International Society of Precision Agriculture (ISPA) Board Meeting Minutes
 
March 2, 2018
 
Conference Call
 
Participants: Nicolas Tremblay, President; Ken Sudduth, Past-President; 
Ian Yule, President Elect; John Stafford, 2012‑14 President; Viacheslav Adamchuk, Secretary; Quentin Rund, Executive Secretary
 
Could not participate: Raj Khosla, Founding President; Terry Griffin, Treasurer
 
The meeting started at 14:30 EST. The distributed agenda was approved. Slava reviewed the January 31, 2018 minutes and they were approved. 
 
Nicolas read communication to and from SPAA pertaining to the bid to host the 2020 ICPA. Ian characterized the regional perspective on ICPA and ACPA conferences. The discussion on coordination between ICPA, ECPA, ACPA, InfoAg and the Latin American Congress on Precision Agriculture will be discussed during the next call and potentially during the upcoming ICPA.
 
Quentin reported that 313 oral and 123 poster presentations were accepted for ICPA this year. It is still OK to submit abstracts for poster presentations. Assuming the average percentage of dropouts, we should have over 300 presentations. Quentin mentioned that there were only a few abstracts that should be revised before final acceptance.
 
Nicolas reported that many messages were sent to recruit sponsors and exhibitors. So far, we have six exhibitors and no sponsors. Nicolas described several on-going communications with potential sponsors. Different approaches to attract sponsors and exhibitors were discussed, including phone communication with vendors of scientific equipment of interest to precision agriculture researchers. All Board members are expected to participate. 
 
Slava reported on the PREGA conference in Hungary (February 20-21, 2018) and on-going preparation of the proposal to form the Central and East European Community on Precision Agriculture under ISPA. The meeting consisted of both a scientific and a commercial component.  It was quite a success. PREGA and the Ministry of Agriculture signed a memorandum. In 2021, the Hungarian group will host ECPA.
 
Nicolas reported on the process to redefine Precision Agriculture, which will consist of two steps. The first step of the process is a survey to define matter, means, scope and objective of precision agriculture. The second step is to formulate several new definitions and compare them to the most recognized existing definitions using the Codigital platform. The survey will be conducted by Quentin across ISPA members as well as ICPA/InfoAg participants. The next step is to circulate the revised survey form to the Board.
 
Quentin provided an update on the new functionalities of the ISPA website. Those include new publications, history page, newsletters. Members of the Board also have access to the past Board minutes and the ISPA handbook is under preparation. 
 
The next Board call will take place in about a month. The meeting was adjourned at 15:45 EST.
 

Distributed Agenda
 
1.      Call to order / Welcome
 
2.      Agenda approval
 
3.      Review and approval of minutes 18-01-31
a.      Interaction with SPAA (Australia) for ICPA hosting (N. Tremblay)
 
4.      14th ICPA update
a.      Numbers and status (Q. Rund)
b.      Sponsorships (N. Tremblay)
 
5.      Outcome of PREGA meeting in Budapest (S. Adamchuk)
 
6.      Process for ISPA definition of PA (N. Tremblay)
 
7.      Miscellaneous (new ISPA web features)
 
8.      Adjourn