NERA
Northeastern Regional
Association The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel March 28-29, 2006 Minutes
215 Innovation Boulevard, State College, PA 16803
Bruce
McPheron,
Chair
In Attendance:
Bruce McPheron(PA), Chair
Tom Burr (NYG)
Ann Dodds (PA)
Thomas Fretz (NERA)
Steve Goodwin (MA)
Cameron Hackney (WV)
Reginal Harrell (MD)
Ian Hart (CTS)
Michael Hoffman (NYC)
Diane Hyman (DC)
Wilda Martinez (USDA-ARS-NAA)
Robin Morgan (DE)
Gloria Ohs (PA)
Anna Palmisano (CSREES)
Norman Pruitt (CSREES)
Steve Reiling (ME)
Richard Rhodes III (RI)
Daniel Rossi (NJ)
Martin Shields (NERCRD)
Kirby Stafford III (CTNH)
Robert Steele (PA)
William Trumble (NH)
Rachel Unger (PA)
Michael Vayda (VT)
William Vinson (WV)
Larry Walker (NYC)
Cheng-i Wei (MD)
Gloria Wyche-Moore (DC)
Rubie Mize (NERA), Recorder
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
The motion made to accept the draft agenda as posted above, was seconded and approved.
The notes in lieu of the cancelled face-to-face meeting in San Antonio, TX, in September 2005, were noted.
ED Tom Fretz highlighted a number of the activities noted in his accomplishment report:
There has been a lot of positive feedback on the grantsmanship workshops such that CSREES intends to award another grant for NERA to administer for the Sept. 2006 workshop. Benefitting from these workshops include early career faculty and extension scientists. As more of these workshops are conducted, there may be a need to get feedback from the attendees to find out if they applied for grants and have succeeded.
Activities of the Sun Grant Initiative were progressing well with the RFP already in the process of being developed. NERA had agreed to manage the grants process.
CSREES annunced at the NASULGC meeting that NPLs were assigned as liaisons (some have more than one state assigned) for each of the 50 states. The intention is for the EDs to meet with the NPLs before they visit their respective states to help prepare them to ask the right questions and how to be effective state liaisons.
The results of the NRI priority survey conducted by Western ED Mike Harrington have been shared with the directors. It is also posted in this url---
http://www.agnr.umd.edu/users/NERA/March2006Meeting/NRISurveyResults.pdf
Using figures that were submitted by the individual states in February 2005 as a response to the FY2006 President's budget, ED Tom Fretz estimated of the leverage of federal formula funds for research
and extension. This estimate is posted at url--
http://www.agnr.umd.edu/users/nera/FormulaFundsTaskForce/011106EstimatedLeverage.doc
ED Tom Fretz then gave an important announcement about his plan to retire effective end of December 2006. He would be willing to work on a parttime basis until a new Executive Director is appointed. Following this development, Chair McPheron noted that the following issues were raised at the Executive committee meeting:
Chair McPheron suggested to the members to put together a small group to discuss these issues and return to the membership with recommendations at the summer meeting.
The Ad Hoc Committee to Review the ED Position consists of:
The NERA-OED will help facilitate the work of the Ad Hoc Committee.
Chair McPheron thanked ED Tom Fretz and the NERA staff for their excellent service to NERA. Replacing Tom Fretz is going to be difficult. He noted, and the others agreed, that NERA had been very fortunate in having very outstanding EDs: Dr. MacKenzie and Dr. Fretz.
She gave these two presentations:
NRI PowerPoint Presentation.pdf
Plan of Work PowerPoint Presentation.pdf
There still has to be extensive discussions in the higher levels, with the agencies involved and with members of congress. We need to see how this will play out in the next few months, and we should have an indication by summer where we are heading.
An issue was raised about the assessment to support the work of the CREATE21 Committee. It was not presented to the Experiment Station Section for prior approval. It was assumed that the BAAPBD was given authority to ask for the assessment. There should be an element of trust to a body that was elected by the membership. Nevertheless, ED Tom Fretz will draft a memo addressed to Dr. Kirklyn Kerr, Chair of the BAAPBD, informing him about the NERA directors' concern on how the assessment was handled.
On the issue of the BAAPBD's reaction to the President's FY07 budget, it has now been established that the Board supports and upholds the system's resistance to the proposal that will drastically affect the formula fund. Bob Steele though reminded that the timing was too close and that more time is needed to convey the sentiment of the experiment stations. The ESS representatives should be well prepared in the budget discussions to express the sentiment and the directions the stations wish to take.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
There was separate discussion of item #6, request for off-the-top funding for FY2007.
It was noted that most of the NRSPs implemented the recommendations of the NRSP Review Committee to find alternative sources of funding and use their NRSP off-the-top to leverage such funds.
It is quite ironic though, particularly for the NRSPs that have been highly successful in leveraging such as NRSP-4, that this policy seem to penalize those that are successful. Up to what level do we maintain our
off-the-top support to signify our partnership?
A motion was made to approve MAC's recommendation for item #6. The motion was seconded and approved.
The motion made to approve MAC's recommendation for items #9 and #10 was seconded and approved.
WHEREAS, Dr. Stephen Reiling has distinguished himself as Associate Director of the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experiment Station, and
WHEREAS, Dr. Reiling has contributed in many ways to the Northeastern Regional Association of State Agricultural Experiment Station Directors (NERA), serving as Administrative Advisor for NE1014: Development of New Potato Clones for Improved Pest Resistance, Marketability, and Sustainability in the East, and NRSP006: Inter-Regional Potato Introduction Project: Acquisition, classification, preservation, evaluation and distribution of potato (Solanum) germplasm. He also served as a NERA representative to the NE Center for Rural Development Board, and,
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Northeastern Regional Association of State Agricultural Experiment Station Directors meeting at State College, Pennsylvania on March 29, 2006, expresses its sincerest appreciation to Dr. Stephen Reiling for his many contributions, and wishes him much success and happiness in his future professional as well as personal activities.
March 29, 2006
signed
Bruce McPheron, Chair
Northeastern Regional Association of State
Agricultural Experiment Station Directors
The motion made to accept the above resolution was seconded and approved. Chair McPheron, on behalf of the membership, thanked Steve Reiling for his service to NERA.
Prior to this meeting, the Extension leadership had expressed that this will be the last summer meeting they will attend. The NERA members agreed that there is merit in meeting jointly with our extension counterparts and CARET. The benefits derived in these meetings emanate mainly from the informal interactions that take place outside the meetings. Chair McPheron will meet with NEED Chair Larry Cote, and if needed both NERA and NEED executive committees will meet jointly to discuss these issues.
It was suggested that perhaps NEED be included in the cycle to host the summer meetings, alternately assigning NEED and NERA to host the summer meeting and be in charge of putting together the program.
ESCOP/CSREES Implementation Plan for Presisdent's Proposed Budget:
Chair McPheron reported that in their first meeting, the committee laid out the groundwork for the implementation plan as follows:
CSREES is under a statutory requirement to respond by preparing an implementation plan of the President's budget. There should be a draft plan by June 1.
How can we influence the budget process? There is no guarantee that the Presient's budget next year will deviate from its competitive tone. Is our current portfolio truly relevant? Will these be the focus of our limited (and decreasing) investment? If we are to have a truly competitive distribution, how much control will individual stations have for the funds coming in, ex. 5 year grant? How will it affect our infrastructures if AES formula funding is decreased considerably? How do we define competition? Will it be opened to non-LGUs?
The plan should allow for regional and local control. Regional and state priorities should also be addressed, since in most cases everything we do relates to national goals.
The directors agreed that the plan should address the following:
New Executive Director Position
Bill Trumble will initiate the call for the newly formed committee. NERA staff will help facilitate the committee's activities. A set of recommendations will be given to the Executive Committee prior to the
summer meeting. These recommendations will be discussed at the NERA summer meeting.
CREATE-21 Assessment
The Board of Ag. sent out the assessments for CREATE-21 without the vote of the directors. T. Fretz will check the by-laws to determine whether the Board had a right to do this. He will also draft the letter addressed to the
Board Chair, Dr. Kirklyn Kerr, expressing the concern of the directors.
Timing of Meetings to Correspond to the Release of the President's Budget
The BAC and CARET meetings will be pushed back a week early to mid-February. NERA also needs to meet earlier than usual in the spring so we can come up with a collective response.
