I am happy to report that David Beede was selected to serve as the new editor-in-chief of The Professional Animal Scientist (PAS). Dave is retiring from Michigan State University at the end of the year and will begin his new role as editor-in-chief in January. We are looking forward to working with Dave to grow PAS. During the interview process, the executive committee was presented with many new ideas for the journal by the candidates, and we are looking forward to addressing these as they will help us make PAS a better journal for our members as well as potentially help recruit additional members.

We are grateful for the service and guidance Wayne Kellogg has provided as editor-in-chief of PAS. He has worked diligently during his term to advance the quality of PAS as well as increase the number of manuscript published. He has worked with Elsevier to make the transition very good, and we will all benefit from his efforts.

The ARPAS Annual Meeting will be held in conjunction with the American Dairy Science Association (ADSA) Annual Meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee. Andy Cole has put together a very good symposium that will be held on the Monday, June 25, 2018. The annual meeting of ARPAS and the American College of Animal Sciences (ACAS) will be held on that afternoon. Registration is being handled by ADSA, and ARPAS members will receive member rates.

Andy Cole has worked to identify members to serve on committees for the coming year. We appreciate the service provided by the members who serve on the various committees. If you would like to serve, please let us know. The nomination committee chaired by Jeff DeFrain is also working to identify individuals for president elect, Southern director, and Southwest director.

Each time the executive committee or governing council meet, I am amazed at the work the different chapters are doing. Some of the activities completed and planned for the coming year are summarized in the newsletter. If you are not active in a local chapter, I would encourage you to get involved. The local chapters provide opportunities to meet new people as well as promote our industry and organization!

If you have not renewed your membership, please take a few minutes to do so. Also, if you know individuals who are not members of ARPAS and should be, please encourage them to consider joining. It has been pointed out that our industry membership is very strong, but the same is not true for academia. Please encourage university faculty to join as well.

As we close another year, I hope you have plenty of time to spend with family during the holidays and wish you the best for an exciting new year!

Sincerely,

John K. Bernard, PhD, PAS, Dipl. ACAN

President, ARPAS