The ARPAS Foundation is in excellent financial condition with a balance of $209,601.05 as of March 31, 2020. This is in large part to the generosity of the ARPAS Executive Vice President Kenneth Cummings who contributes a portion of his salary each year to the foundation.

In CY2019, the foundation made almost $6,000 in contributions to educational efforts of our members, including the following:

1. $1,900 to pay the exam fees of graduate students,
2. $2,835 to fund page charges for ARPAS symposium papers published in Applied Animal Science, and
3. $250 to support the annual meeting of the Midwest Chapter.

So far in CY2020, due to the cancellation of numerous ARPAS events because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the foundation has contributed only $100 to fund graduate student exams and has contributed no funds for ARPAS chapter meetings. However, the ARPAS exam can now be given via the web and we anticipate the foundation will be covering the costs of exams for a large number of graduate students at the “virtual” ADSA and ASAS meetings in June and July. Also, because of the pandemic and decline in the stock market, the foundation did record approximately $35,000 in unrealized losses during the first three months of 2020. We anticipate these losses will be recovered once the market returns to normal.

Two ARPAS Foundation Board members will be stepping down in June—John Bernard and Andy Cole. Dana Tomlinson (ARPAS Treasurer) and Kenneth Cummings (nonvoting member; ARPAS executive vice president) will continue on the board, as will Moe Bakke who has agreed to serve an additional three-year term on the board. Andy Cole will be replaced as chairman by Al Kertz who will be the immediate past president of ARPAS. Heidi Rossow of the University of California and Ryon Walker of the Noble Research Institute have agreed to serve three-year terms on the board starting in June 2020. A big thank you to all those that have donated their time and efforts to the board.

Since the start, financial reports for the foundation have been received monthly; however, to reduce overhead costs we are going to a quarterly reporting format with FASS.

Several members have expressed a desire to donate to the ARPAS Foundation to fund special projects, such as graduate student travel to meetings. We are in the process of developing amendments to the ARPAS Foundation Bylaws that will allow members to designate how the income from their donation can be spent.

For those wishing to receive funds from the ARPAS Foundation for educational events, we now have an official form “Application for Funding from the ARPAS Foundation” on the ARPAS website. To request funds from the ARPAS Foundation, please complete the form and submit it electronically to ARPAS headquarters.