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Assembly of Extension Program Leaders Executive Committee

Minutes – March 5, 2006
Washington D.C.

EXCOM Participants: Nancy Balcom, Paula Cullenberg, , Pete Granger (via phone), Ralph Rayburn, Jack Thigpen

Ex-Officio EXCOM Members Absent: Jim Murray, NSGO; Brian Allee, new SGA liaison with Assembly, Kurt Byers, SG Communicators chair.

Others present:  Bill DuPaul

• Wick Awards: The Wick Awards nomination process is currently open, but few nominations have been submitted to date. Deadline is March 16th.  The Awards Committee currently consists of Jim Hurley and Peter Granger. The Wick Visionary Career Leadership Awards will be awarded during the May meeting in Puerto Rico.  The National Review Panel has agreed to review the nominations once again and John Woeste is chairing that effort.  Pete Granger agreed to send a reminder to the Assembly (that has been done).  Nancy will take the lead on getting plaques made.
• Beltway Brown Bag - The 6th seminar will be held the week of March 13th - topic is seabird bycatch. Pete Granger, WA Sea Grant will attend with speakers Ed Melvin (Washington) and Torie Baker (Alaska). Jamie Krauk is making arrangements. A Congressional briefing was arranged by Penny Dalton (SG Director WA).  Thursday the World Wildlife Fund will be briefed. Emphasis on bycatch reduction, cooperation among programs, FEE program (Baker is a FEE hire).  Note: the SGA External Relations Committee has been discussing some type of Congressional briefings during the Appropriations Committee process this spring.
• Legal Center Review -  NSGO will be reviewing the SG Legal Center in Mississippi on March 22nd.  There have been only 4 responses to date from Assembly members about their interaction with the Law Center.  More are welcomed and Nancy will encourage more input via email.  The Law Center did get $1 million in the budget so has additional funding.  Nancy Balcom, Jack Thigpen and Ralph Rayburn will call in during the input segment of the review.
• Survey of Assembly members – Jack Thigpen and Jim Falk have been discussing surveying Assembly members on the potential impacts of budget cuts on extension programs.  They wanted to know if that information could be useful? The discussion by EXCOM members was positive, i.e. this information could be useful in supporting the continuation of the FEE program and other possible uses especially as related to “matching” and additional funds generated by the extension program.
• News from the SGA External Relations Committee. Nancy Balcom participated in the most recent  conference call as the Assembly liaison. 
• SGA has developed new one pagers, developed in conjunction with the new Governmental Relations firm hired (Lewis-Burke Associates).  Constituent input to members of Congress re: the importance of Sea Grant to them will now be used more directly.  Key people in key states (first key states, then all states) of AL, MS, CA, VA, MD, HI and AK will be contacted for input (these states are being focused on first important because of their representation on the key appropriations committees).    Jon Kramer and Rick DeVoe will be briefing key Congressional staffers over the next six months and the Congressional offices locally will also be briefed about Sea Grant’s activities.  More information about the strategy of the lobbying firm was made during the SGA meeting, and is briefly summarized here: Two key initiatives are highlighted in the one-pagers – Building Resilient Coastal Communities and Ensuring Safe and Sustainable Seafood for Americans. However, no amount of money is attached to either of these topics. The overall request included in the one-pagers for Sea Grant is $72 million.
• The House Subcommittee on Oceans is focusing on a “one NOAA” letter this year, and therefore no “Dear Colleague” letters will be submitted to House members to sign. The SGA agreed to sign onto the “One NOAA” letter during its meeting. The letter is designed to bring together all the elements of NOAA together rather than pit individual programs against each other for funding, with the overall goal of increasing NOAA’s budget to $4.5 billion.
• A “Dear Colleague” letter will be circulated among the Senate on behalf of Sea Grant.
• Sea Grant directors making Congressional calls last week (and locally in state) were encouraged to drop off the one-pagers, indicate that we are looking to get Sea Grant’s budget to $72 million so that we can continue to work on coastal and GL issues of local concern, that we support increasing NOAA’s budget to $4.5 billion, and request that the Senator or Congressman being visited voice their support for Sea Grant and NOAA directly to the head of the appropriations committee. The Directors / local programs are also asked to get key constituents to express the same request to their local representatives and senators. Key constituents include those with obvious ties to the coast and with influence on the economy, and job creation, etc.
• President’s 07 budget – SG is in for $55 million. It will be an uphill battle this year.
• Sea Grant Academy – and Institute (which had been proposed) both had their funding cut from the NSGO budget and therefore the ability to host them seems unlikely.  Discussion about the national fisheries extension enhancement meeting indicated it could include some of the aspects of the Academy.  Also included in discuss was the need to talk with Leon Cammen about the potential for financial support for the Academy in 2007.
• Upcoming Assembly Meeting in Puerto Rico - The meeting is scheduled for May 23-25, with the first day being a combined session with communicators, educators, extension and the SGA leadership. The Assembly meeting will start on the morning of the 24th.
  
  Room reservation count looks good; 47 are registered so far.  The new CSC SG liaison, Pam Kylstra, (Lynne Hinkey’s replacement) is coming.  Nat Robinson, John Woeste and Manny Hernandez from the National Review Panel will come and talk about the recent reviews – Ports and Harbors, Coastal Community Development, Law Center.   Mike Liffman, Dave Burrage and Rick Wallace will speak on Sea Grant’s role in hurricane response.  OOS update, climate change update, Law Center update will all be covered.  Kathy Castro is coming to talk about the national fisheries extension meeting.
  
  Field trips and a service project are in the planning stages – emails have been circulated about the potential service projects.  Nancy suggests that programs bring 1 pagers highlighting programs rather than posters since the site cannot accommodate posters.
• Assembly Committees – review of status of committees before annual meeting.
  • Nominations:  This committee needs a member.  Ralph Rayburn will recruit someone.
  • Beltway Brown Bag Seminars: This committee also needs an Assembly EXCOM member to chair the committee, as Ralph is stepping down.  Pete Granger (who was at this point, no longer on the phone) was nominated.
  • Fisheries Extension Coordination and Enhancement: Paula and Ralph sit on this committee.  Ralph noted that this was an Assembly committee and so members are appointed by the EXCOM. Committee has 2 year life and will get reevaluated at Sea Grant week.
  • Educational and Professional Development: No news other than discussion of the Academy noted above..
  • By-Laws Review:  Discussion about potentially adding past chairs to the bylaws committee to provide historical input to the Assembly.  Assembly Secretary Treasurer would be the EXCOM rep to the committee.
  • Meeting Planning: Jack Thigpen will fill that role for the Assembly meeting to be held in conjunction with SG Week 07.
  • Awards: After annual meeting, Paula will take this on and Pete will move to Beltway Brown Bags.
  • Liaisons –
    • Bill DuPaul is still acting as liaison to educators
    • Steve Stewart is liaison from educators to Assembly
    • Kurt Byers is liaison to Assembly from Communicators
    • Nancy will act as liaison from Assembly to Communicators.
• Special Note – Jim Murray has recently had emergency surgery.  We all send him our very best wishes for a speedy recovery!
• Meeting adjourned at 4:30 pm EST.

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