June 2008 NHC NEWS A Monthly Bulletin of the Northwest Horticultural Council NHCs ANNUAL MEETING The trustees of the Northwest Horticultural Council held their annual meeting on May 22 in Yakima .  New officers elected at the meeting were Dar Symms, chairman, and Mark Zirkle, vice chairman.  It was also decide that new treasurer duties would reside with the immediate past chairman, now Bob Price. A budget of $1,037,056, an amount less than $8,000 over the current budget, was established for the NHC’s new fiscal year starting July 1, 2008. A significant amount of time at the meeting was devoted to the internal financial policies and procedures of the NHC.  With the federal Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 in mind, which calls for increased attention to good accounting practices at all public corporations including non-profits, the trustees reviewed a new formal handbook for the way money is handled by our industry organization.  Once minor language changes are made, this office financial manual will soon be sent to our trustees for final consideration. Due to unrelated circumstances, we now have an unusual degree of change on our nine member board of trustees with four positions turning over.  One, a position held by Ed Kershaw who has resigned, has been filled by the Washington Apple Commission with its appointment of Brian Alegria.  Another appointee of the Commission, Jerry Kenoyer announced that he would be leaving the NHC’s board at the end of his term on June 30.  Meanwhile, Dan Pariseau, an appointee of the Wenatchee Valley Traffic Association, has resigned his seat as has Rod Laurance, an appointee of the Oregon Sweet Cherry Commission.  All four of these departing trustees have been good industry representatives in their past oversight of the work of the Northwest Horticultural Council and all will be missed. ♦ APPLES & ORANGES The California Citrus Quality Council in late May announced the selection of Jim Cranney, presently vice president of the United States Apple Association of Vienna, Virginia, as its new president.  Effective in July, Mr. Cranney will succeed the retiring Wally Ewart at this Sacramento-based scientific organization for California ’s citrus industry.  (Dr. Ewart was the Northwest Horticultural Council’s first vice president for scientific affairs before his departure in 1999 for the leadership position at CCQC.) Mr. Cranney’s technical and regulatory experience developed over 14 years at USApple will be missed by all in our nation’s apple industry.  However, the Northwest Horticultural Council will most certainly continue our good and effective relationship with him when he assumes his new duties in California due to our many close and on-going interactions with CCQC, through such inter-commodity working groups as the Minor Crop Farmer Alliance and the Crop Protection Coalition.  We wish Jim Cranney well as his career switches from apples to oranges.  ♦ Travel Chris Schlect   June 3 – Washington Apple Education Foundation’s Benefit Golf Tournament, Orondo , Washington June 10-13 – Meetings of the Crop Protection Coalition, Minor Crop Farmer Alliance and the Executive Committee of the National Council of Agricultural Employers, Washington , D.C.   Mark Powers   June 11-13 – Annual meeting of the Agriculture Transportation Coalition, San Francisco , California Mike Willett June 10-13 - Meeting of the Crop Protection Coalition, Minor Crop Farmer Alliance , Washington , D.C. [In 1930, Stephen Clark] bought, for fifty thousand dollars at Knoedler’s, Cézanne’s Still Life with Apples and Pears.  This painting, which he eventually left to the Met, is one of the artist’s quintessential studies of humble subject matter, in effect a Platonic treatise on seeing rendered with the most rigorous, reductive vision.  The painting is a celebration of the earth’s bounty, of the meaning of food and nourishment in their most elemental sense, and the wonderful illusion of art. Nicholas Fox Weber The Clarks of Cooperstown Northwest Horticultural Council 105 South 18th Street, Suite 105 Yakima, Washington 98901, USA Voice: (509) 453-3193, Fax: (509) 457-7615 E-mail general@nwhort.org