entomological Society of America is interested in sharing office space with WSSA’s Director of Science Policy.

The Washington Liaison Committee plans to write a position paper on hiring weed scientists for weed management on public lands.

The Washington Liaison Committee plans to review the Director of Science Policy contract.

The Crop Loss Committee is planning to update their Crop Losses Due to Weeds information.

Shaner is forming subcommittee of the Herbicide Resistant Plants Committee that will pursue putting standard herbicide resistance statements on labels.

ACTION: Shaner will let Ian Heap know that resolutions must be sent to the Resolutions Committee for action.

Publication Board.

ACTION: Foley will get further information from Dow Agro-Sciences on production costs of Assessing Environmental and Societal Losses from Invasive Plants on Rangeland And Wildlands and report at the July Board meeting.

ACTION: Hamill will supply information for the WSSA Newsletter advising members on using the electronic member directory and accessing their identification code.

ACTION: Lancaster will determine the requirements for having a printable pdf of the WSSA directory, and report at the summer Board meeting.

There is a concern oover a back-log of manuscripts approved for publication.

ACTION: Foley will explore advantages and disadvantages of increasing the number of pages per issue for both Weed Science and Weed Technology with our publisher, Allen Press.

There was not a clear majority on changing the current Bayer code policy for our journals. Shaner moved, Thill seconded, and it was passed unanimously that the current Bayer code policy be retained.

Directions for contributors to Weed Science and Weed Technology will now be posted on the WSSA web site and will no longer appear in the last issue of the year for each journal.

ACTION: Foley will estimate the cost of print a synopsis and/or papers from the IPINAMS conference in November and bring the figure to the July Board meeting.

The Reviews of Weed Science Committee has asked to be retained; they intend to become more active.

ACTION: Kells will have David Mortensen solicit member suggestions for review topics via a form in the Newsletter.

Printing the Newsletter in hard copy versus posting it on the web site was discussed.

ACTION: Kells will work with David Shaw to create wording for an electronic poll on member preference for newsletter medium.

ACTION: Lancaster will conduct the electronic poll of the membership.

The local Arrangements Committee charge in the MOP needs to be reviewed and possibly revised.

ACTION: Dewey and Mallory-Smith will review the charge of the Local arrangement committee and bring it to the summer Board meeting for a vote.

ACTION: Mallory-Smith will stagger terms of office when filling vacancies on the Strategic Planning Committee.

It was suggested that a special committee, the Strategic Plan Review Committee, be formed.

Making the Placement Committee chair a 2-year term and the Vice-Chair a 4-year commitment was suggested.

ACTION: Becker and Shaner will contact their committee chairs and request that they write articles for the WSSA newsletter

ACTION: Whatley will remind Eric Gallandt that a revised MOP is needed by the summer Board meeting

ACTION: Westra will contact Will Carpenter and ask him to serve on the 50th anniversary committee.

Dick Oliver is stepping down as chair of the 50th anniversary meeting committee.

There was general agreement that the WSSA committee structure be reexamined.

ACTION: Mallory-Smith will bring a recommendation on committee structure to the summer Board meeting.

ACTION: Becker will contact the chair of the History Committee and ask for a more definitive plan of action. He will also notify the chair that WSSA will support travel to the archives in Iowa.

The Graduate Student Organization (GSO) would like to be formally recognized. The GSO has a number of suggestions for encouraging higher student attendance at the annual meeting. Examples are a lower meeting registration fee, room reimbursement, and a scholarship contest.

ACTION: Hamill will write the co-chairs, Brad Hansen and Cody Gray, and ask that one of them attend the summer Board meeting in Kansas City at WSSA’s expense.

Executive Session. It was moved, seconded and passed unanimously to go into executive session. Mallory-Smith moved and Majek seconded that the Board end tyhe executive session. The motion passed unanimously.

Director of Education. This position is currently vacant and Board members suggested candidates to fill it.

ACTION: Hamill will contact candidates to gauge their interest in the position.

Director of Science Policy (DSP). Thill led a discussion defining the role of the Director of Science Policy. WSSA currently uses a consultant, Rob Hedberg. However, if WSSA were to hire a DSP, the position would be more attractive because WSSA would pay ‘overhead’ costs such as Worker’s Compensation, Liability, and Unemployment. It was moved (Murphy), seconded (Majek), and passed unanimously that WSSA hire a Director of Science Policy at a salary negotiated by the Board.

XID Update. Alex Ogg will chair the over-all XID project committee; Skipper will serve on the committee too. Skipper will chair the marketing committee, and Phil Banks has agreed to serve on the marketing committee as well. Ogg will name members of the photo collection and review committees.

ACTION: Hamill will contact Ogg and give him the go-ahead on Phase I of the XID project.

ACTION: Hamill will give a list of possible committee members to Alex Ogg, so Ogg can make committee assignments.

ACTION: Thill will handle the contract with XID.

Lancaster suggested getting bids from various firms for marketing the product. Having a graduate student contest for a complete set of pictures for one species was suggested.

ACTION: Westra will discuss the idea of a graduate student contest with Shawn Askew.

Ivany moved and Shaner seconded that the meeting be adjourned. The motion passed unanimously and the meeting ended at about 4:00 p.m. February 14.

Laura L. Whatley

Secretary