Members of the BSA Executive Committee (EC) met in Columbus, Ohio over the weekend of April 18/19 to discuss a number of issues of importance to BSA members. As BSA president, I'd like to bring you up to date on some of these now, before reporting more fully at the annual meeting in Baltimore this August.

1) American Journal of Botany. The EC voted unanimously to accept the recommendations made by the AJB ad hoc Task Force chaired by Jack Horner that we proceed with plans for the electronic publication of AJB. The task force developed criteria and solicited bids from ten publishers of scientific journals who already publish both hardcopy and on-line versions of various scientific journals. (One important criterion was that BSA retain control over editorial policy and subscription costs). The Task Force recommended that we negotiate with HighWire Press (Stanford, CA) for production of the on-line copy of AJB and with Allen Press (Lawrence, KS) for production of the hardcopy of AJB. Electronic publishing is an exciting and challenging step for the BSA, one that we think will increase the visibility of the BSA and will ultimately provide us with an opportunity to link our Society Journal with other related journals worldwide via search engines. It also opens the door for possibilities such as an "enhanced" (e.g., full color) version of AJB available on-line.

Many of you will have noticed changes in AJB that have taken place under Karl Niklas' leadership: starting in January, 1998, the AJB cover has a brand new look and the Table of Contents has an "In this Issue" box. We can also look forward to selected book reviews starting with the July issue. The Journal has also increased the number of pages and decreased the time from submission to publication this past year. In addition, the editorial office has acquired new computer facilities, extended its copy editing capabilities, and developed a more efficient database of reviewers. We are in the process of appointing an ad hoc search committee to select the Editor-in-Chief of AJB for the 2000 - 2005 term.

2) BSA Webpage. Our Webpage has been visited more than 100,000 times by people in 57 countries during this past year. The Webpage now contains over 1000 pages, including the current issue of Plant Science Bulletin, Table of Contents and Abstracts for the American Journal of Botany, other BSA publications such as Careers in Botany, information about the Society, abstracts for the Baltimore meeting, and numerous links to other sites of interest to botanists. It is now possible to make membership address changes through the website and to sign up for the listserv that provides the Tables of Contents for PSB and AJB automatically by e-mail.

3) Annual meetings. Planning for the next five annual meetings is underway - from the now-completed program for the 1998 Baltimore meeting to visits to potential sites for the 2001 meeting. Electronic submission of abstracts for the 1998 meeting has been a tremendous success; over 500 abstracts were submitted through the BSA website with very few glitches, and Webmaster Scott Russell and Program Director Wayne Elisens reported that new abstracts were coming in "like popcorn" in the days before the deadline. This year, AIBS will be sharing any profits from the Baltimore meeting with the BSA, and the EC voted to use these funds to support graduate student travel to the International Botanical Congress in St. Louis in 1999. So, be certain to record your BSA affiliation on the AIBS registration form for the 1998 meeting!

Starting with the 2000 meeting in Portland, OR, the BSA will be holding annual meetings independently from AIBS (although we will continue to interact with AIBS in other ways). This independence will allow us to determine the location, timing, and program for meetings as well as setting the registration fees ourselves. Thus far we have depended on volunteer efforts (mostly Wayne Elisens) to plan the Portland meeting. In the future, it will be essential for the BSA to have our own part- or full-time Meetings Manager to negotiate contracts, plan meetings budgets, manage and coordinate meetings, including registration and organizing exhibitors, and investigate future meetings sites. Preliminary budgets indicate that the BSA can add a Meetings Manager to the BSA administrative staff and still reduce registration fees.

4) Shared office facilities for American Society of Plant Taxonomists (ASPT) and BSA. The ASPT and BSA are actively pursuing the possibility of sharing office space and possibly staff at the BSA Business Office at Ohio State University in Columbus. Although there may be some practical constraints to this proposal and options are still open, the two societies share many members and shared facilities may enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of both.

5) Karling Awards. The outstanding quality of the 1997 Karling Award applications led to a commitment by the Society to increase the number of awards in 1998. This year 10 awards of $500 will be made, with funds for awards coming from the Karling and BSA Endowment Funds and the sale of BSA logo items. Members of the Society will be given multiple opportunities to donate to the Karling Fund and we hope that many of you will use this means of encouraging deserving young botanists.

(6) Development Committee. A new ad hoc Development Committee, chaired by the Treasurer (Judy Jernstedt), is being appointed that will focus on raising funds for the BSA Endowment, including the Karling Fund for Graduate Student Research. Our hope is that many members will be able to contribute to the Karling Endowment, thus providing seed money for the research of many deserving young BSA members. An additional goal is to inform BSA members of the possibility of including the BSA in their future estate planning.

(7) Membership dues and institutional subscription fees. For the first time since 1994, the EC is recommending that membership dues be increased to allow us to fund the on-line publication of the American Journal of Botany, to provide "upfront salary" for a Meetings Manager in advance of the 2000 Portland meeting (projected start date, January 1999), and for other new initiatives. It will be possible to fund these major projects with a modest dues increase of $5 to $15 dollars per member, depending on category. The EC will be making this recommendation at the Baltimore annual meeting and it will be voted on at the Business Meeting to be held on Wednesday, August 5.

Nancy G. Dengler
President

49th Annual AIBS Meeting
Baltimore, Maryland, August 2-6 1998

The Botanical Society of America will meet along with a number of other societies at the 49th Annual AIBS meeting this August in Baltimore, Maryland. The Baltimore Convention Center will serve as the meeting location for the 49th Annual Meeting. The theme of the meeting is "Managing Human-Impacted Systems."

In addition to the full agenda of the BSA Annual Meeting, there are a number of workshops, field trips, social events, and sight-seeing excursions scheduled.

Students wishing to reduce the cost of attending this meeting can apply to work as an audio-visual projectionist or registration clerk/"go-fer" and receive a registration fee refund for 12 hours service.

Several deadlines remain for the upcoming meeting this August in Baltimore:

For additional information, contact Marilynn Maury, AIBS Meetings Manager703-834-0812, x203 voice, 703-834-1160 fax, <mmaury@aibs.org email>

The website for the 49th Annual Meeting of AIBS is < http://www.aibs.org/meeting/1998/>. Additional information about the Botanical Society' Annual Meeting is available on the Society's website <http://www.botany.org/>

BSA Symposia for 1998 Annual Meeting

News from the Committees

E-Botany Moves Ahead
Latest News @botany.org

1. Electronic publications status:
   PSB electronic publication has been implemented (beginning in 1997) and is available in full-text on the WWW. Tables of Contents are also available through email by listserv subscription. For PSB online, go to the BSA Home Page or type in URL: http://www.botany.org/bsa/psb/

   AJB electronic publication of abstracts and tables of contents has been implemented (beginning in 1997). The materials are usually available from three weeks to one month before the hardcopy of the Journal is available. As with PSB, Tables of Contents are available through email by listserv subscription. Full-text publication of AJB with online reprints will begin in 1999 and be available to all subscribers to the Journal beginning at that date. For AJB abstracts & information online, go to the BSA Home Page or type in URL: http://www.botany.org/bsa/ajb/

   The Botanical Society is currently negotiating with JSTOR to provide back issues of AJB online from volumes 1-80 (1914-1993) within the next year. JSTOR's members include a consortium of over 270 member universities whose patrons will be able to view any of these issues. More information about the JSTOR project (and their participants) is at their website (http://www.jstor.org/).

2. Annual meeting program:
   All abstracts to the BSA Annual Meeting at Baltimore are online and searchable. Utilities allow the abstracts to be viewed by author, title, key words, by section or as a single online document. The entire program for the BSA meeting is now available at URL: http://www.botany.org/bsa/baltimore/

   Registration, housing and field trip information is available at the AIBS site at URL: http://www.aibs.org/

3. Online membership materials:
   The BSA website has a member locator (online directory), links for section home pages, lists of officers and committee members, bylaws and other membership materials, and some online pamphlets of information about botany that have appeared in hardcopy previously (includes "Botany for the Next Millennium" and "Careers in Botany").

4. Announcements:
   Announcements of interest to botanists can be posted at the website at no cost to members. These are similar to the type of announcements that appear in PSB, but there are no deadlines for submission. Announcements should be sent by email to the BSA Webmaster (email address: srussell@ou.edu). Announcements that appear in PSB are also linked to the site, as available.

   The location of the BSA Home Page is URL: http://www.botany.org/

News from the Sections

Teaching Section Sees Action in Las Vegas ? With ASPP and National Science Teachers Association

The teaching section of the BSA joined with ASPP educators to support a plant education booth at the annual meeting of the National Science Teachers Association meeting in Las Vegas this April 16-19. The booth included numerous living plants such as the rapid-cycling brassica (Fast Plants) and dwarf wheat used in the Farming in Space growing systems, C-Ferns, liverworts/club mosses in miniature bottle biology gardens, and Sockheads. About 2,500 teachers stopped by to find out more about the plants and plant teaching materials. Paul Williams, Dan Lauffer, and Coe Williams from ASPP were joined by Ethel Stanley and Rob Reinsvold from the BSA Teaching Section to support nearly continuous teacher participation in the booth projects and widespread interest in using plants in the classroom. Located diagonally from the NASA booth which featured the Fast Plants/NASA Collaborative Ukranian Experiment, the booth proved to quite popular. Tom Dreschel (NASA) would send teachers over to our colorful, plant-crowded booth as they began to ask about the plants featured in the Farming in Space Exhibit. BSA materials such as the brochure on Careers in Botany, Botany for the Next Millennium, and Next Millennium posters were quickly picked up as were Fast Plant materials describing several projects focused on classroom experimentation with rapid-cycling brassicas and the ASPP Plant Cubes. (Note: A special thank you to Kim Hiser and Julia Schmitt for their help in getting the BSA materials to the site!) In addition, the booth personnel conveyed their enthusiasm and expertise in using plants as model organisms for learning biology.

We are quite pleased to share the success of this collaboration with plant educators from the ASPP with the BSA members and would like to ask individuals who are interested in future collaborations to contact Teaching Section officers Ethel Stanley (stanleye@beloit.edu) or Rob Reinsvold (rjreins@bentley.UnivNorthCo.edu) by email or meet with us during the AIBS meeting in Baltimore.

Ethel D. Stanley
Chair, Teaching Section

Ecology Section Meeting
3 August 1998

The Ecology Section will meet over lunch on Monday, August 3 at the annual meeting in Baltimore. The purpose of the meeting is to plan the business and financial activities of the section for the coming year. Members should make an effort to attend.

Brenda Casper
Chair, Ecology Section