2003-2004 Annual Report on ASABE

Senior Actives Community (SAC)

Members of the Senior Actives Community (SAC) Committee for 2003-2004 were:  Larry Donoghue, Mottie Feldman, John Ogilvie and Naveen Patni (Chair).  The Committee worked with the ASABE Meetings staff and Neil McLaughlin, CSAE VP Regional to arrange for the SAC activities at the 2004 Annual International Meeting in Ottawa, Canada.  These consisted of an all-day sightseeing tour and a morning meeting of the SAC.   

Sightseeing Tour:  Twenty-six people enjoyed an all-day guided tour on Tuesday, August 3.  It consisted of a scenic 1000 Islands Boat Cruise on the St. Lawrence River (a beautiful recreation waterway and a shipping channel that connects the Atlantic Ocean to Lake Ontario and the rest of the Great Lakes) and a visit to historic Fort Henry in Kingston, with lunch in Officer's mess.  The ASABE staff arranged for this event.

SAC General Meeting:  The SAC Committee met in Ottawa in April 0f 2004 and developed a program for a Senior Actives session at the Annual Meeting.  One of the objectives set for the SAC meeting was to explore ways of promoting increased interaction of Senior Actives with Young Professionals and Preprofessionals. It was felt that the latter could benefit from the long-term work experience of the Senior Actives.  Chairs of these two groups were invited to make a short presentation at this meeting. 

The SAC general meeting was held from 09:30 to 11:00 h and business meeting from 11:00 to 11:30 h on the morning of Wednesday, August 4, immediately after the "Distinguished Lecture Series" lecture.  There were about twenty people present for the general meeting and nine for the business meeting.  The meeting opened with introductions, led by Naveen Patni.  This was followed by a half-hour presentation by Parks Canada staff on the history and engineering challenges that had to be overcome in the construction of the Rideau Canal waterway system.    This 202 km (125 miles) waterway system was built in 1826 – 1832 to connect Ottawa to Kingston on Lake Ontario for boat traffic.  This presentation was followed by about 15-minute presentations by Chad Yagow, Chair of the Young Professionals Community (YPC) and Candi Johnson, President of the Preprofessionals Council.   The recommendations for increased interaction between SAC and YPC were:

• SAC member involvement in ASABE Mentoring Program
• Social/Mixer event where SAC members could tell YPC members about the good times they have had in ASABE
• Panel Discussion/Q&A Session where SAC members can dispense lessons learned
• Shared speakers on semi-technical or general interest topics.

Preprofessionals would also benefit from similar activities.

SAC Business Meeting:  John Ogilvie chaired the business meeting from 11:00 to 11:30 h.    Notes for the business meeting were prepared by John Ogilvie.

Attendance: John Baylis, Lawrence Donoghue, Don Edwards, Lola Huggins, Jan Jofriet, Wayne Maley, Sharon McKnight (ASABE staff), Barrie Smith, John Ogilvie (Chair)

John gave the floor to Wayne Maley to discuss the project “the last 40 years” 1970 to 2007. Wayne, Robert Peart of Florida and Ben Jones of Illinois were taking on that project. Wayne gave out a card soliciting input on major impacts on agricultural engineering during the period. He asked for any ideas from the audience and received a number of suggestions. He encouraged further thought and asked that these additional ideas be sent to him at ASABE HQ.

John discussed leadership for the 2005 ASABE meeting in Tampa FL. He had been in contact with Bob Peart and Bruce Curry in Gainesville, FL. These two were to find a program chair for the meeting but had not reported back in time for the Ottawa meeting. It was agreed that unless a person was named, that Robert Peart and Bruce Curry were hereby elected to serve as program committee.

John said there is need for a SAC representative on the ASABE Meetings Council. Bruce Curry, of Florida has served on this Council from the beginning. The meetings of that Council are normally held by electronic correspondence except for meetings at the ASABE annual meeting. Naveen Patni agreed to serve on the Meetings Council if elected. It was moved by Don Edwards and seconded by Wayne Maley that Naveen Patni be elected to the ASABE Meetings Council. Carried. John is to contact Naveen and request that he serve that role.

Discussion ensued on format of the SAC program at the ASABE Annual International meeting. It was agreed that the idea is to present a program of interest to seniors but within the conference time frame. Tours may be offered by the ASABE meeting organizers but these should not be labeled as part of the SAC program unless specifically planned by the SAC program committee.  The SAC program committee might offer short technical or semi-technical tours for the second one-half of the seniors’ day to follow the awards luncheon.

There was confusion with previous conferences when Tuesday was the day of the Awards luncheon. It was agreed that the single day registration fee would be available to cover a) the Fellows presentation (on the evening prior to the awards luncheon day), b) the full day of the awards luncheon, and c) the awards luncheon. Any fees for short tours would be paid separately.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 11:30 by the Chair.