Report for January 1–December 31, 2020

This report is divided into three parts:

1. Performance data and summary comments about the submission/review/editorial/publication process of Applied Animal Science (AAS) for 2020 compared with the previous four years
2. Activities and changes in 2020
3. Anticipated work and activities for 2021

The journal can be found at https://www.appliedanimalscience.org via the ARPAS member/JBS webpages or the Elsevier/Science Direct webpage.

ARPAS is now on social media—“Like” and “Follow” ARPAS on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. If you are interested in providing social media content relevant to ARPAS, please contact BrittanyM@assochq.org.

First, thank you to ARPAS members for showing such patience during the transition to the new membership database last August, and the subsequent changes to the renewal and CEU processes.

Starting in January, regularly scheduled “CEU balance” emails began to be distributed to members via email. Lists of upcoming meetings and approved webinar and on-demand content have been included in each of those emails. In light of the global pandemic, members should expect to see much more virtual content to be available for fulfilling CEUs.

Membership update, June 15, 2020:
MEMBER TYPE

The Membership Committee has now completed two videos for ARPAS: "Navigating the exam" and "Benefits of joining ARPAS"

Chapter directors are encouraged to record video footage of chapter ARPAS meetings and ARPAS member interviews about the importance of ARPAS.

Membership update, 31 December 2019:
MEMBER TYPE

Total exams given in 2019: 178

The Membership Committee has recently completed a video about ‘Navigating the ARPAS Exam’ – find it soon on the ARPAS website and social media accounts.

The Committee is now working on a video about the ‘Benefits of Joining ARPAS’, which is anticipated to be ready for viewing at the 2020 Annual Meeting in June.

Relative to maturity, ARPAS is in middle-age but still in good health.  We continuing to add new members and address new ways to add value for our member and our profession.  Ten years ago, our testing process used only paper exams.  Our work consisted of evaluating educational programs for CEU credit, working on a strategic plan and assisting the National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) to train ARPAS members for on-farm feed management evaluation.  ARPAS had five active Chapters but the bulk of our ARPAS members had no regional chapter affiliation and could not participate ARPAS associated activities.