J. Scott Angle (MD)
Adesoji Adelaja (NJ)
Paul Backman (PA)
W. Ronnie Coffman (NYC)
Daniel Decker (NYC)
Cameron Hackney (WV)
Rachel Johnson (VT)
Kirklyn Kerr (CTS)
David R. MacKenzie (NERA)
Louis A. Magnarelli (CT-NH)
Mark Mount (MA)
John Nye (DE)
Kay Obendorf (NYC)
Ralph Otto (CSREES)
Daniel Rossi (NJ)
Robert C. Seem (NYG)
William R. Trumble (NH)
William E. Vinson (WV)
Michael Voiland (NYC)
Gloria S. Wyche-Moore (DC)
Rodney Foil (CSREES), Presenter
George Cooper (CSREES), Presenter
Gary Toenniessen (Rockefeller Foundation), Presenter
Rubie Mize (NERA), Recorder

• Approved the Minutes of the NERA Meeting held in New Orleans, LA, on September 28, 2000, as posted on the web.
  http://www.agnr.umd.edu/users/NERA/workshop/NERAMinutesSept2000.htm
• Accepted the Northeast Regional Research Committee Report. http://www.agnr.umd.edu/users/NERA/workshop/RRCReportJan2001.html

• Approved the Request to Write a Proposal entitled: Eradication, Containment and/or Management of Plum Pox (Sharka) Disease. October 2001 to September 2006. Administrative advisor will be Paul Backman.

• Approved the Request to Write a Proposal entitled: Assuring Fruit and Vegetable Product Quality and Safety Through the Handling and Marketing Chain. October 2002 to September 2007. Administrative Advisor will be Mark Mount (MA).

• Approved off-the-top funding for FY2002 for the following projects at the funding level of FY2001, adjusted for any change in the Hatch appropriation, or the amount requested, whichever is less:

  • NE-009, "Plant Genetic Resources Conservation and Utilization." Approved off-the-top funding for the same level as FY2001 ($145,000).

  • NE-059, "Regional Research Coordination," Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development. Approved off-the-top funding for the same level as FY2001 ($40,788).

• Recommendations for off-the-top funding for NRSPs will be made when all the requests for FY2002 funding are received. Only NRSP-5 and NRSP-8 have submitted their proposals. Directors' votes will be solicited via e-mail.

• Approved the following Directors as Administrative Advisors for these projects:

• NE-176, Characterization and Mechanisms of Plant Responses to Ozone in the Northeastern U.S. (Bob Seem)

• NEC-067, Soil Testing (Scott Angle)

• Request to Write a Proposal (approved in Sept. 2000) entitled, Increasing capacity of families, individuals and communities to improve their quality of life. (Adesoji Adelaja)

• Endorsed the involvement of the Executive Director with the NASULGC-ICA activity, an international initiative to foster partnership among European and U.S. agricultural research and educational institutions.
• Supported the merging of the Northeast aquaculture project with NRSP-8 in their rewrite.
• Approved the following nominations:
  • Chair, 2001 - Mark Mount (MA)
  • Vice-Chair, 2001 - Cameron Hackney (WV)
  • Officer-at-Large, 2001 - Paul Backman (PA)
  • NESARE Liaison - William Vinson (WV)
  • NERCRD Board Member - J. Scott Angle (MD) second term
  • Aquaculture Liaison - Gloria Wyche-Moore (DC)

• Inform USDA-CSREES on actions taken by the NERA Directors.
• Organize notes from the Joint Session lunch discussions and submit to NEED and NERA Chairs. Post on the web the summary report on the agreed priorities.
• Express gratitude to Drs. Rodney Foil and George Cooper for addressing the group on IFAFS issues. Chair Coffman will send letters.
• Prepare Impact Statements for the Northeast multistate projects and post them on the NERA webpage.
• Discuss and negotiate with other EDs the adoption of a national paperless system, and follow-up response to MacArthur Floyd's letter to C. Hefferan.
• Assist Chair Coffman in pursuing with vigor the request to review the NRSPs. A report should be ready prior to the September meeting. A letter from Chair Coffman will be sent to C. Hefferan and copied to all regional chairs.
• Finish drafting the MOU addressing management of multi-institutional competitive grants to be used as reference for IFAFs proposals. Draft will be reviewed by the Executive Committee and RRC.
• Clarify with CSREES that host states should not be required to certify matching funds for NRSP funds, and apply fix in the new Farm Bill.
• Prepare proposed budget for FY2001-2002 for review by the NERA Executive Committee before the June meeting.
• Prepare a set of recommendations on changing the term "Regional" to "Multistate" in NERA Committee names, for consideration at the summer meeting.
• Prepare agenda for the NERA summer meeting on June 26, taking into consideration the Amish House and Farm tour on June 27. Also consider inviting reports from Committee Liaisons.

List of URLs mentioned in the Minutes:

Minutes of the NERA Meeting on September 28, 2000, in New Orleans, LA:
http://www.agnr.umd.edu/users/NERA/workshop/NERAMinutesSept2000.htm

Report and Recommendations of the NE-Regional Research Committee, January 30, 2001:
http://www.agnr.umd.edu/users/NERA/workshop/RRCReportJan2001.html

Dr. Rodney Foil and Dr. David MacKenzie's IFAFS PowerPoint Presentations:
http://www.agnr.umd.edu/maes/info/rfp/home.html

Northeast Region Selected Regional Priorities for Multistate, Integrated Research and Extension Projects:
http://www.agnr.umd.edu/users/NERA/workshop/NEPriorities.htm

Minutes of the NERA Executive Committee Meeting, January 30, 2001:
http://www.agnr.umd.edu/users/NERA/workshop/ExCommMinutes1-30-2001.htm

Gary Toennissen's PowerPoint Presentation on "Strategy for the Management of Intellectual Property":
http://www.agnr.umd.edu/users/nera/workshop/toenniessen/index_files/frame.htm

Tuesday, January 30:

Call to order and introductions - Ronnie Coffman
The Chair called the meeting to order at 1:00pm. The agenda was rearranged to continue Dr. Rodney Foil's presentation and discussion. The Extension Directors were invited to attend this portion of the meeting. Dr. David MacKenzie also made his presentation on his recommendations to improve the Northeast region's performance in the 2001 IFAFS competition.
Dr. Rodney Foil and Dr. MacKenzie's presentations are available at url:
http://www.agnr.umd.edu/maes/info/rfp/home.html

Agenda approval - Ronnie Coffman
The agenda was adjusted accordingly and some topics were moved earlier as time allowed.

Consideration of last meeting's minutes - Ronnie Coffman
A motion was made to accept the minutes from the last NERA meeting. The motion was seconded and passed.
Minutes of the NERA Meeting on September 28, 2000

RRC Report distributed for consideration tomorrow - Bob Seem
The RRC Report as posted at url below was distributed for the Directors' consideration and discussion tomorrow:
http://www.agnr.umd.edu/users/nera/workshop/RRCReportJan2001.html

Regional Priorities Committee Report Discussion - Dan Rossi
There was extensive discussion on how to form committees that can work together to submit proposals for IFAFS. There was consensus that there is a need to identify champions for specific issues, and incentives to motivate the scientists to participate. There was an obvious invitation for proposals addressing "Land Use". Projects already incubating within the region should be identified and supported.

The joint leadership of NEED and NERA was given the charge to synthesize the notes from the lunch discussion of the different groups. They will also identify the champions for each of the topics. The summary of the priorities agreed upon by NEED and NERA, entitled Northeast Region Selected Regional Priorities for Multistate, Integrated Research and Extension Projects, is posted at url:
http://www.agnr.umd.edu/users/NERA/workshop/NEPriorities.htm

CSREES Update - Ralph Otto, Deputy Administrator, USDA/CSREES/NRE
Personnel: There are approx. 2 dozen applicants for the CSREES Associate Administrator. The closing date is 1/12/2001. Some are Senior Executive Service qualified and about 6 are from universities. Interviews are anticipated in February/March and the selection will be made by mid-spring. National Program Leader (NPL) positions have been advertised for Soil and Agronomy; Wildlife, Range and Natural Resources Ecology; and Weather and Atmosphere. There is a hiring freeze targeting supervisors/managers, but hopefully NPLs are exempted.

Dr. Otto mentioned some significant accomplishments of SUNEI including the success of land-grant applicants in the Water/Watershed Competitive Grants. USDA redirected $1 million, leveraged $7 million (EPA) plus $1 million from NSF. The Land-grant, Sea-grant, Space-grant consortium pilot will be announced in March, with about $2.6 and $6 million competitive offering focusing on coastal ecosystems and communities. The AG20/20 remote sensing applications in agriculture program with NASA is underway, with NASA contributing $2.5 million and CSREES (through IFAFS) contributing $2.5 million.

Update on Agency Multistate Guidance - George Cooper and Dave MacKenzie
G. Cooper noted that the National Multistate Guidelines were approved at the ESCOP meeting on September 2000, in New Orleans, LA. The CSREES Guidance is expected to come out in the Federal Register soon. CSREES can receive electronic submissions. The question remains whether the other regions are committed into adopting a national paperless system.

D. MacKenzie was given the charge to negotiate with the other Executive Directors on how we can share the paperless system while ensuring standardization, recovering NERA's costs and payment for maintenance of a national system.

Chair Coffman and D. MacKenzie will follow-up McArthur Floyd's letter to Colien Hefferan regarding the AES request to fund a national system. G. Cooper reiterated the need for a statement of commitment from the other regions.

The OED was charged to put together the Impact Statements for the Northeast Multistate projects and make these available in the NERA webpage. Stations can then refer to these statements for their own POW reporting.

Interim actions by the Chair - Ronnie Coffman

• Conferred with NEED Chair, Larry Cote, plans for the Joint Session Agenda
• Announced the 2001 Award for Excellence call for nominations
• Compiled and analyzed results of OED evaluation survey. He distributed copies of the results and they were overwhelmingly positive.
• Met with the ED in Cornell to discuss NERA issues.
• Advised the ED regarding NERA's financial concerns and the FY01-02 budget.
• Invited Gary Toenniessen of the Rockefeller Foundation to make a presentation on the "Strategy for the management of intellectual property."

NERA Executive Committee Report - Ronnie Coffman
The Minutes of the NERA Executive Committee Meeting on Jan. 30, is posted at url:
http://www.agnr.umd.edu/users/NERA/workshop/ExCommMinutes1-30-2001.htm

On the reimbursement of shared costs for multistate projects: the Executive Committee proposed that when the cost is small, reimbursement should be made by adding the costs to the meeting registration fee. If it is large, then only the project's participants should be invoiced. Off-the-top funding is not an option that is acceptable to the directors.

A motion was made to endorse the ED's involvement with NASULGC and ICA activities. The motion was seconded and passed. D. MacKenzie is also involved in the development of a webpage for this international initiative.

W. Trumble brought up a subject regarding the rewrite of the Aquaculture project, and NRSP-8. He explained that it only makes sense for the Aquaculture project to join NRSP-8 so they can take advantage of NRSP-8's database structure for animal genome. A motion was made to support the Northeast aquaculture project to join NSRP-8 in their rewrite without cost to the stations. The motion was seconded and approved.

AESOP Report - Terry Nipp
Terry Nipp was able to join the meeting and he was requested by Chair Coffman to share his observations on the new administration. T. Nipp noted that the candidates for Deputy Sec. of Agriculture have been narrowed down to 2-3. Vic Lichtenberg is being supported for the REE-Undersecretary position. The Heritage Foundation made a specific comment about the system in their budget recommendation, proposing that ARS and LGUs merge and reduce overall budget by 75%. Joe Coffey is the CFAR Coordinator, and they support doubling of budget from the Farm Bureau. The Commission on Future Agriculture will have substantive intellectual debate on how to deal with farmers, no more bailouts. In May or April, the importance of research and extension will be included in the House agenda. Under the Education Program for K-12, components are being looked at on what could be included under Extension. T. Nipp mentioned that Pres. Clinton did not leave line items in his proposed budget to give the new administration more flexibility. He suggested following models from other advocacy groups, and give CARET a one-pager with one figure for percentage target increase and use that as the main talking point. The appointee for Secretary of Agriculture, Ann Veneman, is very experienced in agriculture, has strong interest in trade, the Farm Bill and is more open to a broader portfolio.

Wednesday, January 31:

Executive Director's Report - David MacKenzie
D. MacKenzie distributed copies of the Job Jar, which listed accomplishments of actions assigned to him from the September 2000 meeting. He gave an update on the NERA budget concepts. He will prepare a proposed budget for review by the Executive Committee before the June meeting. Chair Coffman will consult with J. Angle regarding UMD policies affecting the salaries for FY01-02 for the NERA staff.

Relationship with CSREES is excellent and relationship with NASULGC continues to improve particularly with D. MacKenzie's involvement in the ICA initiative. Daryl Cole at USDA-Beltsville left. ED will find out his replacement. Relationship with the other regional Executive Directors is also excellent. They meet quarterly to discuss and resolve common issues.

The paperless system is operational and R. Mize had trained several users in the region. The Western region had expressed strong interest in adopting the system. ED will initiate discussions and negotiations with the other regions.

There were several projects/initiatives (SUNEI, SAFER) that were successful in opening up federal partnership. D. MacKenzie asked the directors if there is any interest in starting new initiatives or to concentrate on devising a mechanism on how states can get credit for such initiatives. He needs guidance on forming formal projects that can report to CRIS. The NEED-NERA leadership will decide on how to formalize creation of coordinating committees.

The common issue that came up on IFAFS seminars is the plan for managing multi-institutional grants. After visiting all the member-stations last year, the ED had compiled enough information to put together a standard MOU that can be adopted by reference. He will draft the MOU and circulate it to the Executive Committee and the RRC for comments.

RRC Report Considered - Bob Seem
Only two NRSPs submitted requests for FY2002 off-the-top funding. The RRC decided that an electronic vote will be solicited from the directors once all the NRSPs have submitted. There was discussion on the need to review the NRSPs.

A motion was made urging Chair Coffman to pursue with vigor the request to CSREES to review all the NRSPs, with a report ready prior to the September meeting. The letter to C. Hefferan should be copied to the other regions' chairs. The motion was seconded and approved.

NRSPs should not be required to be matched by the host state, because they are national projects, nor should they be asked to certify that they will match NRSP fund. ED will take action on this request, and will try fixing it in the new Farm Bill.

A motion was made to accept the RRC Report as posted on the web: http://www.agnr.umd.edu/users/nera/workshop/RRCReportJan2001.html
The motion was seconded and accepted.

W. Trumble suggested that it may be timely to change the Regional Research Committee's name from "Regional" to "Multistate", and to change its composition to include an extension participant. The motion was withdrawn until further talks are made with the Extension Executive Committee. The NERA Executive Committee will bring forward a set of recommendations at the summer meeting. ED will assist in forming the recommendations.

Discussion on regional strategy for review/approval of NE/NECs (including Regional Research Committee membership with Extension representation) - Bob Seem
Extensive discussion had taken place earlier on this topic. No decision was made on the NECs. The joint leadership of NEED and NERA will address this issue.

Discussion of Proposed Summer Joint Session Agenda - Paul Backman
P. Backman distributed the preliminary plan of activities and agenda for the 2001 Summer Joint Session to be held on June 24-27, at the Nittany Lion Inn, 200 West Park Avenue, State College, PA on the University Park Campus. The Pennsylvania State University is hosting this year's meeting.

The Planning Committee was encouraged to include the "Native American Tribal Issues" in the joint session agenda as an additional topic. P. Backman has a speaker in mind who could address the topic on building bridges with tribal groups.

The directors were all interested in joining the tour to the Amish House. A visit to an Amish Farm would also be very interesting. In this regard, a request was made for plans to shorten the NERA meeting so everybody can join the tour on Wednesday, June 25. The NERA meeting is proposed to start earlier at 8:00am and finish at 6:00pm on Tuesday, June 26. The NERA meeting agenda will be arranged accordingly. The Regional Research Committee (2-4:00pm) and the Executive Committee (4-6:00pm) will meet on Sunday, June 24.

IPM Report - Robert Seem
R. Seem gave a brief report about the NE-IPM activities in 2000. USDA funded the competitive grant for small projects. No funding came from EPA for 2000.

A suggestion was made that liaisons should give reports about their committees, e.g., IPM, Aquaculture, NERCRD, NESARE. These should be included in future meeting agenda. NEPIAP is terminated and should be taken out of the NERA webpage.

Nominations Committee Report - John Nye and R. Coffman
Chair Coffman read the nominations as follows:

• Chair, 2001 - Mark Mount (MA)
• Vice-Chair, 2001 - Cameron Hackney (WV)
• Officer-at-Large, 2001 - Paul Backman (PA)
• NESARE Liaison - William Vinson (WV)
• NERCRD Board Member - J. Scott Angle (MD) second term
• Aquaculture Liaison - Gloria Wyche-Moore (DC)

A motion was made to approve the above nominations. The motion was seconded and passed.

Strategy for the management of intellectual property - Gary Toenniessen, Rockefeller Foundation
G. Toenniessen's PowerPoint presentation is posted at url: http://www.agnr.umd.edu/users/nera/workshop/toenniessen/index_files/frame.htm

The directors expressed great interest in the concepts for managing intellectual property that was presented by G. Toenniessen. D. MacKenzie asked if he could use the presentation at the CIP Board Meeting in Peru. Chair Coffman also encouraged the directors to present these concepts to their faculty and see how they will respond.

Adjourn
Chair Coffman thanked the directors for attending the meeting and wished them well on their journey back home. He adjourned the meeting at 12:00 noon.

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