American Pomological Society
Organized 1848

 Annual Business Meeting and Awards Presentation

Providence, Rhode Island
7:30 – 9:00 pm October 5, 2003

Minutes

1.  Call to Order - meeting was called to order at 7:30 pm by Vice-President Essie Fallahi.  President Kappel was unable to attend because of an illness in the family.

 2.  Treasurer/Business Manager’s ReportRob Crassweller submitted a calendar year report for the period of Jan. 1 – Dec. 31, 2002.  He also included a copy of the Financial Statements and Auditor’s report of Dec. 31, 2002.  Rob indicated that APS had a positive cash flow in 2002. The report was reviewed and accepted.

 3.  Secretary Report – Des Layne submitted the minutes for the 2002 Annual Business Meeting.  Minutes were reviewed and accepted.

 4.  APS Sponsored Workshop at ASHS’04Kim Hummer will chair a program workshop committee.  Essie informed us that Mike Neff at ASHS considered APS qualified to function as a working group of ASHS.  As a result of this, we are entitled to host/direct a workshop each year at the annual meeting.  The tentative workshop topic discussed was “Trends and Fashions in Cultivar Development”.  Potential speakers discussed included Allan White (NZ) – pome fruits;  Floyd Zaiger (CA) – stone fruits – discussed the idea of APS providing an honorarium for Zaiger; John Clark (AR) – small fruit.  Peter Hirst suggested adding someone from ENZA who is involved in marketing.  The ASHS meeting next year will be July 18-21, 2004 in Austin, TX.

5.  Journal Editor ReportJohn Barden noted that his transition of editorship from Dave Ferree effective Jan. 1, 2003 has been smooth.  John Barden indicated that more papers are needed and that he is looking for additional cover stories. He noted that there are no page charges associated with a cover story.

6.  Shepherd Award Kim Hummer presented the 2003 Shepard award to Dr. John Barden for his paper: Barden, J. A. 2002. The influence of cultivar and orchard system on pruning time per tree, per hectare, and per unit of yield J. Amer. Pom. Soc. 56(4):202-205.   

7.  Hedrick Award – John Proctor presented awards for the following two papers:  

First Place:  Serce, S., P.W. Callow, H.-J. Ho, and J.F. Hancock. 2002.  High temperature effects on CO2 assimilation rate in genotypes of Fragaria x ananassa, F. chiloensis and F. virginiana.  J. Amer. Pom. Sci. 56(1):57-62.

Second Place:  Chun, I.-J., E. Fallahi, W.M. Colt, B. Shafii, and R.R. Tripepi. 2002. Effects of rootstocks and microsprinkler fertigation on mineral concentrations, yield, and fruit color of 'BC-2 Fuji' apple. J. Amer. Pom. Sci. 56(1):4-13.

He noted that a review manuscript by Harbut and Sullivan on “Breeding potential of lower ploidy Fragaria” received honorable mention.  A plaque will be sent to the authors of winning papers and a check for $300 and $150 will be sent to first and second place winners, respectively.  Proctor indicated that he will not serve on the committee any more and expressed thanks for the opportunity to serve.   

8.  Wilder Silver Medal Award – Des Layne presented the 2003 award to Dr. John Clark, Univ. of Arkansas.  Dr. Curt Rom received the award on behalf of Dr. Clark who was unable to attend.  Dr. Rom read some prepared remarks from Dr. Clark. Layne indicated that a biographical sketch and award write-up that will appear with a photo in an upcoming issue of J. Amer. Pom. Sci.   Layne encouraged APS members to nominate people for the 2004 award.  

9.  Editorial Committee – Wes Autio noted that a guide for authors will appear in a 2004 issue of J. Amer. Pom. Sci.  He indicated that the transition of editors from Ferree to Barden has been smooth.  Autio is looking in to the possibility of electronic manuscript submissions.

10.  Membership ReportJohn Barden indicated that he was seeking ideas on how to increase membership.  Fallahi and Crassweller discussed the possibility of having an APS team of judges to evaluate student posters at the ASHS meeting to judge them for the Hedrick award. This may require approval from Mike Neff at ASHS headquarters.  Perhaps an announcement could be posted in the ASHS Newsletter prior to the annual conference.

New Business

1. Nominations Committee – Curt Rom presented a slate of candidates for 2004 that was unanimously approved.  These were as follows:President: Fallahi
1st VP: Hummer
2nd VP: Stover
Secretary: Layne
Treasurer/Business Manager: Crassweller
Resident Agent in Massachusetts: Autio
Executive Board: Percival
Advisory Committee: Forsline, Finn, Cline, Nonnecke

2.  APS WebsiteKim Hummer acknowledged the work of Joe Postman to enhance the website with much new information including history, awards, officers, and the table of contents of the Journal.  The articles, however, are not available through the web.  The contents are only searchable through the edit function of the web browser for the page that is open.  The website has no capabilities of searching all the journals at once for a particular topic.  Kim noted that if the APS Board would like, they could look into putting in a google search engine within the page that could search that. The current website address is: http://hortweb.cas.psu.edu/aps/

Hummer indicated that she will try to get a link to the APS website from the ASHS website.

3.  APS Program Committee – Fallahi noted that there would be two talks (to follow) for the educational program following the APS Business Meeting: 1. Dr. Curt Rom (Univ. of Arkansas) would present a talk entitled, “One hundred years of pomological progress”; and 2. Dr. Carolyn DeMoranville (Univ. of Mass.) would present a talk entitled, “Cranberry industry in New England”.

The meeting was immediately followed by the educational program and it adjourned at 9:00 pm

Respectfully submitted,
Desmond R. Layne
Secretary, American Pomological Society
12/04/03