NCACAA Board Meeting
Minutes
June 22, 2000
Fayetteville, NC
Rett Davis called the meeting to order.
Those attending were: Billy Dunham, Fred Miller, Johnny Hensley, Nancy Keith, Rett Davis, Lisa Wimpfheimer, James Cochran, Gerda Rhodes, Sheila Jordan, Marjorie Rayburn, Kevin Starr, Lenny Rogers, Art Bradley, Freddie O'Neal, John Dorner, Richard Melton, Cyndi Lauderdale.
Program Assistants, Associates, and Technicians Association
Rett received a letter from Harriet Edwards, Extension Staff Associate, 4-H via Sandy Wiggins. The administrative council has approved the formation of an association for program assistants, program associates, and technicians employed by Cooperative Extension. The first annual meeting is August 29-31, 2000 at the Radisson in High Point. They have a budget for their first annual meeting. They have asked us for a minimum contribution of $1,000 that will assist in the procurement of a keynote speaker that their budget cannot currently support. A contribution of $2000 would sponsor breakfast one morning for conference participants.
The estimated cost of their annual meeting is $13,400. Projected registration income is $12,800. The registration covers all but $600. The registration estimate figures on 125 program assistants at $75 each. Sandra Wiggins indicated that they gave them $500 (the Federation?). Lisa moved that we give them $200 towards their first meeting. James seconded it. Someone asked about the proportion of the assistants who were ag assistants versus those in other areas. James indicated that there were very few ag assistants - mostly through A&T. He thought there were about six left in the state.
Other associations are also being asked to contribute. The check is to be made out to the NC 4-H Club Account. Marjorie suggested a contribution of $500. Their registration fee is fairly high considering they are relatively low salaried and in some cases 30 hour per week positions. Gerda asked if some were getting their registration paid by someone else (the county, or A&T). If individuals have to pay their own registration, some of them won't go.
Rett indicated that the letter said -"it is our goal to be as inclusive as possible, understanding that some of these individuals are being paid from funding sources that do not allocate funds to cover this type of activity. We are asking for this monetary contribution to help this new association get off to a solid start." Marjorie indicated that it would be nice if they had a little money left over after the meeting to function as an organization (pay board member travel, etc.). Since it is a new organization, no one knows how well it will work. Lenny added that a contribution of $200 sounds a little low. We did give the secretaries association $200 for their meeting last year, but they were an on-going association, not just starting up. Marjorie offered an amendment to the motion - to give $500 rather than $200. Nancy suggested sponsoring their hospitality suite for the $500. We could put up a sign saying the hospitality was sponsored by the NC Association of County Ag Agents. Marjorie accepted Nancy's suggestion and amended her amendment to stipulate that we contribute the $500 and designate it to sponsor the hospitality at that meeting with recognition that it is sponsored by the ag agents. The vote on the amendment to the amendment (contribute to the hospitality) passed with one opposed. The vote on the amended motion (that we give $500 instead of $200) passed. There were two votes opposed.
George Stancil for NACAA treasurer campaign
Billy expressed concern about getting a campaign going in only two months. Last time we ran a national campaign we worked on it for two years. Billy asked if we were going to be serious about the campaign or just put George on the ballot. Since there was only one person running - from Nebraska- those supporting running George for treasurer thought they could slip one in from the South and win. James thought they figured they had the votes and the person from Nebraska had no name recognition. Billy indicated that he was not against it, but we have to decide who is going to be the campaign manager and put everything together.
Rett asked those questions of Bob Edwards - with less than six weeks, who is going to do the work physically - who's going to get the banners made, who's going to do the PR stuff, who's going to do the mailing, who's going to do all this, who's going to contact Mr. Fitzsimmons? Billy indicated that every voting delegate in the nation needs a brochure. Johnny commented that it was late, and we needed to decide if we were going to do it in name or "whole hog". Maybe we shouldn't try to go whole hog. Billy stressed that we need to get a brochure in the mail to every voting delegate in the nation because they know who they are going to vote for before they get to the meeting. It is up to George and his campaign managers to do that.
The Board will foot the bill. We have to decide how much we are going to put into it. According to Nancy, we spent $2443.78 on Ken Bateman's Campaign in one year. But we worked on that for three years. We asked for contributions from the districts and individuals for Ken's campaign, but there is no way we can do that this time.
Kevin said that it should be up to the people who proposed running George to come up with a plan to get things done. That should not be up to us. Gerda proposed that Phil Ricks should be the campaign manager since he proposed running George. The Board will not be meeting again until October, unless we call a special meeting. The amount of money needed was discussed. One of the ideas was to combine the Sunday night hospitality at the National Meeting (which were doing anyway) with a hospitality for George. Rett indicated that they were planning on riding in on the hospitality that James is planning to promote North Carolina.
Fred Miller indicated that South Carolina agents offered (at the PILD conference) to share the hospitality with us to support running a candidate from the South for the treasurer position. Fred wasn't sure they were willing to follow through with that at this late date.
Gerda mentioned that it is too late to talk George out of running. There was a vote taken that supported George and we need to commit to doing something. "They are already writing up stuff." If Phil Ricks is the one pushing for running George, he needs to accept responsibility of campaign manager.
Rett indicated they had not come to him with a request for any campaign money. (Maybe they don't realize they have to have any.) Fred said that Kenneth Williams indicated he knew of no one from the Southern Region who had planned to run for NACAA treasurer. We have a good chance if we carry the South. They will vote for a southern candidate unless there's something wrong with him. There's nothing wrong with George. George would be a good person for the job. We can approve a modest amount for the campaign and "let them go." This may be an opportunity (there's little opposition).
Kenneth thought it was 30 days before the meeting - to declare candidacy. So, we have a little time.
James suggested that Phil Ricks be campaign chair and that we help with the campaign financially. Rett suggested we put in an amount they can spend. Someone suggested $1500. Billy indicated that since we were going to put $3000 in the hospitality for Sunday night to promote North Carolina, we won't have to put on a separate hospitality. Johnny indicated they needed money to prepare handouts and other materials. If we are also going to do a hospitality room on Monday night to promote George, we need the cost of the room, so that would be another expense. Billy moved that we appropriate up to $1500 for George Stancil's campaign, and that the President see that the campaign chairperson gets it. Gerda seconded the motion. It was asked if they need more than $1500. Rett indicated that it would be up to George to come up with the campaign - he can get volunteers to help. We'll be there, we have to be behind him. Billy said the board will help in any way we can. Gerda said that the voting delegates going to Mississippi have leverage and can promote George's candidacy. That should be enough money. The question is if there is enough time to get a campaign going. Our entire delegation will help. The motion passed.
Frozen Drink Machine
James indicated that we can't rent those machines. The machine we have at the state meeting is a demo. That machine costs $2600 new. Another one would cost a little over $3000. We were looking for something to use to promote 2008 and to use until then. It is a frozen daiquiri machine/frozen drink machine. There is a continuous machine and batch machine. You could make batches and put them in freezer.
Someone asked if we doing ice cream Sunday night at the National Meeting or just hospitality. James indicated we were doing drinks and North Carolina products - sweet potato chips, peanuts, etc. We could also do ice cream. It went really well in Vermont. Sunday in Mississippi we are doing the social and refreshments after vespers. Kevin indicated he would rather buy something consumable rather than equipment. Johnny said that machines go down quicker if not regularly used.
Award Recommendations
Johnny recommended we go ahead and double all the "breakfast awards" Lisa seconded it. That would be fine except that we had already agreed to appoint a committee and told the membership there would be a committee to study it. The committee should at least study it before we approve it. Let the committee work and do it later. Billy moved we table the motion. Kevin seconded it. The motion to table passed.
NACAA National Meeting - Jackson, Mississippi
Fred suggested It would be nice to get a list of those going to the national meeting so we have a list of people to help with the campaign and other things. We need to have a sign up sheet. Marjorie started a sign up sheet around the table for those present. Others could be added later.
Scholarship Contribution
Bob Edwards requested a scholarship contribution of $500 from the NCACAA trust fund to the national scholarship fund. He also asked for each district to contribute $25.00 or make a donation to the scholarship auction. It was asked who that would benefit. Contributions should be up to individual agents. There were only three districts who responded to Bob's request. Some districts contribute to the scholarship fund in other ways - by paying a portion of each agents scholarship contribution, for example (the Northeast).
Record Keeping, contributions to other associations, etc.
Kevin suggested we needed a coordinated system to look at all these requests for money, especially requests from other associations. It would be nice to have a list of what we have done and what we are committed to do. It would be nice to have requests further in advance.
Cyndi said that the information on the trust fund is out and that may not be a good thing. The $500 scholarship fund request was for Ag Agents. The money we have should be spent on us, but if there is any extra, it should be spent outside. It concerned Cyndi that we had to set up a committee to look at increasing award amounts and looking at the scholarship when that is money for us. Gerda pointed out that there were so many thoughts about what to do with the awards and if we knew how the scholarship would be designated, then we could have decided something.
Cyndi suggested that maybe spending a lot of money (like the contribution to the secretaries association) should be brought up in the general meeting and it decided there. Gerda indicated that the secretaries have no resources. Cyndi pointed out that when they did have some money (last year) they didn't keep their own money. They decided to give it to the Family and Consumer Science agents for their meeting. Then they come to us and we give it to them. There needs to be some kind of policy in place to help us make that decision. We have too many people asking us for money and it is harder and harder to get money for our own meeting. Kevin indicated we need to think about fairness. The Ag agents are a foundation of a lot of what goes on in Extension. Gerda said she was not against giving money to other associations, but we need to be aware of how much we are giving. Ag agents should be priority. Kevin said that regarding the request for the scholarship fund - we don't have enough information on how much is needed or that they don't have enough money currently.
Expenses
Johnny indicated that he and Nancy had been looking at our expenditures and what we had talked about giving - we need to ask Everette to transfer from Board Savings about $14,000. Some of the money needed is for awards and to send delegates to the national meeting - that would come out of Charlotte '88 funds. Other expenses such as supporting the secretaries association and George Stancil's campaign would come from Board savings. We had previously authorized spending up to $3000 for hospitality, but didn't specify where that money should come from. After further discussion we agreed we needed to ask Everette to transfer the necessary amount from the appropriate trust funds to Nancy to take care of present and near-term future expenses and whatever else we had agreed to support. It was also pointed out that with our investments performing as they are, it won't take long to make up for the money we are putting out.
The meeting was adjourned.
Respectfully submitted by Marjorie Rayburn, NCACAA Secretary