The last hour of the Third International Triticeae Symposium was devoted to a business meeting, chaired by Roland von Bothmer.

Roland von Bothmer opened the meeting by explaining that there had been no official organization involved in the preparation of the first two International Triticeae Symposia, but that accepting the invitation from ICARDA and IPGRI to meet in Aleppo required some formal organization. The primary need was to have a committee that could respond to the invitation and a bank account that could accept payment of registration fees by bankcard in a country with few, if any, restrictions on the kind of financial transactions that involved in the organization of international symposia. Mary Barkworth volunteered to set up such an account in Logan, Utah, It was then decided to set up a temporary committee consisting of Roland von Bothmer as Chair, Abdullah Jaradat as Program Officer, and Mary Barkworth as Treasurer.

The purpose of the business meeting was, first, to decide whether there should be further International Triticeae Symposia. If it was agreed that there should be, the next step would be to approve, possibly with modification, the Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws for the International Triticeae Consortium, and third, to select a site and year for the next symposium.

Those present unanimously agreed that there should be further symposia, so discussion turned to the goals, scope, and function of the Symposia and the Consortium.

Goals. Those present agreed to the following statement of goals for the Consortium:

• Promote interdisciplinary research, in both basic and applied areas, on the Triticeae
• Provide a forum for discussing and reaching agreement on issues needing general consensus
• Foster collaboration among those working on the Triticeae

Scope. It was agreed that the scope of the Symposia and the Consortium should include the following areas:

• Systematics, phytogeography, ecology, physiology
• Phylogeny, evolution
• Cytogenetics, wide hybridization
• Genetic diversity, resources, material exchange
• Utilization, evaluation, prebreeding 

During the discussion, it was emphasized that each of these areas should be interpreted broadly rather than narrowly. Additional areas could be added later, if deemed desirable, but a conscious effort should be made to avoid duplicating the scope of the wheat, barley, and rye symposia.

Issues. Some of the areas in which the Consortium might aid Triticeae research by promoting agreement are:

• Assigning codes for different genomes
• Assigning gene symbols
• Setting scientific standards
• Designing core collections
• Specifying core characters for species descriptions
• Specifying evaluation characters for accessions

Mary Barkworth listed the principles that had guided the thinking of the temporary committee in preparing the Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws for the International Triticeae Consortium.

•  Membership should be open and free to anyone interested
• The Internet will be the primary means of communication for the Consortium
• A local organizing committee will be formed for the next symposium
• A small international executive committee will guide the activities of the Consortium between symposia

A combination of Email and Web sites will be used to disseminate information. There are no requirements of members, but it is hoped that they would help in achievement of the Consortium's goals by submitting information to the Web sites and encouraging others to join the group by submitting their Email address to the primary mailing list, once this is formally developed.

The Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws were then approved after changing the end of Article 3a to read "...by promoting regular meetings of those engaged in research on the Triticeae".

The following individuals were elected to the Executive Committee of the Consortium (TRITE):

Roland von Bothmer, Chair

Mary E. Barkworth, Treasurer

Antonio Martin, Program Officer (see below)

Abdul Mujeeb Kazi

Vojtec Holubec

M. Taeb

IPGRI representative, to be determined by that organization.

The duties of the executive committee include raising funds, organizing the program for the next Symposium, and facilitating communication with and among Consortium members. The chairman is responsible for appointing a nomination committee and the chairs of other committees.

Roland von Bothmer announced that Antonio Martin, on behalf of the Instituto de Agricultura Sostenible in Córdoba, Spain, had agreed to organize the next Symposium. The members accepted the invitation with pleasure and gratitude. A vote was taken to determine whether the next meeting should take place at three or four year intervals. The results favored a four year interval, albeit by only 21 to 19 (many members expressed no opinion). The exact timing of the Cordoba Symposium was left to Dr. Martin to decide, in consultation with the Executive Committee. Because there was little time left, no discussion of potential session topics was held.

Roland von Bothmer expressed the thanks of those participating to Dr. Yawous Adham, Regional Director of IPGRI and Dr. John Dodds, Deputy Director General, and Dr. Jan Valkoun, Head of the Genetic Resources Unit of ICARDA, for the superb manner in which they and their staff had hosted the meetings. Special appreciation was expressed to Abdullah Bari for his work on behalf of the Symposium and to Dr. A.A. Jaradat for inviting the Consortium to Aleppo and organizing the program. The meeting adjourned after a reminder from Abdullah Jaradat that all manuscripts must be sent to him by July 1, 1997, so that the Proceedings can be published expeditiously.