Attendees: George Abawi, Cornell University; Rick Bennett, University of Arkansas; Sally Miller, Ohio State University; Mike
Boehm, Ohio State University; David Gadoury, Cornell University; Steven Slack, Ohio State University; Mary Palm,
USDA APHIS; Eric Tedford, Syngenta Crop Protection; Lawrence Datnoff, Louisiana State University; and Nik
Grunwald, Oregon State University. (unable to attend Jeff Jones, University of Florida)
Staff: Amy Hope, Barb Mock, Betty Ford, Greg Grahek, Erik Uner and Michelle Bjerkness
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President Abawi began with a statement emphasizing the importance of communication among the administrative groups and committees of APS, and APS Council. To this end, Council has invited the director of OIP (Talo Pastor-Corales) to meet with
Council.
Talo attended the Latin American Society of Plant Pathology and Peruvian Plant Pathology Society last week, where there was broad participation from South American countries. Significant interest in APS and OIP activities, library donation, books for the world, group membership and other initiatives.
There is significant opportunity, and great interest in APS membership. Group membership in APS is largely “under the radar” in nearly all countries outside the US, but when discovered it is very popular. Increasing visibility of group membership, or other alternative memberships may be very important for future growth of APS. This is not seen as a revenue drain, as the choice is between group membership, or no membership; not group vs regular membership. There is no lost revenue due to lower journal subscription among this population. Thus, it was suggested that APS promote group membership in developing countries, with
“developing” determined by the definition provided by the World Bank.
Action item: OIP Director should contact the various international society presidents in developing countries and promote group and regular membership in APS (also connect with ISR group and Judy Brown to coordinate activity).
Mission of OIP has historically emphasized developing countries and those in need. However, the mission of OIP is global.
There should be a need-based focus, but APS has many international members in developed countries who should be served.
This was deemed especially important with APS hosting the ISPP meeting in 2018 in Boston. It was suggested that OIP to take a broader look beyond developing countries as a part of its mission. Need to connect and coordinate all international activities.
Action item : Director of OIP will revise the mission statement MoO section for OIP to reflect the inclusion of international members in developed countries as stakeholders relevant to the OIP mission.
Treasurer reviewed OIP budget with OIP director, and how it is utilized. Main purpose is for awards. Council suggested that OIP develop a long-term plan for roll-over funds.

Action item : Bring together task force to identify current international efforts within APS and clarify if we are leveraged well and future potential for APS. (Representatives from OIP, ISRC, Foundation, Caribbean Division Rep/President, Pub Board, PPB,
Membership, APS PRESS, Michelle/Greg, etc.)
Motion : APS Council charges the President to establish a task force to develop an inventory of all international/global activities for which APS is currently involved and suggest ways that APS can move the society forward in this area: e.g., Where are the markets of the future? Where can technology impact our ability to reach various areas of the world?
Members residing in these other countries may need to be involved in this process, albeit not necessarily by membership on the task force.
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Nik reviewed current understanding around open access. Reviewed current issues and key areas for APS consideration. Discussed a new value-add model, where we could aggregate content from sources outside of APS and make unique data packets for members. Suggestion to develop a new PLoS one like journal as a pilot to test the model. Alternate suggestion to adjust one of the existing publications into this new PLoS one model and run simultaneously with current model to monitor and determine acceptance for broader future approach. Need well thought out proposal. PDMR might be a good publication for this concept.
Entomology is looking into this already. Advertising component to consider. PHP could be done like this. MPMI community is already asking for this type of model.
Action item : Nik Grunwald will Initiate due diligence and develop proposal for council, with cost estimates for a pilot plan for open access on the PLoS1 or PeerJ model, with sustainability as key. Consider MPMI and PMN as pilot journals for this effort.
Action item : Nik Grunwald will invite the PLoS contacts to APS HQ for discussions.
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Translational research and extension activities is one of the most important contributions of our science. PPB advocated for Extension this past year. We need to better articulate the needs facing Extension and how to better advocate for Extension.
Helene Dillard : Director for past 11 years, and during timeframe budget cuts have been significant: from 2,100 staff to 1,500 staff in the counties. Mostly cuts in County funding, with less willingness for appropriation vs. contract for services. A broad array of programs have been cut. The funding levels and sequestration challenges are large, as Extension is considered discretionary funding
(easy to cut). Awareness of Extension is a major issue. Very few people know about Extension. In a poll about Extension in New
York, 62% had never heard of the Coop. Ext. Service. Of those who have heard of it, more than half were not familiar with work being done by CES. There is more awareness in agriculture sector, but this is a small part of total population. Dillard found that in dealing with funding decision-makers, the topic of safe and reliable food resonates more than “agriculture”. We need to think about how to best approach the discussion. Use value-add statements to get a more traction. Attention is paid when requests are made in terms of jobs and tax revenue, rather than a request for tax dollars with no return to the government.
Tom Burr: State appropriation in NY has been cut by 30%. This has not been offset by Federal funds. Although APS may focus on advocacy in Washington, funding decisions that primarily drive CES services downward are made at the country and state levels, not in Washington.
Mike Hoffman: Chair of ESCOP last year, research and extension communities are in this together as a partnership. Emphasis in DC is now on competitive funding, which is deemed universally good. Howevr, Capacity Building (Federal Formula) funds are very important. Buying power of Federal Formula Funds is now equivalent to than of 1982. Steve Slack will be moving this issue forward this year. Food security and capacity building is going to become a major issue.

Dillard: Trying to connect CES efforts with students. Undergrad intern program in CES in NY now hosts 27 students
($4000/summer, all different disciplines with in college), stationed in CES offices in counties, engaged learning model, thus making the experience more relevant. Working on research projects, all different areas. How can extension be more relevant with university?
There is a need to harmonize messages brought to Washington DC, to share materials with ESCOP/ECOP used in DC and compare to
APS messages. Provide APS white paper to Steve Slack and Mike Hoffman. Need to frame discussion to distinguish "ag" from the food message. More specific and targeted examples of impact of our research and outreach are needed. Ultimately, Federal level advocacy is helpful, but state level and county level advocacy is critical.
Extension is the living laboratory of the university. This message has been largely lost in some states. The university machine generates the applied research that can then be extended. But, Extension is a 2-way street for our discipline: we need CES for outreach and impact, and CES provides us with ideas for researchable questions. We need to partner with commodity groups for door-to-door for advocacy. Farm Bureau has been a significant ally for CES. The Farm Bureau is a political machine that has influence. We, as a profession, need to keep in contact with the Farm Bureau. There is potential for APS Divisions to help in this regard. The Farm Bureau is a good platform for interacting with commodity groups and key stakeholders: an opportunity for gaining voice. NC-FAR is another advocacy group, added to briefings to Congress. This might be another way to tell the story of Plant
Pathology. ESCOP pays Kay Global (marketing group) and Cornerstone (lobbyist). Both need success stories about our discipline.
They are good at getting the message out, and should be sent our ideas.
Mohammed Khan : discussed issues with attracting students to Extension. Talked about reaching out to high schools and internships in extension. Encouraged to know there are high-tech jobs in agriculture.
Concluding discussions: There are several initiatives underway within APS that are relevant to documentation and communication of impact. This is a strategic issue for APS under Goal 5 of our Strategic Plan.
Action item : Jeff Jones and other Counselors at Large will develop a template by which APS can collect impact statements through the network of APS subject matter committees.
Action item : George Abawi will lead the following effort: to reestablish contacts made by past president Ishimaru with the Center for
Communicating Science at Stonybrook University for assistance in shaping our message. There is a need to collect more data on impact, and to become much more skilled at communicating impact. We need both qualitative info (success stories, heroes, and testimonials), as well as hard data (jobs, dollars, revenue returned to government). This information was identified as critical to the work of PPB by K. Eversole during the Strategic Exchange Forum. Different messages need to be developed for many different audiences. How can we best engage and mobilize the totality of our professional society members, offices, boards, committees, and allies to work towards this common goal in a coordinated fashion? This will also involve 1) reviosn of a white paper on Extension in collaboration with PPB, and 2) to consider a task force on the above to develop a roadmap for the way forward.
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Updated Council on recent meeting in Beijing with CSPP. CSPP was excited about continuing collaborative agreement with APS.
Some on Council questioned why China was still being treated as a developing country. Membership component was seen as very positive by CSPP. Each province has a CSPP leader, and information flows through this hierarchy. Changed to 4-year timeframe for the new agreement.
Motion : To accept the amended version of agreement. Motion Approved by voice vote.
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The results need considerable refinement, but will be used as the starting point for discussions of new lobbying initiatives for PPB at the conclusion of the general meeting of Council.
Action item : Boehm to pull together small working group to polish up the results and publish. Mike spoke with Jan Leach, Nik
Grunwald, and Larry Madden to plan the best approach. Someone with Extension/outreach expertise must to be added to this group.
Consider APS member review in the process after refined by the foregoing group.

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Planning 240 technical presentations for 2014 Annual Meeting. AMB agreed that if students submit their presentations early enough they should be able to be included.
Action items : There will be a check box added to indicate the presenter is a student member within a year of graduation. Recognize the Division student award winners at award ceremony with other student awardees. Identify with ribbon.
Motion : Continue the Division Student Showcase one more year, collect data on how it goes. There will be 5 (15 min) presenters this year (Caribbean not to participate). Passed by voice vote.
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Committees request more transparency from Council, and wanted more opportunity to talk with Council. Council Booth at annual meeting needs new location, perhaps next to Foundation and Registration to increase visibility. Send message to committee leaders prior Council meetings in addition to note in News Capsule.
Action item : HQ Staff to edit Council minutes to remove non-public discussion and confidential matters, and post on APSnet for membership to view.
CAL video contest – This should be connected with the present video activity of OPRO.
Impact statements - Setting up system to capture consistent content via template. CALs to identify fields for the form. Develop web section to sort and organize stories collected by location. ICO to be the point person for impact statement content overall.
Action item: CALs to consider conducting an assessment of current committees to see where there may be some possible adjustments if limited activity.
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All boards and offices have completed their reports on the new report dashboard. These will be used as the basis of the annual report of the society. Plans call for each administrative group to join Council on a monthly conference call. It was suggested that 15 minutes be added to the conference call time, as necessary, to allow adequate time for discussion with the guests.
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Feedback from the SEF was collected and posted on the Council Collaboration Site with the minutes. This first meeting of the SEF was rough and a bit disjointed; perhaps as expected for a new entity. The purpose of the SEF was unclear to the participants, and the amount of pre-meeting reading was excessive. Breakout groups were arranged under one goal of the strategic plan, and perhaps had little else in common. Their charge in the breakout group was unclear, and there was not sufficient time for in-depth discussions.
Suggestions from the breakout groups, some of which were interesting, were usually off their assigned strategic goal. SEF participants enjoyed the PPB presentation, and would like to hear similar (brief, e.g. <30 min) presentations from other administrative groups such as OPRO. If the SEF is to meet again at the annual meeting, the following issues should be effectively addressed:
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Participation of SEF in developing topics for discussion by the SEF
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More time for group interaction, and inter-group interaction, less lecturing the group
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Make time for each group leader to very briefly highlight their best ideas before the SEF adjourns
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More cohesive and goal-oriented breakout groups.
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Early identification of groups and pre-SEF communication among groups so they can hit the ground running
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Early appointment of a leader for each breakout group
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Submission of a written summary from each breakout group to the ICO before the end of the annual meeting.

Action item: Have research highlights or interpretive summaries published with all accepted articles, Publications Board to develop the foregoing process.
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It was suggested that funds allocated to projects should not "roll-over" if significant change in progress or scope occurs. Also, funds should not automatically roll over if significant progress did not occur. Use FY as evaluation point to determine if roll-over is desirable, or if the project should be closed out if not accomplished. It was decided to close the Industry Online Course project, and remove it from the dashboard. Lessons learned from first apps: delays due to other demands on volunteer time may need to be addressed differently. Do we need to hire a post-doc/student to write content (credits possible)? Discussed paradigm shift in expectation of editorial quality of publications that are digitally produced.
Action item : Ask APS PRESS to develop list of next 5 topics for apps and look at new model for content development to ensure timely speed to market. Enter as a new idea submission in time for next Council meeting.
Action item : George Abawi to talk with Margery about timing of content development
Action item : George to send message to Monica regarding OPRO videos, thanking for efforts to date and success of first series
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Discussion focused on several questions:
 What is the mission of CSAW?
 What does APS want from CSAW?
 What exactly is CSAW prepared to do? Advocate only? Pony up funding? All of the foregoing?
 What are the areas of comment interest? What are the common priorities of CSAW and APS?
 As APS has taken the lead in CSAW, what do we need to do to drive this effort forward?
John Sherwood reviewed the status of the survey of CSAW participants in the workforce development survey. Participation was garnered from a relatively small percentage of CSAW members. Reluctance of industry to share what was viewed as proprietary information on workforce development was an impediment to broader participation. Nonetheless, ten large companies responded and defined the hiring market as totaling approximately 1000 MS/PhD position in plant sciences in the next 5 years. Of these, it was estimated that roughly one-third would be in plant pathology/plant protection.
Lack of complete participation was not viewed as an impediment to using this data for estimates of total workforce demands. It would be necessary to estimate the percentage of the total sector employment represented by the 10 participants, and then scale the numbers up proportionally. Admittedly, this is an imperfect process, but it is also a well-accepted practice in workforce planning, and has counterparts in population biology and epidemiology (i.e., we have in-house expertise in APS to make these calculations). It will be critical to make these estimates ASAP, as we need to define the size of the “ask” when we approach decision makers about support for workforce development, and also when we discuss the issue with CSAW members, who need to know the consequences of inaction regarding the total workforce demands outside of their proprietary interests.
Sherwood and others commented on the importance of work experience as the feeder system of the workforce development pipeline, as reflected in the survey, as well as APS ad hoc committee reports on the future of the profession. Various departments have obviously “got it”, as REU (Research Experience for Undergraduate) programs are now operating at many departments, and have resulted in a modest increase in graduate enrollment (ca 20% over 2008 levels). As the present output in plant pathology is somewhere between 80 to 100 PhDs per year, this is still insufficient. The university demand alone to meet projected retirements, despite projected downsizing, is in excess of this amount through 2020, and the academic sector represents only about 30% of the job market for PhDs in plant pathology. It is obvious from current funding models for graduate study in the discipline (core-funded assistantships and grant funded assistantships) that the university system output will not meet this demand without an approximate doubling of support for graduate programs in the discipline, specifically in the form of securely funded assistantships that can be used for recruitment. Lack of secure funding has a corrosive effect on the ability and enthusiasm of faculty to recruit sufficient numbers of graduate students, despite the critical workforce needs and excellent employment opportunities for graduates.

Action item: Hold meeting with participants of survey to map out plan forward. Barb Mock to put together analysis of APS support for CSAW to date, including staff time and direct expenses (including anticipated expenses), including any Agronomy Society support to date.
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Goals for FAC for FY14 include (i) reviewing the idea submissions, (ii) developing history of journal finances for analysis, (iii) streamlining and efficiency issue of journal production and resource allocation, and (iv) revenue opportunities with the annual meeting. Financial dashboard going forward will include meeting numbers in the dashboard for the fall meeting. March 17-18, 2014 is the next scheduled FAC in-person meeting at APS HQ.
Financial motion process: if small amount of funds with direct request and been discussed in the past, it was decided that the
Treasurer could approve relatively small funding allocations.
Motion : Financial decisions up to $25,000 as one time request can be approved by the APS Treasurer, and would be added to the
Council consent agenda for next available call/meeting. Implementation of request would be initiated upon Treasurer approval.
Motion approved by voice vote.
The updated MoO has now been entirely moved to APSnet.org. All administrative groups have updated mission statements, and consistent organization of major sections. The sections have been reviewed and approved by the respective chairs of the groups. The following are significant changes in the MoO that should be approved by Council: Divisional Forum - Remove reference to the
Divisional Councilor replacement, Lawrence to inform DF; Nominations – Change role of committee from performance of task to provide “assistance”, e.g., board/office leaders can contact Nominations for potential names, in support to Council.
OE - George to contact Tom Mitchell and request the completion of the MoO for Office of Education
Pub Board - delete the reference to Council position on pub board
Action item : ICO to send notification to all leaders that MoO approved and provide URL to MoO.
Motion : To approve the revised Manual of Operation as presented. Motion Approved by voice vote.
Action item: Send out upcoming appointments to Larry Madden and ask if Nominations has candidates that might be a good fit.
Action item : Ed Center and Phytopathology appointments to be considered by Pub Board and brought to Council after their Feb-
March meeting
Action item : EIC of PMN to be added to the appointment list, Kristy Palmer candidate to be brought to November call
Action item : Article in PhytoNews on role of APS Historian. George to contact P. Peterson to reappoint and determine length of term.
Nik Grunwald noted that the EIC of Phytopathology will need to be reappointed or replaced in 2014. Although EIC and Senior
Editors can serve up to two terms, replacement after one term was favored to encourage fresh perspectives in the EIC and Senior
Editors, and to deal with continuing issues of what constitutes the scope of articles suitable for Phytopathology.
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"Whereas APS is committed to partnering with global advocates to double the available amount of safe and nutritious food by 2050, APS Council endorses PPB efforts to use this goal for its advocacy.
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Motion to approve: passed by voice vote .
Motion to approve : passed by voice vote .

Discussed the scope of membership in what has historically been referred to as the “APS Department Heads”. It was the consensus of
Council that this group remain as a group of leaders from university departments, rather than be expanded to include leaders of nonacademic units (industry or ARS). Proposed name should therefore be clarified: Academic Unit Leaders Forum (AULF)
Motion: to approve the Academic Unit Leader Forum Proposal. Motion approved by voice vote.
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Divisional Forum motion for funding, up to $7000. Approved
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CSAW, up to $5,000. Approved. (Council requests financial investment to date.)
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Journal Publication Technologies, adjust to bring key contacts to HQ for up to $5,000. Approved.
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OIR proposal working with Foundation on tours proposal. No vote taken. George ask to come back once they've connected and come with proposal if still needed
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Spanish Phytopathology Society invitation to have booth October 2014, smaller scale possibility. MB to follow up with
Greg. Outreach potential. Have member handle locally. Should go to ISR for Judy consideration from outreach perspective.
No vote taken.
1.
Document and communicate the impact of plant pathology. This is specifically listed in Goal 5 of the Society’s Strategic
Plan. APS can and should address this on many levels. We can put faces on the problem. We can identify the players and the beneficiaries. We must get better at explaining why our work is beneficial to the public at large. Impact statements are connected to this effort. We must identify key topics. We must reach people through writing, speaking, in video, and using all appropriate media sources.
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Enhance the value of membership in APS, including for international members. Many APS members are not fully aware of all the benefits. APS should initiate a Membership drive that targets areas with opportunity for growth. We need to add new member, and to maintain our membership base. If we are to remain the premier plant pathology society, need to continue to grow.
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Nurture the boards, offices, and forums of APS and foster necessary cross-communication.
The theme for the 2014 annual meeting plenary session will be “Plant Health Connections”. The focus will be on the interplay of plant health, soil health and human health.
The following message was developed for the postcard to the APS membership regarding outcomes of the
APS Council meeting:
APS Council Meets to Discuss 2013–2014 Goals and Ideas
Council recently met at APS Headquarters in St. Paul, MN for their fall meeting to discuss goals and strategies for
2013–2014. Discussions focused on the following key areas:
• APS is preparing for the new world of open access and alternative models of publishing.
• Issued an updated position statement advocating science-based regulation of biotechnology and opposing mandatory labeling of food derived from genetically modified (GM) plants.
• Established a task force to coordinate international activity and build value for international membership.
• Explored how APS can better advocate for Extension.
• Created a forum for academic unit leaders within APS.
• Approved joint membership options for APS and the Chinese Society of Plant Pathology.