| 1998
S-103 Summer Meeting
August, 1998
Atlanta,
Georgia - Our meeting convened at
1:30 pm on Wednesday, August 5 in the Georgia World Trade Center. Members present
were Susan Barton (DE), John Brooker (TN), Everett Emino (FL), Charles Hall (TX),
Richard Harkess (MS), Roger Hinson (LA), Patricia Knight (MS), Charles Safley
(NC), Forrest Stegelin (GA). The agenda was distributed by Chair, Charles Hall.
- Dr. Stegelin announced that there would be no meeting registration
fee and thanked the SNA (Danny Summers) for graciously providing the meeting room
in conjunction with the SNA Conference and Trade Show.
- Minutes
from the Winter 1998 meeting in Charleston, SC were adopted as distributed.
- Everett Emino, our administrative advisor, provided the following
comments:
The Southern Association of Agricultural Experiment
Station Directors (SAAESD) suggests that all regional projects and information
exchange groups develop home pages on the web. He commended S-103 for our current
web page, developed by Tim Rhodus (OH). The guidelines for web page format are
currently being developed. Dr. Emino believes that the S-103 web page will meet
the guidelines with little revision. A discussion followed about posting S-103
publications and related publications on the web. It is recommended that researchers
publish their work on their home university web page and provide Tim Rhodus with
that web site, so he can create a link on the S-103 web page. If researchers publish
in on-line journals, Dr. Rhodus can use that link. Researchers are encouraged
to request permission to include articles published in journals that are not yet
online, on the web and link them to the S-103 web page.
Dr. Emino
announced that S-103 has been designated as Development Committee 9701 as of September
1997 until September 1999. We can operate as a development committee until our
new project is approved. The deadline for that approval is now September 1999.
Dr. Emino encouraged the committee to proceed in a timely manner through the remaining
steps to gain approval.
Container nursery manuscript - Robert McNiel - no report.
Greenhouse
manuscript - Charles Hall - This manuscript is almost complete. Two sections are
currently missing. As soon as those sections are received, Dr. Hall will compile
and edit the publication and distribute the full draft to the entire committee
for review.
Perennials manuscript - Dave Beattie - no report (Charles Hall
will follow up.) Geranium consumer preference article - Bridget Behe (Barton)
- A report has been filed with the funding agency and Dr. Behe will be asked to
publish that report on the web. S-103 researchers at the SNA Research Conference
on August 6 and 7, 1998 will present the following papers. Impact of Coir-based
media in azalea growth. P.R. Knight, J.M. Anderson and R.A. Parks. Evaluation
of deciduous hollies for production in USDA zones 7b and 8a. R.L. Harkess and
P.R. Knight. Using industry data to evaluate the grower-wholesaler’s financial
performance. F.E. Stegelin Structural change in the nursery industry: Mergers
and acquisitions versus internal change. S.C. Turner and F.E. Stegelin Economic
analysis of producing selected plant species using Spinout-treated containers.
C.R. Hall, M.A. Arnold and S.P. Obst. Distribution of nursery sales as retail
or wholesale and overall industry growth, by state. J.R. Brooker. Marketing
to retail garden outlets. M. Garber. The role of service and product quality
in meeting customer expectations. S. Barton and B. Behe. Kind of advertising
used by woody ornamental plant producers in Louisiana. R. Hinson and A. Iturbide.
Taxus response to differential concentration and timing of Pendimethalin
application. R.E. McNiel, K. Collins and M. Czarnota. - Progress
on Current Studies
Servqual project - Discrete portions of
this project are being presented and included in the proceeding of the SNA Research
Conference and an International Conference in Belgium. Individual researchers
are encouraged to publish papers on their own state data. Barton and Behe will
collaborate to develop a draft of the full paper this fall.
Susan
Barton reported that she and Dr. Behe conducted a Serqual survey for Wally Kerwin,
Swanson’s Nursery in Seattle, this spring. A final report was written and sent
to Kerwin. Dr. Emino suggested the quthors explore the possibility of getting
permission to include the data from this survey with the existing national data.
HRI Landscape Composition Grant - Susan Barton hired Landscape architect, Ellen
Baldo to prepare 12 landscape designs, resprenting 12 treatment combinations.
Three plant sizes will be used to create 36 possible treatment combinations. Tom
Fernandez, Bridget Behe and Susan Barton met in Charlotte, NC with Karl Muzzi
(graduate student) to discuss the project. Using the Conjoint design provided
by Roger Hinson, 16 treatment combinations were chosen. Karl Muzzi has created
16 photographs on the computer to represent those 16 treatment combinations. A
base plan with the house and turf only will be used for comparison. The photographs
will be sent to each of eight participating states. Photographs will be mounted
on foam core and displayed on easels (4 per easel). Bridget Behe is developing
the survey instrument. Researchers will conduct the survey in their own market
at a local home show (if possible). Roger Hinson and his graduate student at several
garden centers will test the instrument this fall.
1999 Marketing Survey - John Brooker mailed surveys to 29 participating states
on 8/4/98. Additional surveys are available by email request from Dr. Brooker.
He suggests surveys be mailed to nurseries in late January to early February 1999.
A blanket follow-up mailing should be used in mid to late February. In the cover
letter, he suggests including the website address for participants to read data
and reports from the last survey. Dr. Brooker distributed a list of participating
states and contact persons and asked for members to suggest contacts in the missing
states.
GC Point-of-Purchase Project - Susan Barton received funding
from NUCFAC to develop a point-of-purchase garden center display on tree planting.
She will be soliciting input from industry leaders at a focus group at the ANLA
Meeting on August 6, 1998. The project includes four phases: industry input, display
development, display distribution and survey to measure effectiveness.
Specialized
Marketing Programs - Patricia Knight and Richard Harkess submitted an HRI grant
proposal to study the effectiveness of specialized marketing programs in the nursery
industry. They will focus initially on Mississippi Medallion Plants. Plant
Display/Price Project - Charles Safley is in the process of working with a statistician
to develop an experimental design to study the effect of price and display on
purchasing behavior in the garden center. He will convene a subcommittee at the
S-103 Winter meeting to discuss this project.
Charles Hall distributed the first draft of the new project proposal. Responsibility
for the objectives and subobjectives was assigned. A timeline for submission of
the project proposal was determined as follows:
8/5 - First draft
distributed to members present at meeting
8/15 - Reviews returned to Charles
Hall 9/1 - Second draft sent to writing committee (Barton, Behe, Brooker, Hall
and Turner) 10/1 - Third draft sent toadministrative advisor, Evertt Emino,
along with three suggested reviewers 10/15 - Third draft sent to outside reviewers
12/1 - Reviews returned to Turner and Hall 2/1 - Fourth draft written with
a description of how review suggestions were accomodated and sent by Dr. Emino
to the Southern Regional Research Committee for review Writing committee has
an opportunity to accommodate SRRC edits Final draft is sent to SRRC for approval
The chair of the SRRC approves project Project is forwarded to CSREES for
final approval Winter 1999
- San Antonio, TX - Charles Hall will develop a tour and program that offers a
multitude of experiences
Summer 1999 - Massachusets - Charles Hall
will contact Brian Maynard or Reeser Manley to arrange meeting. (2nd
Choice - DE)
Winter 2000 - Gulf Coast of MS Summer 2000 - DE (coordinated
with AG Econ. Meeting) - The meeting was adjourned at 3:45 to be
followed by subcommittee meetings on the Landscape project and Turf project.
Susan Barton, substituting for secretary, Bridget Behe, respectfully submits minutes.
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