Tuesday, December 19, 2006

December 12, 2006 NAB MEETING MINUTES

NAB Meeting
December Minutes

NAB Members Present:
Antoine Jefferson, Southern Region President and NAB Chair
Patrick Voorhies, Southern Region Second Year Member
Samantha Ephgrave, proxy for Jasmine Honore- Conference Planning Committee member
Kristin Barnhart, North Central Region President
Val Krumm, North Central Region Second Year Member
Shane Sheridan, Western Region Second Year Member
Amber Mathisen, Western Region NAB Representative
Vanessa Cerny, Northeast Region President
Sarah Leidheiser, National Collegiate 4-H Business Manager
Jessica Falkenthal, Web Team Liaison and meeting secretary
April Mendenhall, Advocacy Team Liaison
Tommy Inglis, Agricultural Consortium Liaison-Elect
Byron Garrett, Liaison from USDA and National 4-H Headquarters
Evelyn Rachell, Southern Region and National Collegiate 4-H Advisor
Guest:
Vanessa Renwick, UC Davis

NAB Members Not in Attendance:
Jasmine Honore, Conference Planning Committee Member
Amy Schwertner, National Collegiate 4-H Secretary



The tenth meeting of the 2006-2007 National Action Board of the National Collegiate 4-H Organization was called to order at 9:06PM CST by Jefferson, NAB Chair. It was moved and seconded to accept the minutes as posted on the NAB blog.
The motion passed unanimously. Due to Schwertner's absence, Falkenthal was appointed to serve as the secretary for the meeting.

Leidheiser reported that Mendenhall had been reimbursed for the National Collegiate 4-H banner and postage which came to $118.20. This leaves the organization with a total balance of $2391.18

After discussion about the resignation of Justin Bolte, Ephgrave motioned to accept his resignation. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously. Val Krumm has been appointed by Bolte to serve as the North Central Region's Second Year Member.

Voorhies moved to accept agenda of the day. Mathisen seconded and the motion passed unanimously.


The Consortium of Collegiate Agricultural Organizations report was given by Voorhies. He reported that the executive board of the Consortium had met recently and decided that they will pay for Collegiate 4-H's liaison to attend their next meeting in February. The meeting is the week before the National Collegiate 4-H Conference. Voorhies reported that he would not be in attendance, so the Liaison-Elect should attend.


Next came the reports on the goals of the Strategic Plan.

Jefferson gave the Diversity Goal report. They had been working on an amendment to change the club of the year award to include a diversity component. Personally he had been speaking with people at Southern University about starting a Collegiate 4-H club. This school is Louisiana's 1890 Land Grant Institution.


Sheridan reported for the Organizational Affairs Goal. He had been working with Dale Leidheiser, Colorado State University Collegiate 4-H Advisor, to apply for an Employee Identification Number (EIN). Upon completion they plan to work on the 501 c3 application.


Voorhies reported for the Communication and Member Education Goal. Mathisen might join him on working on this. They have been working on alot of things individually. Voorhies has personally been working on the creation of the online club directory, which he says should be available by the first of the new year.

Barnhart reported for the Partnership Goal. She said that NAE4-HA had been meeting in Ohio, but she wanted to wait until she sees where the organization is going. She would like NAB to come together with a united front after they have solidified what we want from the opportunity.

Krumm Reported for the Community Service Goal. She has been working with Schwertner on several things. Specifically a list of sites that give grants to clubs, which she e-mailed to the NAB listserv towards the end of November.
She suggests that the organization set aside $500 for grants for clubs to do service projects. They are in the process of developing a budget for this idea. Her idea would allow up to $250 per club project. There would be rolling applications. NAB would decide on the amount they would receive (if full, partial, or not at all). She hopes that it will be appropriated in next year's budget and suggests that the national body vote on its inclusion in the budget. There was discussion as to whether the NAB members responsible for that Goal would be trying to secure outside funding for this.
Garrett mentioned that the National Collegiate 4-H may be positioned to apply for corporate funding or large-scale grants when the organization is more structured. It will help when it is known the tract of the organization's success. National 4-H Council might be willing to work with the organization about considering funding. The organization will need to know what the demonstrated outcomes were going to be of the service project such as the number of people and hours involved. There would also need to be documentation and how the organization plans to deliver the service would need to be addressed.
It was asked if the funding would come out of the organization's budget, as there may not be room in the budget due to the cost of liability insurance.
Due to time Jefferson proposed a separate phone conference be formed to discuss the community service goal that would involve anyone interested.


The National Collegiate 4-H Conference update was given by Ephgrave. Paper registration is available to download from the conference website. Online web registration should be available within next 2 weeks. It may not be available prior to the December 20th Early Registration Deadline. Conference registrations need to be postmarked by December 20th to avoid paying the late fee. Workshops have been arranged and will be chosen by delegates during registration. They have recently been working on the Career and Grad School Fair. The committee will be asking clubs what majors will be represented in their delegations, so that they can plan accordingly. The committee will be asking NAB Representatives to consult with their regions and clubs to help in this effort.
In addition, the community service project is being confirmed and their speakers have confirmed.

Mendenhall reported that the Advocacy Team has been working on the next electronic newsletter that will come out in January. They will be advertising deadlines for the hard copy newsletter that will come out during the National Collegiate 4-H Conference.
The Advocacy Team would like to ask NAB to start working on gathering information for the next edition of the National newsletter. They are looking for any NAB specific updates, committee reports, regional updates, and information on the conference. The focus of this newsletter will be on the 2007 conference, so any information that NAB would like included would be welcome. They are also starting to look for articles for the hardcopy version of the national newsletter. The sooner they begin receiving articles the better.

Falkenthal gave the Web Team report. The web hosting service for Collegiate4h.org expires on January 27th. she asked for a motion. Voorhies moved to allot $119.40 from the Web Team's pre-approved budget to go towards web hosting for the 2007-January 2008 year. The motion passed unanimously. Falkenthal reported that the site had been receiving more than 3600 visits per month, which was more than several of the national 4-H websites receive. She is working with Krumm on the creation of a Frequently Asked Questions about Collegiate 4-H page. While there had been some activity on the message boards recently, she'd still like NAB members to seek an active role in participating on the message boards to encourage collaboration between regions and clubs and sharing of ideas and methods.

Krumm gave the report for the Operation Military National Service Project of Emphasis. The planning committee from Iowa State will be meeting early next semester to discuss the project. The chair will be more available next semester. Krumm would appreciate more suggestions for the project being submitted online on the Collegiate 4-H message boards. Ephgrave mentioned that another state will be doing an OMK workshop during the National Collegiate 4-H Conference and perhaps ISU could work with them.

Falkenthal gave the report for the National Service Project of Emphasis: Resource Library for the 4-H Community. She mentioned that the report is the same as the last meeting, but due to the end of finals, there will be alot more time work on the database development and corresponding webpages for the next few weeks. Her hope is that it will be completed by the first of the new year, so that she can begin promotion to clubs and have it featured in the pre-conference electronic newsletter.

Regional Reports

Mathisen reported for the Western Region. She is now the NAB representative for the region as Renwick is no longer in that position. The region is working on planning for next year's national conference & their regional conference in Nevada.


Jefferson reported that the Southern Region's conference was held this month in Ferndale, Arkansas. Five schools were represented and the strategic plan report went over very well with lots of enthusiasm and some feedback. The delegates participated in a ropes course and regional bonding.

Barnhart reported for the North Central Region. She said that there were no problems in the region. Several clubs are planning a mutual bus trip to Louisiana for nationals. Jefferson mentioned that some schools from the Southern Region would like to join their bus route.

Cerny reported for the Northeast Region. She had contacted schools on their regional listserv about the national conference and will pass on information requesting the majors of the delegates from her region and the upcoming committee application deadlines. She has not been receiving any responses back from members of her region in regards to her communications.

Krum reported that she had received a new job position and will not be attending the national conference.


Garrett reported that National 4-H Headquarters will soon be seeking applications for Collegiate 4-H members to facilitate roundtable discussions during the National 4-H Conference held March 24-29th. For the past 3 years Collegiate 4-H members from West Virginia and Ohio State have served as facilitators at this event, but they are changing the process of recruitment for these positions to expand the opportunity. Garrett Will give NAB members more information to share with their constituents in the next few weeks. At the latest this will be early January. The conference will need 15-20 Collegiate 4-H members who have an interest, the passion, and experience in facilitation. Travel expenses will be covered.
Collegiate 4-H members will need a letter from their state 4-H leader or adviser on campus noting that they will be an acceptable facilitator for 4-H topics. (not just about Collegiate 4-H)

Garrett would also like to remind NAB members that they are in a national position and they are being held to higher standards than other Collegiate 4-H members. They should be conscious of decisions and actions they take using the 4-H name and emblem and others which might reflect on the organization.

It was then moved by Voorhies and seconded by Ephgrave to go into executive session to discuss personnel issues.

Voting:
In Favor:
Voorhies
Ephgrave
Barnhart
Cerny- 2 votes

Against:
Krumm
Sheridan
Mathisen


By a vote of 4-3, the NAB meeting moved into executive session. After much discussion about who was to be included in the session Patrick moved adjourn the regular session of the meeting.

Those present during the executive session were:
Antoine Jefferson
Patrick Voorhies
Samantha Ephgrave
Amber Mathisen
Shane Sheridan
Kristin Barnhart
Val Krumm
Vanessa Cerny
Jessica Falkenthal
Byron Garrett
Evelyn Rachell

The executive session of NAB was adjourned at 10:37PM CST.

Respectfully Submitted,
Jessica Falkenthal