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This article is being published in Taxon 48: 771-784. 1999.
Report on the 1999 IAPT General Assembly
Dan H. Nicolson1
1 Department of Botany MRC-166, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560-0166, U.S.A.
As announced (Taxon 48: 188. 1999), the General Assembly of the International Association for Plant Taxonomy took place on Thursday 29 July 1999 at the Ridgeway Center, Missouri Botanical Garden, Saint Louis, Missouri, U.S.A., at 3:30 p.m.
As the whole session was taped, the following report, being largely based on the tape transcript (for which we owe warm thanks to Mrs Rosemarie Ziegler, Berlin), can be much more accurate and complete than its forerunners. The 1999 Assembly may in some respect mark a turning point in the fate and destinies of our Association. I therefore feel that it may be worth while to document this event for the benefit of all those who could not be present.
Nicolson, IAPT President, read out the names of botanists who died since the last Congress, or had not been included in the last list (in Taxon 42: 929-930. 1993), followed by a moment of silence. Before reading the full list alphabetically, he drew attention to the close sequence of deaths of four people of particular importance to TL-2 and IAPT: R. S. Cowan (17 Nov 1997), F. A. Stafleu (15 Dec 1997), E. A. Mennega (28 Jan 1998) and R. C. Rollins (28 Apr 1998). During the reading it was noted that R. R. Stewart, having attained 103 years 6 months and thus outlived H. N. Ridley (100 years 10 months), and whose last paper was "How did they die" (in Taxon 33: 48-52. 1984), may be our eldest dead botanist.
Many assisted in the compilation of the following list, before or after the reading, making it much nearer to complete than it was originally. They include P. Baas, R. Barker, G. Bell, B. Briggs, R. K. Brummitt, H.-M. Burdet, W. G. Chaloner, L. J. Dorr, T. V. Egorova, P. Fryxell, D. L. Hawksworth, J. Hendrickson, S. Hill, F. Hueber, A. Karg, P. M. Kirk, A. Levin, J. Norris, J. Reveal, R. Schallert, P. Silva, J. Skog, A. Traverse, M. Wynne, and B. Zimmer.
Dr James Henrickson commented, "The reading was quite moving. It brought us together as a family". I think he is correct. After all the blood-letting before and during the Section sessions, the reading of the long list of all who had perished in the last 6 years brought a quietus to a burned-out group, a feeling that all is ephemeral and that we should temper our feelings in the face of what happens to us all. The reading brought us together and made us realise that we ought not act like blood-thirsty enemies.
Abraham, Jean Prosper (1930-1996)
Acosta-Solís, Misael (1910-1994)
Ainsworth, Geoffrey Clough (1905-1998)
Aleem, Anwar Abdel (1918-1996)
Almodovar, Luis Raul (1930-1996)
Appleby, Walter (1930-1996)
Arzeni, Charles Basel (1925-1997)
Atkinson, Lenette Rogers (1899-1996)
Axelrod, Daniel Isaac (1910-1998)
Bacigalupi, Rimo Carlo Felice (1901-1996)
Balakrishnan, M. S. (1917-1990)
Banda, Elias Alfonso Kamkamba (1936-1994)
Banks, Harlan Parker (1913-1998)
Batko, Andrzej (1933-1997)
Beadle, Noel Charles William (1914-1998)
Bierhorst, David William (1924-1997)
Bilgrami, Krishna Sahai (1933-1996)
Bird, Kimon T. (1951-1996)
Blum, John Leo (1917-1995)
Botta de Miconi, Silvia Margarite (1942-1994)
Bourrelly, Pierre Paul Charles (1910-1995)
Breitenbach, Josef (1927-1998)
Brightman, Frank Hatton (1921-1997)
Bugnon, François (1925-1998)
Cabrera, Angel Lulio (1908-1999)
Cain, Stanley Adair (1902-1995)
Cash, Edith Katherine (1890-1992)
Cayouette, Richard (1914-1997)
Chakravarty, Hira Lal (1907-?)
Chang, Chun Fu (1916-1994)
Christensen, Tyge Ahrengot (1918-1996)
Chuang, Tsan-Iang (1933-1994)
Cordeiro-Martino, Marilza (1939-1996)
Corillon, Robert (1908-1997)
Corner, Edred John Henry (1906-1996)
Cowan, Richard Sumner (1921-1997)
Croasdale, Hannah Thompson (1905-1999)
Cuatrecasas, José (1903-1996)
Dahl, Eilif (1916-1993)
Daily, William Allen (1912-1998)
Daubenmire, Rexford F. (1909-1995)
De Wit, see Wit, de
DeCew, Thomas Charles (1946-1997)
Dechamps, Roger (?-1995)
Dempster, Lauramay Tinsley (1909-1987)
Denham, Dale Lee (1922- 997)
Dennis, Geoffrey F. S. (1918-1995)
Denton, Melinda Fay (1944-1994)
Díaz-Piferrer, Manuel (1914-1997)
Dieterle, Jennie van Akkern (1909-?)
Dixon, Peter Stanley (1929-1993)
Dobbs, Charles Geoffrey (?-1996)
Dostál, Josef (1903-1999)
Doty, Maxwell Stanford (1911-1996)
Dudley, Theodore Robert (1936-1994)
Dunn, David Baxter (1917-1994)
Eddy, Alan (1937-1998)
Edees, Eric Smoothey (1907-1993)
Ellis, Martin Beazor (1911-1996)
Eriksson, John (1921-1995)
Esau, Katherine (1898-1997)
Escobar, Linda Katherine Albert de (1940-1993)
Ettl, Hanus (1931-1997)
Evers, Robert A. (1912-1998)
Feinbrun-Dothan, Naomi (1900-1995)
Fernández-Pérez, Alvaro (1928-1994)
Forman, Lewis Leonard (1929-1998)
Fosberg, Francis Raymond (1908-1993)
Fox-Maule, Anne (1917-1997)
Freitas Leitão Filho, Hermógenes de (1944-1996)
Fuchs-Eckert, Hans-Peter (1928-1999)
Gangulee, Hirendra Chandra (1914-?)
Gillett, Jan Bevington (1911-1995)
Gjaerevoll, Olav (1916-1993)
Goodman, George Jones (1904-1999)
Grieve, Brian John (1907-1997)
Guinochet, Marcel (1909-?)
Gutnick, A. A. (see Kalugina-Gutnik)
Hackett, Harold Edmund (1938-1998)
Harlan, Jack Rodney (1917-1999)
Harvey, Leroy Hatfield (1911-1998)
Hayhome, Barbara A. (1942-1995)
Heine, Hermann-Heino (1923-1996)
Hekking, William Henri Alphonse Maria (1930-1996)
Heslop-Harrison, John (1920-1998)
Heyn, Chaia Clara (1924-1998)
Høeg, Ove Arbo (1898-1993)
Holub, Josef (1930-1999)
Hoogland, Ruurd Dirk (1922-1994)
Howard, Frank Leslie (1903-1997)
Howell, John Thomas (1903-1994)
Hughes, Norman Francis (1918-1994)
Huttleston, Donald Grunert (1920-1993)
Jackson, Eric Norman Shannon (1922-1997)
James, Sidney Herbert (1933-1998)
Jao, Chin Chih (1900-1998)
Jensen, James Bernard (1936-1993)
Johnson, Lawrence Alexander Sidney (1925-1997)
Jonker, Fredrik Pieter (1912-1995)
Kalkman, Cornelis (1928-1998)
Kalugina-Gutnik, Alexandra Arkhipovna (1929-1996?)
Kang, Jae Won (1926-1993)
Karling, John Sidney (1897-1995)
Keay, Ronald William John (1920-1998)
Keck, David Daniels (1903-1995)
Kent, Douglas Henry (1920-1998)
Kerguélen, Michel François-Jacques (1928-1999)
Kharkevich, Sigizmund Semenovich (1921-1998)
Klein, William McKinley (1933-1997)
Kochummen, Kizhakkedathu Mathai (1931-1999)
Kornás, Jan Kasimierz (1923-1994)
Kornmann, Peter (1907-1993)
Kosanke, Robert Max (1917-1996)
Kostermans, André Joseph Guillaume Henri (Ahmad Jahja Goh Hartono) (1907-1994)
Kramer, Karl Ulrich (1928-1994)
Kühner, Robert (1904-1996)
Leach, Leslie Charles (1909-1996)
Leclercq, Suzanne Céline Marie (1901-1994)
Lecointe, Alain (1943-1996)
Lemée, Georges (1908-1996)
Lemke, Paul Arenz (1937-1995)
Leroy, Jean-François (1915-1999)
Lewinsky, Jette (1948-1998)
Linczevski, Igor Alexandrovich (1908-1997)
Lloyd, Robert Michael (1938-1995)
Löve, Áskell (1916-1994)
Lundell, Cyrus Longworth (1903-1994)
MacKee, Hugh S. (1912-1995)
Mandenova, Ida P. (1907-1995)
Mangaly, Jose K. (1933-1997)
Margadant, Willem Daniel (1916-1997)
Markgraf, Ingeborg (1911-1996)
Martin, Peter Gordon (1923-1994)
Mathias Hassler, Mildred Esther (1906-1995)
Mathon, Claude-Charles (1928-1998)
Mazzella, Lucia (?-1999)
McClintock, Barbara (1902-1992)
McKee- see MacKee
McQueen, Cyrus B. (1951-1999)
Meeuse, Bastiaan Jacob Dirk (1916-1999)
Mennega, Eric Albert (1923-1998)
Millar, Andrée Norma (née Manners-Sinclair) (1916-1995)
Milne-Redhead, Edgar Wolston Bertram Handsley (1906-1996)
Moore, Michael O’Connor (1957-1999)
Moore, Raymond John (1916-1988)
Morton, Julia Frances McHugh (1912-1996)
Mukerjee, Sunil Kumar (1914-?)
Muller (olim Mueller), Cornelius Herman (1909-1997)
Müller, Michiel Adriaan Niklaas (1948-1997)
Nair, N. Chandrasekharan (1927-?)
Nakamura, Yositeru (1910-1994)
Nannenga-Bremekamp, Neeltje Elizabeth (1916-1996)
Neushul, Michael (1933-1993)
Nishida, Makoto (1927-?)
Noda, Mitsuzo (1909-1995)
Oliver, Royce Ladell (1929-1996)
Olson, Lauritz William (1945-1992)
Ortega, Francisco (1952-1994)
Palmatier, Elmer Arthur (1912-1995)
Parker, Kittie Lucille (Fenley) (1910-1994)
Philipson, William Raymond (1911-1997)
Pires, Joaão Murça (1917-1994)
Poelt, Josef (1924-1995)
Pohl, Richard Walter (1916-1993)
Polunin, Nicholas (1909-1997)
Pomerleau, René (1904-1993)
Pryor, Lindsay Dixon (1915-1998)
Raizada, Mukut Behari (1907-?)
Rechinger, Karl Heinz (1906-1998)
Reed, Clyde Franklin (1918-1999)
Reichstein-Quarles van Ufford, Tadeus (1897-1996)
Remy, Winfried (1924-1995)
Richards, Paul Westmacott (1908-1995)
Rollins, Reed Clark (1911-1998)
Romagnesi, Henri Charles Louis (1912-1999)
Rôzicka, Jiri (1909-1993)
Rudolph, Emmanuel David (1927-1992)
Schnell, Raymond Albert Alfred (1913-1999)
Scott, George Anderson McDonald (1933-1998)
Seagrief, Stanley Charles (1927-1995)
Sharp, Aaron John (1904-1997)
Shaw, Charles Gardner (1917-1998)
Singer, Rolf (1906-1994)
Sivarajan, V. V. (1944-1995)
Sleumer, Hermann Otto (1906-1993)
Smith, Albert Charles (1906-1999)
Smith, Clifton F. (1920-1999)
Smith, Lyman Bradford (1904-1997)
Smith, Robert Roy (1934-1993)
Smitinand, Tem (1920-1995)
Sperling, Calvin R. (1957-1995)
Spooner, Anthony Godfrey (1927-1997)
Stafleu, Frans Antonie (1921-1997)
Starr, Richard Cawthon (1924-1998)
Steenis-Kruseman, Maria Johanna van (1904-1999)
Stewart, Frederick Campion (1904-1993)
Stewart, Ralph Randles (1890-1993)
Stone, Benjamin Clemens Masterman (1933-1994)
Straley, Gerald Bane (1945-1997)
Suneson, Karl Savante (1904-1997)
Tanaka, Takesi (1907-1997)
Taylor, George (1904-1993)
Thomas, John Hunter (1928-1999)
Tikhomirov, Vadim Nikolaevich (1932-1998)
Tixier, Pierre (1918-1997)
Torrey, John G. (1922 -1993)
Umezaki, Isamu (1925-1995)
Verheijen, Jilis Antonius Josephus (1908-1997)
Vinyard, William Corwin (1922-1999)
Warcup, John Henry (1921-1998)
Warnock, Barton Holland (1911-1998)
Webb, David Allardice (1912-1994)
Weber, Joseph Zvonko (1930-1996)
White, Frank (1927-1994)
Whitford, Larry Alston (1902-1995)
Wijnands, D. Onno (1945-1993)
Willis, James Hamlyn (1910-1995)
Wilson, Leonard Richard (1906-1998)
Wit, Hendrik Cornelis Dirk de (1909-1999)
Wurdack, John Julius (1921-1998)
(Zhang, Jun Fu, see Chang, Chun Fu)
Greuter, Secretary of IAPT, noted that this meeting was not so much a business meeting as a general survey of what had occurred since the last Congress. It was also one of the annual meetings that the statutes prescribe for IAPT (USA). He went on to explain that IAPT (USA) and IAPT are one and the same. IAPT has one body, the real IAPT, as it exists physically, sometimes also called IAPT (International) to make the distinction. IAPT, the international membership association, has two "legs", which are the legal corporate entities by which IAPT is anchored in two parts of the world. IAPT (USA) is based in the United States of America, headquartered in Washington at the Smithsonian Institution. It was established when IAPT, for cost reasons, transferred the publication of Taxon from Europe to the U.S.A. The second leg is IAPT (Europe), which is a legal entity under the Swiss law and has its seat in Geneva, Switzerland. Through it, the IAPT benefits from the very efficient Swiss banking system and from the liberal Swiss legislation that enables incorporation of associations with a minimum of legalistic effort.
As a result of its split identity IAPT, for the last 12 years, has kept its accounts in two currencies, U.S. dollar and Swiss franc, corresponding to its two incorporations. But francs and dollars are not the only currencies in which IAPT’s assets are held, there also are Deutschmarks, Euros, Pounds, Yens, etc. Two sheets had been distributed, giving financial figures and fluctuations of exchange rates over the last 11½ years, up to the end of June 1999. (These were updates of those that all IAPT members had received in January in the first IAPT Newsletter.) The bottom-line figures show that IAPT is financially healthy, that during the 12 Berlin years IAPT’s assets had increased on an average of about $100,000 per year, in spite of quite moderate membership fees. How this was achieved is no secret. There had been much institutional support for IAPT from its home bases, from Washington and even more from Berlin, which enabled its being run much more economically than could have been done if IAPT had had to pay for all the services, both personnel and material, that it needed. The question might be raised, why did IAPT accumulate all this money? The answer was very simple: When IAPT came to Berlin (and Frans Stafleu, the prior Secretary/Treasurer, was absolutely clear on this), this was predictably the last time that it would find a home that was willing to put so much of its own resources into an association. Therefore, it was vital to accumulate some substance during the Berlin period, out of the yield of which a future IAPT might live on a slightly less Spartan basis than would otherwise be the case. This is what was done. In the Berlin years, IAPT’s assets increased from about $350,000 at the beginning of 1988 to the present almost $1,500,000.
Another distributed sheet showed a less happy development in the IAPT membership figures. (This, again, was an update of what had been distributed in January, and was no news to the IAPT members present.) The slight but steady erosion of membership seemed to have stopped in 1999, when a slight but distinct increase had occurred both in North America and Europe, which more than balanced the decrease in other parts of the world. Such a shift might, however, cause some concern, as it signalled an increased concentration of IAPT membership in the industrialised countries of Europe and North America, whereas IAPT must aim to be a world-wide association with a widely and evenly spread membership. Taxon mailing had also seen an erosion, dropping from 2026 in May 1988 to 1800 in May 1999, which reflected a common trend for scientific journals, largely due to generalised cuts in library budgets, and was still a comparatively honourable performance. Even so, this was unsatisfactory and presented a challenge for the forthcoming IAPT leadership.
During the past 12 twelve years, annual personal and institutional membership fees had been increased only once, from $40 to $48 and from $120 to $144, respectively, effective 1995; whereas subscription rates were raised twice: in 1989 from $98 to $108 and in 1994 to $130. When comparing institutional subscription rates for Taxon with those for other botanical journals. one could find that IAPT as a publisher was amongst the cheapest, comparing most favourably with others, especially commercial publishers, which often ask for a multiple of what IAPT charges (Plant systematics and evolution had just raised their annual subscription rate to $2000). Taxon was cheap, which made it excellently suited as a vector of taxonomic information for the botanical world.
Regnum vegetabile is the second series of publications by the IAPT, and a very prominent one since it includes such well known items as Taxonomic literature, the International code of botanical nomenclature, Index herbariorum – both its Collectors and Herbaria portions, the latter being published in conjunction with the New York Botanical Garden thanks to the generous effort of Pat and Noel Holmgren. There had been seven Regnum vegetabile volumes published during the last six years. Most important were the supplements to Taxonomic literature and the "Cultivated Code". The last volume of the Berlin series had just gone to the printer: a Bibliography of the flora of Cuba, with over 1000 pages and over 11,000 entries, by Hermann Manitz, to be available in about a month. Contrary to the old arrangements in the Netherlands, Regnum vegetabile was now published by Koeltz at no cost for IAPT and under very generous terms. IAPT was granted royalties from the sales, plus 50 free copies for its supporting institutional members, which get Regnum vegetabile free of charge. Koeltz also honoured the personal and regular institutional members’ discount of, respectively, 20 % and 50 %. This was the opportunity to speak up for Koeltz who had received bad marks and undeserved criticism from some North American members. Koeltz was an excellent partner for IAPT, which had had about $150,000 revenue over the last 12 years from Regnum vegetabile sales, more than sufficient to cover the cost of production of camera-ready copy of, for instance, Taxonomic literature, including travel cost for the compilers.
Greuter concluded: "I am coming to an end of my second and last term of office, and I may add a few personal words. I have considered my duties in managing IAPT as a duty for the botanical community, and have done so in the full spirit of my predecessor, Frans Stafleu. His and my way to run the Association was an economic and efficient one, so that it could be managed alongside with other duties in a way that was not costly yet satisfied the actual needs. It was not perhaps a very creative way of running IAPT’s affairs. We have now apparently reached a point when IAPT needs a completely new start, a new flight, a new route, new ideas, new goals, higher ambitions. I hope that IAPT will fly high on this route, and without a crash. I wish my successor, Tod Stuessy, every success, the best of luck, and much pleasure to be derived from his not always easy office. I was originally prepared to carry on for another six years. One year ago I was still decided to do so – but then, you know, when you are told that what you do is not really what one wants you to do, and when you know how much time you spend on it and how much energy, you are well advised to reconsider. So I did. I wondered whether I should add that I appreciate the kind way in which criticism was put to me – but this might sound sarcastic to some, so I won’t. I’ll just say that I have enjoyed being your Secretary for the last 12 years, and that I hope that all my successors, my immediate one and those to follow, will enjoy it in the same way."
The audience began to clap after this farewell speech. The applause swelled as people realised that historic moment was at hand, and rose to make it a massive standing and sustained ovation.
Nicolson proceeded to announce the results of the election of IAPT Officers and Council members (for details, see Friis in Taxon 48: 605-607. 1999). The elected were: G. T. Prance (U.K., President), P. Baas (Netherlands, Vice-President), T. F. Stuessy (Austria, Secretary-Treasurer), P. F. Stevens (U.S.A., Administrator of Finances), and the following council members: T. Ahti (Finland), E. Forero (Colombia), W. Greuter (Germany), P. K. Holmgren (U.S.A.), D. J. Mabberley (Australia), J. McNeill (U.K.), C.-I. Peng (Republic of China), J. Rzedowski (Mexico), W. L. Wagner (U.S.A.), and J. West (Australia). The new officers were invited to take their seats and the retiring officers stepped down.
Stuessy, the new Secretary of IAPT, commented: "It is a great honour to succeed Werner Greuter. All of us here of the Executive Committee feel we have a lot of work to do to maintain the performance of the past.
"I begin with a few observations. It is worthwhile underscoring again the financial contribution from Berlin. The efforts from Werner’s side and the contributions from Berlin together with Dan Nicolson’s very expert investments on the IAPT (U.S.A.) side have put us in a sound financial state. Financial stability allows flexibility. We have the opportunity to think creatively about the Association because we do not face serious financial difficulties.
"We should look ahead a bit here, since we are in our 49th year. We need to celebrate next year. Fifty years is a pretty good success story for an organisation, we must bring it to our own attention and also find ways to tell other people and organisations about it. In the Council we will have a first meeting after this General Assembly, we will begin to discuss these and other issues. We need to quickly come to grips with plans for celebrating. This can be done in a broad scale across the Association and also more locally. I encourage you to consider ways in which you regionally or even locally care to celebrate the 50 years of IAPT, perhaps with symposia and meetings.
"To me, the IAPT is a significant global organisation that is dedicated to plant taxonomy in a broad sense. There is no other organisation of this type. This is an opportunity to have an impact on the international scale. In a time of problems with dwindling university support we have a real role to play, and the challenge is to find the best way to play that role. We have members scattered across the planet.
"We are dwindling in our membership, which we need to reverse. With your help, we should be able to double membership within five years. The more members we have, the more impact we can have in developing projects that go beyond what we have done so far.
"It will be good to look at a grants programme, to provide funds for students or other workers in developing countries and to bring investigators to some of our major collection resource centres. We should be finding ways to send lecturers to institutions around the world who need that kind of input. These initiatives must be supported by new funds, so that we do not jeopardise the strong financial base that we have.
"We need to develop stronger ties with other organisations like the Society for Systematic Biology, the Linnean Society of London, the Korean Association for Plant Taxonomy, the American Society of Plant Taxonomists. Conservation organisations in different ways deal with issues related to systematics in the broad sense. We need more initiatives in that direction. We can provide a service by developing research links and institutional ties across the globe that we have not explored yet.
"We need your participation. We need a structure of Committees in the Association, and the Council will begin to discuss this as we start our first meeting in the next hours. We need a Membership Committee, we need a Finance Committee; we need defined funds to implement projects – so we need a Fundraising Committee. We award the Engler medal, and perhaps we would like to give other honours. We probably need an Honours Committee. I think an Education Committee would be good because we need to find ways to reach out to institutions and share educational resources. We have an important role to play globally in providing information and materials appropriate for teaching plant taxonomy. We probably need a Publications Committee, because in addition to supervision or overview of Taxon as well as Regnum vegetabile we might consider other kinds of publications, in part to generate additional revenue, in part to provide a greater service to the community. We need to look at our Constitution and Bylaws, which have worked effectively for 49 years: any organisation that has survived that long should reexamine the way it does business and the way it is structured; so we need a Committee to look at these aspects. Probably we should have a Committee dealing with collections resources, and one to consider information management. Maybe we should have one dealing with conservation – and you can dream of other opportunities yourself. We need to focus again on some limited set of community opportunities. By mentioning this now I do not of course want to pre-empt what the Council will be discussing.
"Over all, we need a greater participation in this Association, and perhaps by the same token a greater transparency. There have never been any secrets, but the feeling has generated more recently that perhaps not everything has been as clear as it might. This is fairly simple to change. Certainly I will provide any information at any time to any member. Contact me! In my beginning role as editor of Taxon we might consider changes in the journal to increase its appeal. It is my personal opinion that people more recently have found the journal to be somewhat narrow in the range of subjects it includes. Perhaps there has been too much emphasis on nomenclature and historical aspects of taxonomy. In the 1960s Taxon was really a broad-scale journal, including all aspects of plant taxonomy. I accept that it still is, but the conception among many people has been that it narrowed, which may reflect in our declining membership. Let us make Taxon more appealing and more effective.
"IAPT is your organisation. Let us make it even better!"
The new President, Prance, closed the proceedings with the following statement: "Thank you for your confidence in making me President of this Association. I shall endeavour to bring in progress and harmonious work. We have had a good strong outline from our Secretary-Treasurer. I would emphasise one thing that he said: that we want your ideas, so that we can discuss them in Council and incorporate them into the way forward for the Association. This is a fine organisation. We need your support so that that it can fulfil its important role in plant taxonomy."
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Effective publication date: 13 November 1998