Volume 8, Number 5 - June 21, 2002

We just concluded a very informative meeting in Washington, with presentations by most of the major grain trade groups in the DC area as well as the key GIPSA headquarters personnel, and several others of great interest to our group. We are currently trying to acquire the powerpoint presentations of all the speakers who used that medium ... most did ...and provide those presentations on the website, www.aagiwa.org. We currently have available the presentations by David Shipman, Neil Porter, David Orr, and John Giler of FGIS, and plan to soon post those by Jula Kinnaird of the National Grain Trade Council, Gary McKinney of the U.S. Grains Council, Kirk Miller of the North American Export Grain Association, and Dr. Eluned Jones of Virginia Tech.

The AAGIWA board of directors is making plans to meet in Kansas City, July 17. We did not have a quorum of board members in DC, thus the need to meet so soon after our annual summer meeting. There are a lot of important issues that need to be addressed, and all AAGIWA members are invited to attend and let the board and the association know their views. We will be at the Quareterage Hotel in the Westport area of Kansas City, 560 Westport Road, phone 816-931-0001. Our schedule is not yet set, but we will arrive on July 16 and stay for two nights. We will keep everyone informed as the schedule develops.