· Report Information:

· Annual Meeting Dates: 02/26/08 to 02/27/08

· Period the Report Covers: 10/2007 to 10/2008

Participants:

· B. Beavis (Iowa State)

· M. Bohn (U. of Illinois)

· S. Flint-Garcia (USDA-ARS Missouri)

· J. Hawk (U. of Delaware)

· S. Kaeppler (U of Wisconsin)

· D. Kendra (USDA Illinois)

· M. Krakowski (USDA North Carolina)

· L. Lee (Guelph, Canada)

· N. de Leon (U. of Wisconsin)

· R. Pratt (OSU)

· T. Rocheford (U. of Illinois)

· P. Scott (USDA-ARS Iowa)

· B. Tracy (U. of Wisconsin)

· W. Xu (Texas Tech)

Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting:

2008 NCCC-167 Corn Breeding Committee Business Meeting Minutes

Linthicum, Maryland February 27, 2008

Committee Chair, Martin Bohn brought the meeting to order and presented an outline of items to be discussed.

1. 2007 Official Minutes The 2007 official minutes were presented as available on the NIMMS website. A motion to accept the minutes was made and seconded, and the minutes were approved.

2. Bill Tracy, Administrative Advisor Report. The renewal of the project is due soon, and that a writing committee should be appointed. Bill reminded the group that the purpose of a communication committee (CC) is to bring people together for discussion. A discussion of switching back to a Research committee began. Comments made by members of the committee: " If we want to become a Research committee, we would need a group project to work toward (e.g. the inter-regional variety trials of the previous NCR-167 committee). " Perhaps being a Research committee would help in obtaining competitive funding for a group breeding project. " General conclusion was that the overall payoff to become a Research committee is not worth the extra effort. " Perhaps being a CC is not worth it, and we should simply meet as a group, independent of NIMMS. It was noted that a handful of people in the group receive travel money to attend, and this was reason enough to continue as a CC. The plan proposal is due in the fall. The chairs of the NC region meet in January.

3. State Reports State reports are due to Jode Edwards by March 15. Abstracts from the talks are also due to Jode by March 15.

4. Research Project Discussion (continued from larger group discussion during the meeting) These minutes and notes from previous discussion will be distributed to all attendees to update the larger group on the following discussion points. Comments from the group regarding community building for our group: " We should not be US-centric. " Should we include international/developing countries? " We need to extend the community. It is best to meet in conjunction with other national meetings, even though we experience meeting burnout. " The maize genetics community is successful for several reasons including their non-exclusivity and their ability to prioritize the needs of the community as a whole. " An ad hoc committee should be formed to: 1) identify who the breeders are; 2) send out a survey to understand why breeding research is important, to identify our major limitations, and to define common research projects; and 3) decide on an interim meeting date/location. Then the whole group will vote on the voice of the group. " An ad hoc committee was appointed: Bill Beavis, Torbert Rocheford, Liz Lee, Wenwei Xu, Jim Hawk, and Bill Tracy. Their charge was to address these action items: 1) define who might be interested in the breeding group; 2) implement a survey of important topics; 3) decide on an interim meeting date and location; and 4) define the mission of the group. " Should private (i.e. industry) individuals be invited to attend the interim meeting? They may be valuable allies. " David Kendra pointed out that he was in industry, and thinks they should be included but that we need to strongly encourage them to talk - voice their opinions and get involved in discussions. " Potential interim meeting date/location: SCCC-80 meeting in Des Moines, June 16-18.

5. Elections: The following elections were held: " Writing committee: Bill Beavis and Rich Pratt " Chair Elect: Liz Lee Former Chair elect Paul Scott becomes the new Chair.

6. Inter-regional Meetings: Discussion of whether we should continue with the inter-regional meeting format, i.e. hold meeting in conjunction with the North Eastern group every 4 years. Decision was made to table the discussion until the 2009 meeting.

7. 2009 and 2010 Meetings: The 2009 Maize Genetics Conference will be held at Pheasant Run in St. Charles, IL. We should hold the NCCC-167 meeting just before the meeting, but try to remain a distinct group by utilizing a different venue nearby. Liz Lee volunteered to host the 2010 meeting in Guelph, Ontario. A motion was made and seconded to hold the meeting in Allerton, IL in 2009. All voting members voted in favor of the motion.

8. Yield Trials: In 2007, Margaret, Marcelo, and Lana conducted the 100-300 yield trials. Do we want to continue testing as a group? The historical production groups are: 100-300 (run from Guelph), 400-600 (run from WI), 700-800 (run from IA), and 800-900. Some people were still interested in the testing program, so those interested in participating will communicate with others in the same production group to coordinate.

A motion was made and seconded to adjourn the meeting, and Meeting was adjourned. A University of Maryland van was used to transport a large number of NCCC-167 meeting attendees to DC for the Maize Genetics Conference.

Minutes prepared by Sherry Flint-Garcia, USDA-ARS.

Accomplishments:

Resarch reports from state representatives and others were shared with the group.

Since we changed from an "NCR" to an "NCC" committee we are in the process of defining a role for this group, especially in the context of the larger community of maize geneticists. Traditional genetics and breeding are converging in genomic sciences making it important to define the role of NCCC167. An Ad-hoc committe was appointed to define the mission of this group.

Impact Statements:

1. Research results were reported to the group so group members can benefit from the findings of others. This facilitates cooperative research, which enables scientists to make progress more rapidly and efficiently. Ultimately, this leads to increased yield and quality of the US corn crop.