ADSA® Presidential Report

I have enjoyed serving as president of the ADSA. Now that my term has ended, I have the privilege of looking back over the past year and saying that, because of excellent volunteers within ADSA and staff of ADSA and the Federation of Animal Science Societies (FASS), many good results are now evident. These results focus on the role of ADSA in providing to our members our Journal of Dairy Science®, the annual scientific meeting, and a variety of other services. I have selected my “top ten list” to summarize the past year for you. Number 10: I am pleased to report that FASS has had a very good year financially and with respect to activities. Highlights include the exchange of the building and land at the Savoy location for the second floor of a new building in southwest Champaign. Also, the Lowell Randel Group/Mallard Group has been hired on a contract basis to serve in the science policy position of FASS. Financial support for this position has been provided by FASS, ADSA, the American Society of Animal Science (ASAS), the Poultry Science Association (PSA), and Midwest ADSA/ASAS. An advisory committee to the science policy director consists of two members from each of the founding societies and one from Midwest ADSA/ASAS. Gary Hartnell and Joe O’Donnell represent ADSA. Number 9: S-PAC™ (Searchable Proceeding of Animal Conferences) continues to provide abstracts and proceedings of conferences on the animal sciences as well as the abstracts of joint annual meetings of ADSA/ASAS to subscribers. To date, 34 conferences and 276 proceedings are available to you for a small fee. Number 8: Under the skillful leadership of Larry Miller, four highly successful Discover Conferences have been held since our last annual ADSA meeting. Three have been held in 2009, and one already has been arranged for 2010. Thank you to all the financial sponsors for these past and future Discover Conferences and to Bill Baumgard for development of these Conferences. Number 7: The ADSA Board of Directors has been using the 2006 Strategic Plan as its guide for ongoing and future activities. The Board hired Glenn Tecker, of Tecker and Associates, to assist with development of a new strategic plan at the mid-year meeting in January 2009, and at the annual meeting in July 2009. A 2006–2010 strategic plan has been developed so that strategic initiatives for each of the seven goals have been created for the coming year, and this will become a major focus for the Board. The Board will meet on the day before the board meeting at the joint annual meeting to develop strategic initiatives and action plans for the coming year. Number 6: Another well-organized scientific meeting was provided to the membership again in 2009 at Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Canadian Society of Animal Science (CSAS) joined ADSA and ASAS to provide near record numbers of abstracts and symposia to the attendees. Student Affiliate Division activities were strong. Pioneer speakers, exhibits, networking lunches, and opening and closing receptions strengthened the meeting. A significant number of attendees from outside the United States enhanced our meeting greatly. Thank you to all the financial sponsors of the meeting who ensured a positive balance to the budget for the joint annual meeting and minimized costs to meeting attendees. Thank you to all the FASS and society staff members and volunteer workers who helped ensure the success of the meeting. Number 5: The ADSA has a solid financial standing at this time. Total assets exceed $3.6 million. Net operating income exceeded $300,000 in calendar year 2008, excluding paper losses for our investments. Because of the declining national and world economy during the past year, our equities suffered a decrease in value. However, we expect to see a recovery of our investments in future years. Number 4: Consultants (Kaufman-Wills Group LLC of Baltimore, MD) hired by the ADSA Board determined that the Journal of Dairy Science is underpriced and undersold throughout the world. As a result of this conclusion, ADSA worked with Kaufman-Wills Group to hire Elsevier under a 5-year contract to co-publish the Journal of Dairy Science with FASS. Managing the review process, editing, and composition of submitted articles will continue to be provided by FASS. The change in publishing and marketing of our journal will result in ADSA taking dairy science knowledge transfer to a truly global level as quickly as possible, while also protecting our high ranking. An additional $100,000 of net income to ADSA per year will be realized under this new arrangement. Number 3: Partly because of holding the joint annual meeting in another country, the traditional auction was cancelled for the 2009 meeting. Under the leadership of David Barbano, the Foundation has taken on new fundraising activities. Additional funds will be contributed to the Journal of Dairy Science Superfund through the Foundation (to be described later) and the Discover Conference Scholarship Fund for graduate students and for unrestricted purposes to fund existing operations. Net assets of the Foundation were nearly $400,000 at the end of fiscal year 2008. Number 2: The Board of Directors has established the Journal of Dairy Science Superfund, and the balance of the Superfund is now approximately $1.6 million. The goal is to accumulate $8 million so that investment earnings can be used to defray page charges for members who publish their research in the journal. The Superfund is viewed as a way to protect the greatest asset of the ADSA, the Journal of Dairy Science. And the number 1 accomplishment of the ADSA during the past year is that the Journal of Dairy Science is now the top-ranked journal among all forty-five dairy, animal science, and agriculture journals. This highest ranking is based on a calculated Impact Factor for 2008 (and for the five-year period prior) and the Eigenfactor, which excludes self-citations. Thanks to all researchers, reviewers, editors, editorial and production staff members, and our editor-in-chief, Gary Rogers, who made that recognition possible. Thanks to everyone for helping make a very good year for our ADSA.

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