North American Arabidopsis Steering Committee

Another primary function of the organization is to support North American plant science activities involving research and education (often in cooperation and collaboration with international scientists). This support occurs in three major ways: (1) leading program and initiative development, including seeking governmental grants to fund projects; (2) participating in similar, related, and complementary activities to maintain and strengthen science ties; and (3) to provide advise or input when requested, from other groups and initiatives. Examples of how the organization carries out each of these: (1) Organization members previously secured a governmental grant from National Science Foundation to lead plant science activities including workshops, meetings, outreach efforts, and develop publications and other scholarly reports, and communicate w/public. 2) Members participate in workshops & other activities, including giving presentations, and/or co-authoring articles, with other groups. (3) The organization collaborates & gives input to related educational & scientific groups and societies in cooperation & support of domestic and global plant science initiatives. In 2024, the organization had its first year of paid membership for community members to help support activities. This membership drive was in conjunction with the main activity (our conference, ICAR), and also included participation in additional online activities (mainly professional development webinars). The membership drive brought in revenue from the community.

The organization serves as a liaison between members of the research community and government and not-for-profit granting agencies, and provides representation of the research community to service facilities such as the Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center (ABRC), which was established at Ohio State University in September 1991. The mission of ABRC is to acquire, preserve, and distribute seed and DNA resources that are useful to the Arabidopsis Research community. Additional groups that the organization has provided representation to includes:The Multinational Arabidopsis Steering Committee (MASC)- global plant scientist collaborations on Arabidopsis, the model plant. ROOT & SHOOT Initiative with the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB). In 2024, NAASC collaborated with ABRC to award a community member that donated the largest number of Arabidopsis stocks to ABRC. With MASC, NAASC participated in several meetings and collaborated on developing a community annual report. With Root & Shoot, NAASC collaborated on a multi-month activity to develop best-practices and community guidelines to support society plant biology conferences. In addition, in the years that we have sufficient revenue from organizing the North American conference (ICAR), we contribute a small sum on a per ICAR attendee basis, to MASC, a non-profit organization that coordinates similar Arabidopsis-focused groups globally. NAASC is a key member of MASC. In 2024, following positive ICAR revenue, we contributed $4948 to MASC (incorporated in Canada).