Accessible document
Conference Call (October 24, 2005)
Present: Ralph Rayburn (Chair), Nancy Balcom (Chair-elect), Paula Cullenberg (Secretary/Treasurer), Bill DuPaul (Past-Chair), Jim Hurley (member at large), Paul Olin (Pacific Regional Rep), Kathy Castro (FEE Committee), Frank Lichtkoppler (Central Regional Rep), Pauli Hayes (SG Communicators), Ron Hodson (SGA Liaison), Jim Murray (National Sea Grant), Virginia Lee (New England Regional Rep.)
The meeting was called to order by Chairman Ralph Rayburn at 12 noon, Central time.
Paula is working with Jim Murray to have the Assembly pay ½ of the cost of the Fisheries Extension breakfast at the AFS meeting in Anchorage in September.
Jim Murray thanked the Assembly for paying for the breakfast. The meeting was attended by about 30 people, provided a way to build relationships with USDA/Sea Grant FEE folks. Terry Smith, liaison from NOAA Fisheries attended and is now working with a small group to plan a SG sponsored symposium for the 2006 AFS meeting in Lake Placid. Cost of the Assembly’s share of the breakfast was $234.
Meeting planning - Planning for the Assembly annual meeting in Puerto Rico (May 23-25) is ongoing. Nancy is organizing an conference call to include Ralph, Pauli, Kurt Byers, Lynne Witley and Nancy to discuss potential joint session (communicators are holding annual meetings as well and some educators will attend as well). Bill DuPaul noted that there could be some potential conflict with extension agents who are also educators. Ralph will again notify the SGA about our plans.
Bylaws committee – Bylaw revisions are complete and will go out to the Assembly for a vote. Meanwhile, Bill DuPaul is developing a suite of nominees to have ready for a vote when the bylaw revisions are reviewed and approved. One at-large seat and the chair-elect position will be voted on this year. Frank asked what were the costs of serving? Answer – primarily travel costs during the term of service. Discussion continued about the level of cost and time commitment for a four year term (two year chair-elect and two year chair.).
Education and Professional Development Committee Sea Grant Academy year 1 has ended with a positive response to how it went. Jim Murray noted that $25K has been proposed to Ron Baird for SG Academy year 2, and $50K for a new Sea Grant Institute (for mid-level training). The $25K is secure pending a reasonable (at least level) budget, no word yet on the $50K. There is a plan to hold the Academy again next year since likely there are about 30 people who would like to attend.
Fisheries Extension Coordination and Enhancement Committee Kathy Castro noted that the committee had had 2 conference calls. They have a good working draft of a charter. Action items include planning for a symposium for the 2006 AFS meeting as well as early discussions for 2007. There has also been discussion about a national fisheries extension agent meeting (there are about 117 fish extension agents total) with the objective of getting to know each other and sharing work. Subcommittee chaired by Paul Olin is planning that, with a secondary tier committee planning the program. Jim Murray is putting together a template for regional fisheries coordinators for program reporting purposes. Jim also reiterated that Terry Smith is a good source for help with fisheries related activities.
Beltway Brown Bag Committee The current idea submitted by the Pacific region is related to seabird bycatch work done in AK by WA/AK Sea Grant. A new subject focusing on outreach education was suggesting given that Louisa Koch is the new NOAA educator and NOAA’s education council will meet this winter (December 14 is the tentative date). The “bridge” program was mentioned as a good example for a BBB. In that case, the seabird bycatch BBB could be postponed until the next quarter.
Week of October 31 in Charlestown, SC. Ralph will do an Assembly update for the SGA. Prior this meeting, Jim Murray noted that the SGA leadership will be meeting with the NFI to discuss their seafood initiative.
Ports and Harbors national review ongoing with Geraldine Knapp and Frank Kudrna involved.
Coastal Community Development review ongoing – Bob Goodwin, Jim Anderson and Martin Harris are involved.
Oceans.us is encouraging Sea Grant to follow through in finding an IPA for a year to represent Sea Grant interests in the integrated ocean observing system. Will be looking for someone fairly senior in the SG network that would come from the outreach/extension community or a director who knows a lot about extension.
RFP for NOAA partnerships will come out in a few weeks – Office of Global Programs will add $500K to match with NSG for a total of $1 million for climate related research and outreach related to coastal climate decision makers. There will also be $$ for a regional extension agent for regional integrated science programs (RISAs) for 3 years to address needs targeted at decision makers.
Question – is there a trend nationally for programs to fund extension agents outside of Sea Grant? Discussion in response centered on the need to keep us visible and get our message out.
Coastal Community Development review is December 6 and 7. The review team has asked for 45 minutes of comment from the Assembly. Ralph will probably do that. Comment was that programs liked the method of sharing funds rather than competing as was the case in FEE. Jim Murray noted that Congress now requires all funds to go out in a competitive format, but that NSG tries to accommodate both points of view.
Call ended at 2:53 EST.
Note: This is an accessible version of a document originally produced for the Web in .pdf format. While it contains all significant content of the original print document, it may omit layout and graphic elements which contribute to the look and feel of the original, and make the .pdf version more suitable for printing.
Contact us: sea.grant.web@oregonstate.edu