Western District NCACAA - 5/17/2001 Minutes

Western District Meeting Minutes
May 17, 2001
Buncombe County Extension Center
Asheville, NC

Preliminaries

The meeting was called to order by President Alan Durden at 10:10 a.m. Alan thanked the Buncombe County staff for hosting the meeting. Due to the length of the Feb. minutes and the fact that they had been posted on the web and everyone had been encourage to read them prior to the meeting, John Dorner moved to dispense with the reading of the minutes and Gary Hyatt seconded. Motion passed. Johnny Hensley moved to accept the minutes as posted on the web and Tony McGaha seconded. The minutes were accepted as posted. The Treasurer's report was delayed until the treasurer arrived.

Old Business:

Event Liability Insurance: Alan reported that the State Assoc. is handling the event insurance and that everyone is covered. Nominating Committee Report: Stanley Holloway reported that the nominating committee had communicated via e-mail and telephone and came up with the following recommendation: President: Steve Duckett, Vice-President: Stanley Holloway, Secretary: Jeff Vance, and Treasurer: Ross Young. Kenneth McCaskill moved to accept the nominating committees recommendation. Gary Hyatt seconded the motion. The nominating committee's recommendation was accepted. The election of officers was held off until more members arrived. Award Nominating Committee Report: Johnny Hensley reported the committee had come up with the following recommendation: AA- Stanley Holloway, Young Agent- Randy Collins, DSA- Kenneth McCaskill, Kenneth Reeves, and Gary Hyatt as potential candidates. Gar y indicated that he was not interested. Service to Agriculture - Johnny asked for nominations from the floor for this award. Kenneth Reeves suggested Jesse Israel (Israel's Nursery) and Don Branam (Southern States) as potential nominees. Tom Harvey and Tony McGaha suggested Neil Stamey (NC Cattleman's Assoc., etc.) as possible nominee. After some discussion, Kenneth McCaskill moved to support Neil Stamey as our Service to Agriculture nomination. Kenneth Reeves seconded. The motion passed. Gary Hyatt moved to accept the Awards Nominating Committee's recommendation of; Stanley Holloway-AA, Randy Collins-Young Agent, Kenneth Reeves or Kenneth McCaskill-DSA, and Neil Stamey-Service to Agriculture. Kenneth Reeves seconded. Motion passed.

Treasurers Report: Treasurer, Ross Young presented his report. State meeting sponsorship received to date from Walter Earl amounted to $15,625, local district sponsorship to date amounted to $600, and registration fees received to date amounted to $7,165. Johnny mentioned that he had a sponsorship check from Carolina Farm Credit for $600 which brought the total monies received for the State Meeting to $23,990. Kenneth Reeves moved to accept the Treasurer's Report and to commend Ross on a job well done. Kenneth McCaskill seconded. The Treasurer's Report was accepted.

Pursell Pinnacle Award - Johnny Hensley mentioned this national award. One award of $5000 is given nationally, primarily based on humanitarian service outside of Extension. Bob Edwards received this award five years ago. The suggestion was ma de to support someone on the state level who was active in the hurricane relief efforts. After some discussion, Ben Chase was recommended. Johnny will contact the Awards Committee Chair in his District.

Johnny also mentioned that at the last state board meeting, it was decided that the money awarded for the state level Communication Awards would be essentially doubled. W. C. Bledsoe, retired agent, shared some previous experiences and encouraged every one to apply for these awards.

Scholarship Applications - Bill Skelton mentioned that scholarship applications are due to Bob Edwards, State Scholarship Committee Chair, by June 1, 2001. Anyone applying must have contributed $40 to the Scholarship Fund.

Election of 2001-2002 Officers: The Nominating Committee Reports was shared again with the suggested slate of: Pres.- Steve Duckett, Vice-Pres.- Stanley Holloway, Secr.- Jeff Vance, and Treas.- Ross Young. The floor was opened for further nominations. With no nominations from the floor, Frank Bolick moved to close the floor. Johnny Hensley seconded. Floor was closed for further nominations. Kenneth McCaskill moved to accept the recommended slate of officers by acclamation. Kenneth Reeves seconded. The slate of officers was approved.

New Business:

The issue was brought up that the State Assoc. is now paying the life members dues for retired agents and a 1 year subscription to the County Agent magazine. Recent retirees from the district include: Maurice McAllister, Steve West, and Tom Harvey. Alan Durden agreed to send their names to Nancy Keith for payment of their life members dues and magazine subscription.

State Board Meeting: Steve Duckett reported that Dr, Ort was in attendance and provided some discussion on the state budget situation. The State Gov. has a $1 billion deficit and $144 million is being cut from higher education and recurring money for agricultural programming. Twenty-nine individuals, statewide, expressed interest in the Discontinued Service Retirement offer. Of these 29 only 20 had taken the retirement option. This was fewer than the state had hoped for. Rick Wolfe, financial planner, was also in attendance and provided some discussion on municipal funds. Steve also reported that the potential dates for NC to host the 2008 National Meeting were presented. The dates were: July 13-17, 20-24, or 27-31 at Greensboro. Louisiana may be bidding against NC for the 2008 meeting. It was also mentioned that South Carolina may bid for the 2006 National Meeting. Dr's. Ort and Crickenberger led a discussion on the NCDA Regional Agronomists. Dr. Ort stated that any duplication of services between Regional Agronomists and Extension would not be tolerated in the state budget. CES and NCDA is looking into the agronomist positions to try to give them better, more defined direction in their job responsibilities and possibly ours.

Johnny Hensley reported that the State Board is supporting George Stancil for National Treasurer. They have committed $5,000 for campaigning. He also mentioned that there are three candidates for National V-P: Frank Fitzsimmons (SC), Kenneth Williams ( AL), and Perry Lee (MS). Kenneth Reeves brought up the issue that NC, while being the second largest Assoc. in the nation, has not had a National Pres. It was mentioned that NC is grooming two candidates for potential National V-P. and subsequent Pres . - George Stancil and Fred Miller.

Voting Delegate for 2001 National Meeting: Steve Duckett stated that he was not planning to attend this years meeting and could not serve as voting delegate. It was decided that the opportunity for voting delegate would follow down the officer chain and if no one plans to attend, then it would fall on one of the district members planning to attend. Stanley Holloway will serve as the 2001 voting delegate. There may be an issue of raising national dues to be voted on at this year's meeting.

Alan mentioned that NCACAA is having some input into the staffing patterns, etc. associated with the current budget situation. If any member has a question or comment concerning this should send it to Alan. He will forward to James Cochran, who will submit them to Dr. Ort. The CED's in attendance shared some helpful information concerning the current budget situation.

2001 State Meeting:

Current number are 130 agents, 40 spouses, and 28 children and guests are registered. A couple of the tours are low in planned attendance: Papermill - 13, Vegetable - 19. It was decided to utilize a 24 passenger bus for these tours, instead of the 5 7 passenger originally planned, and to use county vans for additional attendance if needed.

County vans available: Macon - 15 pas., Buncombe - 15 pas., Jackson - 15 pas., Henderson - 15 & 7 pas., and if needed MHCR&EC - 15 pas.

Linda Blue will facilitate transportation needs; however, the respective county is responsible for providing a driver for their van.

Buses needed: Wed.- three 57 pas. and one 24 pas. for tours and cookout. Thurs. - one 24 pas. for Retired Agents tour. Alan will go by bus co. to confirm and sign the contact.

Frank Bolick gave an update on Bob Breland's situation. Involved in a vehicle accident and still in bad shape. His 31 yr old son died instantly.

2001 State Meeting Committee Reports:

Tentative Van Assignments
	Buncombe	Macon	Jackson	Henderson
Tues.		NOC-rafting	Harrahs'	NOC-Rafting
Wed.	Cookout	Chimney Rock Cookout	Chimney Rock Cookout	Cookout
Thurs.	Mt. Air - if needed	History	Shopping	History (7)

Spouse and Youth - Kenneth McCaskill reported that the tours and activities have all been lined up. The History and Chimney Rock tours will be leaving with the Professional Improvement tours and will include a boxed lunch.

Transportation - Linda Blue reported she is facilitating the van schedule, see van assignment above. Anyone with transportation needs to get up with Linda.

Professional Improvement Tours - Steve Duckett reported he has sent the tour information to James Cochran for insurance purposes. Tour leaders are responsible for lining up any additional assistance needed. The tour rosters are available on the web at: www.lgosa.org/ncacaa/data/. The topic of tickets was brought up. It was decided that it would be nice to have color coded tickets for the tours and meals. The Registration Committee is to work on this. The issue of Foot and Mouth Disease was brought up concerning the livestock tours. It was suggested that plastic booties be purchased to wear on these tours and that announcement concerning FMD be placed in the registration packets. Steve is to compile this information and get to Alan and John.

Banquet Entertainment - frank Bolick reported that Orville Hicks has been contacted and booked for the event.

Offsite Meals and Entertainment - Gary Hyatt reported that everything is "good to go" concerning the cookout and that it will be within budget. He also reported that plans are to have sausage biscuits for the a.m. tours. Tony McGaha stated that he could get milk donated for bagged breakfast.

Registration - John Dorner reported that everything is going good to date. It was discussed as what to have for registration packets. After brief discussion, it was decided to use manila envelopes to conserve money. He stated that anyone who has information they would like to include in the registration packet to get it to John, Ross Young, or Terri Scruggs by June 11 if possible. Diane Ducharme volunteered to acquire maps of the Asheville area. Information to placed in the packets include: program, map to the cookout, map of the Asheville area, color coded tickets for meals and tours, and FMD statement.

Facilities - Kenneth Reeves stated that he needs to know the equipment needs of the speakers as soon as possible. It was recommended that we try to get the needed equipment from counties rather than from the motel due to associated charges. It was also brought up that four portable bull horns would be needed for the tours. Counties with a bull horn they can lend should let Ken know. The Facilities Committee recommended the following for meals: opening luncheon had $12.95 chicken plate budgeted, but suggest that we go with buffet style meal at $14.95 per person; for Thursday's lunch stay with the $12.95 chicken plate budgeted; for the Banquet, change from the $25.95 salmon budgeted to the $27.95 prime rib; and for the reception, lighten up on the hors d'oeuvres and use the excess money to help cover the increase in the banquet and buffet. Steve Duckett moved to go with the committee's recommendation with John Dorner seconding. The motion passed. Johnny Hensley mentioned that the State President suggested that one of the complimentary rooms be provided to the Regional Representative, Kenneth White from Texas, who will be attending the meeting. Johnny is to contact Mr. White to find out what his travel plans are and remind him that he needs to register for the meeting. Steve Duckett moved, Gary Hyatt second, to provide Mr. White with a complimentary room for Tues., Wed., and Thurs. nights. The motion passed. Johnny also reported that Walter Earle had indicated 5-6 tables would be needed for sponsors. Johnny is to double check with Walter and get back with Kenneth on the actual number of tables needed.

Professional Improvement Sessions - Johnny reported that he and Tony need to check with presenters on equipment needs and get back to Kenneth. He also reported that Dr. Gary Moore indicated that he would join us for lunch.

Hospitality and Special Events - Phillip Hedden reported that the Early Bird activities were taken care of. He then raised the question on how to handle purchases and reimbursement for the hospitality room. Ross Young also shared some concern over which accounts to write these checks from. Johnny Hensley suggested that he utilize the money raised from registrations and state donations to pay all bills. If this account becomes deficient, then utilize the money raised in the district. Kenneth McCaskill moved to allow Ross to work with individual committee chairs, that committee chairs come to Ross with an estimate of dollars needed, returning receipts for dollars spent and any excess left or receipts for any money lacking, or come to Ross with a request for exact dollars to a specific business. Steve Duckett seconded. Motion passed. Phillip also reported that they will need large coffee pots for the hospitality room and will need additional help on Thursday. Alan suggested that the committee go through the membership list and ask for assistance. Phillip reported that Skyland Distributing and Pepsi had been contacted to donate products. The question was raised about Association policy of not serving alcohol on Tues., but what if it is donated. After brief discussion, Tom Harvey moved, Bill Skelton Second, to stay with tradition and not serve alcohol from the hospitality room before Wed. afternoon. Motion passed.

Local Fundraising - Johnny Hensley reminded everyone that each county is to come up with 3 door prizes, 1 or two of which should be at least $25 value or more and that each agent to solicit money for district sponsorship. Alan will send out a message to the district reminding them of this and mentioned that he has the non-profit designation for the State Association if needed. Terri Scruggs suggested that each county try to get at least one hand crafted door prize from their county.

Program and Professional Improvement - Johnny Hensley asked those in attendance about the preferred layout for the program. Most everyone agreed they would prefer the one page layout similar to last year's.

Retired Agent Activities - Johnny reported that Jim Ray's plans were for the retired agents to enjoy a leisurely day with lunch at Mtn Air. Currently, we don't have anyone facilitating the event. Johnny stated he would try to get someone to take it over.

Invitees - There was some discussion on the topic of who to invite from outside the Assoc. It was decided that administration, consisting of DED's, Dr. Ort, Dr. Zublena, Dr. Crickenberger, and Dr, Ed Jones, needed to be made aware of the meeting. Alan will contact James Cochran regarding this.

Contracts - Alan reminded everyone that contracts will need to be signed as the deadlines arise. John Dorner reported he would cut off the Registration web page when the meal deadline is met. Kenneth Reeves will find out this date and let Alan and John know. Alan will send an e-mail reminder of the date to members.

Host Ribbons - The Registration Committee reported they would take care of it.

Door Prizes - Bill Skelton reminded everyone to be sure and tag each door prize with the donor and county and that they need to be dropped off at the Hospitality Room at the beginning of the meeting.

With no further business, Steve Duckett moved, John Dorner second, to adjourn. The meeting adjourned at 2;45 pm.

Members in Attendance: Jeff Vance, Gary Hyatt, Kenneth McCaskill, Terri Scruggs, Tony McGaha, Phillip Hedden, John Dorner, Johnny Hensley, Alan Durden, Steve Duckett, Stanley Holloway, Bill Skelton, Chris Talley, Kenneth Reeves, Linda Blue, Ross Young, Diane Ducharme, Frank Bolick, Tom Harvey.