Hopefully, you received a notice from FASS to pay dues for one or more Animal Science Societies and ARPAS by email or letter about a month ago. Dues for several of our Chapters are also payable along with your annual ARPAS dues.

The ARPAS Distinguished Professional Animal Scientist award is bestowed annually on one or more emeritus members of ARPAS that have made significant contributions to the Animal Sciences during their active career and served in a leadership position within ARPAS.

Nominations may be made by any member of ARPAS. Final selection will be made by the ARPAS Executive Committee with conformation from the ARPAS Governing Council. The number of awards each year will not exceed 0.2% of the total ARPAS membership. Please contact any member of the ARPAS Governing Council or send your nomination by email to arpas@assochq.org.

Recipients of this award will be recognized with an article in the Newsletter and the PAS Journal and with a tribute at our annual meeting. A suitable award will be presented to them on this occasion. They will also be granted lifetime membership in ARPAS with emeritus privilege.

The 27th volume of the Professional Animal Scientist was completed recently. Review articles continue to be popular among scientists. The list of ‘most-read articles’ in PAS (HighWire, November, 2011) is topped by the 2009 review article by Dr. Don L. Palmquist entitled, “Omega-3 Fatty Acids in Metabolism, Health, and Nutrition and for Modified Animal Product Foods”. In second place is the 2008 paper by Drs. Bewley and Schutz, “An Interdisciplinary Review of Body Condition Scoring for Dairy Cattle”. These are followed by (3) “Urea Feeding to Dairy Cattle: A Historical Perspective and Review” by Dr. Al Kertz in 2010, (4) a review on, “Effects of Biological Nitrogen Fixation and Nutrient Cycling on Stocking Strategies for Cow-Calf and Stocker Programs”, by Drs. F. M. Roquette, Jr., and G. R. Smith in 2010, and (5) a review on, “Animal Identification Systems in North America”, by R. G. L. Murphy et al. in 2008. Obviously, review articles lead the list, and that causes me to request that members consider submitting reviews on timely subjects. The most-read research article is, “Markers of Inflammation in Arthritic Horses Fed Omega-3 Fatty Acids”, by D. R. Manhart et al. in 2009, and the most-read Case Study is, “Evaluation of Calcium Propionate and Propylene Glycol Administered into the Esophagus of Dairy Cattle at Calving”, by Drs. S. R. Stokes and J. P. Goff in 2001.

ACAS held its annual meeting this summer in conjunction with the ADSA/ADSA joint meetings in New Orleans. At this meeting, Dr. Randy Shaver, University of Wisconsin-Madison, was elected President-Elect for ACAS. During 2011, we had 4 new members join ACAS, I would like to personally welcome Walter Owsley, John Bernard, Aaron Park, and Nar Gurung as Diplomats in ACAS bringing our total membership to 190. With the primary objective of ACAS being to advance the professionalism in the livestock/animal nutrition, physiology, welfare, food science, behavior and breeding/genetic, it is paramount for all of us to continue our ongoing efforts to participate and promote dissemination of information and education throughout our industries. Also, we need to bring more qualified members into ACAS to expand our knowledge base and ability to serve more. I would like to charge all members of ACAS to continue to spread the word about our organization and each member to seek to bring at least one new member to our ranks within the next year.

The Midwest ARPAS Chapter is in its inaugural year for 2012. In October, the leadership team of Midwest ARPAS sent a welcome email letter to the 405 current ARPAS members in the Midwest updating the membership on the development of the Midwest Chapter and soliciting support for the chapter. As a current ARPAS member in the Midwest region, a complimentary membership to the Midwest ARPAS Chapter is included for 2012.