agInnovation South Spring Meeting Minutes
March 26 – 29, 2012
Raleigh, North Carolina
 
Participants:

Jerry Arkin, GA
George Askew, SC
Bill Brown, TN
Wes Burger, MS
Nancy Cox, KY
Maru Duryea, FL
Jonathan Edelson, OK
Phil Elzer, LA
John Hayes, FL
George Hopper, MS
John Liu, AL
Steve Lommel, NC
Nathan McKinney, AR
David Monks, NC
Reuben Moore, MS
Saied Mostaghimi, VA
Craig Nessler, TX
Steve Oliver, KY
Rick Roeder, AR 		 Elvin Roman-, PR
John Russin, LA
Bob Shulstad, GA
David Smith, NC
Clarence Watson, AR
Joe West, GA
Steve Workman, KYExecutive Director’s Office:
Eric Young, agInnovation South
Donna Pearce, agInnovation South
Liaisons:
Deborah Brennan, USDA/ARS
Bob Holland, USDA/NIFA
Ed King, ARS – Stoneville, MS
Other guests:
Hunt Shipman, Cornerstone

Action Items:

 Agenda #
  Actions Taken
1 Agenda – Approved
Fall Meeting Minutes – Approved (Mostaghimi/Watson)
Interim Actions – Approved (Shulstad/Mostaghimi)
21 Increase S-009 FY2013 budget by $14,000 to $431,723 –   Approved (Watson/Shulstad)
22 Approved – S-009 as nominee for National Mulstitate Award(Hopper/Mostaghimi)
29 Approved –budget increase to cover the Battelle Study

Minutes:

  Agenda
Monday, March 26
4:00 – 6:00 Registration – Governor’s I & II Pre-Function Area
6:00 – 8:00 pm Welcome Reception – Governor’s I & II Room

 

Tuesday, March 27
6:30 – 10:00 am Registration – Governors Pre-Function Area
 6:30 – 8:00 am  Breakfast – Atrium
 8:00 – 8:05  Call to Order and Introductions  –  Craig Nessler
8:05 – 8:15 Welcome from Dean Johnny Wynne
8:15 1 Approval of Agenda, Minutes and Interim Actions – Craig Nessler

  • Agenda – Approved
  • Fall Meeting Minutes – Approved (Mostaghimi/Watson)
  • Interim Actions – Approved (Shulstad/Mostaghimi)

 
8:15 – 8:45 2 NIFA and AFRI Updates – Bob Holland, USDA/NIFA
8:45 – 9:15 3 ARS Update – Ed King, USDA/ARS
9:15 – 9:30 4 BAA Policy Board of Directors Report – Eric Young

  • The BAA Policy Board of Directors will meet in Seattle on March 22, a brief summary of the key discussions at that meeting will be presented.

In meeting discussion:

  • Discussing adding the two standing committee chairs as ex-officio voting members of Policy Board of Directors
  • AHS are in favor of this membership change
  • All COPs will discuss this at the Joint COPs Meeting in July
9:30 – 9:50 5 System Communication & Marketing Committee Report – Jerry Arkin, Nancy Cox, and Mary Duryea
9:50 – 10:00 6 NC-FAR Report – Nancy Cox
10:00 – 10:30 am Break – Governor’s I & II Pre-Function Area
10:30 – 10:45 7 ESCOP Budget & Legislative Committee Report – Bob Shulstad and Bill Brown
10:45 – 11:00 8 Cornerstone Advocacy Report – Hunt Shipman
11:00 – 11:30 9 Federal Budget and Farm Bill, General Discussion
11:30 – 11:45 10 ESCOP Science & Technology Committee Report – John Lui and John Russin
11:45 – 12:00 11 ASRED Report – Joe Zublena

In meeting discussion:

  • Water Quantity is a significant issue for extension directors
  • This would be a great Best Practice session for next year’s joint meeting in Little Rock.
12:00 – 1:30 pm Lunch – Atrium
1:30 – 2:30 12 Best Practices Session, Maintaining high cost animal production programs – Bill Brown and Nancy Cox

  • This session will focus on maintaining high cost animal production programs; ie facilities, new faculty, institutional collaborations, sharing facilities and faculty, grant funding, industry support, political support, etc.

Agenda Item 12
Bill Brown’s Presentation
In meeting discussion:

  • Work/collaborate more with industry to help support facilities
  • All animal science heads have seen White Paper that the SAC-2 group has put together and support it
  • Department Heads are asking us to help move the issues in this White Paper to a broader audience
  • Does agInnovation South support head’s white paper?
    • Yes- unanimous
    • Will take issue to ESCOP
  • Bill Brown will askSAC-2 for current examples of shared facilities and potential areas for further collaboration
2:30 – 2:40 13 NRSP – 1, National Information Management and Support System – Bill Brown
Summary & Budget RequestImpact Reporting Strategy
2:40 – 2:50 14 NRSP – 3, National Atmospheric Deposition Program – George Hopper
Budget Request
2:50 – 3:00 15 NRSP – 4, High Value Specialty Crop Pest Management – Mary Duryea
Background Information
        Budget Request
3:00 – 3:30 pm Break – Governor’s I &II Pre-Function Area
3:30 – 3:40 16 NRSP – 6, Inter-Regional Potato Introduction Project –Craig Nessler
       Budget Request & Report
3:40 – 3:50 17 NRSP – 7, A National Agricultural Program for Minor Use Animal Drugs – John Liu
        Budget Request  
3:50 – 4:00 18 NRSP – 8, National Animal Genome Research Program – Eric Young
Justification
Budget Request
4:00 – 4:10 19 NRSP – 9, National Animal Nutrition Program – Nancy Cox
Presentation
Budget Request
4:10 – 4:20 20 NRSP_TEMP – 261, ipmPIPE – Jonathan Edelson
       Summary & Budget Request
4:20 – 4:40 21 S-9, Plant Genetic Resources Conservation and Utilization – Jerry Arkin

Action Taken: Increase S-009 FY2013 budget by $14,000 to $431,723 – Approved (Watson/Shulstad)
4:40 – 5:00 22 MRC Report – Steve Workman

Action Taken:  Approved – S-009 as nominee for National Mulstitate Award (Hopper/Mostaghimi)
6:00 pm Dinner on your own

 

Wednesday, March 28
6:30 – 8:00 am Breakfast – Atrium
8:00 – 8:20 23  
Integrated Multistate Grant Writing Workshop, Feedback and Discussion on Future Workshop – Eric Young
A Southern region workshop for developing large integrated multistate grant proposals was held Dec. 13-14 in Washington, DC. The workshop included sessions on building teams, integrating research & extension, and writing successful grants.  Sixty-one faculty attended with expertise in one of the top three regional priority areas,
-Increase productivity, nutritional value and local availability of plant and animal food products
-Develop new plant and animal production systems, products, and uses to increase economic return and profitability for products
-Develop technologies and processes to improve production and conversion efficiency of regionally-appropriate biomass into biofuels and other bioproducts.
An evaluation of the workshop Southern Region Survey Results and feedback on it’s usefulness Summary Dec 2011 Integrated Grants Follow Up Survey 1 showed that a large majority of participants thought it was worthwhile and would recommend it to colleagues. However, comments on the surveys and in other venues indicated two important ways to improve the effectiveness of the workshop.  First, it appeared to be most valuable for new and early career faculty and less helpful for mid to late career faculty who have been involved in numerous grant writing efforts. Second, the priority areas were too broad resulting in a low level of interest overlap among the faculty, which was not conducive to continued discussions among participants beyond the workshop.
The original intention was to hold a second workshop in 2012 around the other two Southern region priority areas.  A decision is needed whether or not to move forward with planning a second workshop and, if so, what modifications should be made to improve the workshop’s effectiveness.
In meeting discussion:

  • Do we want to hold another workshop this fall? -Yes
  • Opportunity for people to build networks – bring people together that have same interest
  • Ask faculty about topic areas within broader objectivities
  • Consider multistate projects as potential teams
  • Check priorities of granting agencies i.e. AFRI, NSF, DOE, etc.
8:20 – 8:40 24  
Battelle Study Status and Discussion – Craig Nessler, Bob Shulstad, Clarence Watson, Joe Zublena and Eric Young

In meeting discussion:

  • University of Arkansas has agree to be the banker and contract is being reviewed by them now
  • Directors will receive a request for information this summer
  • Timely response to this request is the most important factor in completing the study by November
8:40 – 9:40 25  Best Practices Session, Internal resource reallocation – John Russin and George Askew

  • This session will focus on internal resource reallocation processes for operating budget, positions, facilities, etc; ie program & position prioritization, budget cuts and/or increases, decision process and who is involved, etc.
  • Russin agInnovation South 2012

 
9:40 – 9:55 26 Executive Director’s Report – Eric Young
9:55 – 10:00 27 agInnovation South Excellence in Leadership Award Presentation – Craig Nessler
10:00 – 10:30 am Break – Governor’s I & II Pre-Function Area
10:30 – 11:30 28 Chief Operating Officers Meeting
11:30 – 12:15 pm Lunch – Atrium
12:30 – 8:00 pm Tour Schedule

 

Thursday, March 29
7:00 – 8:30 am Breakfast – Atrium
8:30 – 8:45 29 Chief Operating Officers Meeting Report – Craig Nessler
Action Taken: Approved –budget increase to cover the Battelle Study
8:45– 9:45 30 Best Practices Session, Indirect cost recovery – Saied Mostaghimi

  • This session will focus on indirect cost recovery from grants, contracts, gifts, etc; ie commodity groups and state agency grants, division of IDC, use of college portion, consequences of IDC lower than university negotiated rate, etc.
  • Presentation

 
9:45 – 10:30 31 Additional Agenda Items

  •  Work with Southern Academic Programs directors to set up a meeting to discuss common interests and issues
10:30 – 10:40 32 Fall agInnovation South and ESS Meeting/Workshop – Craig Nessler

  • The next agInnovation South meeting will be Monday afternoon,September 24, 2012 in Portsmouth, NH, just prior to the Experiment Station Section Meeting and Workshop, September 24-26, 2012
10:40 – 10:50 33 2013 Spring Joint ASRED/agInnovation South Meeting – Clarence Watson and Rick Roeder
0:50 – 11:00 34 Resolutions Committee Report – Rick Roeder

 
11:00 am Adjourn