Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Welcome 

The SERA 27 Business Meeting was called to order at 1:43 pm on Wednesday, July 22, 2015 by President Gary Knox.

Gary Knox welcomed participants. This business meeting was planned to be held in Louisville, KY.  The proposed dates didn’t work for most of the members, and thus this meeting is conducted in conjunction with the 2015 SNA meeting in Georgia.

Attendance, Introductions, and representatives

Gary Knox introduced the current officers, advisors, and guests. Current officers are: President, Gary Knox; Secretary, Zhanao Deng; Board member, Geoff Denny.

Participants introduced themselves. A new guest Anthony Witcher was present.

Currently there are no official representatives from Alabama, Tennessee, and South Carolina.

Gary Knox volunteered to contact South Carolina Botanical Gardens, if no faculty members are interested, for find a representative.

One to two representatives were able to secure some travel funds from their universities for this meeting, but most of the representatives were not able to obtain travel funds from respective universities.

 Review, discussion, and approval of 2014 meeting minutes

Minutes of the 2014 business meeting were reviewed, discussed and moved for approval. A motion to approve the minutes was made by Geoff Denny, seconded by Ed Bush, and approved unanimously.

State Reports (see Appendix 1)

Verbal reports were given from:

• Louisiana State University (Allen Owings, Ed Bush, and Yan Chen)
• Mississippi State University (Gene Blythe and Geoff Denny)
• University of Florida (Gary Knox and Zhanao Deng)
• University of Georgia (Matthew Chappell)
• Tennessee State University (Anthony Witcher)
• USDA-ARS (Donna Fare)

Written reports are in Appendix 2.

• Louisiana State University (Allen Owings, Ed Bush, and Yan Chen)
• Mississippi State University (Gene Blythe and Geoff Denny)
• Texas A&M (Mike Arnold)
• Virginia Tech
• University of Arkansas (Jim Robbins)
• University of Florida (Gary Knox and Zhanao Deng)
• University of Georgia (Matthew Chappell)
• University of Kentucky (Win Dunwell)
• USDA-USNA (Donna Fare)

Website Report

The SERA27 website is currently housed on the LSU AgCenter website. Allen Owings reported the website is up to date, including a compilation of our historical proceedings. Allen plans to continue updating the website.

Structure and memberships

President Gary reminded the group of the structure of the SERA 27 group. The official representatives for each state include one extension specialist and one research-oriented faculty member, but welcome new members to join this group.  Gary stressed the values and benefits of identifying and inviting faculty members from several states that lack official representatives.

It was suggested to invite Dr. Wayne Mackay to join the SERA 27 group.

Plant Evaluation and plant evaluation Report

Several plants were officially accepted into the plant evaluation trials, including dwarf crape myrtle.

Callicarpa:  Did not survive in GA.  Matthew suggested using a uniform form for data collection and Google documents for sharing data.

Gary urged all who trialed accepted plants to submit collected data so that they can be used for the development of future grant proposals and publications, presentations, etc.

Donna distributed yellow magnolia to interested parties: three each of Magnolia 'Sunspire' and M. 'Butterflies'.

Gary will have another magnolia species for distribution in the future.

Yan is evaluating tea varieties for ornamental and beverage uses.

Gene distributed Centaurea gymnocarpa, three plants per site.

2016 and 2017 meetings

Win expressed willingness to host the 2016 meeting. It was suggested that a date in 2016 should be selected as early as possible. Previous meetings were held in early June. A date in early June 2016 is preferred. The meeting site needs to be determined.

Matthew volunteered to host the 2017 meeting in a format similar to previous plant conferences.

Gene suggested having a future meeting at the USDA-ARS, preferably in conjunction with plant symposiums.

 Future grant proposals

Matthew planned to develop a SCRI planning grant, and invited group members to join his efforts. He proposed to focus on conducting uniform trials in the southeast or plant performance in response to climate changes.

Yan indicated that it is very important to have strong industry involvement and support to get invited for full proposal submission. It would be beneficial to get industries involved soon.

It was suggested that Matthew leads the development of one preproposal, and Ed leads the development of another preproposal.

Other possible themes for future SCRI proposals include focusing on the ecological services and carbon footprints of the green industry.

Renewal of SERA-27 for 2012-2017

Renewal of SERA27 was approved through 2017. Advisor Patricia Knight reminded us we need to record accomplishments, outcomes and impacts in order to keep our group active and continue receiving support.

Election of Officers for 2015-2016

Officer positions automatically progress from Board Member to Secretary to President. Thus, for 2016:

President, Zhanao Deng (former Secretary)

Secretary, Geoff Denny (former Board Member)

Donna nominated Matthew Chappell as the 2016 Board Member, Geoff seconded, and this was unanimously approved.

Donna moved that we approach our Administrative Advisors Patricia Knight and Regina Bracy to include Tennessee State University as an official representative. Geoff seconded the motion, and this was unanimously approved.

Other Business

Adjournment: Donna moved we adjourn, Geoff seconded, unanimously approved. The meeting was adjourned at 2:50 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Zhanao Deng

Secretary