NACDEP Board Meeting Minutes
February 18, 2005

Present
Cindy Biggar
Bo Beaulieu
John Burton
Hank Cothran
Steve Daniels
Al Kowitz
Rick Maurer
Sally Maggard
Chris Sevrides
Julie Stewart
Deborah Tootle
Kathy Tweeten
Walt Whitmer

Welcome
Kathy Tweeten called the meeting to order. Steve Daniels reviewed the minutes from 2/15/05. Motion to accept approved (Cothran/Whitmer). Hank Cothran provided a treasurer's report and reiterated that we will not know how much money we have until the conference finances are finalized. A motion was made to accept the Treasurers' report. Motion approved (Cothran/Tootle). A motion was made for the Treasurer to open up a checking account. Motion approved (Cothran/Sevrides).

The Board agreed to meet via conference call every second Friday of each month at 10:00 CST. The meetings for the rest of the year are: March 11, April 8, May 13,
June 10, July 8, August 12, September 9, Oct 14, Nov 11, and Dec 9.

Standard Committee Reports
Each committee needs to develop a work plan for the year and all committee chairs need to send in their committee reports to the Secretary.

2005 Conference Committee
Jeri Marxman reported on process and talked about how it was a learning process. Cindy Biggar asked for feedback from the track chairs. Conference evaluation will be on-line. Chris Sevrides brought up the issue of tracking presentations more efficiently as presentations and workshops were not clearly identified. The conference committee will work on this.

2006 Conference Committee
Cindy Biggar reported on the committee's discussion and the development of criteria for site selection.

Marketing and Outreaching Committee
No Report.

Membership Committee (New name - Membership Services Committee)
Steve Daniels reported on the guidelines for the list serve. Any committee that wants to start a list serve should talk with Julie Stewart. The question of the role of the membership services committee as opposed to a membership committee emerged in the discussion, as well as the issue of whose responsibility it is to keep the membership rolls. The by-laws state that the Secretary keeps the membership rolls. SRDC currently has the most up-to-date membership list. Hank Cothran will look at how other organizations keep this information. In the meantime, the Board decided that the Secretary and the Treasurer need to work very closely on this task.

Awards Committee (New name - Recognition Committee)
No Report.

Resolutions and Policy Committee
No Report

Audit Committee
Al Kowitz reported on the audit process. Funds must first go to NACDEP bank account and the board needs to decide how to use the funds from the conference. The Treasurer will send a request to the Conference Committee Chairs (John Burton and Jeri Marxmann) to start the reporting process. The audit committee will review the report. The Board discussed whether Board members need to be bonded. Board members should be covered by the liability insurance of the organization. Hank Cothran will do some research on this and bring the information back to the board. Deborah Tootle will talk with JCEP and some insurance companies about liability insurance.

Nominating Committee
The nominating committee reported they will use a similar process as the process used in 2004 to solicit nominations and asked for participation from membership in the NE.

Special Committee Reports
The JCEP motion approved at the 2/15/05 Business meeting authorized the Board to approve JCEP affiliation. The Committee will begin to draft the proposal. Sharon Hoelscher (JCEP) had suggested one of us should attend next JCEP meeting to clarify. Walt Whitmer feels we cannot submit the proposal until we make the necessary changes in the by-laws. We will not be ready by their next meeting in June but we probably need to send someone to the meeting.

Task Force Report

CSREES Update
Sally Maggard reported that Colleen Heffernan will entertain proposals on the strategic planning process. Discussion centered on the Board developing a better understanding of what our role should be in this process. Cindy Biggar reported that 4-H does strategic planning with CSREES. A motion was made to take ownership (issue report) of CSREES strategic plan for CRD. Motion approved (Cothran/Sevrides). However, the questions of budget and financial obligations for this process were raised and a decision was made to table the motion until we have more information on financing of strategic plan. Sally will draft a budget and submit it to Colleen.

Old Business
Public Issues Proposal: Steve Daniels reported that the public issues education team would like to use listserv to announce the public issues education survey; the survey would not be identified as a NACDEP survey.

Executive Management Proposal (RSS): Bo Beaulieu presented proposal partnership with RSS. The Board made a decision to create an organizational services task force to form guidelines for addressing executive management issues and to determine what we need from executive manager. The task force consists of Walt Whitmer, John Burton, Hank Cothran and Julie Stewart. RRDCs volunteered to help with different administrative tasks so that we have help in the short run.

Other: Kathy Tweeten suggested that timelines for committee charters, by-law changes, role of regional representatives needs to be fleshed out. The board decided on 3 months. Kathy asked Rick Maurer to chair a meeting of regional representatives to more clearly define their roles. He will start process by e-mail and then put together conference call.

New Business
Proposed by-law changes (new): Jeri Marxman is assembling a list of by-laws questions. There is some confusion over what/who constitutes the Board. The Board consists of elected officials, the past president and committee chairs. We will need to clarify this in the by-laws. We will also continue inviting RRDC and CSREES liaisons to our board meetings until we draft a procedure for the by-laws.

Call schedule for coming year: The Board agreed to meet via conference call every second Friday of each month at 10:00 CST. The meetings for the rest of the year are: March 11, April 8, May 13, June 10, July 8, August 12, September 9, Oct 14, Nov 11, and Dec 9.

Next Conference Call
March 11, 2005, 10:00 a.m. Central