Dear Friends,

I have just returned from College Station for a visit with our friends at TAMU. I will report that progress is being made. It is a slow process, but I have to say that it is moving forward. They have an architect that has been working with Dr.Pankiw and is making sure that what we are designing, will meet her needs. Hurricane Ike has just come ashore and has done extensive damage to the A&M campuses at Galveston and Beaumont. So the architect has been called away to work on those other projects. When he returns, he will be able to finish up the work on the Honey Bee Research Lab. I will stay on top of Dr. Heinz and Chad Wootton to make sure we don’t fall through the crack. As for the ground breaking on the project that Chad had mentioned at last year’s convention, I don’t see that happening this year. I hesitate to even give you a date, but I will go out on a limb and offer the first quarter of 2009. I hope we can keep that, but you know how things progress at TAMU.

As I mentioned in my last article, we have raised in excess of $500,000. As you remember, they last asked us to raise $550,000, so we have done our part. The only problem is I am sure the Lab will end up costing somewhat more than this. They are supposed to have a better understanding of cost estimates when the architect gets through with the plans. I will keep you updated in future articles.

Thank You,
Todd Youngblood
Capital Campaign Committee Chair

Pictured at the site, checking on the progress at the Future Home of the Honey Bee Laboratory is (l to r) Dr. Kevin Heinz, Professor and Head of the Texas A&M Entomology Department; Todd Youngblood, TBA Vice President and Chairman of the TBA Honey Bee Lab Capital Campaign Committee; Dr. Tanya Pankiw, Associate Professor and Apicultural Research Leader, Department of Entomology; Dr. John G. Thomas, Extension Entomologist Emeritus, Texas A&M and major contributor along with wife, Janice and Chad Wootton, Vice President for Development and Strategic Outreach, Office of the President, Texas A&M.