Approved Minutes of the State Board of Agricultural Research
State Board of Agricultural Research
Minutes - September 22, 1997
Dickinson, North Dakota
The State Board of Agricultural Research met September 22, 1997 in Dickinson, North Dakota at the Hospitality Inn beginning at 8 a.m. Members present were: Sharon Anderson, Tom Archbold, Ryan Brooks, Tim Bryan, Sylvia Daws, Jerry Doan, Jody Hauge, George Heller, Pat Jensen, Burdell Johnson, Patrice Eblen for Roger Johnson, Shirley Meyer, Bob Nowatzki, Tom Plough, Dale Reimers, Robert Todd, and Mark Weber. Others attending the meeting were: Ken Bertsch, Mark Sitz, Peggy Wipf, Mel Maier, Gerald Sturn, and Kris Ringwall.
Chairman Jerry Doan opened the meeting, distributed the agenda, and asked for additions or changes to the agenda. Robert Todd added (1) government performance and results act (GPRA) and (2) distribution of scab research updates.
Minutes of the last meeting were unanimously approved.
Chairman Doan distributed operational information - "Robert's Rules of Order" and addendum to policy for covered expenses of Board members.
Members discussed ways to communicate with each other and surveyed which members had computers with email and/or fax capabilities. Members without computer access will check in their areas to find out if there is capacity to accommodate home computer with email capability.
Vice President Pat Jensen told the Board that the search committee for the experiment station director (to replace Robert Todd) has been named and their first meeting will be October 1. Individuals selected for the committee are: John Bollingberg, Virginia Clark, Jerry Doan, Cole Gustafson, Richard Horsley, Burdell Johnson, Lisa Nolan, and Blaine Schatz. Jensen said the make-up provides a good representation and the committee will be aggressive in the search process.
The Board spent the morning summarizing the questionnaires they collected since the July meeting. Thirty-nine topics were listed as factors noted as economically impacting producers. The thirty-nine topics were sorted by areas - crops, livestock, government subsidies/regulations, management, social issues, and communications. Responses to the other questions were also listed.
CROPS
diseases
alternate crops
weeds
irrigation
insects
rotation
value-added
high input costs
soil fertility
LIVESTOCK
disease
nutrition
rotational grazing systems
value-added
feed lot management
high input costs
GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES/REGULATIONS
CRP
food safety
transportation
wetlands
environmental impact
structure of industry
MANAGEMENT
risk management
marketing
water
cash rent
vertical integration
financial management
high cost of new technology
lack of profitability
SOCIAL ISSUES
small communities
leadership
youth/crisis management
off-farm income
advancing ages of farmers
lack of labor
per capita consumption of ND products decreasing
COMMUNICATIONS
between producer and consumer
NDSU to outstate
two-way communication (producer to researcher and back)
internet usage (new ways of communicating)
The group decided that the Social Issues and Communications categories could be merged and addressed through the extension service component.
The Board will select one area for review at each of the next meetings, with the livestock area being addressed at the October meeting in Fargo. Researchers in that program area will be asked to present an overview of their research, share information about what is going on in the designated areas and what they plan to accomplish.
A project list will be given to SBAR members. Materials indicating diseases currently being worked on, objectives of the projects and the dollar amounts spent on each program area (state, federal and other funds) will be distributed to the Board.
Robert Todd talked about the draft of the annual report that was sent to SBAR members for review. He indicated that the report will be useful during the legislative session. Chairman Doan suggested that the executive summary needs to cover most important highlights concisely because not everyone will read the entire report, but will refer to a well-written summary.
Todd also distributed copies of Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) framework. This will be a requirement of federal agenciesto report their goals and how they will accomplish them. Todd indicated this will be a very in-depth reporting process and will be very time consuming; SBAR members need to be aware of the time required to gather data and collate these types of reports.
The dates of the October meeting will be changed from fourth Monday to allow members to participate in activities in conjunction with Fall Ag Conference on campus the week of October 20.
Respectfully submitted,
Margaret Olson
Back to List of Minutes
Back to Main SBARE Page
North Dakota State University, Morrill Hall 314, Fargo, North Dakota 58105-5562, PHONE:
(701)231-7656