Our recent annual meeting, "Heightened Frontiers in Plant Biology," held August 3-7 in Denver, Colorado, lived up to its name. Denver was an excellent venue, and the meeting highlighted terrific science and provided numerous mechanisms for networking. The Program Committee (Roger Hangarter, chair, Steve Long, Rich Jorgensen, Rick Amasino, Patty Springer, Bill Lucas) deserves a hearty round of thanks for organizing one of the best annual meetings that I have attended. One highlight was the opportunity to hear Dr. Norman Borlaug, father of the Green Revolution and Nobel laureate, present his perspectives on feeding the world in the 21st century. His message to students was truly inspirational. Another inspirational aspect of the annual meeting was seeing all the positive outcomes resulting from the creativity, energy, and hard work of so many of our members. We had a record-setting number of workshops, luncheons, and breakfast events, which provided opportunities to network, learn, and share experiences. I want to express my sincere appreciation to all our members and staff who worked so hard to put on these successful events, which are described in more detail within this newsletter.

On October 1, Dan Bush will become president, I will become immediate past president, and Mary Lou Guerinot will become president-elect. Nick Carpita will join the Executive Committee as an elected member.

In this letter I will discuss several key events that occurred this year and summarize the major action items coming from our two Executive Committee meetings held in Denver. There are a number of news items dealing with our two journals, The Plant Cell and Plant Physiology. Plant Physiology garnered its highest impact factor to date, and The Plant Cell remained the plant journal with the highest impact factor. Last year the Executive Committee authorized $60,000 for the digitization of all back issues of The Plant Cell and for issues of Plant Physiology back through 1993. I'm happy to report that this initiative is now complete. With more and more of us accessing journal articles through our computers, this benefit has proven to be very popular. Both journals are now using electronic submission and review, which is speeding up the process and reducing costs. Beginning in July 2003, The Plant Cell will have a new editor-in-chief, Dr. Richard Jorgensen, from the University of Arizona. Beginning January 2003, both of our journals will change from manuscript handling fees to page charges. Importantly, as a benefit to our membership, there will be a $10/ page discount for corresponding authors who are members of our Society.

The most contentious issue facing our Society this year was the proposed name change for our journal Plant Physiology. Last fall, Natasha Raikhel, editor-in-chief, proposed changing the name to Plant. Members, the Publications Committee, and the Executive Committee all had input into the pros and cons of changing the name, as I've detailed in previous newsletters. Since my last President's Letter, lawyers and an ad hoc committee were also consulted. The lawyers expressed their opinion that the name Plant was problematic from a legalistic standpoint, and other names were investigated. The top candidates considered by the ad hoc committee were Plant Systems, Plant Systems Biology, and Plant Function. The most obvious alternative name, Plant Biology, is not available as it is being used by another journal. The ad hoc committee was positive toward changing the name of Plant Physiology, but there was only moderate enthusiasm for the names under consideration. The beliefs of members of the Executive Committee were wide-ranging and reflected the many sentiments expressed by the members voicing their opinions on the web site and in the many letters written to me. After considering all the information gathered during the previous 10 months, a majority of the Executive Committee voted on August 2 to retain the name Plant Physiology for the journal. This was reported at both the opening ceremony and the business meeting held during the annual meeting.

An exciting publication that is under way is an electronic version of The Arabidopsis Book (TAB), edited by Chris Somerville and Elliot Meyerowitz. When finished, TAB will contain 100+ chapters with about 25 percent to 30 percent of the chapters being revised each year, resulting in a dynamic, up-to-date web-based reference book. Each chapter is a detailed review of an important and interesting topic being studied in the plant Arabidopsis thaliana, with reference to what is known in other plants and other kingdoms. TAB will be free of charge and available only on the Internet. Each of the chapters can be downloaded as PDFs, enabling their use for reference or teaching. On August 2, the Executive Committee approved funds to mount and maintain this book on the web as a public service. Partial support is also provided by BioOne, who will host the book on its web site. Each chapter will have HTML/SGML tagging and extensive links to databases such as TAIR, CrossRef and ISI, and PubMed. The first 40 chapters will be available at www.bioone.org later this fall. (See page 22 of this issue of the ASPB News for more information.)

Did you know that our Society has an Education Foundation? In 1995, under President Russell Jones, the Society endowed the foundation with $1 million, roughly one-third of its reserves at the time. The mission of the Education Foundation is to provide information and education to increase the public's knowledge about the role of plants in all areas of life. The Foundation has had an active year. It partially sponsored the second edition of Plants, Genes, and Crop Biotechnology, by Maarten Chrispeels and David Sadava, which was published this past July by Jones and Bartlett Publishers. The Foundation's film, which was previewed at the annual meeting in Providence last year, has been extensively edited and renamed History's Harvest: Where Food Comes From. It is now available to members on video or CD for a small handling fee, and television distribution is being actively pursued. We all owe the chair of the Foundation's board, Bob Goldberg, a great deal of thanks for the tremendous amount of time and energy he spent stewarding the film's production during the past two years. In addition to providing the lay public a fun way to learn about the history of agriculture and where our food comes from, the film provides an example of what the Foundation can accomplish, which will be crucial for the upcoming fundraising campaign. A major goal in the coming year will be to brainstorm additional projects. Recognizing the wealth of expertise and creativity of the membership, the Foundation board plans to solicit members for feedback using the ASPB web site. Stay tuned for more news as the board and its new chair, Dan Cosgrove, move forward.

I would like to extend a special thanks to our very active Membership Committee (Dina Mandoli, chair, Jeff Habben, Edgar Spalding, Joyce Foster, Jon Monroe, Carol Reiss, Steve Rodermel, and staff liaison Kelley Noone) for carrying out a postcard and web campaign that resulted in 755 new members. At the time I'm writing this letter in late August, we have 5,959 members in our Society.

It is especially important to recruit young people to participate in Society affairs, as they are our lifeblood and will be our future leaders. As an incentive to young scientists, the Executive Committee in February approved $10,000 toward free memberships for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows on a first-come, firstserved basis, resulting in 252 new postdoc and graduate student members. It is my sincere hope that every one of these members will rejoin next year and encourage their peers who have never been members to join as well. We have budgeted an additional $10,000 for 2003 to award one-year free memberships to postdocs and graduate students who have never been members. Please help to impress upon our younger colleagues how crucial networking is for the continued development of their careers and how important their scientific and service contributions are for moving plant biology forward.

The field of biology is moving forward at an incredible rate, and we as individual scientists and members of societies must be flexible to accommodate and respond to new directions and initiatives. We must be imaginative to keep plant biology at the cutting edge. Interaction, communication, and interdisciplinary research are key components to success in our ever-evolving world. It is important to have the social and political connections that membership and participation in a society enable, and it is more important than ever for societies to reach out and communicate with other groups. This will be crucial for the advancement of research, education, and outreach throughout our ever-shrinking world. Being your Society's president has been an incredible learning experience for me, and I am grateful for the opportunity.

Vicki Chandler
University of Arizona
chandler@Ag.arizona.edu