Editorial

NZSAP July 1996: Editorial Welcome to the NZSAP Newsletter. The call for abstracts for presentation at the 1997 conference is on page 4 of this issue. The 1997 conference will be at Lincoln University, from the 11th to the 14th of February and I hope many members submit abstracts for presentation at this conference. Professor Andrew Sykes will convene a local organising committee, which also includes local NZSAP committee members Martin Van Houtert and Denis Elvidge. With such capable organisers the conference is assured to be both educational and entertaining.

Life is a process of constantly adapting to change and this newsletter records several changes that the Society is undergoing. Perhaps the most important one is that the committee have decided that the mini-poster session(s) will be expanded and that the traditional poster session will be deleted from the next conference. For those that have not previously given a mini-poster presentation, preferring instead the poster session, I suggest that you closely read the section about mini-posters presentations. All the comments received suggest that mini-posters are a very successful format and have a greater "impact factor" then poster presentations. However, I hope the wine tasting, (Iím expecting samples of the best Canterbury red of course), and cheese nibbles donít disappear along with the Poster session.

In another change the Society is slowly becoming more dependent on electronic communications. All people who submit an abstract should also provide their e-mail address if they have one. This will be used for subsequent correspondence by those coordinating the abstract booklet as well as the editor during the review of the submitted paper. Similarly, where possible e-mail should be used to submit electronic versions of abstracts, mini-posters and submitted papers. In addition to the advantages of speed of communications it also allows for easier typesetting and entry of abstracts onto our Web site. This does not mean that those without access to e-mail will be excluded, but it will aid the great majority of conference contributors.

Once again the abstract form instructions, include some subtle changes from previous versions. These new changes are primarily to aid the preparation of the abstract booklet. In particular a word limit has appeared and "creative stretching" of the electronic version of the abstract box and its font sizes are now not allowed. The only reason we decided not to electronically fix the size and shape of the box was that we wanted the abstract form to be easily readable by the widest possible variety of word processing programs. It is not an invitation to "fiddle".

This newsletter also has a call for nominations for the McMeekan and Sir Arthur Ward awards. Please use your knowledge of the industry and identify and nominate people who deserve recognition for their contribution to animal production in New Zealand. Applications for these two awards need to be received by the executive secretary before September 26th. Applications for the Animal Science Fund and the NZSAP Jubilee Fund are also requested. Please note that to be considered at the next NZSAP committee meeting that these applications need to be received before September 1st.

The McMeekan, Sir Arthur Ward, Young Members, Lincoln Centennial, and NZSAP Jubilee University awards criteria have been recently reviewed and updated. Full details of the award regulations are available from our WWW site at http://webtwo.rsnz.govt.nz/www/nzsap/sap14.html or can be obtained from our executive secretary. The management committee look forward to receiving your abstracts and award nominations.

John McEwan