ANREP Executive Committee
ANREP Executive Committee
March 25th, 2014
3:00 PM – 4:30 PM EDT
Minutes (Final)
Attending: Robert Bardon (President), Dean Solomon (President-Elect), Dana Rizzo (Secretary), Greg Frey (Treasurer), Lara Miller (Southern Region Representative), Kris Tiles (North Central Region Rep.), William Hubbard (Executive Secretary), Amy Rowe (Northeast Regional Rep), Sanford Smith (Past President), Eric Norland (NIFA Liaison), Eli Sagor, ANREP rep to the EJI Board, James Henderson (2014 ANREP Conference Chairman)
Not Attending: Mindy Habecker (Strategic Planning), Peter Warren (Western Region Representative)
Guests: None
Proofreaders: Kris Tiles, Lara Miller
Agenda
1. Roll Call/Introductions - Completed
2. Additions to the Agenda – Tiles made motion to accept agenda. Second by Smith. No discussion. Approved.
3. Approval of February 25, 2014 Board Meeting Minutes
There needs to be a correction to item # 7 on February minutes. Dean Solomon did not go to Memphis. Rizzo will make this change before submitting to Hubbard for upload to web site.
Motion by Smith to accept minutes with change. Second by Rowe. Approved with change.
4. Updates
Treasurer's Report- Greg Frey
Budget information is updated regularly on the 2014 financial page on Wiki. Things are looking good in the budget in reference to the conference.
Executive Secretary’s Report - Bill Hubbard
Membership Update (sent via email ahead of meeting)
· Good News! 46 new members since January 1, 2014
· More Good News! 254 members have renewed their membership as of March 24th, 2014
· We have 545 members currently however 144 are “delinquent”. That is they have not paid 2013 or 2014 dues. A final friendly reminder was sent to them on March 25th, 2014 asking them to renew by Friday, March 28th COB or they will be removed from the database and listserv.
· Membership by region update:
o Of the 254/545 (46%) who have paid in 2014:
§ 57/117 (49%)are from the North Central Region
§ 33/58 (57%) are from the North East Region
§ 103/210 (49%) are from the Southern Region
§ 60/157 (38%) are from the Western Region
Additions to report during meeting:
· Would like to recognize 15 year members at conference in Sacramento.
· Looking to find a way to re-recruit the delinquent members.
· Currently do not have a membership chair for ANREP.
Nonprofit and Tax Update
· Still no news from the IRS
· Contacted a local CPA with nonprofit status and tax experience. CPA says that we have until May 15th to file our 2013 taxes in case we do not hear from the IRS. From a review of our 2013 records, we should not have to owe taxes.
· Hubbard has an appointment with Kent Chapman, CPA in Watkinsville, GA for Monday, March 31st, 9:00 am. Chapman’s fees are as follows according to the following note from Kent Chapman:
o Bill (Hubbard): Per your request and based on our discussions, I believe that a reasonable estimate for the preparation of Form 990 for your organization would be $250 to $350. The preparation of a Form 1023 to change the classification of the organization would be no more than $250. I appreciate this opportunity. Thanks, Kent (Chapman)
A Kent Chapman CPA PC
2 South Main Street
Suite 203
Watkinsville, GA 30677
(706) 769-3481
(706) 769-3485 FAX
Located in Town Center
Motion made by Solomon to authorize the Executive Secretary and Treasurer to move forward with working with Kent Chapman in an amount up to $600 to work on non-profit status and taxes. Second by Smith. Approved.
Miscellaneous updates
· Filed Corporate Registration Paperwork and paid $30 filing fee to the State of Georgia
NIFA Update
Eric Norland, NIFA Liaison (and ANREP member) to ANREP provided an update on recent activities at NIFA:
· Farm Bill – Congress passed the Farm Bill, officially known as the Agricultural Act of 2014, and the President signed it on February 7. The Farm Bill is critical for NIFA in that many of the NIFA programs must be re-authorized in the Farm Bill. There are several new provisions and programs that affect NIFA and an agency task force is working on meeting some short deadlines for new programs. Of importance to Natural Resources Extension Programs, the Renewable Resources Extension Act was re-authorized for 5 years.
· USDA Regional Climate Hubs –Norland is the NIFA representative on the USDA Climate Hub Executive Committee which meets every other week. The focus of the hubs is for them to identify their partners and to develop a work plan for the remainder of CY 2014. There continues to be no new resources to support the hubs or the Cooperative Extension System which the Department is depending on to be the key outreach component of the hubs. Norland has explained more than once that for Extension to be significantly involved there needs to be resources allocated to the system to do the work that is being expected, but currently not funded.
· Staff Update – The position vacated by Dr. Mike O’Neill, NPL for Water Resources, when he left to become the Associate Extension Director, University of Connecticut Cooperative Extension, will be filled. The position will be slightly different and will include water and ecosystem services. The Position Announcement will be out soon and Eric will forward it to ANREP for distribution.
Norland is fine with us putting his updates in our newsletter to the membership.
Biennial Conference - James Henderson
Met with local planning committee via conference call and all aspects of the conference are moving ahead. There were only 59 registrants as of previous week. The announcement of the 25 ANREP scholarships will encourage some folks who have been sitting on the fence to register. The reduced rate at the Hyatt is good until April 25th. The planning for all tours is moving along well. The Delta River tour lost a host but they are working on filling that host position and are confident it will be fine.
There was one issue that came up regarding managing the silent auction. The local planning committee will provide secure room. They want ANREP leadership to take control of silent auction. Last week it was added as a volunteer opportunity to the registration. The ANREP board could designate someone to coordinate the volunteers for managing the silent auction. Suggestions were made as to who that might be including Diana Rashash.
Registration tip - If you want to register your spouse using a different payment method you need to register yourself and then log off and log back in and put your information in again but then scroll down to register your spouse under guest. This is not intuitive on the registration site. The hotel is now telling folks that in order to get the conference rate that you must register online, not on the phone, however it is still listed on the registration information to call. James will have the phone number removed from the registration site since this is the case.
The website for conference has been updated. The agenda tab, now has all of the concurrent sessions listed with the speakers and the presentation titles.
Solomon – Have we talked about specific board member roles at conference for business meeting or awards presentation? Up to now we have not had a discussion about that. Bardon is on to speak at 10 AM on the first day for a welcome. The business meeting and awards are from 10:15 AM – noon on Wednesday. Otherwise board members are expected to help as needs arise.
Smith –has not heard back from forest service in California and Oregon regarding the request of funding for scholarships for students, etc. There has been no word yet either way. Apparently they are sensitive in California regarding funding from the forest service since that is funding used for other sources.
Frey – If we could get an official letter to Weyherhauser, they may be willing to fund scholarships.
Strategic Planning –Greg Frey
The committee has met several times. They have consolidated all of the responses from the original survey and have identified about 13 potential strategic issues that we can look at throughout the next 5-6 years. The next step is to prioritize the issues. A second survey will be sent out to have folks rank their top five out of the thirteen issues. This survey will go out soon and the top five will be identified by the conference. Those results will be shared with the membership at the conference.
Professional Development – Lara Miller
Nothing significant to report. They are waiting for results from strategic planning committee before moving forward with any planning.
2016 ANREP/NACDEP Conference - Sandy Smith
A small committee met about one month ago and sent out the RFP for states to submit proposals to host the conference. New Hampshire responded and indicated that they are all on soft money now and cannot submit a proposal. Vermont has indicated that they are working on a proposal. The deadline for proposals is April 9th, 2014. One small hiccup is that someone with NACDEP (perhaps the president or their management company) is concerned that our non-profit status is unclear and how that could affect planning a conference.
Bardon suggested creation of a checklist for what planning needs we had and have for the 2014 conference and upload to Wiki site so we can be better prepared for next conference. Solomon mentioned that something like this was created in past and he will look around to see if it is archived anywhere. Eleanor Burkett may have something on this as well.
Regional Rep Update –
Miller contacted members in her region to introduce herself.
Rowe indicated that things are quiet though she is trying to determine who all is going to the conference from her region.
Tiles – no report.
Extension Journal Inc. – Eli Sagor – below submitted via email
Extension Journal, Inc: Report to the ANREP board
March 24, 2014
Submitted by Eli Sagor, UMN Extension, ANREP rep to the EJI Board
(612) 624-6948,
On January 1, 2014 Sagor replaced Dr. Robert Bardon as ANREP representative to the Board of Directors of Extension Journal, Inc. (EJI). EJI's major activities are publication of the Journal of Extension (http://www.joe.org/) and maintenance of the National Extension Job Bank (http://jobs.joe.org/). Sagor was appointed to a three-year term ending on December 31, 2016.
The EJI Board met by conference call on January 16 and in person in Wilmington, DE on March 11-13, 2014. Sagor attended both meetings.
Update:
The EJI Board's current focus is planning for the replacement of the JOE editor at the end of 2015. That position has been occupied since 2000 by Laura Hoelscher. They are considering changes to the way that JOE editorial structure, including the possibility of dispersing some of the editor's responsibilities to more than one person. Current tasks related to this job include accounting for the many roles and responsibilities of our current editor, exploring editorial models in use by other prominent online journals, and proposing a new model (if changes are needed) at our September board meeting. Sagor will be centrally involved in this process and would appreciate input from ANREP leadership as they consider options. As JOE editorial work involves a complex set of responsibilities, they are moving as quickly as possible in order to have a new editorial staff in place in time to take over at the end of 2015.
Addition to report at meeting– The position does not need to remain at Purdue where it currently is. There are advantages to having it based at a land grant institution, but they are open to other options also like a private individual on a contract basis. The current editor also helps authors with “professional development” and spends time with them providing guidance on how to improve, and resubmit.
Meetings: The EJI board has decided to return to a schedule involving two in-person meetings per year instead of one. That may increase the budget required to fund Sagor’s travel as the ANREP representative. Sagor will keep the ANREP board apprised of his expenses and will do what he can to contain these costs. Best estimate for the total annual cost is $2,500.
Addition to report at meeting – ANREP budgeted $1200 and so we will be over budget on this. However, it will not make us go into debt though. Frey will send the reimbursement form to him. We will not worry about modifying the budget at this point but will just pay the expenses.
Sagor welcomes guidance from the ANREP board on any concerns, issues, or opportunities associated with our role on the Extension Journal, Inc board. As this is hi first report submitted in this role, he also welcomes feedback on its contents.
JCEP update - Bob Bardon
Representation on JCEP committee for exploring Professional Development at National Level – We are looking for someone to serve as a representative on a JCEP committee created to explore Professional Development options at the national level (at national conferences, etc.). This would be a short term commitment – 1 year or less. Please consider serving or suggesting this to other members of ANREP and submit any names to Bardon as soon as possible. This would be a great leadership opportunity for one of our members. Perhaps someone who attended previous Galaxy conferences or PILD may be a good candidate. This would be a “brainstorming” experience rather than planning and conducting sessions at a conference.