Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm in the Cottonwood rm. of the Marriott Downtown in Salt Lake City. After being called to order, Nancy Cavallaro (ncavallaro@csrees.usda.gov) briefed the committee with regards to changes in the USDA-National Research Initiative, including reminding the participants that the deadline for proposal submission to the Soil Processes and Water and Watersheds focus areas were both January 16, 2006. Additional details can be found at http://www.csrees.usda.gov/index.html. The remaining discussion largely focused on the current project, S1014: Mineral Controls on P Retention & Release in Soils & Soil Amendments, more specifically the inability to schedule the annual summer workshop last May in Athens, GA. Eric Young outlined two alternatives for the group, allowing the current project to expire, or revising the project objectives to better fit the current research interests of the group. After some discussion that confirmed the participants interest in the current research project, the decided to survey the entire group to determine their commitment to the current project and willingness to attend the meeting in Athens if rescheduled for May of 2006. Additional questions were suggested to see if the meeting format or subject matter could be changed to improve attendance. The committee meeting was then adjourned with the scheduling of the upcoming summer meeting to be determined by the results of the survey. Results from the S-1014 Membership Survey administered during the month after the meeting are: Below is a summary of the responses to the recent survey concerning the viability of the current regional project, S1014: Mineral Controls on P Retention & Release in Soils & Soil Amendment. Also, I tried to summarize the written comments that I received. There was overwhelming support to continue the current project and to reschedule the meeting in Athens. Therefore, I will try to schedule some potential dates so that participants can start to see if they have conflicts. Survey Questions: 1. Do you still plan to actively participate in the current regional project as described in the attached objectives? Yes (9) No (0) Some respondents noted that the objectives could be revised somewhat to better reflect individual researcher interests. 2. If rescheduled for May 2006, would you plan to attend the next summer committee meeting in Athens, GA? Yes (8) No (1) 3. Could participation be increased by shifting the summer meeting to coincide with another annual meeting that current participants likely attend, i.e., Saturday or Sunday preceding either the annual ASA Meetings, or Clay Minerals Society Meetings? Yes (2) No (3) Several respondents were unsure if this would help, and noted the potential conflicts with other meetings scheduled before ASA that may preclude attendance. Few of the active members attend the annual CMS meetings. 4. If possible, should the summer program be changed to better reflect the research interests of the committee, e.g., a tour of poultry manure sites instead of the annual soil pedon tour? Although almost every respondent indicated that they enjoyed the pedon tour, most indicated that it would be good to include other tour sites that are more directly relevant to the current project, if possible. Many also indicated that is should be left up to the host to determine the program emphasis. The following participants responded: Joe Dixon, Texas A&M Michael Essington, Univ. of Tennessee Willie Harris, University of Florida Dean Hesterberg, NC State Wayne Hudnall, Texas Tech. Tasos Karathanasis, University of Kentucky Richard Loeppert, Texas A&M University Warren Lynn, USDA John Seaman, UGA/SREL Bill R. Smith, Clemson University Jim Wang, Louisiana State University Eric Young, NC State Lucian Zelazny, Virginia Tech Based on the survey results, S-1014 will continue as an active project and a project meeting is being organized for spring, 2006 in Athens, GA.