Dennis Brezina called the meeting to order. He insinuated that Dr. Wilding was our speaker tonight, then remarked he was not serious. Dennis recognized Glen Chervenka to present our speaker, Dr. Lee Nordt.

Dr. Lee Nordt introduced himself. He informed us his presentation was entitled, "Adventures of a Pedologist in a Geophysical World." Dr. Nordt showed the group the cover from a magazine entitled Geotimes. It was a good color picture of a soil profile. Dr. Nordt stated there are more positlons academically, open to those in the geophysical arena, than of the agricultural arena.

Dr. Nordt said Adventure Number One, a Professor at Baylor University was a match made in heaven. He works with folks in geology, who want someone with a soils background. The study of the rock record, from a perspective of a soil scientist, helps other geologists to expand their knowledge.

Adventure Number Two involves a geologist from the University of Tennessee. The folks in Tennessee have seen what appears to them as vertisols in the rock record. They write a grant to the National Science Foundation to do a study of vertisols in Texas to study how climate affects the development of vertisols. The grant is chosen first above 151 other grants. The grant is interdisciplinary involving geologist, geomorphologists, soil scientists, university personnel from Tennessee, Baylor, Prairie View A&M, and Texas A&M.

Lastly Dr. Nordt showed slides from several of his projects in Central and South America. He explained how beneficial to geologists it is to have someone with a soils background in their work. He also told us how improper use of a foreign language can get you into trouble.

Dennis took over after Dr. Nordt's presentation was finished. Dennis reminded the group, that the minutes of the previous Annual Meeting were published in Texas Soil Profiles, Volume 19, No.1, and asked if there were any additions or corrections to the minutes. Being none, a motion was made and seconded to accept the minutes as published in Texas Soil Profiles.

Dennis recognized Charlie Thompson, Scholarship Committee Chairperson. Charlie Said this year was a good one. Last year, due to circumstances, the lag time for sending applications to choosing a winner was short. Last year, one application yielded one scholarship winner. This year, there were six applications, and all of them were good. The committee had a tough decision to make, and many things to consider.

The Scholarship Committee had discussed a couple of times in committee, but wanted feedback from the membership. One item was to increase the amount of the scholarship. Another was to determine if a Freshman Scholarship was needed. And lastly, due to some circumstances this year, there was discussion on tightening the requirements for the PSSAT Scholarship. Most folks felt it was up to the committee to set policy and requirements. So Charlie continued with the fun part. He said there were six applications this year. The scholarship was advertised on SOILTALK, as well our web site, plus personal contacts with universities.

This year's winner is from Thorndale. He is a Junior at Texas A&M University. However, he had spent time at Texas Tech University and Temple University. Some of his honors include the Dean's List, the High Point Individual in a Range Science Plant Contest, and was a member of the team for the Regional Soil Judging Contest. This year's PSSAT Scholarship winner is Travis Waiser. Charlie presented him with a plaque and a check.

Dennis said some items on the agenda for discussion pertaining to the Scholarship Committee. Dennis asked the question, is it time to raise the amount of our scholarship. He pointed out that since he served as PSSAT Treasurer, the funds in the scholarship account had doubled. The other item was the Freshman Scholarship, which would be an addition to our current scholarship. Of course, a problem with giving a freshman a scholarship, was to determine if the freshman would stay on course to become a soil scientist, or the possibility of changing their major. So there are some inherent problems with the freshman scholarship idea.

[Glen Chervenka lifted the receiver, and replaced the receiver, on a ringing phone near the bar.]

There was much discussion on the two items Dennis presented on the scholarships. Dan Kowalski made a motion to raise the scholarship amount to $1,500.00. The motion was seconded, and the motion carried. Dennis used the gavel to pound out his applause.

More discussion on the scholarship issue was begun by Nathan Haile. Nathan said changes were needed on the application and in the scholarship guidelines, mainly the list of references. All agreed these changes should be handled by the committee. Some other questions were raised about the number of references and the timely return of the references by the student versus those folks who are the references. Dr. Wilding suggested using four references by the applicant, but including telephone numbers and addresses. The committee would require two ref- erences, but would request four references. Dennis implied it was still up the committee to enact these suggestions. Charles Batte said time is the main limitation for our process to work smoothly. Dennis said the applications go out in October, but with holidays and Christmas, it is a challenge to process the applications. Charlie suggested improving the process, and that he would lead the committee to improve the processing. After more discussion, Mike Risinger suggested the current committee make notes of problems and possible solutions to pass onto the incoming Committee members. Dr. Bill Harris added that the committee would use good judgement in making their decisions. Dennis added that we as PSSAT, would support those decisions of the scholarship committee.

PSSAT Annual Meeting

Holiday Inn -College Station, Texas

February 6, 2002

Officers Present:

Dennis Brezina, Jon Brandt, Maurice Jurena, Eddie Beard, Jamey Douglass

Guests Present:

Russ Pringle, Bill Packet, Hayes Dye, Jerry Daigle, Dr. Wayne Hudnall, Arlene Tugel,

Doug Slabaugh, Joe Anderson, Dr. Sergey Goryachkin

Dr. B.L. Allen, Jennifer McCloughin, Mike Golden, Kelly Attebury, Wes Miller,

Dr. Clyde Stahnke, Charles Batte, Derek Milner, Jon Wiedenfeld,

Sam Brown, Stacey Muras, Dr. Larry Wilding, Joe Castifle, Mittie Muse, DeWayne Williams,

Willie Crenwelge, Conrad Neitsch, Dr. Ted Zobeck, Tom Cyprian,

Dr. Lee Nordt, Rusty Dowell , Paul Reynolds, Dr. Lynn Loomis, Dr. Richard Drees,

Mike Risinger, James Greenwade ,Shanna Dunn, Jerry Rives, James Gordon,

Tom Feuerbacher, Alan Stahnke, Wayne Gabriel

Review of the 2002 PSSAT & SSLRW MEETING

by James Gordon

Allow me to begin by relating to those who did not attend the meeting that it was a great success. The meeting ran very smoothly, and the presentations were interesting and informative. Also, I will take this opportunity to thank everyone for their time in preparing for the meeting and attending.

Soil scientists began converging on College Station Wednesday evening. Social hour before the meeting started, as usual, was a great time to visit with friends and make new acquaintances. It was good to see friends that I have not seen since the last meeting.

The gathering of the minds commenced Thursday morning on Texas A&M University. As always, the facilities for the meeting were first-class. The meeting began by everyone introducing ones self. The number of people attending and their various occupations surprised me.

The presentations were thought provoking and impressive. The discourse on the PEN Technology and 3D Mapper was intriguing. I believe this type of field mapping technology will be of great service to Soil Survey. The preliminary trials seem to be promising as was indicated. With continued development of the PEN Technology and 3D Mapper, I believe that it will help field mappers (soil scientist) produce a more accurate and quality product.

The PSSAT Experience by Stacey Muras

I recently attended the Soil Survey and Land Resource Workshop and PSSAT meeting in College Station, TX for the first time. The meeting was interesting and I got to meet several people. The food was ok, but I've had a lot better! The workshops the following two days were very informative. It was a good time for me to meet many people and learn a lot about what other soil enthusiasts were doing around Texas and surrounding states. I especially liked the presentations given on the soil surveys in Texas since that is what I am working for. The remote sensing and other computer imaging presentations were awesome. It is amazing to see what they can do with computers. I also enjoyed the presentation on off road vehicle impact on the soil. My favorites though, were Dennis Brezina and Lynn Loomis' presentations which included several inspiring photos of their work areas.

The soil Survey and Land Resource Workshop was a learning experience as well as a time to relax with the company of people sharing my same interest in soil. I look forward to going again next year.

Comments on the SSLRW - Jon Brandt

This year's Soil Survey and Land Resource Workshop (SSLRW) was the best I've been to. In fact, the SSLRW is consistently the best professional activity I get to attend. I'm glad that the PSSAT annual meeting and the SSLRW are held back to back.

Most of the presentations were informative, but I found several that were really helpful. I'll only mention my favorites here, since you don't want a 10-page report about the workshop. Gordon Wells, from the Center for Space Research at the University of Texas, talked about satellite imagery that's available for the state of Texas. He described the Texas Data Synergy Project; it promotes the use of NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS). This work is funded by NASA, is administered by the Raytheon Company, and is run from the offices of the Center for Space Research. Some of the satellite images are accurate to a 1 :24,000 scale. Other imagery has 200+ spectral bands at 30m resolution. All of these are great for those of us using GIS to map soils and other natural resources. You can find more information at this web address: http://synergy2.csr.utexas.edu/

Other presentations I found useful were those about the use of ArcView in soil mapping, given by several NRCS staff (Shanna Dunn, Jonathan Wiedenfeld, and Joe Anderson). Derek Milner has also been doing great work with digital orthophoto quads (DOQs), and digital elevation models (DEMs). Admittedly, these talks were enjoyed more by the computer geeks in the crowd (myself included).

There were two presentations on soil quality and one on ecological site descriptions that stood out. Bill Puckett and Arlene Tugel talked about work the Soil Quality Institute is doing. Soil Health Cards are being developed in several states (for more information, look at this web page: http://www.statlab.iastate.edu  has anybody thought about producing soil health cards in Texas?). Dynamic soli propertIes (those that change with use or management) were also discussed. George Peacock gave an interesting talk on ecological site descriptions.

For those of you following the issue of soil carbon and carbon sequestration strategies, you would have enjoyed the talks given by Frank Hons and David Zuberer. And we were fortunate to have a visiting Fulbright scholar, Sergey Goryachkin, give a talk on soil survey problems in high latitudes. I believe I'll remember the difficulties in mapping soils in northern Russia next time I'm griping about the afternoon sun in South Texas in August.

The reports on soil survey activities in National Park Service lands were also interesting. I now know that boats and fishing gear are appropriate soil survey tools (thanks, Dennis). Well, at least when you're mapping soils within the Padre Island National Seashore. I'm also envious of Lynn Loomis, enjoying the spectacular scenery while mapping soils in Big Bend National Park.

Next year's workshop will be held at the same place, on February 13th and 14th.