Gerard Kluitenberg, Chair, called the meeting to order and introduced David Radcliff (Past Chair; not present), Jon Wraith (Chair-Elect), Jirka Simunek (Incoming Chair-Elect), and Glenn Wilson (SSSA-ASA Board Representative).

The meetings of the 2004 business meeting were adopted without modification.

Bob Horton relayed some observations about the professional and personal contributions of Rienk van der Ploeg, who passed away this year. A moment of silence was observed in Rienk's honor.

Recognitions
Gerard recognized the following S-1 members who received awards at the 2005 meeting: Jirka Simunek (Don and Betty Kirkham Soil Physics Award), John Letey (Soil Science Distinguished Service Award), Raymond Allmaras (Soil Science Professional Service Award), Rattan Lal (Carl Sprengel Agronomic Research Award and SSSA President-Elect), Stephen Anderson (SSSA and ASA Fellow), Satish Gupta (SSSA and ASA Fellow), Rainer Horn (SSSA Fellow), Liwang Ma (ASA Fellow), Per Moldrup (SSSA Fellow), and Jon Wraith (SSSA Fellow).

Gerard thanked Markus Tuller for his continuing efforts to host the S-1 Website, which Markus noted receives about 3,000 hits per month.

S-1 Early Career Award
Per Moldrup, chair of the Award Committee, presented the 2005 S-1 Early Career Award to David Robinson. Members of the 2005 S-1 Early Career Award Committee were Per Moldrup (Chair), David Radcliffe, Glendon Gee, and Ty Ferre. Per will rotate off the committee for 2006, Glendon will serve as chair, Gerard Kluitenberg will replace David Radcliffe (as Past Chair for S-1) for a one-year term, Ty Ferre continues, and Shmulik Friedman will join the committee for a three-year term.

Report from the SSSA and ASA Board of Directors: Glenn Wilson
Glenn Wilson reported on the activities of the SSSA and ASA Boards, and provided a two-page written report.

I. SSSA Strategic Plan
The tri-societies is restructuring and creating a new 501c3 management entity. The three names proposed for the management entity are: Federation of Plant, Land, and Environmental Societies; Federation of Plant, Soil, and Environmental Societies; Land Resource Societies Federation.

Characteristics: Title transferred from ASA to a federation entity with each society as part owner.

1. Continue under current structure until 12/31/07 or until the new Federation management entity is
1. created and approved by members, whichever comes first.

2. If not created/passed by 12/31/07, revert to former structure with CSSA and SSSA representation
2. on ASA Board of Directors.

Glenn sought approval of a motion to support development of the federation management entity, to support a name, and to pursue inclusion of additional professional societies in the federation. In the discussion of potential names, the number one choice was the "Land Resources Societies Federation"; neither of the other two suggestions had support, as they were considered as too specific and left out critical disciplines. S-1 members considered that the name should be broad and simple. Bob Luxmore suggested some wording changes to the amendment proposed by Glenn, which were discussed, modified, and unanimously approved.

II. Membership and Member Services
SSSA has developed a strategy for attracting new members and retaining active members. They have contracted to a telemarketing firm for $41K to contact members about renewing membership. They also instituted a new member breakfast, and created a World Bank International membership rate which attracted 150 new members. Membership has increased steadily for the last 5 years, and increased by 5% from 2004, to 5,946 in 2005.

III. Publications and Professional Meetings
SSSA Editor-in-Chief : Warren Dick's tenure as Editor in Chief has expired and S-1 Technical Editor Sally Logsdon was approved by the BoD as the Editor in Chief for 2006-2008.

VZJ: Rien van Genuchten has stepped down as Editor of VZJ. He has proposed Jan Hopmans to replace him as Editor and that 3 Co-Editors (rather than Technical Editors) be appointed. The BoD will approve an Editor after the President solicits nominations. So far only Jan has been nominated. The Editor will then select Co-Editors.

Action was taken at the August 2005 Executive Committee meeting to do a fiscal evaluation of Vadose Zone Journal from inception through budget year 2006, and further that the evaluation be completed by the 2006 annual meeting. VZJ lost $63K in 2004, $52K in 2005, and is projected by the Editor to be +$11K in 2006; however, the Director of Publications, Frances Katz, projects a loss of $15K. It is critical that VZJ continue to progress towards breaking even or making a profit.

A SSSA newsletter is proposed for quarterly or bi-monthly distribution at a cost of $73k to $107k, respectively. It would cost members an additional $12 to $18 in dues. There is a possibility of combining with Soil Survey Horizons. The Executive Committee cautioned to not start a new costly publication at this time. A motion was passed to form a committee of 5, including the SSSA Editor in chief, to look into options.

Members are encouraged to attend the World Congress of Soil Science. SSSA invested substantial funds in support of these meetings. If there are 2,000 attendees SSSA will lose ~$42k but if we get the typical 3,000 attendees we will have a return on investment of around $322k. SSSA is anticipating a 20% decrease in attendance at SSSA meetings in Indianapolis. A show of hands requested by Glenn as to who anticipated attending WCSS rather than the SSSA meetings in Indianapolis indicated less than about 10% of those present (estimated to be greater than 100 members).

IV. Professional Development
Certification and Licensing: Many states have a soils certification program. SSSA is assisting states in developing this certification.

SSSA initiated the North American Proficiency Testing Program (NAPT) as an activity of SSSA in 1997. The NAPT Coordinator oversees daily operation of the program and is to be under contract with SSSA, however, there is no signed contract on file. A contract has been drafted but to date has not been signed by the Coordinator.

V. Public Policy and Outreach
Smithsonian Institution Soils Exhibit: Plans are for a full wing (6,000 ft2) exhibit in the Smithsonian. Paul Kamps was hired in a full time position to attract funding; about $900k has been attracted to date. The exhibit is scheduled to open in 2008 at a total cost of $4 million; we need $2.5 million attracted by Dec 2006. A design firm has been selected.

The science policy action alert (www.sciencepolicyaction.org) was developed as an online service that allows members to track bills, email representatives and senators, track their voting record, and follow issues.

The society and its lobbyists were successful in getting a 3% increase in NSF funding despite cutbacks to cover cost of Katrina and other disasters.

VI. Fiscal Strength and Development
The SSSA budget was projected to be $10k in the black but ended $93k in the red. The big cause was that the Services component was over-spent by >$200k. Member services overspent by $130k and Development overspent by $75k.

Partitioning of revenue from meetings was changed to reflect the number of presentations rather than being split according to membership of the three societies. This is advantageous to SSSA since around 50% of papers are in SSSA.

Roughly 40% of revenue is from journals. Journals = $354k; Membership = $218k; Meetings = $65k (by laws allow a 25% profit); NAPT = $112k (but expenses > revenue). There is concern that our budget is tied too closely to journal revenue since subscriptions are decreasing. Member subscriptions are stable but non-member (libraries) is decreasing. Glenn urged members to contact their libraries to request our journals, that members use libraries for literature searches, etc.

Currently the Budget and Finance Committee is composed of four SSSA members, including the Chair. Each committee member serves a 4-year term and the Chair serves a 1-year term. Action was taken to restructure the B&F Committee to be composed of members of the Board of Directors: Mark Alley (06), Doug Beetle (07), Richard Dick (08), Gary Peterson will stay on 1 yr.

The society has not had a dues increase in 10 years. They are considering instituting an automatic cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) or around 4% to dues annually. A discussion on this resulted in a suggestion to use the Higher Education COLA as an index.

Report from VZJ Editorial Board: Rien van Genuchten (Editor)
The VZJ financial situation is improving, and may see a slight profit except for overhead expenses. Subscriptions are up, with about 350 library subscriptions, ~60% of these as part of the societies bundled journals option. Approval has been secured for ISI Abstracting, so VZJ will soon have an associated impact factor. Current rates are $300 for institutional subscribers, with a 2% increase for 2006.

The journal has about 180 papers per year. Rien suggested the format of an Editor plus 3 co-editors, and that the latter might be selected to represent affiliated societies, which could lead to increased submissions and subscriptions. He encouraged members to submit papers, and encourage libraries to subscribe to VZJ.

Gerard thanked Rien for his dedicated service in launching VZJ and getting it to its current state, and the members present gave Rien a round of applause for his outstanding efforts on our behalf.

Report from SSSAJ Editorial Board: Sally Logsdon (S-1 Technical Editor)
New features of SSSAJ include book reviews and special topics papers. Review papers are encouraged; these may be invited and/or volunteered, and are to be targeted rather than exhaustive. Technical Editors may invite two reviews per year. SSSAJ will also initiate awards for excellent reviewers.

The journal is in good financial shape. Beginning in 2007 they will experiment with in-house typesetting, which should speed up publication of papers.

Glenn Wilson will be the new Technical Editor for S-1, in response to Sally's moving to the SSSA Editor in Chief slot. Congratulations from all of us to Sally; she has been an outstanding Technical Editor, and we are confident that she will also excel as Editor-in-Chief of SSSA.

Other Business
Division Officers: S-1 will need to elect both a new Chair-Elect and SSSA Board Representative this year. The S-1 Nominating Committee (Dani Or, David Radcliffe, and Gerard Kluitenberg) will develop a slate of two candidates for each position.

Update on the 2008 Kirkham Conference: Gerard relayed from Don Nielsen that the 2008 Kirkham Conference will be held in Ghent, Belgium in February of 2008, preferably including or near the date of February 11 which would celebrate the 100th anniversary of Don Kirkham's birth. Don Gabriels and Don Nielsen will Co-Chair the conference.

Update on the Don and Betty Kirkham Soil Physics Award: Gerard Kluitenberg also noted that Don Nielsen stated that past and future awardees of the Don and Betty Kirkham Soil Physics Award will receive not only a certificate of achievement and a $1,000 honorarium, but also a bronze medallion bearing the portraits of Don and Betty on the obverse of the minted medallion. Also, approximately every eight years at alternate Kirkham Conferences, a Don and Betty Kirkham Soil Physics 24-karat Gold Medal bearing the portraits of Don and Betty on the obverse of the minted medal will be presented to a retired scientist who made unique international leadership and achievement in soil physics. The presentation of these medallions and medals will set a new precedent for the SSSA to enhance the stature and prestige of soil physics throughout the academic world.

Update on the World Congress of Soil Science: Gerard noted that December 1 is the deadline for abstracts to the 2006 World Congress of Soil Science in Philadelphia, and he encouraged members to attend.

2005 SSSA Program Report
Preliminary numbers show that S-1 had 135 volunteered papers (80 posters, 55 oral) at the Salt Lake City meetings, ranking as the fifth highest division behind S-11 (197), S-6 (161), S-2 (145), and S-4 (139). Gerard acknowledged the efforts of Markus Flury and Jan Hopmans who organized the two S-1 Symposia this year. He also thanked the session moderators for their fine work.

Announcements
David Robinson noted that the CUAHSI (Consortium for the Advancement of Hydrologic Sciences, Inc.) organization is conducting a review of hydrologic sciences in the United States. This information will be provided to NSF to inform them with respect to funding hydrologic sciences in the next twenty years. CUAHSI has an online survey that will be open for the next 2 months. David encouraged members to participate in this survey to help direct the future of hydrologic funding.

Gerard Kluitenberg introduced incoming Division Chair Jon Wraith, who thanked Gerard for his outstanding service to the Division, solicited member input for symposia and session topics for the 2006 SSSA meetings, then adjourned the meeting.

Respectfully submitted, Jon Wraith