Present:
John Amrhein, Ohio State University
Bo Beaulieu, Southern Rural Development Center
Pam Hearn, Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development
Rod Howe, Cornell University
Sally Maggard, CSREES
Jeri Marxman, University of Illinois
Julie Stewart, North Central Regional Center for Rural Development
Bonnie Teater, Southern Rural Development Center
Mike Woods, Oklahoma State University
Walt Whitmer, Pennsylvania State University

Walt Whitmer presided at the meeting.

May 14, 2004
Minutes were approved from the May 14 conference call (Approved by consensus)

CSREES Funding
Sally Maggard reported that CSREES would be supporting $5,300 available for the NACDEP conference in 2005 from FY2004 money. She indicated that there may not be money available from next fiscal year's money. She recommended that the support should stay at the SRDC. The group agreed by consensus.

2005 Conference Committee
John Burton reported that they had determined a fee for the meeting $165 that would cover meals, breaks, some screens, meeting room and includes 15% cushion. This does not include promotion materials or costs from the North Central Center. It does not include any speaker costs. Julie Stewart indicated that during the last Conference Committee meeting, the Committee is looking at a possible registration fee including all expenses at $200. This fee is based on 200 people. Conference is from Tuesday night through Friday at lunch. It includes reception, breakfasts for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, two luncheons, and breaks. Hotel room rates are $69 per night plus tax. The group agreed on a rate of $185/$200 (Approved: Beaulieu/Woods). The Conference Committee will also have an "early bird" registration fee November 1, and a cut-off of January 14. .

Conference Flyers have been prepared for the conference Electronic flyers will be available next week for the website.

Database Committee
Julie Stewart reported that the group is working on cleaning up the database. She agreed to send the database out for further refinement. There will be only one database, but eventually two listservs-- one for everyone that may have an interest, and another listserv for members only.

There was discussion about the difference between CRED and NACDEP and Julie Stewart indicated that there are some persons out in the regions that are not sure of the differences between the two organizations. It was the consensus of the group to integrate CRED into the NACDEP website and eliminate the CRED website.

Membership Committee
The group will meet to further discuss the lifetime membership fee.

Treasurer's Report
Mike Woods indicated that we have already started accepting memberships and plans are underway for recruiting membership and allowing individuals to access electronically.

Nominating Committee
No Report.

Marketing Committee
Some issues were discussed that Walt will communicate with Rod Howe who was not present on the call during this report. Topics included were:
1. Categorization of things you might want NACDEP to provide in addition to asking what areas of work (to be coordinated with database).
2. Design of the brochure;
3. Timeline for brochure development, and
4. Linkage to CRED. It was also suggested that perhaps an online brochure seeking membership should be prepared quickly to solicit members prior to the deadlines for the Call for Presentation for the 2005 conference. The group also discussed the relationship with JCEP and the fact that a statement of future efforts to become affiliated with JCEP should be included.

Next Conference Call
July 9, 2004
10:00 a.m. Central
662-325-8448