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.
