Dear Members of BSA Economic Botany Section,

August 10, 2005

Re: Our program at this year's annual meeting

From: David Spooner, Chair, BSA Economic Botany Section
Secretary, BSA

All Economic Botany Section activities at this year's annual meeting will be on Tuesday.

· Our contributed papers are in Session 28, Room 412 Hilton, from 8:30 am to 9:45 am; five talks will be presented.
· This is followed by our Economic Botany Business Meeting, from 10:15 am to 11:15 am, also in Room 412 Hilton.
· Following is our Economic Botany Luncheon, from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm, in Room 406 Hilton.
· Immediately following are the BSA-wide Contributed Posters, from 12:30 pm to 2:00 pm, in the Gov. Ballroom/Hilton, Salons C, D & E; our section has one contributed poster.
· In addition, our Section is co-sponsoring the all-day Wednesday Symposium (Sessions 41, 49) on Dryland Plants.

The Botanical Society of America is undergoing many changes and developing new initiatives. One initiative that could affect our Section is a Society-wide evaluation of the BSA Sectional structure. While our section traditionally has been small in comparison to others in the BSA, it has been active in presenting talks and posters, and in sponsoring or co-sponsoring symposia. I encourage all of our members to attend the Wednesday afternoon session (Session D8, Room 412 Hilton) entitled "The sectional organization of the Botanical Society of America: Where are we, and where do we go from here?" We will have time to discuss this before the meeting at our Tuesday Sectional Meeting and Luncheon.

Another new BSA initiative is an educational outreach program entitled "Scientific Inquiry through Plants" (Sip³⁾. This program will integrate research, education and scientific inquiry to the general community, and has tremendous potential to add impact to our work as Economic Botanists; we can be major contributors to this initiative. The Sip³ project will be featured at this years Educational Forum on Saturdy (3 sessions) with a follow-up workshop on Sunday. Development committee meetings for the project will be held on Friday Aug 12 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM in Room 404 Hilton, and on Sunday Aug 14 from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM in Room 415 Hilton. Your attendance and support is welcomed. Please see the BSA website at http://www.plantbiology.org/ for a discussion of this new initiative. We can discuss this at our Business meeting and luncheon as well.

Finally, I am ending a three-year term as Chair of the Economic Botany Section, and it is time to open this position to others who may wish to serve. This service is fun, and there are many opportunities to affect changes in our section. I am happy to continue serving as Chair, but anyone wishing to take over this position is welcome to do so and should attend our business meeting where we will hold an election for interested applicants.