Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The annual meeting of W 1008 - Onion IYSV & Thrips was held January 15-16, 2008 at the La Quinta Inn & Suites, Denver, Colorado. Howard Schwartz, Committee Chair, opened the meeting with introductions and welcome from Lee Sommers (Administrative Liaison) who could not attend due to a conflict. Howard reviewed the history of the W 1008 committee (WDC7, WTemp2081) with its formal approval in October of 2007. Howard noted that the number of objectives in the project plan was reduced from 5 to 3, and asked that participants update their NIMMS profiles to reflect these 3 objectives. Contact your AES Director regarding travel funds. The committee also helps justify allocation of time and effort by experiment stations to onion research. Members were urged to invite colleagues to join the W1008 Committee, and contact list provided by Howard in the packet of handouts and other information. One of the benefits of this type of regional committee is that it raises the profile of onion thrips/IYSV problems to Congress and the USDA. I. Wayne Minninger NOA report - Tried the last two years to get funds for IYSV/Thrips research initiative (3 new USDA-ARS positions, research grants) at $7 million over 5 years. Finally got $250,000 in language but was axed at the last minute. Lots of unfinished business, i.e., $ 22 billion of unfunded programs in Senate version of the Farm Bill. Conferencing going on now and does have specialty crop research money. When requests come for support in the form of letters, personal contacts with elected officials are very helpful. Wayne suggested that the past initiative just be updated and Wayne will resubmit. NOA is supportive of this program. With too many onions it's tough to sell the need of the initiative, but Wayne would appreciate any support that we can give. He also mentioned that the data and photographs (of rapid disease progression) that Lindsey tu Doit presented today would be helpful to demonstrate impacts. NOA annual meetings schedule is: Summer Pasco July 23-26, 2008; Winter 08 in Florida; Summer July 09 in Montreal; Winter of 09 in San Antonio. Howard Schwartz briefly reviewed the request for initiative where the $ would go to ARS to support three staff and some pass through monies for targeted research projects. Ideas on how to update the proposal would be welcome. II. Reports from Onion Organizations A. COA: Robert T. Sakata - Colorado saw moderate IYSV but extreme thrips pressure. B. Utah: Wade Norman - Utah didn't have too much thrips pressure or IYSV pressure. (Note: http://www.allium.net/index.htm is good resource, coordinated by Howard Schwartz. Howard asked for any relevant articles that could be posted on the website.) III. Report from International Allium Conference, held in the Netherlands in Fall 2007. Lynn Jensen was disappointed because it was mainly USA report. New Zealand research with gene research on pungency; maybe this can lead to transgenic work for thrips resistance. Krishna said that he has talked with researchers in Netherlands, they don't have any IYSV problems. Wayne Mininger said that because Europe is north of the U.S., they don't see it. Lynn noted that it is present in Mediterranean countries but has not received much research attention. So overall it was disappointing conference in reference to IYSV research. With upcoming NARC meeting (Savannah, GA in December of 2008), should they have a special session on IYSV? The committee indicated that it would be a good idea. The executive committee would follow up with the NARC organizing committee to see if a half day session dealing with thrips/IYSV could be included in the 2008 program, and if the W1008 could coordinate their annual meeting with the NARC meeting. Election of a new Secretary - Cristy Hoepting, New York, was unanimously elected. She will assume those duties at the next meeting when secretary Stuart Reitz succeeds Chris Cramer as Vice-Chair who succeeds Howard Schwartz as Chair of the W1008 Committee. Link next W1008 meeting with the next NARC. Dec 11-13, 2008 in Savannah, GA: Moved and seconded. The committee will work with NARC to combine, and request 1/2 day for the W-1008 Don't need to submit a formal progress report this year, but will need to by next year. Look at milestones for proposal and need to work towards those and the 3 objectives. Insecticide dialog Ad Hoc committee was formed (potential members could include Lynn Jensen, Brian Nault, Whitney Cranshaw, Mike Edwards, Charlie Hicks, Pete Forster, Gordon Hankins, Paul Ogg) and Howard will coordinate. Need to submit minutes to Lee Sommers and to other participants; needs to be done within 60 days. Howard and Stuart will draft the minutes; Robert Sakata later shared his detailed notes. Hanu made motion to express the group's appreciation for all of the effort of Howard Schwartz to organize the W1008 Committee and to help the committee members assist the onion industry with these important pest issues. The motion was passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned by Howard Schwartz at 1:30 PM.

The project was initiated on October 1, 2007. A summary of research activities is attached to the meeting minutes.