The Canadian Society of Plant Biologists La Société Canadienne de Biologie Végétale

AGENDA

Annual Business Meeting, CSPB/SCBV Thursday, July 6th, 2017, 4:50-6:00 pm

Room 1003, Forest Sciences Centre, 2424 Main Mall, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC

1. Quorum 2. Accept agenda 3. Receive minutes of the 2016 Annual Business Meeting in Kingston, ON

(posted on the CSPB website under ‘Documents & Forms’ → ‘Past Meeting Minutes’)

4. Reports of Officers

a. President-Anja Geitmann b. Vice-president-Geoff Wasteneys c. Treasurer-Sheila Macfie, including Treasurer’s motions d. Communications Director-Ingo Ensminger e. Eastern Regional Director-Daphne Goring f. Western Regional Director-Mark Belmonte g. Education Director- Emily Indriolo h. Science Policy Director-Micallef o/b/o Owen Rowland i. Student/Postdoc Representative-Shrikaar Kambhampati

5. Business arising a. Carl Douglas Endowment Fund terms of reference b. Equity and diversity in the CSPB c. CSPB 2017 Awards d. Future CSPB Meetings

6. Election of officers (Senior Director, Jean-Benoit Charron)

a. Nominations b. Additional nominations

7. Thanks to outgoing executive, meeting hosts and organizers, and passing of

the CSPB Gavel to incoming President, Geoff Wasteneys (Geitmann). 8. Other Business 9. Announce Incoming Executive meeting. 10. Adjournment

Minutes of the Annual Business Meeting – CSPB/SCBV Thursday, July 6th, 2017, started at 5:08 pm Vancouver, BC 1) Quorum – 65 members present (quorum of 15 reached) (attendance sheet appended at the end of the Minutes) 2) Agenda-Moved by Emily Indriolo/Sherryl Bisgrove to accept the agenda. Carried. 3) Receive Minutes-Moved by Sheila Macfie/Emily Indriolo to receive the Minutes of the 2016 ABM in Kingston, Ontario. Carried. 4) Reports of Officers (a) President (Anja Geitmann) (report appended) Geitmann acknowledged several people who are stepping down from positions in the CSPB, including: Vincenzo de Luca, Brock (President 2013-15, Past President 2015-17); George Espie, UT Mississauga, from the Ann Oaks Scholarship Committee; Hugo Germain, UQ Trois-Rivières (2014-17; Chair 2016-17) from the David J. Gifford Tree Biology Award Committee - François Quellet, UQAM (2014-17; Chair 2016-17), from the Gleb Krotkov Award Committee; Danielle Wey, Western Ontario (2014-17; Chair 2016-17) from the Ragai Ibrahim Award Committee Line Lapointe, ULaval (2011-17; Chair 2013-14, 2016-17) from the Society Medal Award Committee. She indicated that a 70:30 split was agreed upon for the Kingston AGM that was held jointly with the Canadian Association for Plant Biotechnology (CAPB). This only partly reflects the relative number of participants (the members of the CAPB were fewer than 30%), and instead partly considers that the participation of CAPB brought in significant amounts of sponsorship. Once all accounting had been accomplished, the CAPB received $7,358.03 of the $24,526.76 surplus. The next Plant Canada meeting will take place in 2019. The meeting is officially being hosted by CSPB at Guelph with Barry Micallef leading the local organizing committee. The scientific program committee is chaired by Geoff Wasteneys. The conference venue is secured. Simultaneously with leaving the position as CSPB President, Geitmann indicated that she will be stepping down from the Board of Directors of Plant Canada. A second member of the CSPB executive should therefore join the Board; presumably the incoming Vice-President. Deena Errampali, President of Plant Canada currently serves on the GPC Executive as representative for North America; She was not able to participate at the recent GPC

meeting in Sweden, however, Interim CSPB Science Policy Director Owen Rowland liaises with GPC on behalf of CSPB. The federal budget for NSERC funding did not increase. She also pointed out the call for industry-driven superclusters and Canada’s fundamental science review. See the President’s Report for further details. The CSPB archives are kept at the NRC building on Sussex Street in Ottawa. Last year, Étienne Lepage (Agriculture and Agrifood Canada, Ottawa) was appointed new Archivist of the CSPB. The transwfer of activities has been made from Connie Nozollilo, he has visited the NRC. NRC proposes to store CSPB archives in new, more secure boxes - they are willing to bear the costs. Santokh Singh asked if there was any thought of digitizing the archives? Motivated by the change in logo as well as the fact that the last copy of the last batch of Society Medals has been handed out, discussions have been leading to the replacement of the currently used medal by a newly designed plaque or similar. The old medal was made of a silver core and gold plated (hence the unofficial name 'Gold Medal') and production costs have exceeded $1000 per medal. Therefore, there is consideration of a proposal to replace this format by a less expensive format such as a plaque. To assess whether past medal awardees cared significantly about the metal nature of the medal, Geitmann canvassed five recent awardees (Brian Ellis, Norm Huner, Barry Shelp, Beverley Green, Fathey Sarhan) and asked them about the sentimental value of the metal nature of the medal. Four of the five individuals canvassed said clearly that they would not mind if they had received a plaque instead of a medal, certainly if the money could be used for better purposes. For them the recognition counted, not the material. One individual appreciated the metal nature of the medal. Beverley Green provided some suggestions for a new award as given in the President’s Report. Geitmann also had two motions to put forward to the membership in relation to the CSPB Meeting Site Committee as follows. Motion 1: To abolish the CSPB Meeting Site Committee The motion was put forward by Anja Geitmann, 2nd by Daphne Goring. All in favour. The motion passed on July 6th, 2017. Motion 2: To accept the following changes to By-Law 8 (b) related to the Duties of the Vice-President: As Chair of the Meeting Site Committee, The Vice-President leads the planning for future annual scientific conferences of the Society, including meeting site selection, coordination with other scientific societies (for joint meetings), and identification of a local organizing committee for each annual conference. The Vice-President also is the Chair of the Meeting Site Committee and coordinates the judging for the President’s awards at the annual scientific conference.

The motion was put forward by Anja Geitmann, 2nd by Daphne Goring. All in favour. The motion passed on July 6th, 2017. (b) Vice President (Geoff Wasteneys) (report appended) Wasteneys indicated that the joint meeting with the Canadian Society for Horticultural Science has attracted nearly 300 delegates, of which approximately 10% are CSHS members. Nine prominent plenary speaker were attracted. Although the financial outcomes will not be known until after the meeting, he is confident that we have achieved a substantial profit, which will be shared on a registration basis with CSHS. Our major expenses will be the costs of our invited plenary speakers, and these have been defrayed by the support of 20 corporate and academic sponsors. He is pleased to see so many student delegates, of whom nearly 110 are competing in the Presidents’ Awards. Wasteneys thanked, on behalf of CSPB, the support of the UBC Department of Botany for admin and IT support, and contributions from CSHS through the society president Karen Tanino (U Sask) and executive member Simone Castellarin (UBC). He also thanked the local organizing committee Simone Castellarin (Land and Food Systems, UBC), Cara Haney (Michael Smith Laboratories, UBC), Jae-Hyeok Lee (Botany), Xin Li (Michael Smith Laboratories, UBC), Rob Guy (Forestry, UBC), Abel Rosado (Botany), Sherryl Bisgrove (SFU) and Santokh Singh (Botany) as well as others who have contributed through the chairing of plenary and concurrent sessions, and judging the student presentations. There was an increase in the number of student participants in the Presidents Awards over last year’s meeting in Kingston. With over 100 presentations (47 orals, 58 posters) he recruited 35 judges. The planning is progressing well for Plant Biology 2018. President Anja Geitmann and Wasteneys attended a planning meeting hosted by ASPB in West Palm Beach Florida in September 2016. Another teleconference meeting was held on February 18 2017, and a further meeting was held at the ASPB Plant Biology meeting in Honolulu in June, attended by Anja. His role will be to chair one of the Presidents’ Symposia, the focus of which will be cell biology and development: from transcription to the cell wall. In addition, CSPB will be hosting a joint symposium with ASPB, the topic of which is likely to be related to advances in imaging technology in plant science. (c) Treasurer (Sheila Macfie) (report appended) Macfie indicated that the CSPB is both a charity (that cannot lobby) and a corporation (for lobbying purposes). The CSPB still owes ~$24,500. The CSPB-SCBV sponsored the Society’s Eastern Regional Meeting (ERM) at the University of Toronto, St. George campus. The meeting posted a gross profit of $8,811.04 (this includes $2,000 seed money provided by the CSPB-SCBV).

Plant Biotech 2016 (co-sponsored with the Canadian Association for Plant Biotechnology) was held at Queen’s University. The meeting posted a gross profit of $29,526.76. This includes $5,000 in seed money and CAPB’s share of the proceeds ($7,358.03), which will appear as an expense in the next fiscal year (2017-2018). The 2016 ERM was held at the Royal Botanical Gardens, hosted by CSPB-SCBV members at McMaster University. The profit from this meeting ($3,130) will appear as revenue in the 2017-2018 fiscal year. Seed money ($5,000) was provided to support Plants from Sea to Sky, a joint CSPB-SCBV and CSHS-SCSH (Canadian Society for Horticultural Science) meeting in Vancouver BC. The CSPB-SCBV’s annual membership dues in the GPC have risen from US $500 to US $1,000. The 2017 membership dues were paid by wire transfer on Nov 28, 2016 (total CDN $1,417.50, which includes exchange rate and wire transfer fees). The CSPB-SCBV was represented by Deena Errampalli (President, Plant Canada) at the 2016 GPC meeting, so we did not incur any GPC-related travel expenses this year. Donations to the Oaks Scholarship Fund ($1,023.26) from Society members last fiscal year (2015-2016) were deposited into the Oaks Scholarship Fund; donations from this fiscal year ($800) are still in the bank/PayPal and will be transferred to the Oaks account soon; $21,000 to cover the Oaks Doctoral Scholarship payments (see next section) were transferred from the Oaks account to the CSPB-SCBV account. The Oaks Fund gained $40,951.61 this year (+7.2%); it was a really good year for investments. The Ann Oaks Scholarship is used to support one Ph.D. student each year. $510 was donated by Society members to the George Duff Travel Fund in fiscal year 2016-2017. A total of $11,635 was awarded in support of student and post-doc travel to Plant Biotech 2016. The difference in funding was supplied by general Society funds. ~$13,000 was used to support the Duff Travel Fund for the UBC meeting. Funds were also used for the C.D. Nelson, David Gifford and Gold Medal awards, which is money well spent. The CSPB pays a lot in fees, insurance, dues, seed money, and awards and scholarships. Last year, the Society came close to breaking even. It gained $1,146.38 more than it spent. This does not take into account that we currently owe $7,358.03 to the CAPB. If that debt is considered, we ended up spending $6,211.65 more than we gained. She had predicted a loss of about $22,700 for the 2017 fiscal year, which was based in part on a 2% gain in our IPC investment funds. However, the general investments far exceeded expectations (8.5% gain), and both the 2015 ERM and the 2016 annual meetings posted larger-than-expected profits. She is projecting a loss of about $7,500 for the 2018 fiscal year. For this estimate, she assumed a modest 5% gain in our investment funds, a modest profit from this summer’s annual meeting and no change in membership fees.

Nonetheless, overall, the Society is in solid financial shape. The total non-encumbered funds ($184,834.76) are close to what they were two and four years ago, and the Oaks fund is holding strong. Macfie indicated that there are three motions to be voted upon as indicated below. Motion 3: That the CSPB-SCBV members accept the 2017 Treasurer’s report and that the budget for the 2017-2018 fiscal year be approved. The motion was put forward by Sheila Macfie, 2nd by Emily Indriolo. All in favour. The motion passed on July 6th, 2017. Motion 4: The CSPB-SCBV undergo a compilation engagement for 2017-2018. Background: Not-for-profit corporations with gross annual revenues less than $1,000,000 are required to undergo an annual review engagement, unless the members resolve not to have one. If a review is not done, a compilation must be done. The CRA defines a review engagement as the process of engaging a public accountant to prepare financial statements on a review basis and to provide limited assurance that the financial information is plausible and conforms to generally accepted accounting principles. A compilation is the process by which financial information is compiled to produce financial statements that are based solely on information provided by the organization; no assurances as to the accuracy or veracity of the information is provided. A review engagement would give Marcus & Associates a clear picture of the Society finances, and give them assurance that our books are in order. The motion was put forward by Sheila Macfie, 2nd by Annette Nassuth. All in favour. The motion passed on July 6th, 2017. Motion 5: That the CSPB-SCBV members accept the following increases in membership fees:

Category Current dues Proposed dues

Student $15 $25

Postdoc $25 $35

Full $40 $60

Corporate $500 $500

Emeritus $15 $25

Corresponding $15 $25

Macfie indicated that the dues have not been increased since 1998 or 1999, and the proposed due changes will increase income by $5,500-6,000. Santokh asked if making a profit looks like a problem? Macfie stated that the scholarships are a service that feed back to the Society. The motion was put forward by Sheila Macfie, Mehran Dastmalchi proposed an amendment to raise the student dues to $20 and the full members to $70, 2nd by Mehran Dastmalchi, 3 opposed, all others in favour. The motion passed on July 6th, 2017. (d) Communication Director (Ingo Ensminger) (report appended) Ensminger indicated that the latest CSPB Bulletin was posted last week; everything in the Bulletin comes from members. He indicated that a new section on new faculty hires is being contemplated; there was a lot of positive feedback regarding the proposal. He stated that the CSPB will have a new website soon, and a transfer of material from the old to new site started in June 2017. in the future members will be able to manage their own profiles. The expected launch of the new website is in October 2017. Jacqueline Monaghan has agreed to take over the CSPB twitter account. Ensminger also put forward a motion to increase the number of members on the Communication Committee as follows. Motion 6: That two additional members are added to the CSPB Communication Committee. The motion was put forward by Ingo Ensminger, 2nd by Daphne Goring. All in favour. The motion passed on July 6th, 2017. (e) Eastern Regional Director (Daphne Goring) (report appended) Goring indicated that the ERD coordinates the Eastern Regional Meetings. A recap of the ERM at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Fall 2016 is provided in the ERD Report. The next ERM will be at McGill Macdonald Campus in 2017, hosted by Jean-Benoit Charron and colleagues. The 2018 ERM will be at Western University, and the 2019 meeting at Brock University. (f) Western Regional Director (Mark Belmonte) (report appended) Belmonte thanked the CSPB Executive for the seed money for the Western Regional Meeting in Manitoba in December 2017. He will Co-Chair the meeting together with

John Markham of the Canadian Botanical Association. John Markham is fine with everything related to the WRM being posted on the CSPB site. They even have a logo of a maple leaf that is symbolic of both societies. The lines through the leaf represent the junction of the Assiniboine and Red rivers and it has historic significance as a place of meeting. There are several workshop ideas, including: (1) RNA sequencing data processing and visualization of model systems organized by Mike Becker (NSERC Vanier student, Belmonte Lab); herbarium workshop led by Bruce Ford (CBA); and (3) a plant and the environment workshop at the Manitoba Museum. They have already raised $8,000 in funding, and John Markham will ask for additional seed money at the CBA AGM. (g) Education Director (Emily Indriolo) (report appended) Indriolo focused on how to implement activities for Fascination of Plants Day in 2018. This will allow for others to prepare for the actual day. She also indicated that the Duties Manual was updated with these ideas in mind. (h) Science Policy Director (Barry Micallef o/b/o Owen Rowland) (report appended) Micallef directed the members to the appended report. (i) Student/Postdoc Representative (Shrikaar Kambhampat) (report appended) Kambhampat discussed his plan to implement a new student outreach program (see appended report). He also indicated that two student workshops were run at UBC. Motion 7: Barry Micallef put forward the motion to accept the Reports of Officers, 2nd by Emily Indriolo. All in favour. Motion passed on July 6th, 2017. 5) Business Arising (a) Carl Douglas Endowment Fund terms of reference Wasteneys was pleased to announce that a fund for support of a postdoctoral prize to honour Carl Douglas’ contributions to CSPB and plant biology in Canada is now set up to receive donations. Wasteneys also indicated that Carl Douglas was the President and Past President of the Society. Mark Belmonte is chairing a committee to establish the terms of reference for the award. Belmonte stated that it is a way to honour Carl’s legacy. The intent is for the award to be an early career award for a postdoctoral fellow. (b) Equity and Diversity in the CSPB (report appended) Geitmann directed the Executive to the report by the CSPB Diversity and Equity Task Force, Chaired by Allison McDonald. She said the next steps are to find a couple people to determine how the recommendations in the report can be implemented. The report touched on many items.

(c) 2017 Awards The awards committees identified the following awardees for this year's awards to be handed out in Vancouver. David J. Gifford Award in Tree Biology: Uwe Hacke (University of Alberta). Geitmann informed Dr. Hacke who is very pleased and intended to participate at the annual meeting in Vancouver to receive his award. Unfortunately, a family emergency forced him to travel to Europe on short notice and he will not be able to receive the award in person. Rob Guy will stand in. C.D. Nelson Award: Marcus Samuel (University of Calgary). Dr. Samuel is thrilled to receive the award at the annual meeting. Geitmann informed him that he will be invited to give a plenary lecture at the 2018 Annual Meeting in Montreal. He agreed to this. (d) Future CSPB Meetings (Geitmann) The following meeting locations are secured: Annual General Meetings:

• AGM 2018 - Joint with ASPB (Plant Biology 2018), Montreal, July 14-17; local CSPB committee is being formed.AGM 2019 - Joint with Plant Canada (Guelph, hosted by CSPB)

• AGM 2022 - Joint with ASPB (Plant Biology 2022) Portland, Oregon, July 8-13 Eastern Regional Meetings:

• ERM 2017 - McGill University, Macdonald Campus (Jean Benoit Charron and colleagues)

• ERM 2018 - Western University (Norm Huner and colleagues) • ERM 2019 – Brock University

6) Election of Officers – Senior Director (J.B. Charron) (nominations attached) a) J-B. Charron presented the report of the Nominating Committee. b) J.-B. Charron asked if there are any nominations from the floor; none were received. Motion 8: Moved by Jean-Benoit Charron that the report of the Nominating Committee be accepted, 2nd by Biruk Feyissa . All in favour. Motion passed on July 6th, 2017. 7) Thanks to outgoing executive, meeting hosts and organizers, and passing of the CSPB Gavel to incoming President, Geoff Wasteneys (Geitmann). Geitmann thanked the local organizing committee, including Geoff Wasteneys, and passed the gavel to Geoff Wasteneys. Wasteneys thanked Anja Geitmann for her service to the Society as President. 8) Other Business Shrikaar Kambhampat suggested that opportunities for employment for young scientists are placed on the CSPB website.

9) Announce Incoming Executive Meeting Wasteneys reminded Executive members that the Incoming Executive meeting would be taking place tomorrow Friday, July 7th, 2017; 12:30-1:30 pm in Room 2203, Biosciences Building. 10) Adjournment Moved by Barry Micallef that the meeting be adjourned, 2nd by David Bird. All in favour. Motion carried at 6:16 pm on July 6th, 2017.

TheCanadianSocietyofPlantBiologistsLaSociétéCanadiennedeBiologieVégétale

AnnualGeneralMeeting,June2017

CSPBPresident-ReporttoABMSpring/Summer2017

AcknowledgementsIwould like to thank theexecutiveandcommitteememberswhosemandatesend in June2017 for theirinvolvementandtirelessimplicationintheoperationoftheSociety(belowlistedareonlythemostrecentofficesheld;somemembershadheldmultipleofficesinpreviousyears):

VincenzodeLuca,BrockU-(President2013-15,PastPresident2015-17)DavidJ.GiffordTreeBiologyAwardCommittee-HugoGermain(UQTrois-Rivières (2014-17;Chair2016-17)GlebKrotkovAwardCommittee-FrançoisQuellet,UQAM(2014-17;Chair2016-17)RagaiIbrahimAwardCommittee-DanielleWey,WesternOntario(2014-17;Chair2016-17)SocietyMedalAwardCommittee-LineLapointe,ULaval(2011-17;Chair2013-14,2016-17)EducationDirector-EmilyIndriolo,NewMexicoStateU(2015-17)

Kingston2016-surplussharingLast year's annual meeting held in Kingston was held jointly with the Canadian Association for PlantBiotechnology (CAPB). A 70:30 split of any surplus had been agreed upon to reflect a) the significantlysmallernumberofCAPBparticipants,butalsothefactthatthroughCAPBsignificantsponsormoneywasraised.CAPBreceived$7,358.03ofthe$24,526.76surplus.IthastobenotedthatCSPBtypicallyhandsout$10-12,000 per annual meeting to student participants in form of the Duff Travel Bursary. Achieving asurplus during an annual meeting is therefore extremely helpful to maintain overall balance of Societyfinances.

PlantCanadaThenextPlantCanadameetingwilltakeplacein2019.ThemeetingisofficiallyhostedbyCSPBatGuelphwithBarryMicallefleadingthelocalorganizingcommittee.ThescientificprogramcommitteeischairedbyGeoffWasteneys.Theconferencevenueissecured.IhaveservedonthePlantCanadaBoardforthepastfouryearsinmyfunctionsasCSPBVice-PresidentandPresident.Simultaneouslywith leaving thepositionasCSPBPresident Iwill thereforebe steppingdownfromtheBoardofDirectorsofPlantCanada.AsecondmemberoftheCSPBexecutivewilljointheBoard-itisanticipatedthatthiswillbetheincomingCSPBVice-President.

GlobalPlantCouncilCSPB is a founding member of GPC - a very active organization working to promote plant scienceworldwide.DeenaErrampali, PresidentofPlantCanada currently serveson theGPCExecutive as representative forNorthAmerica.InterimCSPBSciencePolicyDirectorOwenRowlandliaiseswithGPConbehalfofCSPB.

FederalGovernmentTri-CouncilThe 2017 budget allocated to the Tri-Council agencies has not received any boost this year, which, ofcourse,isadisappointment.However,manyinthefieldofplantsciencearecautiouslyoptimisticgiventhatthe2017federalbudgethighlightedagri-foodasoneofthreeindustriesinCanadawith"greatpotentialforgrowthandjobcreation"andwasfeaturedasakeycomponentoftheInnovationAgenda.Thegovernmentstated,"Canadaisinauniquelystrongpositiontocapitalizeonglobalagri-foodgrowth."Thegovernmentannouncedaninvestmentofupto$950millionoverfiveyears($150millionofwhichisanewallocation),todrive business-led innovation "superclusters", in industries with agri-food playing a prominent role. Thisemphasisontheagri-foodsectornovelandarisesfromtherecommendationspublishedbytheChairoftheAdvisoryCouncilonEconomicGrowth,DominicBarton(http://www.budget.gc.ca/aceg-ccce/home-accueil-en.html)Canada'sFundamentalScienceReportIn2016theFederalMinisterofSciencelaunchedanindependentreviewoffederalfundingforfundamentalscience. The review assesses the program machinery that is currently in place to support science andscientists in Canada. "This report sets out a multi-year agenda that, if implemented, could transformCanadian research capacity and have enormous long-term impacts across the nation." (C.DavidNaylor,ChairofthePanel)http://www.sciencereview.ca/eic/site/059.nsf/eng/home

OverviewFutureMeetingsThefollowingmeetinglocationsaresecured:AnnualGeneralMeetings:

• AGM2018 - JointwithASPB (PlantBiology2018),Montreal, July 14-17; localCSPBcommittee isbeingformed.Forfurtherdetailsseebelow.

• AGM2019-JointwithPlantCanada(Guelph,hostedbyCSPB)• AGM2022-JointwithASPB(PlantBiology2022)Portland,Oregon,July8-13

EasternRegionalMeetings:

• ERM2017-McGillUniversity,MacdonaldCampus(JeanBenoitCharronandcolleagues)• ERM2018-WesternUniversity(NormHunerandcolleagues)• ERM2019-BrockUniversity(VincenzodeLucaandcolleagues)

AwardsThe awards committees identified the following awardees for 2017 and the executive endorsed thesenominations:DavidJ.GiffordAwardinTreeBiology:UweHacke (UniversityofAlberta). I informedDr.Hackewhoisvery pleased and intended to participate at the annual meeting in Vancouver to receive his award.Unfortunately,afamilyemergencyforcedhimtotraveltoEuropeonshortnoticeandhewillnotbeabletoreceivetheawardinperson.RobGuywillstandin.C.D.NelsonAward:MarcusSamuel(UniversityofCalgary).Dr.Samuelisthrilledtoreceivetheawardattheannualmeeting. I informedhimthathewouldbe invitedtogiveaplenary lectureatthe2018annualmeetinginMontreal.RagaiIbrahimAward:ThomasDefalco(LabofKeikoYoshioka,UniversityofToronto;currentlySainsburyLaboratory,England).

SocietyMedalMotivatedby the recentchange in logoaswellas the fact that the lastcopyof the lastbatchofSocietyMedalshasbeenhandedout,discussionshavebeen leadto replacethecurrentlyusedmedalbyanewlydesignedplaqueorsimilar.Theoldmedalwasmadeofasilvercoreandgoldplated(hencetheunofficial

name 'GoldMedal') and production cost exceeded 1000$permedal.Of considerationwas therefore theproposaltoreplacethisformatbyalessexpensivetoproduceformatsuchasawood-mountedplaque.Inordertoassesswhetherpastmedalawardeescaredsignificantlyaboutthemetalnatureofthemedal,Icanvassedfiverecentawardees(BrianEllis,NormHuner,BarryShelp,BeverleyGreen,FatheySarhan)andasked them about the sentimental value of the metal nature of the medal as well as its presentlocation/display. Four of the five individuals canvassed said clearly that theywould notmind if theyhadreceived a plaque instead of amedal, certainly if themoney could be used for better purposes, such asstudent bursaries. For these four individuals the recognition counted, not the material. One individualemphasizedtoappreciatethemetalnatureofthemedal.AttheOutgoingExecutiveCommitteemeeting,theCommitteevotedunanimouslytochangetheformatoftheSocietyMedaltobeametalplaqueonawoodensurface,designedforwallmounting.

CanadianPlantHealthNetworkIn late 2016, Pierre Bilodeau, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, contacted me. He explained that theestablishment of a Canadian Plant Health Network would build strong partnerships betweenFederal/Provincial/Territorialgovernments,academia,industryandinternationalgroupstoleveragediverseresources and expertise to strengthen Canada plant regulatory framework, promote plant healthinnovation,enhanceglobaltrade,andattractnewinvestment.TherearethreekeyareasofactivitieswhereaCanadianPlantHealthNetworkwouldbehighlybeneficial:1)Post-entryquarantine,2)Surveillance,and3)Diagnostics&Testing.Herequestedafewnamesofpeoplewhomightbeinterestedinparticipating.Thisrequestraisedtheissueof lackofconsistentinformationtherespectiveexpertiseofCSPBmembers.ThenewonlinesystemwilloffertheopportunitytoCSPBmemberstoindicatethisinformation.

CSPBWebSiteThe new web site is in the testing phase and I would like to commend Communication Director IngoEnsminger for the enormous amount of work he has done to accomplish this. The new layout incombinationwiththenewlogowillservetoincreasetheSociety'svisibility.Thesystemgoesfarbeyondthecapacityofanormalwebsiteandwillallowintegrationofpaymentsystemsandmanagingofmembershipdatabases.

ArchivesThe CSPB archives are kept at the NRC building on Sussex Street in Ottawa. In 2016, Étienne Lepage(Agriculture and Agrifood Canada, Ottawa) was appointed new Archivist of the CSPB. The transfer ofactivities has been made from Connie Nozollilo; he has visited the NRC. NRC proposes to store CSPBarchivesinnew,moresecureboxes-theyarewillingtobearthecosts.In recentyears,nonewdocumentshavebeenaddedtothearchives.ÉtienneLepagehasbeentaskedtoverifyboththephysicalstatusofthearchives,movethemintonewboxes,andtoverifythecompletenessoftherecords.Backissuesofmeetingprogramsandmeetingminuteswillbeaddedasneeded.

EquityandDiversityAttheAnnualMeetingin2016ataskforcehasbeenstrucktoproviderecommendationsformeasurestheCSPBshouldimplementinordertopreventgenderorethnicitybasedbiascausedbySocietypoliciesandprocedures. Inaddition,thetaskforcewillassesswhethertheCSPBcoulddomoretoraiseawarenesstothese issues. The CSPBmembers who accepted serving on the task force are AlisonMcDonald (Chair),JaniceCooke,HeatherMcFarlane,AlisonMcDonaldandKenWilson.ThetaskforceproducedadetailsetofconsiderationsthatpertainmostlytothetermsofreferenceoftheSociety awards as well as committee composition (see Annex). The Executive committee has taskedDaphneGoringandmyselftofollowupwithnecessarystepstoimplementmanyoftherecommendationsmadebythetaskforce.

JointMeetingwithASPB,Montreal2018JointMeetingswithASPBare logistically runbyASPB.TwoCSPBmembersaregenerallyaskedtositonthejointProgramCommittee:GeoffWasteneysandIparticipatedatapreparatorymeetinginSeptember2016andateleconferenceinFebruary.IparticipatedintheProgramCommitteeonJune25inHonoluluandasitevisitisplannedforSeptember2017.The2018jointmeetingwillalsoinvolvetheISPR(InternationalSocietyofPhotosynthesisresearch)withanadditionaldayplushalfadayoverlap.

MajorSymposiaThreemajorsymposiawillinvolveCSPB:

• CSPBPresident'sSymposium(Organizer:GeoffWasteneys;Theme:CellBiologyandDevelopment:fromtranscriptiontothecellwall)

• ASPB/CSPB(Organizers:AnjaGeitmann&PhilTaylor;Theme:OpeningResearchAvenuesthroughNewTechnologies;willincludeapaneldiscussionwiththefourspeakers)

• ASPB/CSPB/ISPR

AwardsCeremonyThejointawardsceremony(ASPB,CSPB)willtakeplaceontheafternoonofthefirstconferenceday,likelyat16h,afterthefirstmajorsymposium.Traditionally,theASPBfirsthandsoutalltheawards,followedbyseveraltalksgivenbyawardeesfromthepreviousyear.Theprogramcommitteedecidedtospreadoutthehandingoutoftheawardsovertheintermissionsbetweentalksfor2018.Therewill likelybe4talks:3byASPBawardees&theCSPBCDNelsontalk.

FinancesIhavediscussedthedesireofCSPBmemberstobeabletopayforconferenceparticipationinCanadian$giventhatthejointmeetingtakesplaceonCanadiansoil.JeanRosenberg,theASPBconferencemanager,andSheilaMacfie,CSPBTreasurer,arenowincontacttofindthebestsolution.

LocalCSPBCommitteeThe following CSPBmembers have indicated willingness to serve on a local organizing committee: forCSPB-specific logistics: Olivia Wilkins, Jean-Benoit Charron, Hugo Zheng, Jaswinder Singh, TamaraWestern(allMcGill),FrançoisOuellet,JeanDanyluk(bothUQAM),JeanRivoal (UdeM).Specific roleswillbeassignedinthecomingweeks.

AnjaGeitmannCSPBPresident

Dr.AnjaGeitmannProfessorandDean

FacultyofAgriculturalandEnvironmentalSciencesMcGillUniversity,MacdonaldCampus

21111LakeshoreSte-Anne-de-Bellevue

QuébecH9X3V9

The Canadian Society of Plant Biologists La Société Canadienne de Biologie Végétale

Report of the CSPB/SCVP Vice-President Geoffrey Wasteneys CSPB Annual General Meeting July 6, 2017, Vancouver, BC 1. Annual General Meeting in 2017 in Vancouver I am pleased to say that our joint meeting with the Canadian Society for Horticultural Science has attracted nearly 300 delegates, of which approximately 10% are CSHS members. We attracted 9 prominent plenary speakers. Although the financial outcomes will not be know until after the meeting, I am confident that we have achieved a substantial profit, which will be shared on a registration basis with CSHS. Our major expenses will be the costs of our invited plenary speakers, and these have been defrayed by the support of 20 corporate and academic sponsors. I am pleased to see so many student delegates, of whom nearly 110 are competing in the Presidents’ Awards. I take this opportunity to thank, on behalf of CSPB, the support of the UBC Department of Botany for admin and IT support, and contributions from CSHS through the society president Karen Tanino (U Sask) and executive member Simone Castellarin (UBC). I also thank the local organizing committee Simone Castellarin (Land and Food Systems, UBC), Cara Haney (Michael Smith Laboratories, UBC), Jae-Hyeok Lee (Botany), Xin Li (Michael Smith Laboratories, UBC), Rob Guy (Forestry, UBC), Abel Rosado (Botany), Sherryl Bisgrove (SFU) and Santokh Singh (Botany) as well as others who have contributed through the chairing of plenary and concurrent sessions, and judging the student presentations. 2. Presidents Awards We received an increase in the number of student participants in the Presidents Awards over last year’s meeting in Kingston. With over 100 presentations (47 orals, 58 posters) I have recruited 35 judges. 3. 2018 Joint ASPB-CSPB meeting, Montreal The planning is progressing well. President Anja Geitmann and I attended a planning meeting hosted by ASPB in West Palm Beach Florida in September 2016. Another teleconference meeting was held on February 18 2017, and a further meeting was held at the ASPB Plant Biology meeting in Honolulu in June, attended by Anja. My role will be to chair one of the Presidents’ Symposia, the focus of which will be cell biology and development: from transcription to the cell wall. In addition, CSPB will be hosting a joint symposium with ASPB, the topic of which is likely to be related to advances in imaging technology in plant science. 4. Carl Douglas Fund I am pleased that an fund for support a postdoctoral prize to honour Carl Douglas’ contributions to CSPB and plant biology in Canada is now set up to receive donations. Mark Belmonte is chairing a committee to establish the terms of reference for the award, which will be discussed in a separate agenda item.

Geoffrey Wasteneys Vice President, CSPB-SCBV Department of Botany University of British Columbia Vancouver, BC

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The Canadian Society of Plant Biologists Inc. La Société canadienne de biologie végétale incorporée

(CSPB-SCBV Inc.)

(Formerly the Canadian Society of Plant Physiologists Inc. Anciennement la Société canadienne de physiologie végétale incorporée)

Treasurer's Report

Vancouver, BC July 2017

Society Name(s) The names of the not-for-profit corporation and the associated charity were officially approved by the federal government in April 2012. In this Treasurer’s Report, the not-for-profit corporation is referred to as “CSPB-SCBV Inc.”, and the charity is referred to as “CSPB-SCBV”, even when referring to events prior to the name change. Function of the Corporation CSPB-SCBV Inc. was established in 1992-1993 to facilitate lobbying efforts on behalf of science in Canada (federal government regulations forbid charities, e.g. CSPB-SCBV, to lobby). These efforts were to be carried out in conjunction with the Canadian Federation of Biological Societies (CFBS). Once established, CSPB-SCBV Inc. collected membership dues from Society members (dues had previously been collected by CSPB-SCBV), and forwarded a portion of the dues to CFBS. The remainder of the dues were transferred to CSPB-SCBV. Charitable donations to the Duff Travel Bursaries and/or the Oaks Scholarship Fund were also transferred to CSPB-SCBV. This system was relatively cumbersome, but was necessary in order to carry out lobbying efforts. With the termination of the Society's association with CFBS a number of years ago, the lobbying efforts of the Society have ceased. The bookkeeping system was therefore changed, such that the CSPB-SCBV resumed collection of membership dues and charitable donations. CSPB-SCBV Inc. is now relatively inactive and does not currently play a major financial role in the Society. This change in Society bookkeeping was enacted for September 2002, in time for the collection of 2003 membership dues. Assets and Financial Activity Assets of CSPB-SCBV Inc. consist solely of a chequing account. CSPB-SCBV Inc. had minimal financial activity in fiscal year 2017; details are shown in the “Statement of Operations” on page 4. CSPB-SCBV Inc. had a GIC that matured on June 29, 2016. The Executive voted on April 19, 2016 in favour of terminating the GIC at its maturity and depositing the funds into the chequing account. These funds will cover banking and corporation registration fees for the next 25-30 years. Corporation registration procedures for CSPB Inc. changed in 2012-2013, when we transitioned to the provisions of the federal government’s NFP Act (https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cd-dgc.nsf/eng/h_cs04953.html). We currently pay $40 per

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year in corporation registration, and the corporation registration and payment are submitted within 90 days of the anniversary date (July 22) of the “certificate of continuance” (see “Proposed Operating Budget” on page 4). Discussions with the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) led the former treasurer (Harold Weger) to believe that CSPB-SCBV Inc. and CSPB-SCBV might no longer be required to maintain two bank accounts. However, the accounting firmed that was hired last year to process the CSPB-SCBV’s corporate and charity tax returns recommended that we maintain two accounts until the CRA issues a clear directive about the need (or not) for a unique CSPB-SCBV Inc. account. Respectfully submitted by

Sheila M. Macfie Treasurer, CSPB-SCBV Inc. Dept. of Biology University of Western Ontario London ON

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Assets and Investments

CSPB-SCBV Inc. Apr. 30/10 Apr. 30/11 Apr. 30/12 Apr. 30/13 Apr. 30/14 Apr. 30/15 Apr. 30/16 Apr. 30/17 CSPB-SCBV Inc. Corporate Chequing Account $729.06 $651.06 $523.06 $362.43 $269.43 $139.43 $79.43 $3,415.08 GIC (CIBC) $3,198.26 $3,211.09 $3,243.29 $3,279.07 $3,308.66 $3,338.52 $3,360.22 $0 Total Cash and Securities $3,927.32 $3,862.15 $3,766.35 $3,641.50 $3,578.09 $3,477.95 $3,439.65 $3,415.08 Segregated Funds Total Encumbered Funds -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Total Non-Encumbered Funds

$3,927.32 $3,862.15 $3,766.35 $3,641.50 $3,578.09 $3,477.95 $3,439.65 $3,415.08

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Statement of Operations

CSPB-SCBV Inc. For the Year Ended April 30, 2017.

REVENUE Interest on GIC $35.43 Total Revenue $35.43 EXPENSES Bank Fees $60.00 Corporation Registration $0.00* Total Expenses $60.00 Surplus/(Deficit) ($24.57) *due to the need for a credit card to pay CSPB-SCBV Inc. registration fees on-line, these were paid from the CSPB-SCBV account this fiscal year (as part of the treasurer’s expenses). Next year, I will debit this account.

Proposed Operating Budget CSPB-SCBV Inc.

Fiscal Year Ending April 30, 2017. REVENUE None expected $0 Total Revenue $0 EXPENSES Corporation Registration $40.00 Bank Fees $60.00 Total Expenses $100.00 Surplus/(Deficit) ($100.00)

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The Canadian Society of Plant Biologists La Société canadienne de biologie végétale incorporée

(CSPB-SCBV)

(Formerly the Canadian Society of Plant Physiologists/ Anciennement la Société canadienne de physiologie végétale)

Treasurer's Report

Vancouver BC July 2017

CSPB-SCBV Sponsored Conferences Nov 2015 – The CSPB-SCBV sponsored the Society’s Eastern Regional Meeting (ERM) at the University of Toronto, St. George campus. The meeting posted a gross profit of $8,811.04 (this includes $2,000 seed money provided by the CSPB-SCBV). June 2016 – Plant Biotech 2016 (co-sponsored with the Canadian Association for Plant Biotechnology) was held at Queen’s University. The meeting posted a gross profit of $29,526.76. This includes $5,000 in seed money and CAPB’s share of the proceeds ($7,358.03), which will appear as an expense in the next fiscal year (2017-2018). Nov 2016 – The 2016 ERM was held at the Royal Botanical Gardens, hosted by CSPB-SCBV members at McMaster University. The profit from this meeting ($3,130) will appear as revenue in the 2017-2018 fiscal year. July 2017 – Seed money ($5,000) was provided to support Plants from Sea to Sky, a joint CSPB-SCBV and CSHS-SCSH (Canadian Society for Horticultural Science) meeting in Vancouver BC. Global Plant Council (http://www.globalplantcouncil.org/index.htm) The CSPB-SCBV’s annual membership dues in the GPC have risen from US $500 to US $1,000. The 2017 membership dues were paid by wire transfer on Nov 28, 2016 (total CDN $1,417.50, which includes exchange rate and wire transfer fees). The CSPB-SCBV was represented by Deena Errampalli (President, Plant Canada) at the 2016 GPC meeting, so we did not incur any GPC-related travel expenses this year. ASSESTS AND INVESTMENTS (See summary table on pages 9-10, and statement of operations on pages 11-12) Chequing account -This account is used for day-to-day operations of the Society.

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CSPB-SCBV Accounts Managed by IPC Securities The CSPB-SCBV has two accounts managed by IPC Securities (http://www.ipcsecurities.com/): an unrestricted account (to be used for general Society purposes as needed) and a restricted Oaks Scholarship Fund account (to be used only for generating funds for the Oaks Scholarship). There has been no movement of funds in or out of the unrestricted CSPB-SCBV account this fiscal year. The fund gained $12,510.37 (+8.5%) this fiscal year. Donations to the Oaks Scholarship Fund ($1,023.26) from Society members last fiscal year (2015-2016) were deposited into the Oaks Scholarship Fund; donations from this fiscal year ($800) are still in the bank/PayPal and will be transferred to the Oaks account soon; $21,000 to cover the Oaks Doctoral Scholarship payments (see next section) were transferred from the Oaks account to the CSPB-SCBV account. The Oaks Fund gained $40,951.61 this year (+7.2%). Ann Oaks Scholarship Fund The purpose of the Ann Oaks Scholarship Fund is to provide for the financial support of a PhD student in plant biology at a Canadian university, at a level comparable to an NSERC Doctoral Post-Graduate Scholarship (PGS D) scholarship (http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Students-Etudiants/PG-CS/BellandPostgrad-BelletSuperieures_eng.asp). The Oaks Scholarship Fund was established by a donation from long-time CSPB-SCBV member the late Dr. Ann Oaks FRSC; Dr. Oaks also made subsequent donations to the Fund. As well, CSPB-SCBV was the beneficiary of a life insurance policy by Dr. Oaks and was also included in Dr. Oaks’ will. Additional donations made by Society members are forwarded once per year to IPC Securities and deposited into the Oaks Fund. This fiscal year, Society members donated $800 to the Oaks Fund. The Dr. Ann Oaks Doctoral Scholarship has been supporting graduate research since 2008 (fiscal year 2009). The Oaks Scholarship is paid twice per year (two cheques of $10,500 each). With NSERC’s help, in May 2015, the Oaks Board of Trustees identified the third and current holder of the Scholarship, Christopher Wong, who received his first installment in July 2015 and is eligible to hold the award for a maximum of three years. George Duff Travel Fund $510 was donated by Society members to the George Duff Travel Fund in fiscal year 2016-2017. A total of $11,635 was awarded in support of student and post-doc travel to Plant Biotech 2016. The difference in funding was supplied by general Society funds. The Partnership Group for Science and Engineering (PAGSE; www.pagse.org/) The CSPB-SCBV is a member organization of PAGSE. The 2016-2017 membership fee for a Society of 500 or fewer members was $505.50. This will increase by the inflation rate of 1.04% next year ($510.75)

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On-line Membership Renewals The move to on-line membership renewals (via PayPal), instituted in late 2011, has been a success. Greater than 90% of membership renewals are now processed via the on-line system. In mid-2014 the CSPB-SCBV began to automate the membership renewal process, in partnership with Vital Volunteers Inc. (http://www.vitalvolunteers.com/). Members who used PayPal to renew their memberships over the past few years will have noticed that the membership receipts have changed from the traditional PDF-based receipts (which were generated manually). Society (Gold) Medal The CSPB-SCBV currently has no medals in stock. The executive is reviewing the gifting of medals (approx. $1,000 each). An update will be provided at the Plants from Sea to Sky meeting in Vancouver. Miscellaneous The Ibrahim Award was established by a generous donation from long-time CSPB member Dr. Ragai Ibrahim. The funds for the Ibrahim Award for Best Student Paper (value is $350) are managed as part of the general CSPB-SCBV investments with IPC. The Ibrahim Award funds are treated as segregated funds within this account. The fund currently contains $10,303.88. Accounting fees for this year reflect a “review engagement” of the finances (the mid-level financial review), in addition to having the accountants file our corporate and charity tax returns. An account to cover postage, courier fees, printing and other miscellaneous ‘office’ expenses has been established at the University of Western Ontario. The invoice for this fiscal year (2016-2017) will appear in next year’s report (~$180). Overall State of the Finances of the Society Last year, the Society came close to breaking even. It gained $1,146.38 more than it spent (see bottom of table on page 11-12). This does not take into account that we currently owe $7,358.03 to the CAPB. If that debt is taken into account, we ended up spending $6,211.65 more than we gained. I had predicted a loss of about $22,700 for the 2017 fiscal year, which was based in part on a 2% gain in our IPC investment funds. However, the general investments far exceeded expectations (8.5% gain), and both the 2015 ERM and the 2016 annual meetings posted larger-than-expected profits. I am projecting a loss of about $7,500 for the 2018 fiscal year. For this estimate, I assumed a modest 5% gain in our investment funds, a modest profit from this summer’s annual meeting and no change in membership fees. Nonetheless, overall, the Society is in solid financial shape. The total non-encumbered funds ($184,834.76) are close to what they were two and four years ago, and the Oaks fund is holding strong.

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CSPB-SCBV Membership Annual membership trends are shown in an attached table (page 13). Total membership is just under 400, including about 160 full members. Respectfully submitted by

Sheila M. Macfie Treasurer, CSPB-SCBV Dept. of Biology University of Western Ontario London ON

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Assets and Investments (continued next page) CSPB-SCBV

Apr. 30/07 Apr. 30/08 Apr. 30/09 Apr. 30/10 Apr. 30/11 Apr. 30/12 CSPB-SCBV

Chequing Account $18,041.34 $19,363.15 $74,457.19 $70,743.43 $77,919.87 $60,061.91 GIC (CIBC) $48,250.00 $49,963.28 $50,192.84 $51,397.47 $51,474.99 $51,732.36 BMO Nesbitt Burns (CSPB-SCBV) $61,648.55 $59,532.38 $56,920.01 -- -- -- BMO Nesbitt Burns (Oaks Fund) $432,487.20 $439,360.00 $421,990.77 -- $10.01 -- IPC (CSPB-SCBV) -- -- -- $59,321.26 $62,819.27 $63,729.40 IPC (Oaks Fund) -- -- -- $489,012.35 $518,458.03 $528,793.16 Univ. of Regina CSPB Account $692.03 $258.41 $851.64 $366.93 $40.95 $241.30 PayPal Account -- -- -- -- -- $2027.96 Total Cash & Securities $552,119.12 $568,477.22 $604,412.45 $670,841.44 $710,723.12 $706,586.09 Gold Medals (estimate) $4,238.76 $4,238.76 $3,391.00 $3,391.00 $2,543.24 $1,695.48 Total CSPB-SCBV Assets $565,357.88 $572,715.98 $607,803.45 $674,232.44 $713,266.36 $708,281.57

Segregated Funds

Ann Oaks Scholarship Fund $432,487.20 $439,360.00 $421,990.77 $489,012.35 $518,458.03 $528,793.16 Oaks Donations in Cheq Account $1,009.09 $1,285.00 $1,290.00 $810.00 $910.00 $2,063.71 Oaks Scholarship in Cheq Account -- -- $10,500.00 $10,500.00 $10,500.00 -- Duff Bursary Fund in Cheq Account $700.00 $1,020.00 $595.00 $991.32 $1,165.00 $1,270.00 Gold Medals (estimate) $4,238.76 $4,238.76 $3,390.99 $3,391.00 $2,543.24 $1,695.48 Ibrahim Award Fund (CSPB IPC Acc’t) $10,189.90 $9,840.12 $9,408.32 $9,455.22 $9,662.77 $9,450.77 CSPP-SCPV 2008 -- $300.00 -- -- --

Plant Development Workshop $3,000.00 $3,000.00 $3,000.00 Total Encumbered Funds $448,624.95 $456,043.88 $447,175.08 $517,159.89 $546,239.04 $546,273.12

Total Non-Encumbered Funds $116,732.93 $116,672.10 $160,628.37 $157,072.55 $166,027.32 $162,008.45

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Assets and Investments (continued) CSPB-SCBV

*This GIC was terminated and the funds were deposited into the IPC (CSPB-SCBV) account in 2015 ** The Carl Douglas Endowment Fund was established in 2016

Apr. 30/13 Apr. 30/14 Apr. 30/15 Apr. 30/16 Apr. 30/17 CSPB-SCBV Chequing Account $72,988.84 $58,898.11 $34,811.82 $18,499.57 $39,571.06 GIC (CIBC) $52,120.35 $52,641.55 --* --* --* IPC (CSPB-SCBV) $67,296.26 $70,547.18 $149,362.40 $147,192.43 $159,702.80 IPC (Oaks Fund) $544,446.12 $601,650.30 $599,298.27 $571,387.09 $612,338.70 PayPal Account $0.00 $173.84 $9,428.45 $62,460.74 $10,032.81 Total Cash & Securities $737,020.39 $783,935.86 $793,052.11 $799,539.79 $821,645.37 Gold Medals (estimate) $847.74 $847.74 -- $982.42 -- Total CSPB-SCBV Assets $737,868.13 $784,783.60 $793,052.11 $800,522.25 $821,645.37 Segregated Funds Ann Oaks Scholarship Fund $544,446.12 $580,650.30 $599,298.27 $571,387.09 $612,338.70 Oaks Donations in Cheq Account/PayPal $965.00 $700.00 $575.00 $1,023.26 $800.00 Duff Bursary Fund in Cheq Account/PayPal $392.76 $295.00 $540.00 $688.00 $510.00 Douglas Endowment in Cheq Account/PayPal --** --** --** --** $5,500 CAPB share of Plant Biotech 2016 profit $7,358.03 Gold Medals (estimate) $847.74 $847.74 -- $982.42 -- Ibrahim Award Fund (in CSPB IPC Account) $9,629.72 $9,744.91 $10,051.39 $9,555.36 $10,303.88 PayPal Account (Plant Biotech portion) -- -- -- $55,942.39 -- Total Encumbered Funds $556,281.34 $592,237.95 $610,464.39 $639,654.34 $636,810.61

Total Non-Encumbered Funds $181,586.79 $192,545.65 $182,587.45 $160,867.91 $184,834.76

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Statements of Operations and Proposed 2016-2017 Budget

Statement of Operations – CSPB-SCBV

Statement of Operations – CSPB-SCBV

Proposed Operating Budget – CSPB-SCBV

For the year ending April 30, 2016. For the year ending April 30, 2017.

For the year ending April 30, 2018.

REVENUE REVENUE REVENUE

Membership Dues (Individual) $11,905.00 Membership Dues (Individual) $8,835.00 Membership Dues (Individual) $10,500

Membership Dues (Corporate) $4,000.00 Membership Dues (Corporate) $4,000.00 Membership Dues (Corporate) $4,000

Duff Travel Bursary Donations $688.00 Duff Travel Bursary Donations $510.00 Duff Travel Bursary Donations $500

Oaks Scholarship Fund Donations $1,023.26 Oaks Scholarship Fund Donations $800.00 Oaks Scholarship Fund Donations $500

Douglas Endowment Donations $5,500.00 Douglas Endowment Donations $500

Plant Biotech Registration fees $58,941.08 Plant Biotech Registration fees $15,330.00

Botany 2015 Revenue $13,373.46 Plant Biotech funds from Queen’s $19,526.00 Plants from Sea to Sky 2017 Profit $6,000

Eastern Regional Mtng 2014 - Profit $8,106.07 Eastern Regional Mtng 2015 - Profit $8,811.04 Eastern Regional Mtng 2016 - Profit $3,130

Growth in Oaks Fund Investments (IPC) ($6,911.18) Growth in Oaks Fund Investments (IPC) $40,951.61 ~5% Growth in Oaks Fund Investments $30,000

Growth in CSPB Investments (IPC) ($2,169.97) Growth in CSPB Investments (IPC) $12,510.37 ~5% Growth in CSPB Investments $8,000

Total Revenue $88,955.72 Total Revenue $116,774.02 Total Revenue $63,130

EXPENSES EXPENSES EXPENSES

Bank Fees $98.81 Bank Fees $99.48 Bank Fees $100

Credit card fees $984.97 Credit card fees $1,101.34 Credit card fees $1,250

PayPal fees $1,316.27 PayPal fees $604.20 PayPal fees $400

Duff Travel Bursaries $14,502.00 Duff Travel Bursaries $11,635.00 Duff Travel Bursaries $12,000

Awards $2,850.00 Awards $2,750.00 Awards $3,000

Gold Medal $0 Gold Medal $982.42 Gold Medal / award $500

Website $556.37 Website $262.79 Website $300

Membership Management $400.00 Membership Management $475.00 Membership Management $500

Treasurer Expenses $1,255.05 Treasurer Expenses $135.94 Treasurer Expenses $1,500

Secretary Expenses $400.00 Secretary Expenses $0 Secretary Expenses $1,325

President Expenses $915.00 President Expenses $2,272.03 President Expenses $2,000

Vice-President Expenses $0 Vice-President Expenses $0 Vice-President Expenses $1,000

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Student/Post-doc rep expenses $3,974.97 Student/Post-doc rep expenses $0 Student/Post-doc rep expenses $1,200

Accounting $2,255.00 Accounting $3,390.00 Accounting $3,000

Society Insurance $695.00 Society Insurance $721.44 Society Insurance $750

Conference Seed Money (2015 ERM) $2,000.00 Conference Seed Money (2016 ERM) $2,000.00 Conference Seed Money (2017 ERM) $2,000

2016 ERM expense (Plant Can Award) $250.00

Conference Seed Money (Plant Biotech) $5,000.00 Conference Seed Money (Sea to Sky 2017) $5,000.00 Conf. Seed Money (CSPB-SCBV 2017) $5,000

Plant Biotech registration refunds $1,995.00 Plant Biotech registration refunds $800.00 Conference Seed Money (2017 WRM) $2,000

Plant Biology 2014 Expenses $112.25 Plant Biotech 2016 Expenses $60,225.00 CAPB share of Plant Biotech 2016 profit $7,358.03

Botany 2015 Expenses $15,334.29

Oaks Doctoral Scholarship $21,000.00 Oaks Doctoral Scholarship $21,000.00 Oaks Doctoral Scholarship $21,000

PAGSE $500.00 PAGSE $505.50 PAGSE $510.75

Global Plant Council (dues) $2,193.25 Global Plant Council (dues) $1,417.50 Global Plant Council (dues) $1,450

Global Plant Council (travel for rep) $2,257.94 Global Plant Council (travel for rep) $0 Global Plant Council (travel for rep) $2,200

Postage, duplicating, courier $226.73 Postage, duplicating, courier $0 Postage, duplicating, courier $250

New Cheques $162.72 New Cheques $0 New Cheques $0

Total Expenses $80,986.14 Total Expenses $115,627.64 Total Expenses $70,593.78

Surplus/(Deficit ) $7,969.58 Surplus/(Deficit ) $1,146.38 Surplus/(Deficit ) ($7,463.78)

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Society Membership as of May or June each year

Year Total Members Full Members Annual Meeting Site 1997 252 102 Vancouver, BC 1998 343 132 Montréal, QC 1999 491 237 Saskatoon, SK 2000 464 216 London, ON 2001 380 199 Providence, RI 2002 439 213 Calgary, AB 2003 348 181 Antigonish, NS 2004 413 180 Guelph, ON 2005 368 171 Edmonton, AB 2006 380 174 Boston, MA 2007 384 171 Saskatoon, SK 2008 458 209 Ottawa, ON 2009 385 176 Burnaby, BC 2010 474 176 Montréal, QC 2011 335 163 Halifax, NS 2012 375 165 Edmonton, AB 2013 464 167 Quebec City, QC 2014 414 154 Portland, OR 2015 2016 2017 (May 27)

393 445 393

156 156 159

Edmonton, AB Kingston, ON Vancouver, BC

IngoEnsminger,CSPBCommunicationsDirectorReport,06/2017

CSPBBulletin• SpringBulletin2017-waspublishedandsenttomembershiponJune28,

2017• FallBulletin2016-waspublishedandsenttomembershiponJanuary11,

2017• UpcomingFallBulletin2017-EditorialdeadlineisSeptember30,2017

UpdateofWebsite

Rational

• TheCSPBExecCommitteedecidedonApril7,2016thattheCSPBwebsiteshouldundergoafacelift.Inaddition,thisupdatewassupposedtoimplementamembershipmanagementsoftwarethatintegrateswebsite,financialandandmembershipmanagement.TheExecCommitteeagreedonabudgetofCAD2000.00tohireawebdesignertoimplementthesetupofthenewwebsite,andmakemodificationsofexistingtemplates,etc.

Progresstodate

• DanLeblwashiredtosetupthenewwebsiteinOctober2016usingtheserviceprovidedbyWildApricot.

• IngoEnsmingerhadseveralmeetingswithDanLeblsinceNovember2016torevisethesitemap,sitelayoutandcreateCSPBtemplates.TheexecutivecommitteeprovidedfeedbackandmaderecommendationsforrevisionsonabetaversionofthewebsiteinApril2017.

• DanLeblcompletedtheserevisionsinMay2017• InJune2017webegantotransfercontentfromoldwebsitetothenew

website,wehadaskypemeetingwithSheilaMacFieandHaroldWegeranddiscussedmembershiplists,paymentoptionsetc.andtheimplementationandtestingofthesefeaturesonWildApricot.Thisisanongoingprocess.

Remainingtaks

• Updatewebsitecontent,populatenewmenusonwebsite.Thisrequiressupportfromvariouscommitteesandmembers.E.g.Archives/Pastpresidents,variousnewsblogs,educationaltools,featuredpaper,featuredmember(Thisneedstobediscussed,speciefiedanddeadlinesassigned).

• Beta-Testmembershipmanagementandpaymentfeatures• Determineadministratorsforspecificsectionsofthewebsiteand

membershipmanagement.

• Trainingofadministrators(initiallyprovidedbyDanLebl)• Launchnewwebsite,testfeaturesandtransferdomain• ExpectedofficiallaunchofthewebsiteandmanagementfeaturesOcober

2017

TwitterAccount• JacquelineMonaghanhasagreedtotakeovertheCSPBtwitteraccount.The

goalistoincreasethefrequencyoftweets,andusetheaccountextensivelyduringe.g.theAGM.SomeshortguidelinesfortweetsandfeedingnewstoJacquelineshouldbediscussedatthenextExecutiveMeeting.

The Canadian Society of Plant Biologists La Société Canadienne de Biologie Végétale

Report from the Eastern Regional Director

Daphne Goring, University of Toronto

The 2016 Eastern Regional Meeting was held at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Burlington on November 18th-19th. The meeting started off with a small gathering at Robin Cameron’s house on the Friday evening for invited speakers and participants who had traveled from further distances. On the Saturday, 117 participants arrived for a full day of presentations and socializing. The surrounding RBC greenhouse plant collections provided a wonderful atmosphere for our meeting.

The presentations started off with two excellent plenary speakers: Dr. Maheshi Dassanayake (Louisiana State University) who spoke on Structural genomic variation in stress adaptation: insights from extremophyte genomics, and Dr. Jean Greenberg (University of Chicago) who gave a presentation titled, Flagellin peptide flg22 is transported to distal tissues in Arabidopsis. After a short coffee break, there were three concurrent sessions covering 24 short oral presentations. A second set of three concurrent sessions was held in the afternoon covering another 25 oral presentations. During these concurrent presentations, judges were hard at work evaluation the 34 student presenters competed for the oral presentations awards. Over lunch, lively discussions were enjoyed as 26 participants presented their posters, including nine students competing for the poster presentation award. I had the privilege of concluding the meeting with a final plenary talk titled Pollen acceptance or rejection? Intersecting signaling pathways in the Brassicaceae stigma. With the overall excellent caliber of student presentations, there was much discussion by the judges to select the student presentation awardees, and the meeting wrapped up with the student awards being handed out.

Oral Presentation winners: The Director’s Award for the best oral presentation went to Michal Pyc (University of Guelph, Identification and characterization of a novel lipid droplet protein in Arabidopsis). The Plant Canada Award for Oral Presentation went to Daniel Wilson (McMaster University, Evidence for multiple roles of intercellular salicylic acid during the Age-Related Resistance response of Arabidopsis thaliana to Pseudomonas syringae). Honorable mention went to Eliana Vonapartis (University of Toronto-Scarborough, Investigating the role of XERICO in GA-ABA crosstalk during stress response).

Poster Presentation winners: The Director’s award for the best poster presentation went to Jasmine Hu (Carleton University, A family of Arabidopsis MYB transcription factors that control the regulation of suberin deposition). Honorable mention went to Jennifer Doucet (University of Toronto, Compatible pollen signalling in Arabidopsis thaliana: the proposed role of stigma-expressed RLCKs).

Many thanks to the organizers, Robin Cameron, Peter Summers and Elizabeth Weretilnyk from McMaster University for a well-coordinated and organized meeting. Thanks also to the volunteers, session chairs, and presentation judges who along with the organizers ensured that the meeting ran smoothly and was a great success!

The 2017 Eastern Regional Meeting will be organized by Jean-Benoit Charron and colleagues and held on November 24 & 25 at McDonald Campus, McGill University, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue QC.

The 2018 Eastern Regional Meeting will be organized by Norm Huner and colleagues at Western University, London ON.

We are looking for volunteers to host the Eastern Regional Meeting in November 2019.

1

Western Regional Director Report, CSPB 2017, Vancouver, BC. Joint Western Regional Meeting of the CSPB and CBA Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba. ALT Hotel (Downtown Winnipeg) Dates: December 10-13, 2017 1.0 LOC executive

1.1 Co-Chairs – Mark Belmonte (CSPB) and John Markham (CBA) 1.2 Treasurer – Jake Stout 1.3 Fundraising – Mark Belmonte, John Markham 1.4 Student Social and Volunteer Committee – Mike Becker, Deirdre Khan 1.5 Workshops – Mark Belmonte, Mike Becker, John Markham, Bruce Ford 1.6 Scientific program – Sylvie Renault, Kevin Scott, Jake Stout 1.7 Registration committee – TBD 1.8 Plenary speakers – TBD and will appeal broadly to members of both societies

2.0 Website – Attendees should be able to pay online using PayPal, through the CSPB website.

CBA is okay with all processing going through CSPB website. Any profit (or loss) will be split between CBA and CSPB based on registrants from each society.

3.0 WRM logo

3.1 Designed by Trent Workman. Maple leaf is symbolic of both societies. The lines through the leaf represent the junction of the Assiniboine and Red rivers and have historic significance as a place of meeting.

4.0 Workshops

4.1 RNA seq data processing and visualization of model systems organized by Mike Becker (NSERC Vanier student, Belmonte Lab) at the UofM Campus December 13

4.2 Herbarium workshop led by Bruce Ford (CBA) December 12 4.3 Plant and the environment workshop at the Manitoba Museum – John Markham

December 12

5.0 Fundraising – 5.1 $8,000 committed to date from UofM and CSPB 5.2 John Markham will ask for additional seed money at CBA AGM 5.3 Sponsorship letters will be mailed and follow up calls made mid July following CSPB

and CBA AGMs Mark F Belmonte, PhD Western Regional Director Associate Head, Associate Professor Biological Sciences University of Manitoba

CSPB Education Director Report July 2017

The following report will focus on how to implement activities for Fascination of Plants Day in 2018. This will allow for others to prepare for the actual day. I would suggest a small write up in the Fall CSPB newsletter to get members to think about what and where they want to do things. If CSPB members wish to participate in FoPD, an email should go out to the membership in early Feb 2018; this will allow for the official website to be updated with all events by mid-March. A gentle reminder should go out in the second week of March. The emails should be split between the education director and other committee members for division of labour. The education director will need to coordinate with the national director (Shahrokh Khanizadeh) to get things listed on the website. National Coordinator: Shahrokh Khanizadeh, Eng. Ph.D. Shahrokh.Khanizadeh@AGR.GC.CA Plant Breeding, Physiology and statistics Eastern Cereals and Oilseeds Research Centre Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada K.W. Neatby bldg., 960 Carling Ave. Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0C6 http://khanizadeh.info By early April a reminder email should go out to the membership to make sure they have a location and activities already planned for the May date. This will allow for a posting of all of the events by the end of April on the official FoPD website as well as on the CSPB website. This will allow for ample time to post events/advertise them locally so that by May everything will be ready to go. A final reminder to the CSPB membership should go out on May 1st. Mistakes to avoid based on my experience. 1.) Keep track of the timeline. Reflecting back on things, if I would have put reminders in my work calendar to send out an email to the membership at certain times. I’m on top of things as long as they are in my calendar. 2.) Do not rely on activities as a part of a class if it is the first time you are doing the activity. I had my BIOL 313 (Plant Structure & Function) students make outreach activities with the intention to either work with the local natural history museum or the Saturday Farmer’s market. The project crashed and burned as I had never done it before with undergrads. If you want to involve undergraduates, do the first pass as making plant science outreach activities and

CSPB Education Director Report July 2017

pamphlets in the fall semester and then make the assignment due relatively early in the spring semester. It was difficult to articulate what I wanted from the students; either they had excellent take home activities or excellent information on their pamphlets but neither or both were excellent. Perhaps making this a competition would help improve the quality of the activities etc but then people will have to judge them in advance and everyone has very limited time. 3.) Find your outreach place/location. This will vary from location to location, but I’m a located at a university that isn’t very easily accessible to the public (e.g. we don’t get random pedestrian traffic). To do activities, I need to go elsewhere in town such as the Farmer’s Market or Museums and that adds another layer of coordination with people off campus to coordinate things (hence having stuff determined by March for the location of activities). This will require the local coordinator to do more legwork. 4.) Pay attention to your own schedule. FoPD was at a terrible time for me personally, it was less than a week after final grades were due and I got slammed with committee meetings as well before the end of the 9-month period. This is less of an issue in Canada but be aware that the more in advance things are planned the easier it will be. 5.) Division of labor with other Education Committee members. I did not make use of my fellow committee members. This would have helped keep me on top of things as well as have some shared deadlines with others. This could have allowed for brainstorming and various ideas on how to implement things as well. In conclusion, I realized that at least 50% of the effort for FoPD is in regards to the advance notice of the events and coordination of activities before the actual day. This will require the director to be on top of sending out reminder emails and getting the official and CSPB websites updated in a timely fashion. Having a small note in the Fall newsletter will help get it on the radar of the general membership as well as the starter email in February 2018. Report written 19 June 2017 Emily Indriolo New Mexico State University

Science Policy Director, Report, July 2017

I entered into the Science Policy position on Nov. 19th, 2016 at the CSPB-ERM hosted by McMaster University

Activities in the past 7 months:

1) The CSPB is a member of the Partnership Group for Science and Engineering (PAGSE). In partnership with the NSERC, PAGSE sponsors a monthly breakfast meeting known as “Bacon and Eggheads”, to inform parliamentarians about recent advances in science and engineering. I attended a Bacon and Eggheads presentation on May 4, 2017 by Dr. Leon Kochian (Associate Director, Global Institute for Food Security and Canada Excellence Research Chair Position, University of Saskatchewan). The talk was entitled “Next-Generation Technologies for Tomorrow’s Crops: Getting to the Roots of Global Food Security”. It was excellent and Dr. Kochian fielded many questions from the Parlimentarians. As a PAGSE member, CSPB can recommend high profile speakers for this series and I welcome suggestions. PAGSE also regularly submits recommendations to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance (pre-budget consultations).

2) On February 10th 2017, I met with Dr. Pierre Bilodeau, Senior Director, Science Branch, Canadian Food Inspection Agency to discuss the establishment of a Canadian Plant Health Network (CPHN). The CPHN focuses on connecting partners and stakeholders from industry, academia, and all levels of government, with the aim to develop an integrated community of experts in plant research, diagnostics, risk assessment, programs, policy and operations under three key pillars or “subnets”: 1) Clean Plant (e.g. post-entry quarantine), 2) Surveillance, and 3) Diagnostics. The first workshop was held in Guelph in November, 2016, with representatives from federal and provincial governments, industry, academia, and the United States Department of Agriculture. Ongoing/future activities include establishment of governance structure, securing funding, and stakeholder engagement. I will be meeting again later this year with Dr. Bilodeau to see how CSPB (or individual members) may contribute to this initiative.

3) CSPB is a member of the Global Plant Council. The Annual General Meeting of the Global Plant Council is on July 6th, 2017 in Gothenburg, Sweden. I was not able to attend the GPC-AGM this year, but I expect reports from the meeting.

Owen Rowland, CSPB Science Policy Director

Carleton University, Ottawa

Plant scientists of tomorrow: A CSPB student outreach program

Overview:

This program is designed to provide funds for a minimum of five undergraduate students, selected based on merit, to attend the CSPB annual meeting. The main objective of this program is to increase interest in undergraduates pursuing a career in plant science research. This program will provide an opportunity for students to present their research (honors thesis/internship work), learn from the conference sessions and network with the best and brightest minds of plant science research in Canada. Selected students will be matched up with a mentor (typically a graduate student/post-doc) who will accompany and guide them through professional and social activities during the conference that include field trips, workshops, scientific sessions, mixers and banquet.

Background:

Canadian Society of Plant Biologists is known for its student oriented meetings, yet the participation does not extend to undergraduates who are considering a career in plant science. Several students take an interest in conducting their honors research/ internships in a plant science laboratory each year; however, they are rarely given an opportunity to present their research outside their respective departments in the university. I believe that a program that offers these students a platform for presenting their research, an opportunity to network and learn from peers, graduate students and professors, who are experts in plant science from around the country, will build on their interest to pursue a career in the field. This program benefits the plant science community in Canada by attracting the brightest minds to their graduate programs.

The competition:

The competition will be widely advertised and will be open from September-December each year. During this time, interested students will submit a summary of their current research and a CV which will be evaluated by a committee that will select the top five students by the end of February. Mentors will be picked on a voluntary basis, a call for which will be advertised along with the annual meeting. Matching up winners of the competition with appropriate mentors (based on similar research interests) will also be done by the same committee. Upon approval by the executive, the winners will be notified and are asked to register and attend the conference where they will receive their reimbursements.

Funding:

The student/post doc representative will be responsible for securing the funding for this program. The goal is to obtain enough funding to completely support five students or provide majority of funds for their travel. The logistics of funding are yet to be determined, but I am hoping to network a bit and identify a few sources during the upcoming meeting in Vancouver.

CSPB Diversity and Equity Task Force Report Submitted: June 19, 2017 Members: Allison McDonald amcdonald@wlu.ca (Chair) Janice Cooke janice.cooke@ualberta.ca Heather McFarlane heather.mcfarlane@unimelb.edu.au Ken Wilson ken.wilson@usask.ca Scope of Reference: The task force has decided to focus on issues present within the CSPB’s by-laws, awards, policies, procedures, leadership, and membership composition as a starting point. Our concerns and recommendations therefore most affect current CSPB members and potential future members and not the larger plant biology community in Canada. Major Society Awards: All members of the committee expressed concerns regarding the terms of reference of several society awards, the policies outlining eligibility and nominations, and the composition of evaluating committee membership. Issues Identified: 1. Society awards recognize the traditional notions of excellence, original research, and impact on the field of plant biology. The terms of reference do not effectively recognize different styles of excellence, different career trajectories, and non-traditional measures of excellence. Proposed Solution: i) All terms of reference for society awards should be reviewed and revised in order to recognize excellence and impact in the broadest terms possible. Examples could include: teaching, service, mentoring, outreach, media interviews and public communication of science, etc. ii) New awards could be created to specifically target particular areas of excellence and impact that the society believes to be important (e.g. mentoring award, public awareness award, etc.) 2. Several society awards currently exclude many members of the society who have experienced non-linear career paths and have taken personal leaves due to a variety of life events. Proposed Solution: i) All terms of reference for society awards should contain a clause that clearly indicates that eligibility time frames will be extended based on the number of personal/professional leaves taken during the time frame indicated. As an example, the Australian Research Council has several awards that, like the CD Nelson Award, are presented to researchers within X number of years after PhD completion. They have fairly clear and reasonable rules about eligibility exemption that would allow a person to extend the time after their PhD during which they are eligible for these awards, based on: "carer’s responsibility; disruption due to international

relocation for post-doctoral studies or other research employment not exceeding three months per international relocation; illness, maternity or parental leave; unemployment; non-research employment not concurrent with research employment; the primary care of a dependent child (inclusive of carer's responsibility and any maternity or partner/parental leave), two years per dependent child." While this list might not entirely suit the criteria for all of our awards, they might not be a bad place to start. One approach could be to change the bylaw to limit nominees to individuals at the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor (or equivalent). While this could be seen as providing no time limit, candidates producing “outstanding research contributions to plant biology,” should be pushing for promotion to the rank of Professor within 10-15 years of appointment. 3. Over the history of the society, most of the awards made have been to men. This reflects both demographics of the membership and likely a degree of bias (conscious or unconscious) from a society that has awards going back to 1970 (The Gold Medal) or 1978 (C.D. Nelson Award). Interestingly, there have been no female winners of the David J. Gifford Award in Tree Biology (even under its previous name) which was founded in 1988. Three of 24 Gold Medal winners were women, going back to 1988 when it was awarded to Ann Oaks, and up to 2013 when it was awarded to Bev Green. Similarly, the CD Nelson Award in Plant Biology has been awarded to 3 women, although promisingly, the last two awardees were women. Junior CSPB-SCBV members face many challenges in starting independent research programs. Awards committees and the membership at large would be hard pressed to equalize all aspects of support provided by employers, mentors, and colleagues. It should be noted that of the last 13 C.D. Nelson award winners, all but one is from a research focused university, and only two awardees are not from U15 institutions. This point is not meant to minimize gender, or minority equity, it is to point out another aspect to an un-level playing field. Using academic rank as a metric for assessing eligibility for the CD Nelson Award would help to even things out, the committee would also need to take a greater responsibility, as would nominators. Proposed solutions: i) Make a conscious effort to nominate more women and individuals from underrepresented groups for various awards and recognitions. Thus, a grass roots level of consideration for colleagues from diverse backgrounds needs to occur. Friends and colleagues are the first step in the process. ii) Educate evaluation committees on conscious and unconscious biases and how they factor into decisions and evaluations of candidates. iii) Regardless of how we move forward, one problem we will face is that as a relatively small society, with a significant amount of interconnectedness, many of the awards become popularity contests. Faculty from larger institutions are more likely to have senior colleagues who are also members of the society, and thus possible nominators. These senior colleagues are also more likely to know the members on the awards committees. From experience in making nominations to society awards, there certainly seem to be links between who is on the award committee in a given year and who is recommended for the award. Needing 3 full members for a nomination can be burdensome for the original nominator, especially if the nomination is for a member from a smaller institution.

4. Concerns were raised about the composition of award committees with respect to diversity. The committee make up for each of the society’s named awards include three individuals, who have volunteered or been recruited by the Nominating Committee. Equity within these committees varies greatly. Proposed Solutions: i) Remove regional biases within the compositions of each award committee by introducing quotas for committee composition. Currently, there appears to be a distinct eastern Canada bias, with 27 committee members from Ontario or Quebec, 1 from Atlantic Canada, and 5 from western Canada (Manitoba and west). This may limit equity and diversity in conferring awards, due to the familiarity of local nominees to committee members. Making new faculty members feel welcome as CSPB members may help us to recruit more diverse volunteers for these positions. ii) All award committees should be composed of members that reflect the diversity present in the society at large. Future Considerations: 1. The above suggestions should be taken into account when setting terms of reference for the award funded by the Carl Douglas Endowment, especially taking the time to define the term post-doc. Student/Post-Doc Travel Awards All members of the committee expressed concerns regarding the process of awarding student and post-doctoral travel awards. Issues Identified: 1. The current process for awarding student and post-doctoral travel awards is not particularly clear. It is based primarily on the applicant’s travel distance to the meeting. Proposed Solutions: i) A clear rubric or formula should be devised for the awarding of travel awards using a combination of need and travel distance. This may mean that the application form must be revised. ii) Explore the idea of creating diversity travel awards that students or post-docs specifically can apply to. Several other societies have travel awards that are targeted towards under-represented members. iii) Two separate pots of money should be set aside for student vs. post-doctoral travel awards funds. As post-docs often have fewer financial supports available to them, we suggest increasing the value of travel awards given to post-docs.

Presentation Awards at Meetings Several members expressed concerns about the transparency and judging of the oral and poster presentation awards at meetings. Issues Identified: 1. Current processes appear to occur on an ad-hoc basis and are frustrating for the judges and candidates. Building off comments supplied by Daphne Goring, Eastern Regional Director, Mark Belmonte, Western Regional Director, and Geoff Wasteneys, Vice President, judging is both challenging and has inherent subjectiveness. We often have concurrent sessions, with competing students speaking at the same time. With a limited number of judges available, very little overlap exists between talks in different session, or across days. Daphne noted, and I have also observed this as a judge, judges are able to identify the best talks and posters amongst those they viewed. However, comparing across sessions or between judging groups becomes much more challenging. Some judges have different key points they look for, but are often open to persuasion by others. Proposed Solutions: i) A great innovation presented by Geoff Wasteneys at the 2016 Annual Meeting at Queen’s University was the use of an online spreadsheet to allow judges to select the talks they would view, and post their rubric-aligned evaluations. This could allow for broader coverage of talks, judges’ interests being more aligned with the topics being presented, and allows individual judges and the chief organizer to easily compare judging scores. This system seems like it has great potential to even out biases (conscious or unconscious) of particular judges. ii) The Canadian Society of Zoologists (Allison is a member) requires students who want to be considered in each competition to submit their talk abstract (for oral presentations) or their poster (as a PDF) 2-4 weeks prior to the meeting. A committee then evaluates all submissions prior to the meeting and selects the top 3-5 talks and posters to evaluate in person at the meeting. This significantly cuts down the amount of work by committee members and allows all evaluators to see all of the talks and posters in each competition making it easier to reach consensus on a winner. CSPB Executive: Current Executive: Issues Identified: 1. The executive committee is currently composed of 11 individuals of whom 4 are women. All positions are volunteer. Members can self-nominate or be recruited by the senior director. This can lead to biases as more vocal members may be more likely to self-nominate. With only one senior director, there is potential for inherent bias in recruitment. Because nominations are strongly based on who the senior director knows or meets, the greater the diversity of the Senior Director and the Nominating Committee, the greater the chance for less well known plant biologists to be identified by colleagues or by interactions at smaller meetings. Note that

currently, as the chair of the nominating committee, the current senior director is one of three men serving on the committee.

Proposed Solutions:

i) One recommendation is for two Senior Directors with a requirement for equity across the two positions. An additional suggestion is for an East/West split. These two individuals could be laddered in their two-year positions, with the longer serving member acting as the chair of the Nominating Committee.

Committee Membership:

Issues Identified:

1. There are ten standing committees of the CSPB-SCBV. These include the committees charged with selecting winners for the prestigious society awards. Of the ten, four committees are chaired by women. Of note, the C.D. Nelson Award Committee is populated by 3 women, but the David J. Gifford Tree Biology Award Committee includes 3 men, as does the Gleb Krotkov Award Committee. As mentioned above, the more troubling committee make up is that of the Nominating Committee which also is composed of 3 men.

As mentioned above, because membership of the Nominating Committee drives membership of the other sanding committees, this has the potential to be problematic. By adding a second Senior Director, the number of individuals on the Nominating Committee would be increased to four. This would more easily allow the achievement of an equitable split in member backgrounds and locations. This, in theory, should lead to greater diversity of individuals on committees and, in future, on the executive.

Proposed Solutions:

i) A good practice would be to promote a policy of equity across all the committees. The Nominating Committee would be charged with leading this effort, and in conjunction with the President and Past-President should develop an appropriate policy to bring to the membership. The flip side of this challenge is that people who are willing to self-identify as belonging to an underrepresented group may be overtaxed with service on committees, so we would have to be considerate of their time.

Definition of Post-Doctoral Researcher with the Society:

Issues Identified: The current definition of what a post-doc is within the society is vague.

Proposed Solutions:

i) It might be useful to refer to these persons as early career researchers or early career trainees. For example, "Early career trainee membership is open to researchers who have been granted a PhD and who are conducting research related to plant biology, but who have not yet begun an independent position (e.g. Assistant Professor or Group Leader)."

ii) This designation needs to respect the definition of the person’s home institution, and the position to which the person has been hired. An individual should need to provide some sort of paperwork from their institution to confirm their postdoc status, as is the case with ASPB. At some level, it might not seem fair that some people may be considered postdocs for longer than others, but ultimately the position in which one has been hired should determine one’s status. Taking this further, research associates should not be considered postdocs. At the core of the issue is that postdocs are considered trainees by NSERC and other agencies, while research associates are not.

iii) Particular awards, like the Carl Douglas Award, can be defined using this: "nominees must be early career trainees within X years since being awarded their PhD." This would effectively limit the award to postdocs, without having to deal with the issues of what people are called in their contracts (which can vary greatly between institutions, provinces, and countries). I believe the same eligibility exemptions we are proposing to apply to the C.D. Nelson Award (to extend the time past 10 years from gaining an independent position) should be applied to the Carl Douglas Award (to extend the time past X years from being granted a PhD).

Equity Statement: Issues Identified: 1. It is challenging for one small committee to produce an inclusive equity statement that is reflective of the society, as a whole. Doing so in a rush to meet yearly deadlines would almost certainly lead to confusion and an outcome that does not reflect the needs of individuals who do not see themselves reflected in the general membership of the society. These are the same individuals who likely do not see themselves being adequately recognized by the society. Producing an equity statement that lauds lofty goals, but is pushed to a separate webpage does not seem to fit with the needs or wants of the society. 2. Lack of data on the composition of past and currently members with respect to diversity. 3. There is no code of conduct for society meetings. Proposed Solutions: i) To better reflect these needs and wants, one way forward is for the executive of the society to work on developing a Vision and Values Statement for the CSPB-SCBV. Placing a high value on equity and diversity, and their contributions to not only a strong, vibrant CSPB-SCBV, but a strong and vibrant plant biology research community in Canada would be a much better place to start. Placing this value of the society front and centre on our webpage would make a much stronger statement. The additional strength of developing a Vision and Values Statement that truly reflects the membership of the society, is that future changes to bylaws, policies, or codes of conduct can be made within the context of our common goals, rather than in one-off changes that may have unintended consequences. Working on such a statement over the next 14 months, with a goal of presenting it to the membership at the 2018 general meeting, would allow for meaningful consultation and feedback from members. ii) Devise a way to collect and analyze data on member diversity for the society. For gender, biaswatchneuro (https://biaswatchneuro.com/base-rates/base-rate-calculation/) has some

interesting methods for calculating the percentage of women working in the field of neuroscience, which could be modified and applied here. They use this to calculate observed versus expected percentages of female organizers and speakers at conferences, but we could apply this to the society's committee/executive makeup. Other sources of diversity (age, culture, sexual orientation, etc) can be more difficult to track this way, and even gender calculations make some assumptions. What do we know about diversity in terms of the society's membership? Is there something we could be doing to recruit a broader diversity of members? In order to better track diversity, we could have a purely optional field in the membership form that allows individuals to self-identify with one or more underrepresented categories. This information – which we should stress is given on a purely voluntary basis - could be made available only to the executive, and used solely for the purpose of nominating people to committees. It would be worth reaching out to other Canadian scientific societies to ask how they are tracking these data and collecting this information while not violating privacy or equity legislation. iii) Develop a code of conduct for society meetings and processes for reporting and addressing violations of that code of conduct.

Membership: Diversity and Equity Members of the committee have the sense that the diversity of our student and post-doc members is greater than that of our full members. Proposed Solutions: i) Putting in place measures that make the CSPB interesting and important for individuals from underrepresented groups, so that they feel welcome and “a part of things”, and thus become long-term members. ii) Implementing a more formalized mentoring structure for junior scientists. In my recent discussions with new faculty members from visible minorities, it became apparent that they weren’t fully aware of the benefits of networking etc. that the CSPB offers. This is doubly true for government scientists. So I think that more one-on-one mentoring may be required to reach some of these new faculty members, and make sure that they feel welcome and needed in the CSPB. This may help us grow proportions of underrepresented groups in the CSPB. Along these lines, I think that providing mentoring through the CSPB is one way to increase the odds of CSPB grad students going on to postdocs, postdocs landing faculty positions, and new faculty members doing well in their appointments. Sometimes people get all the mentoring that they need within their lab or institution, but oftentimes an external mentor can be extremely valuable. This is especially true for individuals from underrepresented groups, who can learn so much more from someone who shares some of their background and perspective. I have mentored several postdocs and junior faculty members informally through CSPB connections, and so I would like to see some sort of formal mentoring structure put in place within the CSPB. iii) Providing resources that help all junior members of the CSPB, but especially those from underrepresented groups, succeed at attaining the next career stage. This could include

workshops at meetings and/or materials on the CSPB website in the forms of blog posts or website stories. Conferences: Issues Identified: Particular meeting logistics (e.g. child-care, disability accommodations, and dietary accommodations) were identified by several members as cause for concern. Proposed Solutions: i) Meeting planning guides should be updated to reflect that the above considerations should be addressed by the local organizing committee for any CSPB meetings held in the future. External to CSPB: Issues Identified: 1. Promotion of the society and the attracting of new members. 2. Outreach activities by the society in person and online to improve knowledge and visibility of plant biology in Canada to members of the general public. 3. Advocacy roles in influencing government policy (e.g. NSERC’s relatively new policy regarding child care cost reimbursement) 4. Ensuring that CSPB members have representation on grant review panels Potential solutions: i) The committee decided that these issues are beyond our current scope. Once the internal concerns are addressed, the CSPB get then turn its focus outward to address some of these issues.

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Senior Director’s report, 2017 Report highlights

1. Nomination of a new Vice-President (page 1) 2. Recruitment of a new Eastern Regional Director (page 2) 3. Recruitment of three new committee members (page 3-4) 4. Outgoing committee members (page 4) 5. Meeting site committee termination (page 4-5)

1. Nomination of a new Vice-President (2017-2019)

• A call for nominations was sent to all members on Monday January 16 2017. • One nomination was received on April 8th 2017:

From: "Wasteneys, Geoff" <geoffrey.wasteneys@ubc.ca> Date: Saturday, April 8, 2017 at 10:27 AM To: Jean-Benoit Charron <jean-benoit.charron@mcgill.ca> Subject: Re: nominations for Vice President

Dear Jean-Benoit and members of the CSPB Elections Committee, I wish to nominate Daphne Goring, Professor in the Department of Cell and Systems Biology, University of Toronto, for the Vice-Presidency of the CSPB. Dr Goring is an outstanding scientist whose research on mechanisms of signal transduction have had major impact, in particular, on understanding pollen-pistil interactions within the field of plant sexual reproduction. Her work has been recognized through several honours including a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair, election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2012), the Government of Ontario’s Premier’s Research Excellence Award (1999) and the CSPB’s CD Nelson Award in Plant Biology in 2001. In addition to her research, Professor Goring has a wealth of experience in senior administration and service, both within and outside the academic setting. As you can see from her attached CV, Daphne has been active in conference organization for more than 20 years including many regional, national and international meetings. Her work on NSERC grant panels and evaluation groups has provided Dr Goring with considerable insight that she has shared with members of CSPB through her analysis of the Discovery program and the tabling of recommendations. Finally, Professor Goring has served on several CSPB (and CSPP) committees and is currently the CSPB Eastern Regional Director. Based on her proven excellence in research, leadership, service and collegiality, Professor Goring is a clear choice for Vice-President of our society. Sincerely, Geoffrey Wasteneys, PhD Professor, Dept of Botany Canada Research Chair in Plant Cell Biology Director, UBC Bioimaging Facility The University of British Columbia Vancouver, BC, Canada Phone: +1 604 822 4664 email: geoffrey.wasteneys (at) ubc.ca

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2. Executive committee membership – 2017-2018 * New members or continuing members at new positions Continuing members (same positions) φ Term ending in July 2018 President: * Geoff Wasteneys (UBC) 2017-2019 Vice-President: * Daphne Goring (Toronto) 2017-2019 Secretary: φ Barry Micallef (Guelph) 2016-2018 Treasurer: Sheila Macfie (Western) 2017-2019 Communications Director/Bulletin Editor: Ingo Ensminger (Toronto) 2017-2019 Western Regional Director: Mark F. Belmonte (Manitoba) 2017-2019 Eastern Regional Director: * Jacqueline Monaghan (Queen’s) 2017-2019 Senior Director: Jean-Benoit Charron (McGill) 2017-2019 Science Policy Director: Owen Roland (Carleton) 2017-2019 Education Director: Emily Indriolo (New Mexico State U.) 2017-2019 Student/PDF Representative: φ Shrikaar Kambhampati (Western) 2016-2018 Past President: * Anja Geitmann (McGill) 2015-2017

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3. CSPB committee memberships * New members or continuing members at new positions Continuing members (same positions) φ Term ending in July 2018 Membership Officer: Harold Weger (Regina) Archivist: Étienne Lepage (Agri Can) Ann Oaks Scholarship Committee: φ Harold Weger (Regina) Chair 2014-2018 φ Elizabeth Weretilnyk (McMaster) Co-Chair 2014-2018 Doug Campbell (Mt Allison) 2015-2019 Sharon Regan (Queen's) 2016-2020 Sheila Macfie (Western Ontario) 2017-2019 George Espie (UT Mississauga) Advisor 2017-2021 C.D. Nelson Award Committee: φ Annick Bertrand (AAFC, Québec) Chair 2015-2018 Janice Cook (Alberta) 2016-2019 Jennifer Baltzer (Wilfrid-Laurier) 2016-2019 Communications Committee: Ingo Ensminger (Toronto) Chair 2017-2019 φ Jacqueline Monaghan (Queen's) 2015-2018 φ Barry Micallef (Guelph) 2016-2018 Michael Stasiak (Guelph) webmaster David J. Gifford Tree Physiology Award Committee: φ Armand Séguin (NRC Québec) Chair 2015-2018 Joerg Bohlmann (British Columbia) 2016-2019 * Olivia Wilkins (McGill) 2017-2020 Education Committee: Emily Indriolo (New Mexico State U.) Chair 2017-2019 φ Jin Suk Lee (Concordia) 2015-2018 Jake Stout (Manitoba) 2016-2019 Gleb Krotkov Award Committee: φ Bhinu Pillai (Dow AgroSciences) Chair 2015-201 Jaswinder Singh (McGill) 2016-2019 *Robert Mullen (Guelph) 2017-2020

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Meeting Site Committee: No longer recruiting for this committee (see point 5 on page 5) Olivia Wilkins (McGill) 2015-2018 (Moved to the David J. Gifford Tree Physiology Award Committee) Nominating Committee: φ Jean-Benoit Charron (McGill) Chair 2017-2019 Steeve Pepin (Laval) 2017-2020 Greg Moorhead (Calgary) 2015-2018 Ragai Ibrahim Award Committee: Jacqueline Bede (McGill) Chair 2016-2019 φ Shrikaar Kambhampati (Western) 2016-2018 Jean Danyluk (UQAM) 2016-2019 * Cara Haney (UBC) 2017-2020 Society (Gold) Medal Award Committee: φ Greg Vanlerberghe (U. of Toronto) Chair 2015- 2018 Peter Moffett (Univ. Sherbrooke) 2016-2019 * Doug Muench (Calgary) 2017-2020 4. Outgoing committee members

• Vincenzo De Luca (Brock) Ragai Ibrahim Committee 2009, Society (Gold) Medal Award Committee 2009-2011, Vice President 2011-2013, President, 2013-2015, Past President 2015-2017

• Hugo Germain (UQTR) David J. Gifford Tree Biology Award Committee 2014-2017 • François Ouellet (UQAM) Gleb Krotkov Award Committee 2014-2017 • Danielle Way (Western) Ragai Ibrahim Committee 2014-2017

5. Meeting site committee termination The meeting site committee duties are presented below for your information. While it is obvious that these duties are important for the society’s functioning the reality is that the bulk of these duties are accomplished by either the vice-president and other executive committee members or the respective local organizing committees, leaving the elected members of the Meeting Site Committee with very little to do. We also need to take into consideration that we have received several informal complaints from the past members of this committee regarding their lack of involvement in the decision process. Thus we are faced with two choices: 1) to disband the Meeting Site Committee or 2) to suspend the committee’s activities for one year (no recruitment) and redefine its structure to allow for more participation of each member.

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Meeting Site Selection Duties 1. The meeting Site Committee is responsible of the choice of site and local

organizing committee for National Annual Meetings, normally. The committee’s choices are brought to the executive committee in the form of written invitations from potential host organizations. The executive committee considers these. After confirmation the President sends a written acceptance of the formal invitation to the host organization.

2. Although the local organizing committee generally looks after the details, the Meeting Site Committee is responsible to the Executive committee for the meeting. The Committee should also advise the local organizing committee of the requirements of committee establishes a special bank account for the meeting.

3. The meeting site committee should arrange with the executive by way of a motion to advance an appropriate amount of money to the local organizing committee for initial expenses.

5. The Committee must ensure that format for the Proceedings (program and abstracts) conform to the publications policy (see Communications Committee’s duties for more details).

6. The Committee should ensure that the local organizing committee prepares and sends an interim financial report to the Treasurer two weeks after the end of the meeting. The books and accounts for the meeting must be closed and a final report and refund cheque sent to the Treasurer before the end of the Society’s fiscal year (April 30). Any accounts receivable or accounts payable after that date are to be handled by the Society Treasurer.

Respectfully submitted by:

Jean-Benoit Charron Senior Director of the CSPB-SCBV McGill University Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC jean-benoit.charron@mcgill.ca