Dear Rosaceae GGB community,

Congratulations to EIGHT new RosEXEC members joining in 2008:

U.S. RosEXEC members

Nahla Bassil (USDA-ARS, National Clonal Germplasm Repository, Corvallis, OR)

Chris Dardick (USDA-ARS, Appalachian Fruit Research Station, Kearneysville, WV)

Amit Dhingra (Washington State University, Pullman, WA)

Jim Luby (University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN)

Gayle Volk (USDA-ARS, National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation, Fort Collins, CO)

These five people will serve three-year terms.

RosEXEC International Liaisons

Jasper Rees (University of the Western Cape, South Africa)

Dan Sargent (East Malling Research, United Kingdom)

Eric van de Weg (Plant Research International, Netherlands)

Note that although only two slots were offered for International Liaison,election results were so close for the three candidates above that we invite all three to join RosEXEC, to serve two-year terms.

With the addition of these new members, we anticipate that the current momentum in U.S.-wide and international coordination and synergy will be maintained and ramped up even further. We appreciate the enthusiastic efforts over the last three years of our 2008 outgoing members, and look forward to their continued involvement in our community. New initiatives such as the RosCAP proposal submitted in February 2008 demonstrate the high level of cooperation we are experiencing in this community, resulting from strategic efforts led by RosEXEC over the last several years. This has been and will be possible only with interest and efforts from all of you.

Vote counts were very close, and it is encouraging to realise that we have so many good people willing to devote their time to the objectives of RosEXEC. You don't have to be a member of RosEXEC to make a valuable contribution to furthering the ideals of our community.

Within RosEXEC, the Secretary for 2008 will be elected in the next week or so.

Congratulations again to our new RosEXEC members for 2008.

RosEXEC Membership Committee