Vegetable Breeding Working Group (VGBR)
VGBR is part of the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS)
Minutes (2007 meeting)
- Vegetable Breeding Working Group Business Meeting
- American Society for Horticultural Science Annual Conference
- Westin Kierland Resort, Scottsdale, Arizona
- 16 July 2007
Attendance. Ryan Hayes, Angela Davis, Kevin Crosby, Jim Myers, Russell Nagata, Mark Hutton, Phillip Griffiths, Jay Scott, John Stommel, Mikel Stevens, David Prices, Jack Staub, Chiwon Lee, James Keach, Phil Simon, Becky Grube, Molly Jahn, Ann Marie Thro, Erik Wilkins, Linda Wessel-Beaver, Todd Wehner, Beiquan Mou, James Nienhuis.
General business. Ryan Hayes opened the meeting with the 1st order of business, approval of minutes from the 2006 VGBR meeting. They were unanimously approved. There was no old business, so new business was discussed.
Joint ASHS/CSSA plant breeding symposium. Ryan Hayes requested discussion on the joint ASHS/CSSA plant breeding symposium. Due to lack of interest, the topic was dropped from the agenda.
Plant breeding coordinating committee. Linda Wessel-Beaver introduced the newly-formed plant breeding CC. She encouraged participation from VGBR at the annual meetings. All Directors of Experiment Stations are urged to support the committee. The 1st meeting was held in February of 2007 in Raleigh, N.C. The committee purpose is to demonstrate how plant breeding serves the goals of the USDA. The first slate of officers were elected at the meeting. Officers were elected: Stephen Baenziger (chair), Phil Simon (vice-chair) and Todd Wehner (secretary). The committee will work to get funding for public plant breeding. More information is on the web at
http://cuke.hort.ncsu.edu/gpb/pr/pbccmain.html
New business. Ryan Hayes requested feedback from the working group on issues of importance to the working group. Funding for non-member speakers for workshops is being studied by ASHS.
Workshop topics. Dr. Angela Davis moved the discussion to the topic of waiving registration for non-member speakers invited to ASHS workshops. The question of how to continue funding this was discussed. There was mutual agreement that waiving registration fees was a minimum requirement for invited speakers or they would decline to attend.
The next topic of discussion was Colloquia and Workshops for 2008. Ideas for potential workshops were discussed. These included post-harvest biology of vegetables and grafting vegetables for enhanced yield and quality. Dr. Jay Scott moved to propose a colloquium on grafting vegetables and Todd Wehner seconded it. The motion then passed.
Vegetable Breeding Award of Excellence. The discussion moved to the Vegetable Breeding Awards for 2006 and 2007. The 2006 award was presented to Dr. Michael Dixon for his contributions to bean breeding. He was not present, so Molly Jahn accepted it for him. The 2007 award was presented to Dr. Jay Scott for his contributions to tomato breeding. He was present and accepted the award. Dr. Davis then requested members to solicit candidates for the 2008 award.
It was suggested we have photos for the ‘VGBR Award of Excellence’ winners on our website. It was asked that anyone with photos please send them to Todd Wehner.
Election of secretary. The matter of electing a new secretary was brought up by Dr. Hayes. He moved to elect Dr. Beiquan Mou, and that motion was seconded. The members present unanimously voted to elect Dr. Mou to this position. Dr. Hayes then requested members to present any other business of interest. As nothing was brought up, he moved to adjourn the meeting at 6:54 pm.
The meeting was adjourned.
Web site for our working group: