Annual Membership Meeting

October 11, 2006

5:30 PM to 9:00 PM

Amway Grand Plaza Hotel

Room Vandenberg A

Grand Rapids, MI

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I.         Call to Order

            Meeting was called to order by President Bruce MacKellar at 6:36 p.m. 

 

II.        Approval of Agenda

            Moved by Paul Gross, Seconded by Jim Mantey to approve the agenda.

 

III.      Secretary’s Report

    Phil Tocco Read the meeting minutes from last October and will be sending copies out to all the membership when it becomes available to him.  Jim Breinling  moved seconded by Van V to accept minutes.  Approved by all.

IV.   Treasurer’s Report

    Dan Rajzer prepared a handout of the Treasurer’s report.  Moved by Dave Pratt and  seconded by Mark Hanson to approve.  Approval by all of the treasurer’s report.

V.     Introduction of New Extension Educators

        Mark Seamon Introduced Chris Reisinger, Bay County ANR Educator.  Marilyn Thelen introduced Kelly Kackley, AgrAbility educator.  Jim Mantey introduced Frank     Gublo, Huron County CED.  Dan Hudson, Ingham County ANR Educator was introduced by Mark Hansen.   

VI.   2006 Award Winners

a.      DSA & AA Awards

    Mark Hanson & Mark Longstroth were our DSA Winners  and Jane Herbert  was our AA winner.  They were awarded at the NACAA AM/PIC in Cincinatti OH.

b.      Specialists and Support Staff Awards

        Our Outstanding Extension Specialists award winners this year were Dr. David Beede, and Dr. Tim Harrigan.  Fred Warner was also awarded an outstanding           specialist award.  Two outstanding support staff winners were recognized, Carolyn Pfister of the Telfarm Program for  (2005), and John Davenport, Research Technician with the Department of Entomology who worked for many years with Dr. George Bird (2006).

c.      Presidential Citation Awards

    President Bruce MacKellar also presented plaques to the 2006 presidential citation award winners.  2006 recipients included Roberta Dow, Jim Mantey, Tom Guthrie, Don Lehman, and Terry MacLean. 

    Bruce also presented Certificates of Appreciation to outgoing regional directors Jim Mantey and Marilyn Thelen for their service to MAEA.

VII.  Dr. Coon’s Address

Dr. Coon reflected on the experience that we gained at the Cincinnati AM/PIC.  He said that he was proud of the efforts that we put forth during the AM/PIC in July.  Dr. Coon also recognized those present at our meeting that were involved in the fall conference planning.

Dr Coon introduced Dr Lovejoy.  Dr Lovejoy gave his background as a soil conservation person in various states (Indiana, Montana, Washington DC, and Wisconsin).      

They both, then fielded questions from the floor.

Bill Robb:What is Dr Lovejoy’s job here?  To help coordinate supply and demand.

Tom Dudek:Are you going to straighten out the portal?  Dr Lovejoy will give Tom a recommendation by the end of the year as to how to handle communications issues.  The portal is a small part of the whole issue.

Bill Robb:Is association to commodity groups going to change or stay the same?  The AoE Teams will be the gateway from the campuses perspective and will be helped by taking a team approach with ag leader and others.  The ag leader will be filled soon and will fill in as AoE Coach.

Dr. Coon is starting a relationship Building exercise with Farm Bureau.  He will be meeting with each of the Board members individually and develop a more open communication with them. 

Paul Wylie:What is the status of PREF?    PREF is still a policy in force.  It is not dead.   We’re currently working on level 2 and 3 programs.  The money generated by this will be used to fund proposals at the same time when AoE competitive grant proposals are due but may not be affiliated with AoE programming.  When sending in a check, we encourage a transmittal form, but you don’t have to.

Jane Herbert:Is there a threshold PREF amount?  Do you want to fool with a $50 dollar check?  Yes.  The threshold is zero.

Paul Wylie:Are our traditional sources for extension funding stable or will things be changed?  There are initiatives underway that may actually grow funds on the federal side (20% over 5 years) and a more aggressive growth in competitive funding.  This may be brought about in the next farm bill as Create 21.  On the state side, we may see only inflationary funding increases.  There are other ways to get funding vis a vis Project GREEEN.  Our county partners are really stressed right now and will be until things settle down with revenue sharing. The key is to leverage county funds with State and Federal dollars both inside and outside extension.

We need to stay entrepreneurial.  Dr Beede and Others will be offering training sessions on grant writing in the future.  Look for them.

Bruce MacKellar thanked Dr. Coon for his support of MAEA efforts in planning the 2007 AM/PIC, especially the insight gained by the planning committee by holding the fall extension conference in Grand Rapids instead of campus. 

VIII.  Election of Officers

We had one opening as vice president.  Two candidates for vice president were presented.  Matt Shane, Lenawee County CED and regional livestock agent was one candidate.  Mark Seamon, Saginaw County field crops agent and Innovation Counselor was the other candidate.  Nominations from the floor were called.  Moved by Dave Pratt seconded by Dan Rajzer to move nominations be closed.  Ned Birkey was President Elect. Moved by Warren Schauer, supported by Mark Longstroth to close the nominations and Maury Kearcher moved, seconded by Beth Franz to close nomination and cast a ballot by unanimous consent.  Phil Tocco is serving as secretary.  Dave Pratt moved, seconded By Dave Glenn to close nomination and cast a ballot by unanimous consent.  Dan Rajzer is serving as treasurer Phil Kaatz moved to close, seconded by Amy Irish Brown to close nomination and cast a ballot by unanimous consent.

IX.   Old Business

a.      State Committee Rotation:  We have changed our committee rotations a bit due to the changes in region assignment.  Professional Development Southwest, Program Recognition Chair North/UP, Extension Development Southeast.  Bruce asked for nominations from each of the regions to fill openings as soon as possible.

b.      MCEA Report – Amy Irish Brown

We’ll be meeting tomorrow.  Dean Armstrong is approaching a five year review and the College Advisory Council will be soliciting feedback for a performance review.  The mentoring program is coming with the full support of MCEA.   Please sign up for the travel and scholarship funds available from MCEA.  This last round there were not very many applications submitted.

c.      NACAA 2007 AM/PIC (9 Month Countdown Report) – Phil Durst

Phil Durst passed out Kudos (no really, “Kudos”!) to Bruce MacKellar, Paul Gross, Amy Irish-Brown, Jim Nugent,  George Silva, Bill Robb, Tom Dudek, Marilyn Thelen, Phil Kaatz, Ned Birkey, Charles Gould, Beth Franz, and Mary Dunkel for work at the 2006 AM/PIC and for their work on the 2007 meeting.

Phil also gave an update on the status of planning.  We have fundraising commitments of $250K  There are a few things that might add to this including a number of fundraising breakfasts and a SARE grant that may help with it.  A new committee has been formed with Julie Pioch as chair for the eco-friendly committee (there are already 4 people on this committee in the first day).  We’re working to put a Michigan stamp on this program.  We have Rick Foster of Kellogg Foundation, as our Keynote speaker.  We (with help from Dr. Coon, President Simon and Dean Armstrong) are working on getting a representative of the Gates Foundation as capstone speaker.  AoE teams and County Offices can donate non appropriated MSU Funds or Program Funds after PREF to support the NACAA AM/PIC.  Duke Elsner was challenged to reach the goal of 100 exhibitors at AM/PIC.  There are also opportunities for donors to sponsor trade talks and other industry sponsored events.  Phil urged educator to not worry about doubling up.  Keep on soliciting.    Two months from now, the NACAA Board will be held in GR and each committee chair will be giving an oral report on what has been done.

Fundraising is really the critical need at this point.  Stan talked about statewide donations and the list of potential donors is still available.  The time is limited.  Stan discussed the fundraising breakfast put on by Chuck Pistis.  Stan mentioned that he will be putting one on in Traverse City.    Don Nugent will both pay for the breakfast, but will also make the ask.  We want to see as many of the county Farm Bureaus support represented on the Donor List.      

X.     New Business

a.      NACAA Report-Stan Moore

Stan shared his gratitude at being selected to serve as the Regional director for North Central Region.  He’s made his way to Illinois and Iowa this fall so far, and many members have said that they will be coming to Michigan next summer.  Check out your info in the NACAA Member Database so your specialties are updated as well as other info.  This can be used as an e-mail conduit only if it is up to date.  Go to:  http://www.nacaa.com/members

Someone from the state leadership will put in individual committee assignments on the national website.  The green sheet (passed out at the meeting) gives a list of the current standing committees and the subcommittees.  We need to elect state chairs.  When you get elected to this position, send an email to the national chair just to let them know you are out there so they can catch you up.  

b.      Vests / Attire for GR AM/PIC

Does the host state wear a vest or hat?  It’s our choice.  Discussion ensued as to use of the Soybean Board support ($10K) for use toward a gift.  It was decided that we will put several models of vests on the web and we all will be able to vote by e-mail.  As Member gift, MAEA Members should provide feedback on the displayed items and we need to have some decisions made by January 1^st.

c.      Open floor for discussions

Dr. Larry Olsen’ s Comments:

Larry expressed his happiness to see everyone (mostly).  Larry expressed his gratefulness on working with Tom Coon.  Larry made a point of emphasizing that impact based programming is rising in importance.  Larry also sent a “subliminal” message saying that we may wish to ask for more support from the NACAA AM/PIC.  Larry praised Stan Moore about his article in the County Agent magazine. 

d.      Installation of Officers

Officers were installed.

XI.    Adjournment

B.J.  Bartlett Moved to adjourn the meeting, Jane Herbert seconded the motion.  Meeting was adjourned at 8:47 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Phillip L. Tocco, Secretary