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Message from the President-Elect

John Pearse

In last year's newsletter I wrote that I intended to focus on four objectives during my term as President: 1) increasing ethnic diversity, 2) increasing the international character of our society, 3) expanding our scope, especially to include more plant scientists, and 4) addressing the re-emergence of faith-based thinking as it encroaches into science and an enlightened worldview. Sally has already picked up earlier efforts to increase our ethnic diversity, as should be evident at the Phoenix meeting. Moreover, the development of the Digital Library symposium at the Phoenix meeting and the Evolution versus Creationism symposium next year at the San Antonio meeting begins to address my fourth objective. I plan to be more deeply involved with these objectives over the two years of my presidency, beginning at the end of the Phoenix meeting. The other critical but more mundane area that urgently needs attention is funding for our symposia. World-class symposia are the heart of our Society. I welcome all suggestions and offers to help in any of these areas of concern.

Which brings me to the second portion of my message last year. I was curious about who reads these things, and I asked people who read mine to drop me a note saying simply "I read it." Nothing more. I received exactly one (1) response. I also said that if I didn't hear from many of you, I would look for other ways for your officers to spend their time. So why am I sitting here writing another message?!