Dear IAVS Members, Colleagues and Friends,

Like so many other organisations we are facing a new century, a new millennium, and that appeals to mixed feelings. On the one hand, there is a certain sentiment to look backward, as our society has a long and striking tradition, on the other hand there is a wish for looking forward: the problems the world is heading for are immense, and vegetation science -- given its restricted possibilities -- might play a role in solving them. At the same time, we hope to continue the way we have chosen, by inviting scientists from all over the world to take part in our work, by encouraging people to organise effective conferences and international excursions, by preparing an informative newsletter, by keeping membership fees and journal subscriptions low, ... and all this by avoiding too much bureaucracy. The last (42nd!) IAVS symposium of the past millennium was held in Bilbao (Spain), the first meeting in the new millennium will be in Nagano (Japan). I very much hope to meet again in Japan or elsewhere.

Joop Schaminée Wageningen, March 2000

1. Opening

The president, E.O. Box, opened the meeting at 20:00. He mentioned that he had just finished the pre­ symposium excursion through the Iberian Peninsula, which was perfectly organised by Javier Loidi and Salvador Rivas­Martínez. Eddy van der Maarel, in his function as IAVS Publication Officer, had sent in a written report to the members of the Advisory Council. Several items were put forward during the meeting. From the beginning of the Journal of Vegetation Science (JVS) there has been an adoption system, partly through personal adoptions by members and partly through contributions to a special `Global Fund'. This has made it possible to make JVS available to many colleagues in countries with currency exchange problems, most of whom are leaders of active research groups. To arrange and manage this, anAdaption Committee has functioned from the beginning, although unofficially. The proposal was made to formalize this committee and to continue with the following Committee membership: Publication Officer (secretary), IAVS Secretary General, IAVS Treasurer, IAVS Administrator, and two IAVS members representing the `rich' and the `poor' world, for which Michael Palmer and Tomás Herben have been asked. The proposal was accepted by acclamation.

Financially, Opulus Press has made no profit during 1998 (a separate report has been sent directly by Opulus). According to the new Agreement between IAVS and Opulus Press, in case of any profit, the profit will be divided in equal parts among IAVS, the Global Fund and Opulus. So, this year there will be no extra income for IAVS. The Publisher explained that this is partly due to the fact that Applied Vegetation Science has still not reached a financial break­even point and partly because the new Editorial Office is more expensive than the old one.

A discussion took place regarding the IAVS Membership List, which was sent to all members at the beginning of 1999. It was put forward that a considerable number of members were not listed, especially from Japan and South Africa. Two conclusions were drawn: (1) that the list could be improved, for instance by consulting people from the countries mentioned and by putting forward announcements; and (2) that separate membership lists should be maintained for members subscribing to a journal and for members not subscribing to any journal. In the end, though, the IAVS must be responsible for both lists, and the Secretary General must be in charge of the definitive membership list. The Secretary General will consult theAdministrator to find the best solution. An effective procedure might be for the Administrator to keep the list of subscribing members and for the Secretary General to keep the list of non­subscribing members. The two lists would be combined at regular intervals.

2. Report of the Executive Committee

The number of IAVS members has risen from 1490 in July 1998 to 1595 in July 1999. Of those, 882 members were subscribing to the Journal of Vegetation Science (including free editorial board and 44 adoptees) and 445 were subscribing to Applied Vegetation Science. There were 287 so­called `associate members', who do not pay a membership fee. The number of library subscriptions was ca. 400 for the Journal of Vegetation Science and ca 70 for Applied Vegetation Science.

Financial situation at the end of 1998:
­ income 1998: 13.942.19 DEM
­ expenditures 1998: 12.238.75 DEM
­ balance on 31­12­1998 +64.624.31 DEM

3. Election of the Executive Committee

Laco Mucina had sent in a proposed new selection procedure for the Executive Committee (EC) andAdvisory Council (AC), whichwas sent to allACmembers for discussion during the meeting. It was decided to postpone action on this topic until the Nagano meeting, where it shall be put on the agenda again, since reactions were quite disparate and the number of council members was too low for making formal decisions The present procedure is as follows: (1) The election of the Executive Committee takes place at the first meeting of the newly electedAdvisory Council. (2) The chair of the meeting discusses the potential candidates with theAC and the members are asked to select seven candidates from the list to constitute the next Executive Committee. (3) The number of votes per candidate is counted, and the top seven become elected members of the EC. (4) The members of the EC (among themselves) elect the President, the Secretary General, and Vice­Presidents, among which one should serve as Treasurer and another as Publication Officer.

4. Reports of Working Groups, Commissions and Regional Sections

During the meeting in Uppsala (1998) it was decided that Working Groups, Commissions and Regional

Sections of the IAVS should provide an annual report to the Advisory Council, and that these (short) reports should be published in the IAVS Bulletin. Some groups have indeed sent in their reports (see further under `Working Groups, Commissions and Regional Sections'), but others have not. Such reports are important for mutual information and exchange of ideas, and the contact persons will be asked again to make these reports.

5. New Statutes

The Secretary General has examined the possibility of registering the Statutes of the IAVS, which were accepted by the General Assembly of 11 September 1996 in Lancaster, in the Netherlands, since there have been some difficulties with registration in Germany. For registration in the Netherlands, a Dutch translation of the Statutes is needed as well as for some members of the society to register. Some questions regarding ownership of the society and tax liability still have also to be checked. The Secretary General will ask the Publication Officer (after his repatriation to the Netherlands) to assist him in taking further steps for registration of the IAVS in The Netherlands.

6. IAVS Bulletin and Home Page

The IAVS Bulletin is regarded as a good initiative and will be continued. The Bulletin will appear once a year, preferably not too long after the annual meeting. On the front page, as a standard, a striking picture of the meeting place of the next IAVS Symposium will be shown. The IAVS Home page has been established under the domain name ``ww.iavs.org'' and will be maintained by Nina Smits (Wageningen, the Netherlands; E­mail N.A.C.Smits@alterra.wag­ur.nl).

7. Activities in the Coming Years

8. Other items

Jean­Paul Theurillat of the Nomenclature Commission announced that the manuscript of the Third Edition of the Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature has been finished and will be offered to JVS for publication.

2. The President and the Secretary General, J.H.J. Schaminée, reported on the major items that were discussed during the meeting of theAdvisoryCouncil of 25 July 1999:membership list, financial situation, newsletter, workinggroups, commissionsand regional sections, and account of the publication officer (see Minutes of this meeting). For members not subscribing to a journal, the possibility will be offered to pay for more than one year at a time. The new Membership List was sent to all IAVS members, who are asked to forward any changes in addresses and e­mail to the Secretary General.

3. Kazue Fujiwara invited all members to attend the next IAVS Symposium, in Nagano, Japan, and presented a brief overview of the scientific themes of this meeting and the excursion program. Matthias Drössler offered some information about the IAVSSymposium in 2001 that will be held in Freising­Weihenstephan (near Munich). In 2002, the annual meeting will be organised by colleagues from PortoAlegre in southern Brazil. The official request by Dr. Valerio de Patta Pillar to organise the symposium was accepted by warm applause. Deviating from the common time schedule, the Symposium will take place early in the year, in February or March 2002.

4. Information was presented about the publication of the symposium contributions. The editorial board of Phytocoenologia has offered to publish a special volume, for which papers dealing with the main symposium theme (`vegetation and climate') can be submitted. The normal review procedure will be followed. This special volume, which will be edited by Ulrich Deil and Javier Loidi (guest editor), is scheduled for publication in November 2000. For IAVS members, it will be obtainable for a reduced price.

5. For the Bilbao Symposium, two out of a total of 32 student posters were awarded prizes. Pilar Álvarez­Uria de Tejero from the University of Oviedo was ranked second with `Climate and growth of Celtiberic birch at its upper altitudinal limit in the Cantabrian Mountains (NW Spain)'. The winner was Michaela Krüger (Erlangen) for work on `The impact of heavy rainfall by El Niño 97/98 on vegetation in the Sechura Desert, Northern Peru'.

6. The meeting was concluded at 17.00. All IAVS members are invited to attend the next meeting of the General Assembly, in Nagano, July 2000.

Contact person: John Rodwell, Lancaster, United Kingdom (e­mail: uvs@lancaster.ac.uk) The 8th Workshop of the European Vegetation Survey was held in Rome, 19­22 March 1999. The meeting was attended by about 50 people from 23 countries. The central theme was High Mountain Vegetation. Like in previous years, the proceedings will be published inAnnali di Botanici.An overview on alliances is nearing completion and an approach will be made to Opulus Press to discuss publication. It was agreed to develop a standardised framework for parameterising syntaxa that would be compatible with the EUNIS proposals. Pignatti has made a proposal to develop syntaxa descriptions on the internet; further proposals will be brought in for editorial standards. Because of the Year 2000 Jubilee, the 9th Workshop cannot be in Rome; this year, the meeting will take place at Erice on Sicily (7­12 April). The theme for the 9th Workshop will be `Dry Grasslands'.

LONG TERM DYNAMICS
Contact person: Jan Bakker, Groningen, the Netherlands (E­mail: j.p.bakker@biol.rug.nl) The latest meeting of the Working Group was held at Uppsala during the 41th IAVS Symposium, after earlier meetings in Yerseke, Bia
owie#a, Montpellier, Stuttgart, Bern, Groningen and Bad Lauchstadt. In 2000, the 10th meeting of the group will take place in Aberdeen (Scotland) at the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute from 23­27 August. The theme will be general with some emphasis on chronosequences representing long­term succession.

DISTURBANCE DYNAMICS IN BOREAL FORESTS
Contact person: Ola Engelmark, Umeå, Sweden (E­mail: ola@ekbot.umu.se) This working group started in 1992. In 1998, a special issue of Journal of Vegetation Science was published as a result of a workshop that took place in Canada 1996. Another issue on the same theme was published in 1993, and a part of the IAVS meeting in Uppsala (1998) was also devoted to this topic.

WORKING GROUP ON VEGETATION THEORY
Contact person: Eddy van der Maarel, Groningen, the Netherlands (E­mail eddy.van­der­ maarel@vaxtbio.uu.se).

NOMENCLATURE COMMISSION
Contact person: Jean­Paul Theurillat, Champex, Switzerland (E­mail jean­paul.theurillat@cjb.ville­ ge.ch).

REGIONAL SECTION SOUTH AFRICA
Contact person: Prof. George J. Bredenkamp, Pretoria, South Africa (E­mail: gbredenk@scientia.up.ac.za) Presently, the regional section of South Africa has 32 members; most of them are `associate members'. The working group will have a symposium and workshop at the Annual Congress of the South African Association of Botanists, during January 2000, in Potchefstroom, South Africa. Dr. Sarel Cilliers is the organiser. IAVS members are strongly involved with compiling a new vegetation map of South Africa. This is an initiative of the National Botanical Institute, with Dr. Dave McDonald as the coordinator.

REGIONAL SECTION NORTH AMERICA
Contact person: Prof. Michael G. Barbour (E­mail: mgbarbour@ucdavis.edu). There are approximately 200 members of the North American Section, 90 % of whom are also subscribers to IAVS journals. Officers for 1999 were Professors Wentworth (chair), Barbour (vice chair), and Runkle (secretary­treasurer). Members of the Regional Section North America were well presented at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America (ESA), held in early August in Spokane, Washington. NA members co­ sponsored a 2­day field trip/workshop, organized by the ESA's Panel on North American Vegetation, entitled `Using the Proposed National Standards for the Floristic Levels of Vegetation Classification in the United States: Associations and Alliances.' Panel members David Glenn­Lewin, Robert Peet, Antoni Damman, Dennis Grossman, and Rex Crawford led the presentations. Panel chair Glenn­Lewin gave a report and summary of this event at the IAVS­NA/ESA Vegetation Section joint mixer/business meeting, August 7. There was considerable interest at that meeting in having this sort of event on an annual basis. The August, 2000 meeting will again be in conjunction with ESA, this time at Snowbird Lodge in Utah. Michael Barbour will be chair of IAVS­NA at that time.

43th IAVS Symposium in Nagano, Japan (2000)
The first IAVS symposium in the new millennium will be held in Nagano, Japan, from July 23 to 28. The main theme of the symposium will be `global to local perspectives of vegetation science: search for new paradigms for the 21st century'. The program includes four central topics: (1) conservation and restoration of vegetation in the past, present and future; (2) environmental changes and vegetation shift; (3) vegetation ecology, including classification; and (4) integrated vegetation science. During a pre­symposium excursion of four days (cost ca. $400US), the landscape and vegetation aroundNagano will beshown, including natural beech forests, alpine vegetation, riverside forests, and pastoral landscapes. A 16 days post­symposium excursion (cost ca. $1500US) will offer aview of the varied landscapesand plant communities throughout Japan.Among the highlights, we mention important mire communities in Kushiro (Hokkaido), beech forests in Shirakami, Cryptomeria forests inYakushima island, alpine vegetation onMount Fuji, and traditional temples and shrines in Kyoto or Nara.

Further information:

43rd IAVS Symposium Secretariat
Department of Vegetation Science, Institute of Environmental Science and Technology Yokohama
National University
79­7 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya­ku
Yokohama City 240­8501
Japan
fax: +81­45­339­4373
e­mail: iavs2000@kan.ynu.ac.jp
homepage: http://www.kan.ynu.ac.jp/~iavs2000/

Further information:
44th IAVS Symposium Secretariat
Vegetation Ecology, TU­Muenchen
D­85350 Freising, Germany
e­mail: iavs44@weihenstephan.de
homepage: http://www.weihenstephan.de/iavs/index.html