President's Message - Aug.

Aloha fellow SEB members,

The tradition of SEB presidents has been to distribute a letter near the beginning of their term of office that thanks those who developed the most recent annual meeting and points toward the next meeting. I think that all of us who had the opportunity to participate in the 2006 meeting in Chiang Mai greatly enjoyed the venue, the local cultures, and the generosity of our hosts who provided a unique experience for the first SEB meeting in Asia. We look forward to future meetings in Asia. Likewise, planning for the 2007 meeting in Chicago is well underway. I am sure that we will all have a wonderful experience enjoying the hospitality and culture of the Chicago area. Rather than spend more time with thanks and expectations, I will use this opportunity to do something a bit different.

The SEB is in the midst of a great transformation. The most prominent feature of this has been the kinds of changes being instilled in our flagship journal, Economic Botany, under the supervision of Dr. Dan Moerman. A key change is the steady improvement of scientific rigor of each article. Simple lists of species, that were once the mainstay of our research, are no longer acceptable. Context, data analysis, and the development of theory are critical elements to all high-level sciences so they are now required in our discipline. All members are strongly encouraged to give Dan feedback on the content of articles, particularly when such reflection includes recommendations for ways to further improve the scientific quality of articles. Hand-in-glove, the membership is steadily improving the quality of submissions and, therefore, is key in this part of the great transformation of the SEB.

Another transformational change that has happened in the last year has been the development of an SEB business office. Previously, SEB business was handled by a private company that managed the database of members and correspondence about membership issues. The council determined that the SEB was paying too high a price for these services. A plan was developed to produce our own business office with our own staff that would enable us to have better service for the members. The new business office has been in effect for half a year now and we hope that those of you who had problems with the old system are satisfied with the new one. The business office is now able to offer improved membership services. I will present a discussion of these in another letter to the membership in the coming months.

This year, during the annual meeting banquet, I distributed a survey consisting of two questions: What do you hope to make as your personal career contribution to the world? What do you hope to see as the major SEB contribution in the next 10 years? Written responses were collected and compiled. Answers were about evenly split between general philosophical and specific applied objectives. The concepts that emerge from these characterize the transformation of the SEB. The new SEB is a network of scholars, cultural practitioners and students. As clustered groups we are pushing the evolution of theoretical and applied research agendas in the areas of sustainable resource management, support of indigenous communities, conservation policies, and the roles of women in science and traditional community survival. Although we have some new directions, traditional SEB agendas of new crop development, explaining crop evolution, understanding mechanisms of traditional medicines, and conservation of traditional knowledge are still strong voices. Finally, the most consistently expressed vision of the new SEB is that we become truly global with greater numbers from outside of North America and with more meetings on other continents and islands that encourage collaborative partnerships within the ranks of an expanded SEB.

During the upcoming year I will regularly communicate with you about a range of developments that have been suggested to me as needing SEB attention. Each month I will send out a letter to the membership indicating what I have learned through these communications. If you have a burning issue and I have yet to contact you, please feel welcome to drop me an e-mail.

Will McClatchey, 2006-7 SEB President