Spring 2021 Business Meeting

 Vote to keep “S” project number the same for consistency when up for renewal unless the project has changed significantly- Approved

• Supporting a conference grant being led by Brenda Ortiz and Kati Migliaccio- if interested in participating, contact Brenda Ortiz.
  • This wont be the only conference developed.
• Building a list of faculty liaisons- not just engineering or robotics fields.
• Supporting regional collaborations through a multistate project effort: Daniel Lee is leading that effort.  Faculty should reach out to him.

• The FY2022 budget proposal was approved pending determination of annual compensation adjustments.
• Future agInnovation South annual budgets will be based on the fiscal year from July 1 – June 30.
• The procedure for spending “carry-forward” funds for special projects or other expenses outside of the approved budget will be as follows: Executive Director consults with the Executive Committee before bringing the proposal to the COOs. Decisions will be made by a simple majority of the COOs responding to the request.
• The Chair was asked by the COOs to inquire about annual compensation protocols at the other regional associations for executive directors and program coordinators.

In meeting Discussion:

There is no guidance yet regarding “Travel Status” for NIFA employees.  If multistate groups would like to meet in person, NIFA employees can only participate via Zoom for the foreseeable future.

• Budget & Legislative Committee Report – Steve Lommel
• Communication & Marketing Committee Report – JF Meullenet
• Science & Technology Committee Report – Susan Duncan
• Diversity Catalyst Committee Report – Henry Fadamiro

(See ESCOP reports HERE) (Minutes 52- 1:09 in recording)

In Meeting Discussion:

• Due to salary increases at the University of Georgia for some staff, there will be some impact to the budget.  Propose to raise the assessment or the salary increases will have to come out of the operating expenses.
• Budget will be finalized and shared with COO’s for vote at a later date.
• There was a recommendation by the Plant Germplasm committee that the Southern Ag Experiment Station Directors have a meeting in Griffin GA so they can view the facilities.

In Meeting Discussion:

• We had two very good nominations for the “Excellence” award, but S1074 project will be submitted to the Science and Tech Committee as the Southern Region nomination for the national Award- Approved.  This project had a little more impressive outputs, measured impacts, more granular detail, and followed the format a little more closely.
• Discussion regarding the Numbering system: Why do we give new numbers when a project renews? Each Region handles the numbering system differently.  There is no “requirement” we change the numbers.  Unless there is a major change in objectives, we will keep the project number the same for clarity going forward.  (Voted on via zoom poll).

In Meeting discussion:

• Discussion regarding the amount of carry-over that is needed.  Agreed that the assessments will need to be raised at some point in the future but not sure when that will be.·
• Will discuss further in Executive Session.

• 2021 ESS Annual Meeting – Sept 26-Oct1, 2021 – Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows
• 2022 Southern Mini Land-Grant Meeting – May 17-19, 2022 – TAMU
  • Discuss Joint meeting topics

(See Mini Land-Grant update (HERE) (Minutes 1:57-2:07 in recording)

In Meeting Discussion and Actions:

• ESS meeting- it is planned to be in-person but a hard decision has not been made yet.  That decision will be made in June.
• Mini Land-grant: Gary will create a survey about topics for joint sessions and will send to membership.  Our Joint Sessions will be with ASRED, CARET, ARD and Southern APS.

In Meeting Discussion:

• ARIA- rollout at the Rebuild Rural Coalition meeting, however discussion behind the scenes has been happening for a while.
• This isn’t a budget appropriation request and we wouldn’t be able to accomplish this through the normal appropriations process.
• Seeking a Senate Republican Champion right now.  If members have interacted with Senators who might be interested in championing this, the APLU is interested in coordinating with them.
• If these funds come to degree-granting institutions, it will leave a lot of our Experiment Stations out.  It is important that the language does not require “degree-granting”.
• A lot of emphasis on teaching space, but that doesn’t help us.  We need research space and often don’t have dedicated teaching spaces in our research facilities.
• Gordian Report was an exceptional tool to help develop the request.
• Conversations regarding equitable discussion of funds happening at the ED level.
• From Caron Gala: https://www.aplu.org/projects-and-initiatives/agriculture-human-sciences-and-natural-resources/capital-infrastructure-at-colleges-and-schools-of-agriculture/resources/

• Resolution honoring Donna Pearce for her 17 years of service to agInnovation South

agInnovation South Excellence in Leadership Award Presentation – JF Meullenet

• Award presented to Keith Owens

(Minutes 2:25-2:30 in Recording)

agInnovation South Strategic Planning Work Session – Gary Thompson and Working Group
(See Draft Strategic Roadmap HERE, & 1 pager HERE See Power Point Slides HERE)
(Minutes 2- 1:26 in Recording)

In Meeting Discussion:

• Overall feedback: nice general roadmap and support for the concept of implementation teams and evaluate on a yearly basis.
• “Stakeholders” is a conversation that needs to be on-going.  Who are we serving?  Hard to say what we should be doing if we don’t know who we are serving.
• This entire document is a living document.
• “Coop-e-tition”
• The southern region has many fewer projects than other regions.
• agInnovation South can compile list of AAAS fellows to assist in Focus Area 3
• Poll results- ready to move to the Implementation Phase.
• Possible need for more than one Implementation Team.
  • We won’t be doing everything every year
  • Team make-up is still TBD
• The Annual Action Plan needs to be on the agenda for every Fall meeting.  Also look at: where we have been, where we are going, what are the emerging areas and do we have the resources to focus on it, etc.
• Is there a need to look at this Roadmap and see how it aligns with Strategic Plans developed/being developed at the institutional level? Each Experiment Director can look at this to highlight those areas of alignment.

• Guest Speakers: Katie Migliaccio, Ed Barnes, Steve Thomson
• Ag QuickCAST Document HERE

Power point presentations HERE, Chat discussion -HERE
In Meeting Discussion

• Three Action Items from the workshop:
  • Supporting a conference grant being led by Brenda Ortiz and Kati Migliaccio- if interested in participating, contact Brenda Ortiz
  • This wont the only conference developed.
  • Building a list of faculty liaisons- not just engineering or robotics fields.
  • Supporting regional collaborations through a multistate project effort: Daniel Lee is leading that effort.  Faculty should reach out to him.
• Opportunities for cross-agency collaboration.

Southern Research Communicators Initiative – Gary Thompson

• Guest Speaker: Faith Peppers, NIFA, (See Power Point Presentation HERE)
• Other Guests: Communicators from each institution

(Minutes 1-1:00 in Recording)

In Meeting Discussion:

• We discussed three questions during this session:
  • What are the opportunities and obstacles for working together to develop a regional message?
  • What topics are ripe for developing a regional communication activity and what products could be developed?
  • If we were to gather a year from now, what would you like to see different?
• The agInnovation South Office will reach out to the Communication Liaisons to debrief and discuss next steps.

In Meeting Discussion:

• Florida interested in the consortium
• There is interest in investigating a similar consortium with Vegetables
• Could incorporate nuts into the fruit consortium

• FY 22 agInnovation South Budget Discussion and Vote
• Executive Director Performance Review

In Meeting Discussion/actions:

• The FY2022 budget proposal was approved pending determination of annual compensation adjustments.
• Future agInnovation South annual budgets will be based on the fiscal year from July 1 – June 30.
• The procedure for spending “carry-forward” funds for special projects or other expenses outside of the approved budget will be as follows: Executive Director consults with the Executive Committee before bringing the proposal to the COOs. Decisions will be made by a simple majority of the COOs responding to the request.
• The Chair was asked by the COOs to inquire about annual compensation protocols at the other regional associations for executive directors and program coordinators.