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 It’s been several weeks since we all started out the New Year resolving to exercise more, eat healthy, and spend quality time with friends and family. I don’t know about how well your resolutions are coming along, but I’m already back in my old routine of glazed chocolate donuts, skip the noontime fitness class, and trying desperately at work to catch up!
Since I’m not doing well on the lifestyle and fitness front, I thought about my resolutions as your ASHS President for the remaining 6 months of my term. First, get my Reflections columns in before the end of the month! Second, start working on my Presidential Address for Orlando, so people won’t wish they had skipped the Address and gone to SeaWorld!
Speaking more broadly, are there 2008 resolutions I can make on behalf of the ASHS Board and our organization? Since starting as Research VP-elect in 2002, serving as Research VP from 2003–05, then President-elect in 2006, and now President, I have attended a lot of ASHS Board meetings over the past 5 years. Thinking about what we as your Board try to do at those meetings, and what our commitments are to our members, what are our 2008 resolutions? This is a behind-the-scenes look at some of the principles that have guided past decisions, and also represent a commitment to the future. I conclude with what we would like to see our members resolve in 2008.
ASHS Board Resolutions in 2008:
First:
We resolve to take good care of your money, which includes operating funds, reserves, and endowment. This is actually the job of the Finance Committee, as well as the Investment Trustees and the Endowment Fund Committee, but the Board has final responsibility for oversight. Most Board members remember the Dark Days of near fiscal insolvency under previous leadership, and want to avoid a repeat. Currently, we can assure you that, not only is ASHS in good financial shape, but expenses are carefully monitored and accounts minutely audited by Phyllis Kotwicki, our certified public accountant who specializes in non-profits. Literally, it all balances out to the penny, or you explain it to Phyllis! We are currently running a much leaner (hopefully not meaner!) operation compared to 10 years ago, with only half the headquarters staff we had then. So be sure to thank Mike Neff, our Executive Director, and Tracy Shawn, Assistant Executive Director, and any other ASHS staff you see at meetings for all their hard work—if they can slow down long enough to talk! There will be some important financial decisions coming up in the next year or so as the lease ends on our Alexandria Headquarters, and we have to decide whether to lease or buy another, smaller office building. Again, we resolve to keep your long-term interests forefront.
Second:
We resolve not only to protect your money, but to also spend on increased services, projects that will ‘grow ASHS’, new member initiatives, and benefits to horticulture as a science and an industry. As a non-profit, part of our mission is to not just sit on reserve and endowment funds, but to plow them back into the Society. We considered that the following projects were good investments in the future, and resolve to not be afraid of spending when a good case can be made for a project.
One example of this spending philosophy was the conversion last year of our journals to HighWire Press, which is already paying dividends in terms increased institutional subscriptions to our journals and increased citation rates. The HighWire network not only gives us access to state-of-the-art technology and services but also expedites connections to other publishers of scholarly journals. Since publishing journals is one of our core missions as a Society, this was clearly money well spent.
Another example of the good use of reserves was contracting Jonathan Moore as congressional liaison to work with the newly formed ASHS National Issues Task Force, currently chaired by Dr. Thomas Björkman. Jonathan’s appointment allows us to monitor the travails and ultimate fate of the Farm Bill and provide input to the process where appropriate. For example, ASHS, along with most other agriculture groups, including the Farm Bureau, supported moving agricultural inspections back to USDA from Homeland Security. While this attempt was ultimately unsuccessful, there has been some recognition of problems with inspections, and concessions on addressing them. We also supported increased funding for programs such as the NRI. The recently released budget included a 10% increase for Hatch funds for research, a 5.4% increase in NRI competitive grants, and small increases for Extension Smith–Lever and 3(d) funding. Not a lot, but our support, along with that of our sister societies, may have helped protect these programs from a 0.7% rescission in the overall CSREES budget. Our overall concern is to make Federal officials aware of the financial, nutritional, and other contributions of horticultural research and the horticultural industry to the economy and health of US citizens. We also try to keep members informed of new funding opportunities as they come up. Hint: the Task Force’s current buzzword is ‘translational agriculture’!
Last, and the biggest, new commitment in terms of funds and changing the face of the Society is funding the Certified Horticulturist Program, which completed it’s test writing workshop last month, and the first test review workshop this month. This initiative was the subject of the October “Reflections” column, and you’ll be hearing more about it in the future, including the plans to offer the first exam at the 2008 meeting in Orlando.
In addition, the Endowment Fund pays for undergraduate and graduate travel to meetings. These young horticulturalists are our future and we need to support them!
Third:
Keep the amount you pay for membership, conferences, journals and page charges as low as possible. I know it may not seem that way sometimes, but membership and conference charges are not only low compared to other professional societies, but just cover costs. We also try our best to give value for money by upgrading member services, such as the current revision of the Society webpage. Check it out! In planning conferences, Tracy Shawn gets incredibly low off-season advance rates for great venues like the Westin Kierland Resort and Spa in Scottsdale. We also try to select places where members would like to vacation and bring their families. Look for future venues in Palm Springs, California, and ‘the Big Island’ of Hawaii! Most of our revenues come from our publications, but we still strive to keep page and subscription rates as low as possible. While it would be great to be able to offer free publishing and “open source” availability in order to increase the journal citation indices, this would cut into the “bread and butter” of our Society revenue stream from publications, and any changes have to be managed carefully. Peer review costs money! One revenue-neutral change we are planning in order to increase citation indices is to solicit review articles.
So if you have read this far, you are definitely a committed ASHS member! Whether or not you have given up chocolate glazed donuts this year, here are a few suggestions on what committed ASHS members can resolve to do in 2008:
- Join our leadership team and vote in the elections! Volunteer for committees or nominate someone for Board positions so you can help us keep our commitments to members. The call for volunteers will come out soon. Contact someone on the Nominations and Elections Committee to suggest someone for a Board position! Don’t be shy!
- Support our journals by subscribing, submitting articles, and reviewing. Setting the price of institutional subscriptions requires calculating how many individual subscriptions we will lose from that institution. Remember, keeping your individual subscription ensures access even when away from campus!
- Register, attend, and present at the annual conferences, and help organize symposia and workshops in advance.
- Renew your membership on time, so I don’t have to send you a reminder letter!
And finally, thank you for your support in 2007, and best wishes for a happy and successful 2008!
Mary Peet
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Originally published in ASHS Newsletter January 2008.
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Mary Peet 2007-2008 
