Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

USSES-2006 MEETING SUMMARY  June 14-16, 2006 (SCC013) The annual meeting of the SCC013 Information Exchange Group [a.k.a, University Statisticians of Southern Experiment Stations (USSES)] met in Lexington, Kentucky, on Wednesday-Friday, June 14-16, 2006, with the University of Kentucky (UK) as host institution and Dr. Paul L. Cornelius, as chair for local arrangements. Early in the planning Dr. Arnold Saxton (University of Tennessee) and Dr. Barry Moser (Louisiana State University) served as Program Co-chairs. Dr. Saxton continued as Program Chairperson after the sudden and untimely death of Dr. Moser in mid-April due to a massive heart attack. The planned program included a SAS JMP Genomics workshop to be conducted by Drs. Russ Wolfinger, Doug Robinson, and Mark Bailey from SAS Insititute Inc., and Dr. Arnold Stromberg, Professor of Statistics and Director of Data Analysis for the Microarray Core Facility, UK. Arrangements were made to use a computer lab on the UK campus as the venue for the workshop. About one week before the scheduled meeting, it was apparent that, after accommodating all USSES who had registered for the meeting, there would still be empty seats in the computer lab. With the permission of Dr. Wolfinger, the remaining seats were made available to University of Kentucky personnel, mostly to persons from various areas of agricultural science. The actual meeting began on Wednesday evening, June 14, with a reception for registered participants and spouses at the Crowne Plaza Lexington at the Campbell House. On Thursday morning (June 15), participants staying at the Crowne Plaza were shuttled to the UK Agricultural Data Centers computer lab. After a short welcome message delivered by Dr. Nancy Cox, Director of the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station, the SAS Genomics Workshop was conducted, this lasting until about 4:30p.m. with appropriate mid-morning, lunch, and mid-afternoon breaks. The instruction included tutorials on introduction to JMP, JMP Microarray I, JMP Microarry II, JMP Genetics and JMP Proteomics. The final event of the afternoon was a half-hour presentation on Estimation of the False Discovery Rate in Microarray Experiments by Dr. Jason Osborne, North Carolina State University. Participants were shuttled back to the Crowne Plaza at about 5:00 p.m. and at 6:30p.m. enjoyed a bountiful and delicious buffet dinner catered by the Crowne Plaza. On Friday morning (July 16), participants were again shuttled to the UK campus, this time to a conference room adjacent to the computer lab, to hear presentations by Dr. Herbert Kirk, SAS Institute Inc., and Dr. Rob Tempelman, Michigan State University. Dr. Kirk spoke to us about new statistical computing directions, products and changes in SAS software to be expected in the future. Dr. Tempelmans presentation was on Bayesian Analysis for Microarrays. After the mid-morning break, the business meeting was held. Two items of business were addressed. The first item had to do with disposition of surplus funds (if any) from the 2006 meeting. To provide documentation for what should be done with any surplus funds, a motion was made by Dr. Arnold Saxton, seconded by Dr. Walt Stroup, that any surplus funds from the 2006 meeting should be sent to the chairperson for the 2007 USSES meeting to be applied toward funding for the 2007 meeting, provided that a chairperson has been selected before the expiration date for the present temporary USSES account at the University of Kentucky. Otherwise, they should be sent to Dr. Kenneth Koonce at Lousiana State University to act as custodian of such funds until a chairperson for the 2007 meeting has been chosen. The second item of business was with respect to the USSES meeting in 2007. It was agreed that Drs. Walt Stroup, Hoke Hill and Rob Tempelman would act as a committee to decide whether USSES will meet jointly with NCCC170 in 2007 (based on the NCCC170s wishes and program plans), and, if so, whom will serve as the USSES chairperson for that event. If not, then it is understood that the 2007 meeting will be in South Carolina with Clemson University as the host institution and Dr. Hoke Hill as chairperson. The 2006 USSES meeting was attended by 32 registered participants (including speakers/instructors), a list of which is appended to this meeting summary. This report would not be complete without a brief mention of the spouses outing on Thursday, June 15, associated with the 2006 USSES meeting. Spouses of four USSES members participated in the spouses outing planned and led by Mrs. Barbara S. Cornelius (spouse of Paul L. Cornelius). Events on the outing were a tour of the Toyota automobile assembly plant at Georgetown, KY, a drive through some of the Lexington area horse farm country, lunch at Spindletop Hall (former horse farm mansion, now home for a UK faculty-alumni club) (http://www.spindletophall.org/) and a visit to the Ashland Henry Clay Estate (http://www.henryclay.org/). Thanks are also due to Barbara for her help in making arrangements for the reception and buffet dinner at the Crowne Plaza, the Thursday box lunch, and breaktime amenities (which she not only planned, but for which she also did much of the leg work). Lastly, I want to express a Thank you to Mr. Christopher (Chris) Canjar, UK Agricultural Data Center IS Technical Support Specialist, for his seeing to having the computer lab, and the conference room, ready for our use; to Ms. Susan Leopold, UK Dept. of Plant and Soil Sciences (UK-PLS) Staff Associate, for secretarial help and assistance with provison of breaktime coffee; to Ms. Ann Norris, UK-PLS Administrative Staff Officer, for her assistance in handling the funds and financial accounting for the meeting; and to Ms. Jayne White, UK Dept. of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Staff Support Associate (office in close proximity to our break room), for her cooperation and assistance in many ways. Respectfully submitted, Dr. Paul L. Cornelius Professor, Dept. of Plant and Soil Sciences,and Dept. of Statistics University of Kentucky