The first issue of the Oat Newsletter was published in 1950 by the National Oat Conference. Its purpose was to supplement the Uniform Nursery reports by providing short research updates, meeting information, community information, and reports from oat research stations concerning yields, disease outbreaks, etc.. This expanded over the years, with increasing numbers and types of contributions, many coming from outside the Americas. The conference name was changed to the American Oat Workers Conference at the meeting in 1974 and a separate International Oat Conference was established in 1982.

Three basic types of information are included in the Newsletter:

• The minutes and proceedings of the American Oat Workers Conferences (held every four years), as well as other meetings,
• Short articles presenting research updates or announcements of new varieties or technologies, and
• Announcements from the community concerning its members.

The current version of the Oat Newsletter and the accompanying webpages are hosted by the USDA-ARS GrainGenes website. As decided at the 2024 AOW meeting, the current Oat Newsletter Committee is made up of the following members:

• Charlene Wight (AAFC, Canada) – Editor
• Taner Sen (USDA-ARS, USA) - GrainGenes lead*
• Steve Michel (USDA-ARS, USA) - site administrator*
• Steffen Beuch (NordSaat, Germany)
• Jennifer Mitchell Fetch (AAFC, Canada (retired))

*As of July 24th, 2024, the current GrainGenes lead and the site administrator will be permanent members of the committee.

Please note that members are not chosen based on their specific affiliations (with the exception of the GrainGenes team members). Other people who may wish to participate in running the newsletter are welcome to contact the editor at oatnewsletter@gmail.com. Further details concerning the Oat Newsletter and the committee can be found in the Statement of Purpose and Organization of the American Oat Workers (AOW) and the American Oat Workers Conference (AOWC), dated 24 July, 2024.

A list of communications platforms currently available (as of October, 2022) for members of the Oat Community can be found here.