Jon Wraith, Chair, called the meeting to order and introduced Gerard Kluitenberg (Past Chair), Jirka Simunek (Chair-Elect), Per Moldrup (Incoming Chair-Elect), Glenn Wilson (SSSA-ASA Board Representative), David Radcliffe (Incoming Board Representative), and Bob Horton (S-1 representative on the Soil Science Society of America early response team).

Jon Wraith introduced 2007 candidates for the Incoming Chair-Elect: Ty Ferre and Yakov Pachepsky.

The minutes of the 2005 business meeting were adopted without modification.

Jon Wraith informed the meeting about S-1 friends and colleagues who passed away in the past year. These included Ray Allmaras (USDA-ARS, Univ. of Minnesota), Jim Davidson (OK State Univ., Univ. of Florida), and Don Scott (Univ. of AR-Fayetteville).

Per Moldrup informed the meeting about the health status following a cerebral haemorrhage and brain surgery of Ole Hørbye Jacobsen (a colleague from the Research Centre Foulum, Denmark) and provided contact information for get-well wishes.

Recognitions

Jon recognized the following S-1 members who received award at the 2006 meeting: Per Moldrup (Don & Betty Kirkham Soil Physics Award), Laj Ahuja (ASA Environmental Quality Research Award), Art Corey (SSSA Fellow), Walter Rawls (SSSA Fellow), Rainer Horn (ASA Fellow), Sally Logsdon (ASA Fellow), Harold van Es (ASA Fellow), and Glenn Wilson (ASA Fellow).

S-1 Early Career Award

Gerard Kluitenberg presented the 2006 S-1 Early Career Award to Sander Huisman. Members of the 2006 S-1 Early Career Award were Glendon Gee (Chair), Ty Ferre, Shmulik Friedman, and Gerard Kluitenberg. Glendon will rotate off the committee for 2007, Ty Ferre will serve as chair, Shmulik Friedman continues, Jon Wraith will replace Gerard Kluitenberg (Past Chair) for a one-year term, and Michael Young will join the committee for a three-year term.

Report from VZJ Editorial board

The report (see below) was presented by Glenn Wilson instead of the editor Jan Hopmans who was not present. Additional information was provided by Sally Logsdon and Michael Young on the proposal to change the page charges for publishing in the VZJ. There is an ongoing discussion.

Report from SSSAJ Editorial board: Glenn Wilson (S-1 Technical Editor)

The report (see below) was also presented by Glenn Wilson. To the question from the forum on the proposal to remove division numbers from SSSAJ, Sally Logsdon (SSSAJ Technical Editor) responded that there was no such discussion on this topic this year. There was a discussion on the new format of SSSA journals initiated by Gerard Kluitenberg. Sally Logsdon provided information on new formats, including new format for equations, right or left justification, etc. Gerard Kluitenberg reported that in the latest proofs from SSSAJ he had different fonts in equations and in the text, which is something that needs to be fixed. In the future there should be more invited papers and reviews in SSSAJ since they are highly cited and may increase the SSSAJ impact factor.

Report from the SSSA and ASA Board of Directors

The report (see below) was presented by Glenn Wilson. There was a discussion whether the newly proposed strategic plan of SSSA replaces the old one. Jon Wraith informed that the previous program was a Business Plan, while the new one is a Strategic Plan. A motion to support the new strategic plan was unanimously passed.

Jon thanked Glenn for his service in the last three years. Glen received a round of applause for his outstanding efforts on our behalf.

Other Business

Carbon Credits:
David Radcliffe informed about the topic of Carbon Credits Proposal. Bob Luxmoore suggested that a SSSA committee should be appointed to develop a standard for measuring carbon credits. A motion was passed unanimously that Division S-1 recommends to the board that the society should appoint a committee to develop standards for measuring carbon credits.

2006 Program Report:
A similar attendance as in 2005, although a lower one was expected due to the World Congress of Soil Science held earlier this year. Two symposia were organized. Peter Shouse organized a symposium "Understanding Plant Water Uptake" and Per Moldrup organized the symposium "Soil Bio-Physical and Environmental Controls on Greenhouse Gas Emissions: In Honor of Dennis E. Rolston". Both symposia were co-sponsored by the A-3 division; the former also by C-2 and the latter also by S-3. Jon thanked both organizers of symposia, as well as all moderators of other sessions.

Joint meetings with Ecological Society of America (ESA):
Jon Wraith suggested organizing a joint meeting with ESA in 2011 or 2012. Steven Evett proposed a motion to "appoint Jon Wraith to form a committee to look into an idea of the joint meeting with ESA and to come up with the proposal next year". Sally Logsdon informed that in 2011 there is the 75th SSSA meeting. Since SSSA is donating some money to support ASA centennial next year, ASA may reciprocate in 2011 and thus to having a joint meeting in 2011 with ESA may not be a good idea. Nancy Cavallaro suggested that there should be representatives of other divisions on the committee. Steven Evett revised his motion to "appoint Jon Wraith to form a committee, having members from other divisions, to look into an idea of the joint meeting with ESA and to come up with the proposal next year". Jon and others suggested that we may not want to wait until next year, as we're already 5 years out in terms of planning. The motion was amended to move ahead immediately, and was passed unanimously. Mike Young suggested that in the meantime S-1 or SSSA could cosponsor symposia at ESA and/or other meetings.

Announcements

The S-1 website will move in the coming weeks to a new URL address since Markus Tuller has accepted a job offer from the University of Arizona in Tucson, and the web site will move with him.
Jirka Simunek informed about the upcoming W-1188 regional meeting in Las Vegas to be held on January 2-4, 2007.

Steven Evett informed about a workshop organized by him, Sally Logsdon, and Ali Fares in Honolulu, Hawaii. The workshop's topic concerns soil water sensors, new technologies, sensor designs, etc.
Nancy Cavallaro, Division S-2 chair, informed about the S-2 business meeting and about the North American Carbon Program (about a meeting to be held in Colorado Springs in January 2007 dealing with carbon stocks, decision support for various activities, etc.).
Jon Wraith introduced incoming Division Chair Jirka Simunek, who thanked Jon for his outstanding service to the division, solicited member input for symposia and session topics for the 2007 SSSA meeting, then adjourned the meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

Jirka Simunek

Vadose Zone Journal Annual Report - 2006

The VZJ is doing very well. Since February the editorial board includes 3 co-editors: Dani Or, Tissa Illangasekare and Rien van Genuchten. Rien is retiring from the Board; a search to replace him is ongoing.

- There was record number of submissions to approach 200 papers
- The 2006 issues are expected to total 100+ papers
- 33,000 pdf articles were accessed in 2006 (up from 21,000 in 2005)

Financial outlook: Revenues were slightly higher than budgeted; expenses were slightly over budget, leading to $25,000 deficit. Increased expenses are related to longer papers and composition (graphs, equations). Change to in-house composition is expected to reduce expenses by about 10%.

The Journal layout will be redesigned, with new font, page layout and 2-color printing. An attractive cover page design is needed for advertising and reprints.

The Manuscript Tracker system is improving and will have a new look in the coming months.

The SSSA Editorial Board recommends changing page charges for its journals. A flat fee of $650 per article penalizes short papers and encourages long papers. Average page number per articles has increased by 2 to about 12 pages/article. Likely, we will change to flat dollar amount per page, and charge so that VZJ is cost-neutral ($80-100 per page). Discussion is ongoing.

The number of subscriptions is increasing, however, library subscriptions and non-member subscriptions are stagnant; more advertising is needed.

An impact factor is expected in the summer of 2007. Cite VZJ articles in your papers, as potential authors are waiting to see how journal is doing.

Special sections in VZJ are very popular; about 15 in the pipeline; contact Editor for proposals
VZJ also seeks review papers and white/opinion papers

The societies are very supportive of VZJ, recognizing that it has raised visibility of SSSA. Note that also S-1 had record number of submissions in 2006. Headquarters continues to promote VZJ, including internationally.

Jan W. Hopmans, Editor

SSSAJ S-1 Technical Editor Report

A total of 446 manuscripts, 5 Letters to the Editor, and 7 book reviews were received for review from 1 July 2005 through 30 June 2006, Table below. This is an increase of more than 13% compared to 2004-2005. A total of 110 submitted to S-1 which is an increase of 47%. International submissions accounted for more than 48% of the manuscripts received in 2005-2006, an increase of 5 to 9% compared to the 2002-2005 period. Among Divisions, the percentage of international submissions was highest for S-1 (71%) which is an increase from 53% last year. The overall acceptance rate was 52% and 48% for S-1 which is lower than the 55% and 58%, respectively for last year.

SSSAJ was #1 in Citations and #3 in Impact Factor out of 29 Soils journals

Reappointments for 3-year terms: Horst H. Gerke, Daniel Giménez, 2007-2009
New appointments for 3-year terms: Melanie A. Mayes; Lyle Prunty, 2007-2009
Individuals retiring from the Board: Timothy R. Ellsworth, 4 years

New Initiatives: Since 1 July 2005.

(i) SSSAJ provides book reviews, which is coordinated by a Book Review Editor, Laj Ahuja.

(ii) Option of manuscript submission under Special Topics that address issues of contemporary interest. Two Special Topics have been featured initially: (1) Urban Soils; and (2) Landscape Management.

(iii) Invited Reviews are no longer coordinated by an Invited Review Editor. Each Technical Editor can invite 2 review papers per year. I have offered the S-1 Chairs the option of using one invited review paper per year for S-1 special symposiums at the National Meetings.

(iv) Supplemental materials may be included in publications, linked in HighWire and CD versions to the paper, e.g. videos, additional figures, color pictures, appendices…

Recommendations:

The Editorial Board is proposing changes to the publication fee structure. The flat fee is resulting in longer papers (average page length increased from 6.9 pages in 1994 to 9.6 pages in 2006). The SSSAJ Board recommends a set X$ per page charge with the rate determined by B&F to be revenue neutral. SSSAJ Board also recommends a higher rate for non-members at an amount to be determined by B$F

Glenn Wilson, Technical Editor SSSAJ