NCCAA Western District Meeting Minutes

October 25^th, 2007

Watuaga County Extension Center

 

Call to order:  Meeting brought to order at 10:45 am by Pres. Silas Brown

 

Attendance:  John Dorner, Adam Keener, Jeff Vance, Jerry Moody, Tammara Cole, David Kendall, Silas Brown, Stanley Holloway, Tony McGaha, Amanda Stone, Elizabeth Ayers, Ross Young, Diane Turner, Bill Skelton, Skip Thompson, and Tim Mathews. 

 

Minutes:  The minutes from the previous meeting (05/31/2007) were distributed via email to the email list.  Callie Birdsell made a motion to approve the minutes as posted. The motion was seconded by Bill Skelton, and the minutes were approved as emailed.

 

Treasurers Report:  Tammara Cole provided a written summary of accounts.  A balance of $699.59 in checking; $5,629.13 in the money market account; and $34.227 in the shares account.

 

Old Business: 

 

2007 National Meeting:  Everyone who attended the 2007 National meeting in Grand Rapids stated they enjoyed the meeting and felt it was well done.

 

2007 State Meeting:  A motion was passed at the 2007 State meeting to have out 2008 State meeting 2 days before the National Meeting in Greensboro. 

 

State Board Meeting and Federation Board Meeting Update:  Provided by Stanley Holloway

 

 

Ed Jones gave an administrative update at the State Board Meeting regarding the following topics. 

• Extensions drought response

• Environmental scan results – he is hoping to help reduce the number of objectives we report under

• Do we really need Farm Income Estimates?  - Most county directors present felt that they used them often.

• Travel budget has been reduced by 25%

• Budget must be reduced by 2.5 million over next 2 years through closing positions

• Districts have been reduced to six, Bill Skelton stated that he thought our by-laws may state that associations are required to follow boundary lines set by Extension Administrative Districts. 

• State Meetings Update:

• South Central district suggested there should be guidelines for districts hosting the state meeting.  Some meetings have gotten really expensive. 

 

2008 National Meeting Update:

• 2008 National Meeting chairs are meeting this month to talk about the meeting budget.   A reminder was given that all agents are responsible to provide $1000.  Ray Harris is in charge of the labor pool; please contact him if you need a job for the Greensboro meeting.  WIKI site has all committees listed, please sign up for a committee if you are not already on one. 

• Registration for the 2008 National Meeting will be in the March 2008 edition of the County Agent Magazine.  Currently there are 33 or 34 tours, but will be reduced after registration numbers are in. 

• Kelly Groves, chair of decoration committee, needs commodities from all areas of NC to be used as table decorations. 

           

Other updates: 

• Lennie Rogers’s wife died recently, a trust fund has been set up in her honor.  Ross suggested we pass the hat today to take donations.   $92.00 was collected today. 

• We now have a new state Vice President, due to a mix-up Joey Knight has stepped down and Kelly Groves is now the VP. 

           

Faculty Senate Meeting Update:

• Joe Zublena would like all field faculty represented in the Faculty Senate; however, they stated that we were excluded.  Gary Moore, representative of Faculty Senate, may come to explain more about who they are. 

• The Federation has a Leadership and Service Recognition Award due to Christine Barrier (ccbarrier@cabarruscounty.us) by Nov. 1.  Winner will receive a plaque and 50.00 gift card.  Presentation will be made in Cabarrus County on December 14^th at the NC Research Campus. 

• The Federation is calling for questions, send these to Gary Pierce. 

• The Agent vs. Educator debate is still on.  We need to make sure we have enough voting delegates at the forum to vote accordingly. 

 

New Business:

2008 Meeting:

• We need to present a tentative agenda by January.  A planning committee was assigned of Silas Brown, Bill Skelton, Tammara Cole, Skip Thompson, John Dorner, and Diane Turner.  This committee will meet and discuss agenda. 

• All members present concluded that we need to have communication awards, business meeting, and an awards banquet with officer installation. 

• Meals will be the most expensive cost for the meeting.  State VP usually raises money for the state meeting. 

• Do we need space for sponsor displays?  We typically have only had a few displays in the past.

• A $50.00 registration fee was discussed by the State Board, but Stanley recommended that we should not charge a fee for children and spouses unless we have planned activities.  He also would like to see the fee less than $50.00.   John recommended we have activities for kids, and Stanley recommended we could have a tour or shopping for spouses.  Ross agreed to coordinate a pizza and pool party. 

• We need an estimate of attendees to the 2008 State meeting.  We polled our district and 80% of those in attendance thought they would attend.  Other districts will be polled in the future. 

• Meeting registration goes through our district and sponsorship goes through the state association. 

• Each district needs to supply two quality door prizes, 1 = $50.00 and 1 = $100.00.  Tammara suggested a handmade Cherokee basket for donation, and Callie Birdsell suggested bringing a Nascar product or other local products.  Jerry Moody suggested bringing a mail order Christmas tree.  If anyone has other ideas, please email Silas. 

 

2008 State Award Nominations:

• DSA – Skip Thompson

• AA – Silas Brown

• Young Agent Scholarship – Elizabeth Ayers

 

Tammara Cole updated the retired agent list and requested that Reagan Ammons be added to our mail out list. 

 

Our next meeting will be held in January 24^th in Henderson County.