Agricultural Economics Reference Organization (AERO)
Thirteenth Workshop/Meeting
Business Meeting
Broiler Steakhouse – Ames, Iowa
April 11, 2002

THANKS TO DEBRA – AERO president Linda Davis (University of Wisconsin, Madison) thanked Debra Moore for hosting the 13^th AERO Meeting/Workshop.

Farm Foundation – Enough funding is available to cover the travel expenses of everyone who requested assistance. The members were encouraged to send the Farm Foundation thank you notes.

AAEA/ESIRC Liaison – Judi Dow (Michigan State University) has agreed to continue as ESIRC liaison.

Executive Board changes – Linda Davis “passed the bell” to Debra Moore in recognition of Debra as the new president of AERO. The announcement was made that Katherine St. John (University of Maryland, College Park) will remain secretary and Ellen Reneke (Clemson) will continue to manage the web site. Linda Davis will continue to be AERO historian.

Address list – Barbara Hegenbart (University of California, Davis) has agreed to take over the maintenance of the membership list and mailing labels.

AERO Newsletter – The executive board announced that there was discussion about discontinuing the paper-based newsletter. The membership was asked if anyone would like to continue to receive a paper newsletter. Everyone agreed that we all use e-mail and the web daily, so the web site and our listserv list is an adequate way of exchanging news about our members and our libraries.

NAL-AERO Letter – The executive board announced the idea of the secretary writing a letter to the National Agricultural Library, on behalf of all of AERO, to thank NAL and to continue to encourage them to provide links in the cataloging records of documents that are available electronically via AgEcon Search.

AERO/USAIN Combo? – Linda Davis and a few other members expressed interest in the possibility of trying to coordinate our meeting one year with the US Agricultural Information Network conference. Several AERO members are active in USAIN; Jodee Kawasaki (Montana State University) is running for president and Margaret Merril (Virginia Polytechnic Institute) is running for secretary. Sometimes, it is difficult for our members to attend two conferences in one year. Thus, we might look in to holding our conference the day before or the day after USAIN. The suggestion received a mixed response. No vote was suggested, but the members agreed to think about the possibility and discuss it more in the future.

Invitation to Summer 2003 Meeting – Margaret Merril read a letter of invitation for AERO to meet at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in the summer or early fall of 2003. The invitation was greeted with applause.

MEETING ADJOURNED.