Vegetable Breeding Working Group (VGBR)

VGBR is part of the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS)

Minutes (2003 meeting)

  • Vegetable Breeding Working Group Business Meeting
  • American Society for Horticultural Science Annual Conference
  • Providence Convention Center
  • Providence, RI
  • Saturday, October 4, 2003

In attendance: Linda Wessel-Beaver, Kevin Brink, Kevin Crosby, Richard Fery, Starl Yanxin Gas, Phillip Griffiths, Luis Gordillo, Becky Grube, Josh Hyman, Maria Jenderek, Molly Jahn, Brian Just, Zhoo-Hyeon Kim, Stephen King, Jim McCreight, Martha Mutschler, Jim Myers, Russell Nagata, Mim Nienhuis, Bhimu Pahl, Soon Park, Leonard Pike, Dennis, Ray, Kathy Reitsma, Katy Marin Rainey, Edward Ryder, Philipp Simon, Jay Scott, Mikel Stevens, John Stommel, NanKui Tong, and Todd Wehner.

1st order of business, the Vegetable Breeding Award of Excellence was announced as being Dr. Subramanyam Shnmugassundaram from the Asian Vegetable Research Center (AVRDC) for his work on vegetable soybeans. Due to the expense and distance involved Dr. Shnmugassundaram was not present; however, his recognition paperwork and plaque will be sent to him.

2nd order of business was to elect a secretary of the Vegetable Breeding Working group. Two individuals were nominated Russell Nagata and John Stommel. A vote was taken and Russell Nagata from the University of Florida was selected as the secretary elect.

3rd order of business was brought to the floor by Jim Nienhuis concerning the joint symposia between CSSA and AHSA on plant breeding. It was briefly discussed that in 2002 the working group had discussed and voted that the joint symposia be disbanded. It was decided that the issue should be revisited with the appropriate individuals in CSSA. Jim Nienhuis volunteered to contact that society and report on his discussion in upcoming 2004 ASHS meetings with the focus of possibly reinitiating those joint symposia.

4th order of business was initiated on possibilities of sponsoring a ASHS colloquium for the 2005 meetings. Jim Myers suggested a topic that had been discussed in the 2002 meetings, “breeding vegetables for developing countries.” The deadline for a 2005 colloquium was thought to be April 2004. The discussion that followed include questions as to the viability of such a topic and the fact that only few people were involved the colloquium on “Contributions of Genetics and Genomics to Human Nutrition” which had been held earlier in the day. The discussion then moved towards broadening the topic to include the interests of other working groups. It was decided that Jim Myers, Mikel Stevens, and Linda Wessel Beaver should interact and make a more definitive decision concerning the possibilities of this topic for either a colloquium or a workshop. The discussion moved towards topic suggestions for sponsoring a Workshop in 2004. No specific topics were suggested.

A concern was voiced that colloquium, workshops, and regular sessions were overlapping and making it very difficult to attended valuable presentations because of significant timing conflicts and poor arrangement of meeting schedule. It was determined that the leadership of the Vegetable Breeding Working Group should voice these concerns in upcoming communications with the ASHS leadership.

5th order of business was the request for nominations for the next Vegetable Breeding award. A brief explanation took place of, who had received it, what were the basic criteria, who might be possible candidates and how to submit nominations.

6th order of business was on the request by ASHS leadership for members to become more active in ASHS. It was discussed that Todd Wehner had provided an excellent service by maintaining a web site covering our working group:

http://cuke.hort.ncsu.edu/cucurbit/vgbr/vgbrmain.html

In closing one idea was presented as a possible workshop and that was “Mechanical Harvesting.” It was decided to be discussed at our next meeting.