IAPT News
A Newsletter prepared for the members of the International Association for Plant Taxonomy
by the IAPT Secretariat (the International Bureau for Plant Taxonomy and Nomenclature)
No. 1 – January 1999
Editorial
By Werner Greuter, IAPT Secretary
Various IAPT Members have expressed the wish to be better informed on their Association’s affairs than has been the case in the last few decades – in fact, ever since Taxon transformed itself into an internationally recognised scientific journal of high standing and ceased to play its original newsletter role. The wish for more information took various shapes, from friendly suggestion to rather forcible demand, but appears to be more widespread than those governing the Association had so far realised.
To meet this demand the present Newsletter has been conceived. Its future will depend on you, the Members of IAPT: Send your suggestions, comments and (most importantly) contributions to the IAPT Secretariat. I will collect them and pass them on to my successor in the office of IAPT Secretary, for him to decide whether, how often, and with which format and content it is appropriate to produce future issues. My own present idea, by which he will not be bound in any way, is that an annual frequency at a date subsequent to the approval of the yearly IAPT accounts by the Officers might be a realistic goal.
Elections of Council and Officers of IAPT (1999-2005)
By Dan H. Nicolson, President of IAPT
In accordance with the Constitution, the Executive Committee (comprising the elected officers) is to present to the members a mail ballot with the candidates for the offices and Council. This is to be done prior to each International Botanical Congress. It has always been a responsible and delicate task but, perhaps, never so delicate as this time.
Following major turbulence, of which most IAPT members are well aware, the Executive Committee is pleased to present a slate of candidates for election which, they trust, will reconcile the various trends and opinions that appear to exist among the membership. Generously interpreting its constitutional mandate, the Executive Committee has decided to list all nominees suggested by the membership, with the three following exceptions: (1) when a nominee declined nomination; (2) when a nominee was not a member of IAPT when nominated; and (3) when more than one nominee from the same institution had been suggested, in which case a single one was retained.
This led to an unusually long list of candidates with 29 nominated for Council and two or three for each Office except Secretary-Treasurer.
Concerning the latter key position, some members urged for a choice (never offered before), and the current Secretary, Werner Greuter, and Pat Holmgren of New York were nominated. They both were pleased at the prospect that a third nominee, Tod Stuessy, might host IAPT in Vienna, and stated that they were willing to stand down in his favour if Stuessy would accept and provide the necessary institutional commitment for hosting the IAPT headquarters – as he did, to the full satisfaction of the Executive Committee. The letters confirming this are attached.
1999 thus marks the end of the 12-year Berlin period, unexpectedly much shorter than the 37-year Utrecht period (1950-1987). It is with some sadness I view this because the Berlin administration has been one of the most efficient and competent imaginable, setting standards that will be difficult to maintain. Also sadly, Liv Borgen, the current Vice-President, decided not to run for President. Greuter was requested to stand for President by the other officers, as they felt that some continuity in the Executive Committee would be beneficial, especially in view of the move of the Secretariat, and that the membership should be given at least the option to vote for such continuity.
See you in St. Louis!
IAPT status and activities: a report
By Werner Greuter, IAPT Secretary
Twelve years ago, when I was handed over the staff of IAPT by Frans Stafleu who had been holding it for decades, our Association was perceived as a service for the benefit of taxonomic botany in general and its own membership in particular. Members hardly cared how IAPT’s affairs were run as long as its services would function. And as IAPT did function smoothly and efficiently to everyone’s satisfaction, no one even dreamt of interfering.
In 1987 I timidly started to involve Council into IAPT business by informing its members annually on the state of IAPT affairs. Feedback showed that this was appreciated. When a few years ago I added statements on IAPT’s finance I received the same mildly encouraging response. Spreading this kind of information to the membership at large had never been suggested, although an oral activity report was regularly given at the general assemblies held at International Botanical Congresses.
Times are changing. Recently direct membership involvement in IAPT’s policy, better information and an active democratic control have been forcibly voiced. At the end of my term of office that I am not seeking to renew, I am therefore presenting you a status and activity report together with an overview of IAPT’s finance and its membership development.
1. General Assembly of IAPT
"As a general rule, meetings shall be held at International Botanical Congresses" (IAPT Constitution, Art. 15). The next such meeting, to which all Members are hereby invited, will take place on the afternoon of Thursday, 29 July 1999, at the Ridgeway Center of Missouri Botanical Garden, St Louis. This will be your opportunity to meet the newly elected Officers and Council Members and discuss the present report, of which an update (to include a financial statement for 1998) will be prepared.
On that same evening, the traditional if quite informal IAPT dinner has been arranged at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in St Louis. Tickets ($40 each) can be bought during the Nomenclature Section meetings or ordered (pre-paid) at the Congress Secretariat.
2. Council and Executive Committee
Council business, if any, is normally conducted by mail, except that the constituent meeting of each newly elected Council is, by tradition, held at the corresponding International Botanical Congress. In order to promote personal contact among Council members an intermediate meeting was arranged at the 5th International Congress of Systematic and Evolutionary Biology, in August 1996 in Budapest, but attendance was disappointing.
The Executive Committee, which by the death of our immediate past president was reduced to comprise only the Officers, uses to meet once every year to check the accounts, establish the new budget, and despatch all such business as is better discussed by voice rather than dealt with by mail. These are informal if important meetings, without a specific agenda prepared in advance, which invariably take place at the location of the IAPT Secretariat. Due to the upcoming Congress and correlated elections, last year exceptionally saw two such meetings, on 11-12 July and 7 December.
3. Finance
You will find a summary financial statement for the last 10 years on p. 7 of this Newsletter. As you study it you will appreciate that IAPT has nothing to hide concerning finance. On the contrary, we can take justified pride in the Association’s financial performance. I had planned for some time, as the demand became patent, to prepare such a summary statement (the detailed accounting is much too complex to be informative for the non-initiated), but even when the figures are at your fingertips, digesting them is more of a job than one might imagine.
The 10 years summary statement gives you an accurate idea of where our income comes from and where the money goes. On average our total annual income was $212,500 of which 35 % were from membership fees, 30 % from subscriptions, 22 % are the yield from our capital investments, and the remainder (13 %) comes from various sources such as publication sales and royalties from sales, page charges, reprints, and advertisements in Taxon.
Over the same period, our mean yearly expenditure was $128,500 of which 51 % were for the production of Taxon, 15 % for other, mainly Regnum vegetabile related publications and projects (e.g. TL-2, Names in current use, Index herbariorum, ING, and a forthcoming Bibliography on the flora of Cuba), 25 % for maintenance of the two offices (including one half-time salaried staff position), 4 % for bank charges, taxes and the like, and 5 % for travel.
The structure of income and expense has varied little over this decade, except for the fact that some of the figures (e.g. fees and subscriptions) tend to be distorted for single years depending on the hazards of the dates of billing and payment. Membership and subscriber figures, the development of which is shown on p. 8, are more accurate indicators of long-term trends than are the accounts, on which the dollar rate fluctuation also has great influence. The average capital yield has been 7.2 % gross or, on deduction of fees and related costs, 6.5 % net – a honourable performance I dare say.
Major changes affecting IAPT’s finances in a durable fashion were the overseas distribution of Taxon by air, starting 1989; the move of Taxon printing from the United States to Germany at the end of 1990, with concomitant switch from typesetting to conversion of electronic text; then two years later the shift to production of camera-ready copy at IAPT headquarters; and the decade’s single membership fee raise (from $40 to $48 for regular personal members), effective 1995.
On average IAPT expense was almost exactly 60 % of our income. This results in a mean annual operational surplus of $84,000, often distorted by the ups and downs of exchange rates which however tend to smooth out over the years. Since 1988 and within 10 years the IAPT assets have increased by 250 % on a Dollar basis (and by almost 300 % on a Swiss Franc basis, from SF 405,000 to 1,6 m.).
1997 fits nicely in this general pattern. Total income and expense are both just below average, with the latter at 60 % of the former as has become customary. There is a distortion in income categories, with an abnormally low figure for subscriptions (due to late payment by agencies) and publication sales (because in the previous year no new Regnum vegetabile volume had been published), compensated by above-average investment yield (realisation of some capital gain). Thus, the contribution of fees to our total income is 39 %, that of subscriptions merely 22 %, investment income rises to 33 %, and publication sales etc. drop to 6 %. Expenditure rates are remarkably stable, with Taxon at 47 %, Regnum vegetabile and projects at 16 %, the offices at 27 %, travel at 6 %, and bank fees etc. at 4 %.
On a Dollar basis, 1997’s operational surplus of $80,000 has been almost completely wiped out by a loss on the currency exchange front, due to the weakness of the Mark (also, to a minor extent, with respect to the Swiss Franc). Our assets therefore remain stable at $1.1 m. In Swiss currency they increase from SF 1.5 m. to SF 1.6 m.
IAPT’s assets have not been detailed here, as they are spread over 8 different accounts in 5 countries and held in 5 currencies. The full accounting is prepared in three versions: one using the actual currencies, one transposed into Swiss Francs, and the third using US Dollars. The main currencies are two: US$ (c. 51 %) and DM (c. 47 %). The SF cash account makes up for the remaining 2 %. Holdings in £ (U.K.) and ¥ (Japan) are almost negligible.
Two technically distinct but closely intertwined legal bodies handle the Association’s finances: IAPT (USA) [which is the brand under which IAPT is incorporated in the United States] administers about 39 % of the assets, and IAPT (Europe) [with seat in Geneva] the remainder. The substantial stock of IAPT’s own publications, stored in Berlin, is written off immediately as it is printed and does not enter the balance. However some office equipment in Washington has not yet been completely depreciated and figures in our books for a marginal sum (c. $3000).
The Officers had prepared a balanced budget for 1998, but that year will again end with a substantial surplus – in spite of a new item of expenditure, trial Registration, for which $65,000 had been set aside, and of the outsize 1998 Taxon volume. The accounts have not yet been worked out let alone approved, but my current estimate is of a 25 % net gain on a dollar basis. This is due in part to the weakness of the dollar, down by 6 % with respect to the mark on balance, and more importantly to a lucky capital investment policy in a period of world-wide financial and economic turbulence. Also, the IAPT balance, which was traditionally based on purchase cost of equities, is being shifted gradually to the more realistic accounting by current market value.
I hope that you agree that IAPT’s finances are in a satisfactory shape. Even though the IAPT’s host institutions’ undeclared support in cash and kind are unlikely to remain at the same generous level as they were during the past 12 years, our Association need not fear financial worries in the foreseeable future.
4. Membership
IAPT’s membership situation is not as flourishing as are its finances. It is well known that present times are difficult for learned societies and scientific journals in general, and considering this trend the IAPT and Taxon, its flagship, defend themselves reasonably well. Still, the attached table (p. 8) showing the development of Taxon subscriber and membership figures make it clear that, over the years, especially the N. American membership has been dwindling. The future will tell whether the recent US-based initiatives regarding IAPT are apt to improve the situation, or whether they will, at least in the medium term, rather cause an erosion of membership – especially in the Old World, which at present is our most promising "market" along with Latin America.
Among the measures taken to make IAPT membership more attractive are:
And then of course there is Taxon itself, sent free of charge to all members; plus the Regnum vegetabile series, of which current volumes are available at 20 % discount for individual members (50 % for institutional members). Also, personal members of IAPT are entitled to take part in the preliminary guiding mail ballot on proposals to amend the International code of botanical nomenclature, prior to International Botanical Congresses.
A promotional leaflet has been produced that was widely disseminated among the membership of befriending societies and at scientific meetings. Another promotional feature of note is the IAPT homepage on the World Wide Web, described below. Still, personal propaganda by our members among their friends and colleagues is I believe the most promising way of expanding our membership. Please give it a try!
5. Taxon
Human nature is such that it naturally takes for granted any service that functions as it should. Taxon is such a well lubricated service. Since editing shifted to Berlin at the end of 1990, there has been just one belated issue, all the others becoming available on or slightly ahead of the scheduled dates, the 15th day of February, May, August, and November. Others may judge the quality of editorial work; let me here stress reliability as a major condition for successful publishing. Under the laws of thermodynamics regularity requires a constant and relentless effort. In the case of Taxon this effort has a name: Brigitte Zimmer, who has been devoting to her editorial tasks much of her normal working hours and all her extra time, including weekends. Taxon authors alone may be able to assess, if imperfectly, the extent of the services she has been rendering to the taxonomic community.
Along with Brigitte’s the work of our column editors must be mentioned, which has been and is superb. Some are completely autonomous in their contribution, such as Rudi Schmid in his uniquely comprehensive literature review which he now delivers as camera-ready copy, the Holmgrens with their well-structured updates to Index herbariorum (herbaria), and the Harrimans who take pride and pleasure in offering us their annual "Index to scientific names". Others live in close mutualism with Berlin, as Rosemary Davies co-ordinating the "News and notes" and John McNeill, at last a congenial and efficient warden for the colourful crowd offering us their "Points of view". And then there is Dan Nicolson, unequalled in his role of a buffer between editorial exigencies and the Nomenclature column authors’ idiosyncrasies.
My apologies for this eulogy, but I felt that this dept of gratitude of IAPT towards a few devoted people should no longer go unmentioned. Incidentally, the 1998 volume of Taxon is the most sizeable so far published, with 1087 printed pages not counting the scientific names index.
6. Regnum vegetabile
Since 1987, 20 volumes of IAPT’s monograph series, Regnum vegetabile, have been published. Doubtless the most prominent among them are those belonging to the second edition of Taxonomic literature, one of the major achievements of scientific bibliography of all times.
The shattering news of the demise, within a couple of months, of all three present and former editors of TL-2 have sadly punctuated the last winter. Dick Cowan died on 17 November 1997, Frans Stafleu on 16 December, Eric Mennega on 27 January 1998. Their obituaries have been published in Taxon.
The 5th TL-2 Supplement, dated 1998 on the title page, was in fact published on 14 January 1999. Norbert Kilian and Ralf Hand have indicated their willingness to help producing Supplement 6, to the end of the letter E, based on existing but incomplete manuscripts.
The Tokyo Code has been translated into more different languages than any of its predecessors: French, German, Japanese, Russian, and Slovak translations have been produced, and last summer an Italian version was finally published: in vol. 29(1) of the Informatore botanico italiano, "Jan-Apr 1997", dated 30 Apr 1998 on the back, and actually first available on the 4th of June, having suffered all kinds of hardship including a change of printers, breakdowns of computers and machines, losses of diskettes and of formatting, and eventually an earthquake. It is the first Italian translation of the botanical Code ever published, and as no established nomenclatural terminology existed so far it chose to adopt the BioCode terms by way of analogy. Same as the French and German versions, it has received the official approval of the General Committee. There is at least one more translation yet to come, into Chinese, which I am told is in print at Taipei.
Speaking of future volumes one thinks of the ninth edition of Index herbariorum (herbaria), on which Patricia and Noel Holmgren are working assiduously. This, as the previous edition, will likely be published for the IAPT by the New York Botanical Garden. Then the St Louis Code will be due, hopefully to be ready as promptly after the next Congress as we managed last time, after Tokyo.
Among the other planned volumes in the Regnum vegetabile series is a Bibliography of the flora of Cuba, by Hermann Manitz in Jena, gradually nearing completion. A major work on the plants collected by the Forsters, by Dan Nicolson, is in an advanced stage of preparation. Further projects exist, to be announced when they are closer to fruition.
7. Nomenclature
IAPT is not directly active in the field of plant nomenclature except in its traditional and statutory role of facilitator of nomenclatural activities. Taxon is the official outlet for the nomenclature commissions and committees established by International Botanical Congresses, and is of course open to similar bodies operating under other umbrellas (such as the IUBS/IUMS International Committee for Bionomenclature). As to the latter Committee, you will have noted that the IAPT maintains an active if uncommitted interest in its work, having co-sponsored a meeting of the Committee’s botanical subgroup. The text of a revised Draft BioCode version was presented at the 26th IUBS General Assembly in November 1997 in Taipei. The new draft has since been published (in Taxon 47: 127-150, February 1998), but is not being proposed for adoption in toto by the St Louis Congress.
Trial registration of plant names is a choice example of the way in which the IAPT acts as a facilitator of botanical nomenclature – an example that has recently given rise to much unjust criticism from those who object to the principle involved. By a clear and democratic decision of the Tokyo Congress, the IAPT was given the mandate to devise the required mechanisms for a registration system and test its functionality and feasibility, with a view of making registration a mandatory requirement for the valid publication of names after the St Louis Congress. This mission we tried to accomplish as best we could.
Trial registration is presently running and does not appear to present major technical difficulties, but has given rise to growing emotions among botanists particularly in the Americas. Any such objection or concern, even when it reflects a lack of proper understanding, will have to be addressed before the principle of mandatory registration can be adopted, at St Louis or later. Some of the comments that were widely publicised are appallingly and inexcusably misinformed. Others reflect genuine worries, hopefully being taken care of by the concrete terms of what is being proposed. Regrettably the actual proposals, prepared by the IAPT Officers on the basis of the experience gained during the trial run, were among the last published – but then, had they been prepared earlier, one might justifiably object that their drafting had been rash.
Nomenclature at the St Louis Congress will be facilitated by the IAPT in the customary way. The "Synopsis of proposals" is being published in the February issue of Taxon, and the mail ballot forms will be mailed soon after. Meanwhile the Bureau of Nomenclature (Burdet as President, Hawksworth as vice-Rapporteur, Barrie as Recorder, and myself) has drawn up the list of institutional votes for ratification by the General Committee, and the institutes have just been informed by letter of their voting rights. The Congress Secretary, Peter Hoch, has been extremely helpful in our planning of the nomenclature meeting proper, offering ideal facilities and unprecedented technical infrastructure. You may think of the Nomenclature Sessions with pleasant anticipation.
8. Engler Medals
The Medal Committee, of five, presently consists of Pieter Baas, Hervé Burdet, Werner Greuter, David Hawksworth, and Dan Nicolson. A list of former medal recipients can be consulted on the Internet at the IAPT Web-site.
The last Engler Medal in Gold was awarded at the closing plenary meeting of IBC XV in Yokohama, in 1993. Engler Medals in Silver were last awarded, for works published in the years 1993, 1994 and 1995, in August 1996 at ICSEB V in Budapest.
The next medal award (one in gold, three in silver) is to take place this year at IBC XVI in St Louis. A call for nominations was included in Taxon, November 1998, with a deadline of 31 January 1999 (however, late submissions will still be considered if received before the end of February). Nominations for a gold medal, to honour a plant taxonomist’s lifetime achievements, should be accompanied by a curriculum (as full as conveniently possible) and a summary rationale for the award; nominations for a silver medal (for outstanding individual works in the domain of plant taxonomy, published in any of the years 1996, 1996, and 1997) should be submitted with perhaps half-a-page of justification and, if at all possible, a copy of the publication.
9. The IAPT Web-site
Since mid-1997 the IAPT maintains its own Web-site (http://www.bgbm.fu-berlin.de/iapt/) on the server at the Berlin Botanical Museum. This is much consulted, certainly not only by members. It is updated at frequent intervals and holds much valuable information, either directly or by means of apposite links. The material is too voluminous to be described here in detail, so please look for yourself. To whet your appetite, let me mention the following items of note:
10. Epilogue
Frans Stafleu died in December 1997. In April 1998 he was followed by Reed Rollins, IAPT’s first Vice-President, second President, and last surviving member of the founding Board. The passing away of its two early leaders, Rollins and Stafleu, closes a whole era for the IAPT, during which it took shape and flourished. Whatever may happen to our Association in the future, I hope Frans’s and Reed’s memory will be kept intact.
Just ahead of its fiftieth birthday, the IAPT is facing changes that may be much more profound than a mere move of its headquarters may suggest. It is my hope that such changes may be for the better and may not be tinged by the spite and nastiness with which they were brought about. It has been my pleasure to serve our Association in several capacities and to the best of my abilities for many years. In handing over the reins to Tod Stuessy I am satisfied to have found a worthy successor, whom I will be pleased to assist if called for.
[Note: Much of what precedes is taken from the 1998 Secretary’s report to the IAPT Council, also posted (illegally) on the Internet by a third party.]