The Business Meeting of the 9th IWGS was held on Friday, 7th August 1998.

Co-Chairmen: Dr. J.W. Snape (IOC), Dr. P. Hucl (LOC)

Report of Meeting of IOC/LOC, Thursday 6th August 1998

Dr. J.W. Snape had chaired this meeting and the IOC had thanked Dr. Hucl and his colleagues on the LOC on the excellent organization of the 9th IWGS. The organization of the 9th IWGS and recommendations for the 10th IWGS were discussed, and the following recommendations were made which would be transmitted to the organizers of the 10th IWGS, including:

- No concurrent Sessions.
- More time should be made for posters in the body of the meeting.
- Sessions should, as at the 9th IWGS, consist of Keynote speakers and contributed papers.
- Keynote speakers should concentrate on state-of-the art information, and not on a general review of the field.
- Workshops, as far as possible, should be put into one full day.
- The Proceedings, as here, should be produced before the Symposium, and possibly, in electronic form.

Proceeding of 9th IWGS

Dr. Hucl reported to the meeting that extra copies of the proceedings would be available for purchase by libraries and individuals at the cost of 100 Canadian dollars excluding postage. No reprints would be available, but the reports of the Workshops, Business Meeting and other information would be prepared electronically and posted on the 9th IWGS Web site and on GrainGenes through the kind offices of Dave Matthews.

Proposal for the creation of the Ernie Sears Memorial Lecture

At the instigation of Prof. Bob McIntosh, a proposal was put to the Symposium:

‘That the LOC of the 10th and subsequent IWGS creates the Ernie Sears Memorial Lecture which will be given as an invited Keynote lecture by a person distinguished in wheat genetics’

This was accepted by acclamation.

Organization of the 10th IWGS

The Chairmen invited suggestions from the floor of the meeting concerning the structure of the 10th IWGS and the following comments were made:

- The precedent of producing the Proceedings before the meeting was endorsed with the possibility of producing an electronic version of additional information, such as Workshops and Business Meetings, presented at the meeting.
- The possibility of producing the Proceedings on CD-ROM should be investigated.
- More time for poster sessions is necessary.
- Speakers should be asked to present their talks in a slower, clearer way for the benefit of non-native English participants.
- All announcements should be displayed on OHs for the benefit of non-English speaking participants.
- All posters should remain up for the period of the meeting.

International Organizing Committee for the 10th IWGS:

Professors Li Zhenseng (China), Bikram Gill (USA), Eric Kerber (Canada), A. Damania (India) were retiring from the Committee and the Conference thanked them for their contributions to the organization of the current Symposium.

A nominations committee Chaired by Professor Bob McIntosh (Australia) and comprising Profs. Moshe Feldman (Israel), Gary Hart (USA) and Koichiro Tsuenwaki (Japan) made the following recommendations for new members.

Pierre Hucl (Canada)
Olin Anderson (USA)
Lui Dajun (China)
Enrique Suarez (Argentina)

These were accepted by acclamation.

The full IOC for the 10th IWGS consists of:

Pierre Hucl (Canada): Chairman
John Snape (UK)
Peter Sharp (Australia)
Takashi Endo (Japan)
Noberto Pogna (Italy)
Olin Anderson (USA)
Lui Dajun (China)
Enrique Suarez (Argentina)

Venue of Next Meeting:

Four nominations were received for the venue of the 10th IWGS and short presentations were made on behalf of each venue concerning the timing, facilities available, relevance to wheat genetics research and financial support :

University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia: Dr. Peter Sharp
University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA: Dr. Perry Gustafson
Institute for Cereals Research, Rome, Italy: Dr. Noberto Pogna
Ministry of Agriculture, Ankara, Turkey: Mr. Vehbi Eser

Following a free vote, the majority of votes cast recommended to the IOC that the venue of the 10th IWGS should be in Italy.

Catalogue of Gene Symbols for Wheat:

Prof. Bob McIntosh presented his report as Editor-in-Chief of the gene catalogue. He thanked his co-editors Dr. Mike Gale, Dr. Gary Hart, Dr. Katrien Devos and Dr. John Rogers for their hard work in compiling the catalogue. Prof. McIntosh outlined the very large increase in the catalogue since the inclusion of molecular marker data, and progress in further development of the catalogue. He informed the meeting that Dr. Jorge Dubovsky had been invited to become a new co-editor. Prof. McIntosh indicated his willingness to serve for a further five years, if the Symposium so wished.

The Chairmen thanked and congratulated Prof. McIntosh for his enormous contribution to wheat genetics in compiling the catalogue and the Symposium unanimously invited him to continue the work.

Wheat Information Service:

Dr. T. Sasakuma presented information on the Wheat Information Service.

Reports from the Workshop Sessions:

Brief presentations were given which summarized the presentations, discussions and conclusions of the Workshop Sessions held during the Symposium. Full transcripts to be posted electronically.

1. Taxonomy of the wheats: Dr. Laura Morrison

2. Abiotic Stress: Dr. M. Tahir

3. Genetic Resources Network: Drs. T. Endo/B. Skovmand

4. Hybrid wheat: Dr. Ian Edwards

5. Starch: Dr. Peter Sharp

6. Gene symbols in Triticum and Aegilops: Dr. Richard Wang

7. Wheat transformation: Drs. Monica Baga/Ann Blechl

8. Under-Utilized wheats: Dr. Sakti Jana

Any Other Business:

There was no other business.