Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The business meeting was chaired by David Froman using the following outline: (1) a thanks to Jim Millam, who served as host, (2) meeting site for 2010, (3) a discussion of the disconnect between the number of project participants and the number of people that attend the annual meeting, (4) a rationale for eliminating two objectives within the new project in order to make the number of attendants commensurate with the number of participants, (5) industry input, and (6) an impromptu discussion about experiment station maintenance of facilities critical to poultry research. Once again, Jim Millam did an excellent job as our host in San Francisco. Unfortunately, the meeting was poorly attended, which caused some uncertainty about the magnitude of the registration fee per participant. Nonetheless, the meeting was deemed productive, and a decision was made to have the 2010 meeting at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, AR. Doug Rhoads agreed to serve as host. This choice was based upon a central location within the U.S., a reduced meeting cost, and a minimal financial constraint placed upon the host in advance of the meeting. Additional discussion about participation resulted in a suggestion that the membership be surveyed relative to their interest level in the project. The chair agreed to draft, disseminate, and compile responses. Though this effort was subsequent to the annual meeting, the results of this survey are included in this report because they are pertinent to much of the discussion within the 2009 business meeting. Each person who requested to act in the capacity of a scientist within the new project (n = 16) was sent a survey with 5 questions. Each person had approximately 3 weeks to respond. The response rate was 56%. The questions asked about: (1) interest level in collaboration as defined by the project, (2) interest level in the projects annual meeting, (3) the feature of the annual meeting most valued, (4) the reason why the 2009 meeting was not attended if the person was not in attendance, and (5) whether one would be more likely to attend the projects annual meeting if this meeting were held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Poultry Science Association. There were clear majorities with respect to the first three questions. Eighty-nine percent of respondents expressed a high level of interest in collaboration within the context of a multistate project. Sixty percent of respondents had a high level of interest in attending the annual meeting. The remaining 40% had a medium interest level. Thus, all respondents were interested in attending the annual meeting, and 72% deemed networking, discussing experimental outcomes, and planning experiments to be the most important feature of the meeting. Therefore, these collective outcomes were consistent with the nature of the project and the purpose of the annual meeting. In contrast to the first three questions, there was no clear response to the last two questions. Only two people responded to the fourth question, and these were split between inadequate funds and a schedule conflict. With respect to funding, a portion of Hatch funds are designated for multistate projects but such funds are used differently by different experiment stations. If the bulk of appropriated dollars are used for faculty salaries, then very little money may be available for out-of-state travel. In contrast, other experiment stations pay for one faculty member from that institution to attend an annual meeting. Consequently, it is incumbent upon each participant to determine their situation, e.g. availability of experiment station funds, grant money, willingness to use personal frequent flyer miles, etc., and then use this knowledge to assess the likelihood of participating in the new project. Finally, respondents were split with respect to having the annual meeting in conjunction with PSA: 55% answered yes, 45% answered no. It is interesting to note that 50% of those who answered no have served as the chair and secretary/treasurer of the project since it began in 2004 and who, at present, appear to be trapped in these incarnations for the foreseeable future. Consequently, any such change in the annual meeting will require a regime change.

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