California Chapter
Northeast Chapter
Pacific Northwest Chapter
Southeast Chapter
Washington DC Chapter

California Chapter
All regular CA chapter meetings were cancelled in 2020.

 

Northeast Chapter
The Annual Meeting was held virtually along with the Penn State Dairy Cattle Nutrition Conference.  

• Chapter membership is 84
• Kenneth Cummings updated the audience about National ARPAS
• The recent sponsorship drive was very successful
  • $10,000 goal, $14,300 actually raised
• A bylaw change was proposed and a majority approved that membership fees will never exceed $10
  • Result of successful fundraising
• A mini-symposium was held with an outside speaker
• A graduate student poster competition was held
  • 10 participants, video submissions
  • 5 judges
  • Top 3 received awards

 

Pacific Northwest Chapter
The PNW Chapter of ARPAS continues to be active. Our primary focus has been on scholarships and continuing education.

Our chapter last met as a group in January 2020 at the Pacific NW Animal Nutrition Conference in Boise, Idaho, where we:

• Created a new PNW ARPAS Exam University Gift of $500 to be awarded to the university in the PNW region with the most students taking an ARPAS exam during the academic year
• Awarded the 2020 PNW ARPAS Scholarship ($1,000) to Jessica Guske, senior in animal science at Washington State University
• Presented Carl Hunt with the National ARPAS Distinguished Service Award—a very deserved recognition!
• Voted in a new slate of officers

 

Officers included:

• Past President Bill Sanchez, Potter’s Vineyard (retired from Diamond V), moved to the secretary/treasurer position
• President Shelby Filley, Oregon State University, rotated into past president
• President Elect Tom Ritter, Origination LLC, rotated into president
• Director at Large Chad Mueller, Oregon State University, rotated into president elect
• Director at Large (Industry) Jim Sullivan, Novus, will rotate into president elect in 2021
• Director at Large (Industry) Steve Jones, Northwest Research and Nutrition LLC, rotated off the board
• Director at Large (University) Anne Laarman, University of Idaho, moved to University of Alberta and will rotate off the board when we can fill this position
• Director at Large (Industry), Dave Ellis, Balchem, retired and rotated off the board
• New officers:
  • Director at Large (Industry) Evin Sharman, Phibro
  • A new position, Liaison to PNW Animal Nutrition Conference, Pedram Rezamand, University of Idaho (past secretary/treasurer)

 

The 2020 chapter leadership held two planning calls where we completed several activities:

• Due to cancellations of several events where many members could earn CEUs due to the coronavirus pandemic, details about online CEU opportunities and information for access through national ARPAS were sent to chapter members in April
• As mentioned previously, the chapter added a new “liaison to the Pacific Northwest Animal Nutrition Conference” position to provide an improved linkage between the PNW Animal Nutrition Conference and ARPAS membership.
• Worked on what we want our chapter to be known for
• Developed a sustainable rotation of officers to keep the chapter alive and active
• Created a new slate of officers for the normal rotation and for replacing retiring and officers who have moved from the region (ballots will be emailed out soon)
• Worked on chapter bylaws
• Discussed expanding our region to include Montana, British Columbia, and Alberta

 

The PNW Chapter ARPAS membership in the PNW region continues to be in a good position, with 39 dues-paying members and a nice balance of industry:university membership at 70%:30%. We also continue to have a solid financial reserve to fund chapter goals. As of December 2020, the PNW Chapter Treasury contained $13,575.31.

Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the chapter continues to function well. Please give us a shout if you have ideas to share that will make us even more effective as we move past 2020 and start the new year of 2021.

 

Southeast Chapter (formally South Central)
The Southeast Chapter annual meeting would typically be held in conjunction with the Southern Section animal science meetings. As this meeting was postponed from late January to July, plans are underway to reschedule the annual meeting for either a virtual option in the spring of 2021 or to be held in conjunction with the Southern Section animal science meeting in July.

 

Washington DC Chapter
The ARPAS-DC Chapter area consists of those members and nonmembers in the DMV (Washington/Maryland/Virginia) area. There are many government and university employees, retirees and some industry members. We attempt to hold monthly luncheon seminars at either FDA or USDA offices.  Obviously, the pandemic has affected our efforts, so we moved to a Zoom format.

Our annual Chapter half-day Mini-Symposium, where we have four–five speakers, discussion, and a reception following was cancelled this year due to the pandemic and inability to use government buildings. At that meeting we usually provide several scholarships to local students, announce our new board and officers, and announce our new chapter Distinguished Service Award recipient, which this year was Curt Van Tassel of USDA/ARS. Several scholarships were paid to the University of Maryland. 

Richard Sellers was elected president. Robin Keyser and Jerry Poley continued as secretary and treasurer, respectively. 

After a slow start, we held our first “luncheon” seminar in October, skipped November and held one in December. The topics/speakers were:

October— “Pet Food Complaints, Follow-Ups and Related Regulator Issues” - Jennifer Jones, Center for Veterinary Medicine, US Food and Drug Administration

December— “Current Topics, Reports and On-Going Livestock and Companion Animals Issues from the National Academies” - Robin Schoen, Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources, National Academies

Both of these seminars were sent as Zoom files to the national headquarters, where they were converted to YouTube and put on the ARPAS website. Each provides one hour of CEUs for professional members to view.  The Chapter board greatly appreciates the efforts of ARPAS Executive Assistant Brittany Morstatter in making these and future seminars available to the ARPAS membership.

For 2021, the chapter has luncheon seminars lined up for January, February, March, and April.  These will be forwarded to Brittany to post on the ARPAS website when completed. 

In July, Chapter President Richard Sellers received the national ARPAS Distinguished Professional Animal Scientist Award. Many chapter members attended the ARPAS Annual Meeting to support him. He was a previous recipient of the chapter’s Distinguished Service Award and is serving his second term as president of the chapter. 

The chapter board greatly appreciates the work of Bill Price as the past president and will honor him at a future meeting.