February 28, 1997 Meeting Minutes

Present: Jerry Arkin, Jim Boling, D.C. Coston, Tom Helms, Richard Jones
Absent: Vance Watson
A meeting of the agInnovation South Executive Committee was convened via conference call at 8:00 a.m. (CST) on February 28, 1997 by Chair D.C. Coston. Agenda items discussed were:
Southern Region responses to Senator Lugar’s questions:
A considerable portion of the meeting was devoted to discussion point-by-point of the preliminary version (2/24/97) of the responses to Senator Lugar’s questions. This preliminary version was crafted by AESOP Enterprises. Southern AES Directors were given an opportunity to review this document and respond to Dr. Helms with comments and concerns. All comments received had been incorporated and a Southern Region response was then finalized with help from the Executive Committee. The finished Southern Region response was then submitted to AESOP on February 28, 1997.
Requests for extension, modification, etc. on agInnovation South projects:
The Executive Committee discussed whether the association should review and act on all requests at the April meeting or only act on the projects expiring in 1997 and defer action on 1998 terminating efforts until the July meeting. The group decided to review and act on all requests in April. A motion made by Jim Boling and seconded by Jerry Arkin was unanimously accepted to recommend approval of all requests for Development Committees subject to confirmation by the full body at the April meeting. The Executive Committee will meet again in mid-late March to finalize recommendations.
Planning for April meeting:
Since the Executive Committee also serves as the Program Planning Committee, recommendations are sought for agenda items. One tentative item is to have a presentation (update and demonstration) by the Social Science Research Center on the data projects they are doing as a result of the contract with agInnovation South. Dr. Coston challenged the group to “do something with what is presented”. Further discussions on this topic will be an agenda item for the next Executive Committee meeting.
Archiving electronic publications:
Questions continue to arise relative to archiving of electronic publications. The Executive Director’s office will search for answers on this issue including a visit in the near future to the National Ag. Library in Washington.
Meeting adjourned at 9:45 a.m. (CST).