Board Meeting Minutes - March 10, 2006

SCACAA Board Meeting
March 10, 2006

Members Present:
Andy Rollins, Carlin Munnerlyn, Tim Davis, Greg Harvey, Mark Arena, Bob Bett, Russell Duncan, Elwyn Deal, Joe Varn

Call to Order:
Andy Rollins called the meeting to order at 10:05 am. He thanked everyone for coming,

Secretary’s Report:
Minutes were e-mailed to Board members, changes were made and the minutes were posted on the SCACAA website.

Treasures Report:
Mark Arena presented the treasures report and the checking account balance was 7,260.69. Checks were mailed to the national association for membership and the national association was contacted for verification of checks received.

Frank Fitzsimons mailed 75.00 to the SCACAA for life member dues. Life member dues are only 50.00. Elwyn Deal suggested that the national association be contacted and 50.00 dollars be mailed to for life membership and 10.00 for County Agents magazine. Then contact Frank Fitzsimmons to determine what to do with the balance of 15.00. Joe Varn will make the contacts.

Andy Rollins called for the motion to approve the treasurer report. Bob Bett moves the minutes be accepted, motion seconded by Greg Harvey, motion carried.

Membership:
Joe Varn presented the report giving the final membership count of 75.

Board members discussed reasons why it was so hard to get new members or get former member to re-join. Tim Davis made an effort to get new employees to join. He e-mailed Dr, Pinkerton and asked him to forward membership information to new employees.

Board members then discussed options to get new members:

  1. Waive first year membership fees for new members.
  2. Invite specialists to Annual meeting.
  3. Some how come up with a campus presence.
  4. Continue to present programs like the Ag Industry Up-date.
  5. Invite politicians to Annual Meeting.
  6. Keep SCACAA visible throughout the year, not just around membership deadline or Annual Meeting.

Plans for AM/PIC:
Brian Callahan e-mailed Annual Meeting report to Andy Rollins.

  1. We do have a contract for the rooms and he needs approval to finalize.
  2. BMW tour has been cancelled. The assembly line is not in operation at that time of year but BMW did offer to show a video.

In his report, Brian Callahan did ask for suggestions from the board. The Board suggested the following:

  1. Forestry research tour.
  2. Apparel Research center – Introduction to Textiles.
  3. Biotechnology Center.
  4. Tour the football stadium and turf research.
  5. Water quality
  6. Tour of the Walker Course.

Andy Rollins asked Tim Davis to call Brain Callahan and see what he needs help with. Tim Davis will give a formal invitation to specialists to Annual Meeting and also contact Brian Callahan and check on final plans for Annual Meeting to include the following:

  1. Is he planning a program to include presentations from specialists and Tim Davis will assist.
  2. Tim Davis will find out details concerning the reception.
  3. Tim Davis will also pass on the Board’s ideas about tours and keeping the tours close to campus.

The Board discussed the registration form:

  1. If there are two tours, then there needs to be a place for signing up for each tour.
  2. There needs to be a description of each tour.
  3. Tour, social, and dinner need to be on separate lines. (this will aid in planning)

Elwyn Deal made the suggestion to invite all ag agents and specialists to annual meeting maybe to increase membership.

Other comments and suggestions:

  1. Possibly change registration form stating members 60.00 and non-member 70.00.
  2. If non-members are invited, their registration costs should cover the entire meeting.
  3. Invite specialists and administration to social but the remainder of the annual meeting will be for members only.
  4. Invite everyone, not many non-members will come anyway.
  5. Is there really a need for separate registration fees for members and non-member? Consensus was to keep all registration fees the same for everyone

Life Members:
Elwyn Deal said that he tried to keep life members informed as much as possible because some life members like to attend meetings. Elwyn Deal remains on the Clemson faculty mailing list and when relevant information is received; it is passed on to life members especially those life members with e-mail. Elwyn Deal is also on the retiree distribution list and also passes along relevant information when it is received from Mary Harvey. His main goal is to keep information going to life members and keep that information as current as possible.

Fund Raising:
Letters will be mailed out week after next requesting funds.

JCEP:
Bob Bett said that there was good representation from all states and he thought it was a good meeting. (His typed report was included in the Presidents handouts). Andy Rollins said Agents from Katrina area continue to thank us and all whom aided them.

The board continued with a general discussion about JCEP.

4-h Excellence Award:
Robin Currence e-mailed a report to Andy Rollins and he presented the information. Robin is making a request for a 4-h excellence award and funding. Originally award money would be 30.00 for first place, 20.00 for second place, and 10.00 for third place and she would use money from local 4-h account. Her plan now is to increase award money to: 75.00 for first place, 50.00 for second place, and 25 for third place, total of 150.00. She is asking that SCACAA fund 75.00 of the award money and she will ask the 4-h association to fund the other 75.00.

Eligibility: All members of SCACAA with 4-h and youth development programs and are in good standings with their state association may be considered for the award.

The Board discussed the request.

  1. Are there other options for funding?
  2. There are 8 excellence awards categories, will they ask for funding? And do we want that obligation?
  3. This is a good opportunity for more involvement in SCACAA.

Bob Bett made the motion that the board fund 75.00 to the 4-h excellence award contingent upon the 4-h association funding 75.00. The funding would be for this year only and will be reviewed annually. Mark Arena seconded the motion, motion carried.

Retirement Event:
Jesse Eargle has asked SCACAA to provide a cash bar (beer and wine) on June 22nd, 2006. Russell Duncan is a member of the retirement planning committee and when the final numbers are known, he will let the board know.

Andy Rollins and Greg Harvey volunteered to help at the event. Greg Harvey will ask John Oxner to assist since he lives in the area.

Tables are needed and Joe Varn has the association coolers. Others volunteered the use of their coolers.

Hall of Fame:
Names suggested are Billy Witherspoon, Frank Fitzsimmons, and Jesse Eargle. Support for Billy Witherspoon came from the board.

Raymond Sligh spoke with Jesse Eargle and Frank Fitzsimmons and they both felt that Billy Witherspoon would be the best recipient for the award.

Pesticide Award:
Bob Bellinger will continue to sponsor the award. The deadline is April 15, 2006.

Attendance at Board Meetings:
Andy Rollins started discussion by saying that attendance is poor and needs to improve.

Tim Davis made the following suggestions:

  1. Remote meetings
    1. Polycom
    2. Telephone conference
  2. More consistent reminders of meetings
    1. 2 weeks in advance
    2. Agenda to be mailed earlier

The board then discussed the above suggestions and the following comments are from the board:

  1. Directors should be reminded of their commitments.
  2. Directors should be approached and reminded, but do the reminding in a positive way
  3. Committees should be re-evaluated, to determine their purpose.
  4. Committee chairs and board members should review policy manual.
  5. Directors should be reminded of their duties: example assisting with the annual meeting
  6. Committee chairs should be required to attend two board meetings via conference call and give valid committee reports.
  7. Appoint council chairs as done at the national level and have the council chair give multiple reports.
  8. Find new ways to get committees and committee chairs involved.
  9. Have a committee workshop in September to reguvinate committee chairs.
  10. Request committee chairs to have a report ready for annual meeting.

Nominating Committee: Greg Harvey has the job to come up with a slate of officers, a director for each region, and a vice president. Greg Harvey can name a nominating committee to come up with names for nomination. Greg Harvey would like to see the entire boards get involved in the nominating process. He said that he wanted current directors to choose a replacement for their region. Seek out folks that are interested and forward their names on to him. He will send out an e-mail with that request and if there is more than one nominee, then a vote will be held.

Greg Harvey asked the board their thoughts on asking current directors to seek interested individuals to nominate for their region….the response, that’s reasonable. He then asked the board’s thoughts on using the entire board as a nominating committee for vice-president….the response, I think that works.

General discussion among board members to include the following topics:

  1. Committee rotations
  2. Duties of committee chairs
  3. Duties of board members
  4. Committee workshop
  5. Officer workshop
  6. Improving image of SCACAA

Greg Harvey - Member Benefits:
He felt that Industry Update meeting was good. Members of SCACAA, specialists, and non-members were invited to attend. The evaluations were positive. Greg Harvey thought that the meeting was a good opportunity for agents and specialists to get together and have an educational program at the same time.

Plans are to continue in this direction with the following ideas being suggested:

  1. Precision technologies
  2. Soil Nutrition
  3. Turf Management
  4. Get committee chairs involved

Elwyn Deal:
He will send out list server information to Board members. He then commented on a book written Bill Funches, “Korean POW 1,000 days of torment”.

Next Meeting:
The next meeting will be held on Tuesday April 18th, 2006. The time will be 10:00 am until 12:00 noon via telephone conference. The primary focus of the meeting is to finalize the Annual Meeting.

Andy Rollins will contact Theresa Kelly to set up the telephone conference. Andy Rollins will also contact Brian Callahan about the April 18th meeting.

Adjournment:
With no further business, Tim Davis made the motion to adjourn; motion was seconded by Mark Arena.

Respectfully submitted by,
Joe E. Varn, Jr.
Secretary