The final meeting for the year was a fine dinner in the Regency Room of the OAFS meeting venue, University House, Professors’ Walk, University of Melbourne, held on December 20, 2017 at which much significant business was discussed and none recorded. A commemorative photograph (missing OAF Kwong on the night) follows.

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Minutes of a meeting of the Society of OAFs held on 8 November 2017 at noon at University House

1. Present. OAFs Beard, Falvey, Hickey, Kwong Lee Dow and White
2. Apologies. OAFs Barlow, Larkins, Topp, Wood.
3. Minutes of the previous meeting. Accepted by silent assent.
4. Activities since last meeting.

OAF Beard has returned from a most enjoyable tour of Canada; she attended the service improvement conference in Sydney that went well and is now back to working with the Faculty of Engineering on its strategic planning.

OAF Falvey has recently returned from trips to Kenya (ILRI business) and Thailand (Thaksin University).

OAF Hickey has been kept busy by garden, house and family as well as taking bridge lessons. He also recently visited the Archibald exhibition in Geelong.

OAF Kwong Lee Dow is starting work as an adviser to the Victorian government on the funding for non-government schools.

OAF White has continued to work with co-author Mark Krstic in writing a new book on ‘Healthy soils: healthy vines’ as well as other viticultural activities. He too recently visited the Archibald exhibition.

5. Matters Arising

(i) The Faculty history

The launch of the Faculty history book went well and OAF Falvey has received a number of requests for a copy from unexpected places. It was reviewed in ATSE Focus and a review in the AIAST journal has been promised.

(ii) ICM AgriFood Award. The selection of one male and one female winner of the award for 2017 has been made. The presentations will be made at a dinner in Sydney on 24 November.

(iii) Agriculture Fellows Travel Award. No further news about the advertising of this award. OAF Barlow is asked to check with Brian Leury as to progress on having the award incorporated into the generic format for Faculty awards.

(iv) Possible topics for a new OAFS project were discussed with a focus on agricultural education – where to now, what new initiatives? The time was deemed propitious with a new Head of the Agriculture and Food School to be appointed, as well as a new Vice-Chancellor taking up office next year.

6. Other business

OAF Falvey suggested that John Carey be invited to join the OAFS and this was agreed. Brian Davidson, who joined the group at coffee, agreed that he was happy to be recognized as an honorary OAF.

It was agreed we should have a Christmas dinner, following the tradition established last year, at a date in December to be determined (see calendar below).

7. Date of next meeting (lunch) – see calendar below.

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Minutes of a meeting of the Society of OAFs held on 20 September 2017 at noon at University House

1. Present. OAFs Barlow, Falvey, Hickey, White and Wood

2. Apologies. OAFs Beard, Kwong Lee Dow, Larkins, Topp.

3. Minutes of the previous meeting. Accepted by silent acclaim.

4. Activities since last meeting.

OAF Barlow has been following pioneering work on digital farming technology at UWA, UNE and the University of Sydney. Is Melbourne lagging behind? Social/family activities have been thriving at the farm.

OAF Falvey has recently returned from a trip to Amsterdam on CGIAR business and family business in Strasbourg. For light relief he followed up on the life and writings of Spinosa, one of the most original thinkers on religious, political and ethical themes in the 17th century. (A truly OAFish enterprise).

OAF Hickey enjoyed his sojourn in Canada, on the banks of the St Lawrence river, and returned by plane and ship to home in Geelong. He gave us some most interesting insights into Canadian history and how that country found its cohesion.

OAF White has continued to work with co-author Mark Krstic in writing a new book provisionally entitled ‘Healthy soils: healthy vines’.

OAF Wood has had a chance to relax somewhat now that the successful Australian truffle season has finished.

5. Matters Arising

(i) The Faculty history

The Faculty history book has been distributed as widely as possible and attracted the attention of Professor Glyn Davis, current V-C and former V-C, David Pennington. A review by Ian Rae of ATSE will be published in ATSE Focus.

(ii) ICM AgriFood Award

Ten nominations (1 female and 9 males) have been received for the inaugural awards, which are to be reviewed by the selection committee on October 10th.

(iii) Agriculture Fellows Travel Award. This award (two per year) is to be advertised for applications in the new few weeks. The initial selection of possible recipients will be done within 2

the FVAS School of Agriculture and Food, with the OAFS being consulted about the final choices (OAFs Hickey and Barlow to act on our behalf).

(iv) The dinner hosted by Dean John Fazakerley on 13 September went very well, when six OAFs attended. The Dean outlined his success in obtaining capital funding for building and infrastructure developments, and he shared some of his ideas for collaboration in research and teaching with outside organizations. He suggested this dinner could be held again in six months’ time.

6. Other business

It was agreed that the question of what the next project/initiative might be for the OAFS would be discussed at our next meeting.

7. Date of next meeting – see calendar below. Note that 18 October is the Dookie campus day to which OAFs have been invited.

OAF White, Hon Sec

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Minutes of a meeting of the Society of OAFs held on 10 August 2017 at noon at University House

1. Present. OAFs Beard, Falvey, Topp and White

2. Apologies. OAFs Barlow, Hickey, Kwong Lee Dow, Larkins. OAF Wood’s absence was regretted.

3. Minutes of the previous meeting. Accepted by silent acclaim.

4. Activities since last meeting.

OAF Beard is assisting the University’s School of Engineering with the implementation of its 2025 strategic plan and continues to be involved in organizing a conference on service improvement in higher education, to be held later this year.

OAF Falvey enjoyed a week’s holiday at Mildura in the sun. He continues to assist a PhD student in thesis preparation (following on from OAF Hickey) and keeps a watchful eye on oafs.live.

OAF Topp is now permanently employed part-time by St Vincent’s hospital which is part of the much larger St Vincent’s Health corporation. The hospital will be celebrating its 125th anniversary next year.

OAF White enjoyed two week’s holiday in perfect weather at Noosa Heads during which time he and Annette visited a number of his old haunts on the Sunshine Coast and north to Maryborough.

5. Matters Arising

(i) Progress on the Faculty history

OAF Falvey brought copies of the book for distribution to OAFs present. It is a very handsome book and a credit to him in his tireless efforts to prepare the manuscript and have it printed and published in Thailand under the imprint of the Society of Old Agriculture Fellows. There is a notional allocation of 10 copies per OAF with more available as required. The book is available as a pdf on oafs.live, ResearchGate (under his name), https://www.amazon.com/Agricultural-Education-Agriculture-University-Melbourne-ebook/dp/B074MQNN31/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1502436290&sr=1-1&keywords=agricultural+education+falvey>

https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Lindsay_Falvey_Robert_White_Malcolm_Hickey_Nigel_W?id=oecvDwAAQBAJ&hl=en, and https://www.academia.edu/34153117/Agriucltural_Education_r.pdf 2

(ii) ICM AgriFood Award

The Award is open for nominations and ATSE staff have been active in drawing up contact/mailing lists of persons and organizations to whom information should be sent. As OAF Barlow was not present he was unable to confirm that Jim Pratley and the Agricultural Deans knew of the Award.

(iii) Agriculture Fellows Travel Award

OAF Hickey has met Deputy Dean Brian Leury and discussed the terms and conditions of these awards, which Brian has undertaken to implement. The Hon Sec needs to follow up to get more details.

6. Other business

The question was asked – what project/initiative could the OAFS take on next? This will be an agenda item for our next meeting.

It was suggested we have another dinner with the Dean of FVAS to enable him to brief the OAFs on latest developments for the Faculty; also to take the opportunity to thank him personally for his support for the Faculty History book. The date for this dinner needs to be arranged soon.

Post-meeting OAF White would like to report he has received a congratulatory certificate from the President of the Victorian Legislative Council on the occasion of his 80th birthday on 24 August.

OAF White, Hon Sec

 

Minutes of a meeting of the Society of OAFs held on 12 July 2017 at noon at University House

1. Present. OAFs Barlow, Beard, Falvey, Larkins and Lee Dow
2. Apologies. OAFs Hickey, Topp, White and Wood
3. Minutes of the previous meeting. Accepted unanimously by silent acclaim.
4. Activities since last meeting.

OAF Barlow has continued his carbon discussions and regretted OAF White’s absence in a discussion on biodiversity and productivity increases from carbon management that exceed potential income from the carbon pricing scheme.

OAF Beard continued in her roles on the Board of a start-up private provider of IT and Business education and in organising a conference on service innovation, in addition to a consultancy to assist implementation of the 2025 Strategy of the Melbourne School of Engineering.

OAF Falvey has spent much of the time since the previous meeting revising a PhD thesis (following on from OAF Hickey) and adapting a successful PhD thesis into a book for publication – both for Thaksin University, as well as telephone meetings for CGIAR.

OAF Larkins is waiting on MUP for his history of International House, has been monitoring the white fields of his neighbour’s farm in Yea and preparing for his Mississippi River and Oxford sojourn (9/8-26/9) which will cause him to miss the next meeting of the OAFS.

OAF Lee Dow described his ‘big move’ from 155 Barry St to 100 Leicester St with rationalisation of 40 years of accumulation while continuing his UTas and William Angliss roles and helping TEQSA with its 130 private providers find a productive function for their Academic Boards.

5. Matters Arising

(i) Progress on the Faculty history

OAF Falvey reported that the book is now printed and is the process of being shipped to Australia. The print run was 500. A launch was vaguely mentioned.

(ii) ICM Food and Agriculture Award

The Award is open for nominations and OAFs are to spread the word through their networks. The oafs.live website contains a link to the brochure and nomination procedures. ATSE staff are to screen nominations for the Selection Panel, which is scheduled to meet in October. OAF Barlow is to check that Jim Pratley and the Agricultural Deans know of the Award.

(iii) Agriculture Fellows Travel Award

OAF Hickey has advised that he is to meet with Deputy Dean Brian Leury on Thursday (tomorrow) to commence the selection process for recipients for this year.

6. Other business

It was noted that OAF White’s publication in Geoderma is now on the oafs.live website under the new Publications button.

A discussion took place about government regulatory failure in the private education provider sector and the cultural cost of its effect on the image of education among a sector of the public that may not have otherwise had contact with higher education.

Date of next meeting – to be determined by the Honorary Secretary.

OAF Falvey (For Hon Secretary OAF White, who was quarantined with a bad cold)

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Minutes of a meeting of the Society of OAFs held on 14 June 2017 at noon at University House

1. Present. OAFs Beard, Falvey, Hickey, Larkins, White and Barlow (late arrival)
2. Apologies. OAFs, Kwong Lee Dow, Topp and Wood
3. Minutes of the previous meeting. Accepted.
4. Activities since last meeting.

OAF Larkins’s History of International House is past the editing stage and now with the graphic designers. His paper on ERA statistics for agricultural and veterinary sciences has been posted on oafs.live. Another article was published in Chemistry in Australia in early June.

OAF Beard has been holidaying in Brisbane and Noosa while her husband played in croquet competitions; she is involved in reviewing a childcare centre.

OAF Hickey is enjoying the sauna now installed at home and is otherwise preoccupied with winter gardening before going overseas in July.

OAF Falvey travelled to Vietnam, Bangkok, Thaksin University and Singapore, collecting a proof copy of the Faculty History on his way.

OAF White continues to work on “Healthy soils for healthy vines’. His paper critiquing the arguments for soil carbon sequestration being able to substantially offset greenhouse gas emissions is being held up by the publisher Geoderma (politicking).

5. Matters Arising

(i) The Faculty History will be published soon in Thailand with generous support from the Dean of FVAS and possibly Thaksin University. The OAFs admired the collection of photos in the proofs.

(ii) The selection committee for the ICM Agrifood Award has been formed and has had its initial meeting. Publicity material is being prepared by the ATSE and a list of contact organizations and people is being finalized

(iii) OAF Hickey had not yet been able to meet with Brian Leury, Deputy Dean FVAS, to make arrangements for launching the Agriculture Fellows Travel Award.

(iv) The 2016 OAFish Award Certificate prepared by OAF Hickey was conferred with much ceremony on OAF Falvey (see attached) who declared he was intending never to qualify again.

(v) OAF Barlow’s recent paper from Focus on climate change adaptation in agriculture was posted on oafs.live. He was also congratulated on his recent recognition as a Distinguished Alumnus of UNE.

6. Other business

It was noted that OAF Wood had been a guest on Lindy Burns’s evening program on ABC Radio and had spoken enthusiastically about truffles and truffle cheese in particular.

The consensus of the meeting was that the next meeting should be on Wednesday 12 July, with 19 July as a backup, but please see below if any OAF would like to make other suggestions.

OAF White

Hon Secretary

 

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Minutes of a meeting of the Society of OAFs held on 10 May 2017 at noon at University House

Present. OAFs Beard, Falvey, Hickey, Larkins and White

Apologies. OAFs Barlow, Kwong Lee Dow, Topp and Wood

Minutes of the previous meeting. Accepted.

Activities since last meeting.

OAF Larkins is editing the History of International House, which is to be published by MUP; he has also circulated a paper on ERA statistics for agricultural and veterinary sciences, which will be posted on oafs.live. The roof is going up on his new house in Yea and he is busy planning for an overseas trip in September, including a cruise down the Mississippi.

OAF Beard is busy with the organizing of a conference on Service Improvement and Innovation; one of her daughters was recently married and she too is planning for an overseas trip later in the year.

OAF Hickey has been entertained by family visits, has installed a sauna at home, and is to take another trip overseas in July, to his usual destination in Canada.

OAF Falvey reports that the Faculty history will be published, with generous support from the Dean of FVAS. He continues his work as Chairman of the board of ILRI and with the selection process for membership of the CGIAR board.

OAF White continues to work on his co-authored book on healthy soils for healthy vines. His paper critiquing the arguments for soil carbon sequestration being a major contributor to offsetting global greenhouse emissions will be published in Geoderma. He has also been advising vignerons in the Yarra Valley, Mornington Peninsula and King Valley.

5. Matters Arising

(i) Progress on the Faculty history was noted above. No other options for covering the cost were discussed (but see minutes of 28 March). An ISBN has been allocated and it will probably be printed in Thailand.

(ii) The selection committee for the ICM Food and Agriculture Award is being formed and an initial meeting will be held soon. OAF Falvey has agreed to chair the inaugural selection process and OAF White has agreed to serve on the committee as the representative of the OAFS.

(iii) It was agreed that the name of the new fellowship would be the Agriculture Fellows Travel Award specifically for research students travelling to present papers at conferences; details to be discussed with Brian Leury.

(iv) It was agreed that the 2016 OAFish Award be conferred on OAF Falvey. OAF Hickey is to prepare the certificate to be presented at our next meeting, with suitable libations.

(v) Agricultural Research and Education. It was agreed that OAF Larkins’ paper on the ERA statistics was a useful document to be posted on oafs.live. It was noted that such statistics are used by policy makers to make decisions concerning education and research funding.

6. Other business

OAFs Falvey and Barlow attended the memorial service for David Smith last Monday. OAF Larkins gave a eulogy at a University memorial service for Bill Charteris, a strong supporter of the old Agriculture faculty when he was Dean of Engineering.

Date of next meeting – please see below.

OAF White

Hon Secretary

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Minutes of a meeting of the Society of OAFs held on 28 March 2017 at noon at University House

1. Present. OAFs Barlow, Beard, Falvey, Larkins and White
2. Apologies. OAFs Hickey, Kwong Lee Dow, Topp and Wood
3. Minutes of the previous meeting. Accepted.
4. Activities since last meeting. OAF Barlow has been busy with vintage; also in developing a climate change (adaptation?) strategy through the ATSE and AIAST; also involved in discussions about energy security.

OAF Beard has finished her consultancy with Victoria University; she will be attending a conference on Service Improvement and Innovation soon and has also joined the board of a non-government education provider. Plans are being made for extensive home renovations in Melbourne and at Lorne.

OAF Falvey has brought the Faculty history to its penultimate draft – more on this under Matters Arising. Hassad International has experienced a change in focus as Qatar, possibly related to adjustments to declining oil revenues; a more commercial orientation will examine production agriculture, including sheep. He reported that the Director-General of ILRI will be visiting Melbourne just before Easter.

OAF Larkins is relieved to have reached the penultimate stage of his History of International House before its goes to the publishers. He has been battling the planning authority in Yea where he intends to build a new house. He reminded us of the centenary of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute to be held later this year.

OAF White, with co-authors from FVAS, has submitted a paper critiquing the arguments for soil carbon sequestration being a major contributor to offsetting global greenhouse emissions. Progress on a co-authored book on healthy soils for healthy vines has been steady. The move into a new apartment is now almost complete.

5. Matters Arising

(i) Faculty history. Options for publishing the history were discussed (see also minutes of 22 February). First, there is the recently launched OAFS website at www.oafs.live. Second, there was the issue of a hard copy. OAF Falvey had a quote of $11 to 12 per copy if 500 copies were printed. There was general support for this option, provided it could be funded. Possible sources of funds were (a) crowd-funding ­ to be investigated; (b) a subvention from the Faculty (this would not be broached until the Dean had read the MS, as he had said he wanted to do); (c) subvention from the VCAH Services fund, which would need to be discussed with OAF Hickey; it could be considered an investment by the fund in that the income from any copies of the book subsequently sold would be returned to the fund; and (d) members of the OAFS collectively covering all or part of the cost of publication.

(ii) Recovered VCAH Services fund. OAF Hickey to report back on his discussions with the Director of Research, School of Agriculture and Food, and former HOD, Associate Prof Brian Leury, about the sponsoring of postgraduate students to attend appropriate conferences, as previously recommended. It is understood he is preparing a draft protocol and call for applications.

(iii) No nomination yet received for the 2016 OAFish Award.

(iv) Previous minutes confirmed that the 12 March was the 3^rd anniversary of the formation of the OAFS. This should be celebrated when the OAFs meet next and the OAFish Award is presented.

(v) Agricultural Research and Education. OAF Beard reiterated her view that agriculture was an important, if not widely acknowledged, part of the wider environment and should be taught in that context. The question was asked ­ has agricultural education and research kept pace with the expansion of the agricultural and food industries, and the employment opportunities now on offer, especially with the signing of various free trade agreements. It was agreed that OAF Larkins would dig out some recently compiled ERA statistics, and that OAF Barlow would look into some of Jim Pratley’s data on student numbers, employment etc., with summary information brought to the next meeting. It was also agreed that we should read OAF Falvey’s concluding chapter in the history, which had been described as ‘compelling’.

6. Other business

It was agreed that the cost of $47.88 for setting up the OAFS website should be paid from the annual dinner ‘slush fund’.

Date of next meeting – to be held in early May.

OAF White

Hon Secretary

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Minutes of a meeting of the Society of OAFs held on 28 March 2017 at noon at University House

1. Present. OAFs Barlow, Beard, Falvey, Larkins and White
2. Apologies. OAFs Hickey, Kwong Lee Dow, Topp and Wood
3. Minutes of the previous meeting. Accepted.
4. Activities since last meeting. OAF Barlow has been busy with vintage; also in developing a climate change (adaptation?) strategy through the ATSE and AIAST; also involved in discussions about energy security.

OAF Beard has finished her consultancy with Victoria University; she will be attending a conference on Service Improvement and Innovation soon and has also joined the board of a non-government education provider. Plans are being made for extensive home renovations in Melbourne and at Lorne.

OAF Falvey has brought the Faculty history to its penultimate draft – more on this under Matters Arising. Hassad International has experienced a change in focus as Qatar, possibly related to adjustments to declining oil revenues; a more commercial orientation will examine production agriculture, including sheep. He reported that the Director-General of ILRI will be visiting Melbourne just before Easter.

OAF Larkins is relieved to have reached the penultimate stage of his History of International House before its goes to the publishers. He has been battling the planning authority in Yea where he intends to build a new house. He reminded us of the centenary of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute to be held later this year.

OAF White, with co-authors from FVAS, has submitted a paper critiquing the arguments for soil carbon sequestration being a major contributor to offsetting global greenhouse emissions. Progress on a co-authored book on healthy soils for healthy vines has been steady. The move into a new apartment is now almost complete.

5. Matters Arising

(i) Faculty history. Options for publishing the history were discussed (see also minutes of 22 February). First, there is the recently launched OAFS website at www.oafs.live. Second, there was the issue of a hard copy. OAF Falvey had a quote of $11 to 12 per copy if 500 copies were printed. There was general support for this option, provided it could be funded. Possible sources of funds were (a) crowd-funding ­ to be investigated; (b) a subvention from the Faculty (this would not be broached until the Dean had read the MS, as he had said he wanted to do); (c) subvention from the VCAH Services fund, which would need to be discussed with OAF Hickey; it could be considered an investment by the fund in that the income from any copies of the book subsequently sold would be returned to the fund; and (d) members of the OAFS collectively covering all or part of the cost of publication.

(ii) Recovered VCAH Services fund. OAF Hickey to report back on his discussions with the Director of Research, School of Agriculture and Food, and former HOD, Associate Prof Brian Leury, about the sponsoring of postgraduate students to attend appropriate conferences, as previously recommended. It is understood he is preparing a draft protocol and call for applications.

(iii) No nomination yet received for the 2016 OAFish Award.

(iv) Previous minutes confirmed that the 12 March was the 3^rd anniversary of the formation of the OAFS. This should be celebrated when the OAFs meet next and the OAFish Award is presented.

(v) Agricultural Research and Education. OAF Beard reiterated her view that agriculture was an important, if not widely acknowledged, part of the wider environment and should be taught in that context. The question was asked ­ has agricultural education and research kept pace with the expansion of the agricultural and food industries, and the employment opportunities now on offer, especially with the signing of various free trade agreements. It was agreed that OAF Larkins would dig out some recently compiled ERA statistics, and that OAF Barlow would look into some of Jim Pratley’s data on student numbers, employment etc., with summary information brought to the next meeting. It was also agreed that we should read OAF Falvey’s concluding chapter in the history, which had been described as ‘compelling’.

6. Other business

It was agreed that the cost of $47.88 for setting up the OAFS website should be paid from the annual dinner ‘slush fund’.

Date of next meeting – to be held in early May.

OAF White

Hon Secretary

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Minutes of a meeting of the Society of OAFs held on 22 February 2017 at noon at University House

1. Present. OAFs Falvey, Hickey, Larkins and White
2. Apologies. OAF Beard, Barlow, Kwong Lee Dow, Topp and Wood
3. Minutes of the previous meeting. Accepted.
4. Activities since last meeting. OAF Larkins has been preoccupied with completing a mammoth History of International House, which is to be published by Melbourne University Press this year. He also reported that a neighbour’s property at Flowerdale had recently been sold to a Chinese company which planned to plant 6000 ‘truffle trees’. Since OAF Wood was not present we were unable to make any sensible comment on this. OAF Hickey has been busy entertaining visitors from overseas and he and Suzanne are planning this year to reorganize their house in Geelong. OAF Falvey has travelled on business to Thailand, London UK for CGIAR meetings (at the Royal Society), and to Strasbourg and cities in Germany (for pleasure). OAF White has been continuing his debate with other scientists about the potential or otherwise of offsetting global greenhouse emissions through soil carbon sequestration. He has made some progress on a co-authored book on healthy soils for vineyards.
5. Matters discussed

(i) OAF Falvey has given the draft of the complete Faculty history to professional historians Stuart Macintyre and Carolyn Rasmussen for comment. Options for publishing the history were discussed, as were the likely costs of editing, indexing and printing. The most likely option was on the web possibly through an OAFS blog. OAF Falvey should be the sole author, with acknowledgement of the contributions made by other named OAFs.

(ii) The Agriculture Forum of ATSE should be meeting in March when the ICM Food and Agriculture Award is likely to be discussed.

(iii) Recovered VCAH Services Funds. It was agreed that two travel scholarships at a value up to $2500 each should be offered through FVAS each year for up to 10 years for postgraduate students to attend and present a paper at a significant conference. Preference should be given to students from rural or regional areas studying in subjects relevant to the old VCAH spread of activities. OAF Hickey was to consult with Brian Leury and the Director of Research in the School of Agriculture and Food.

(iv) The item on Agricultural Research and Education was deferred to the next meeting when OAF Beard should be present. It was noted that the articles including ERA statistics that OAF Larkins and Ian Marshman had recently published could be used as a basis for discussion.

(v) The balance in the OAFS Trust Fund was unchanged at $53.

(Secretary’s note – the time for selecting a candidate for the annual OAFish Award is fast approaching).

6. Other business

OAF Larkins reported that this year was the centenary of the foundation of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. There would be a conference in July.

Date of next meeting – to be held in March (see calendar below).

OAF White

Hon Secretary