Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Meeting called to order Monday, July 12 at 6:25 PM at the Indiana State NRCS office, Indianapolis, IN. The meeting continued until approximately 8:30 PM, recessed, and was reconvened Tuesday, July 13 at 9:00 AM during the Regional Soil Survey Work Planning Conference. 2003 minutes were approved by voice vote upon a motion made by M. Ransom, seconded by T. Cooper. Report from Administrative Advisor Gerald Miller: 1) Current 5-year project terminates Sept.30, 2004. Dave Hammer and writing team got the renewal in on time (NCRA committee in Madison, presently designated as NC_temp1089). The proposal was approved for renewal for five years, October 2004 - September 2009. The committee will retain its current designation, NCR-3. Specific criticisms of the project: 1) Objectives are excessively broad and do not seem to address emerging issues and 2) there is a need to reach wider audience.

2) Specific comments shared by the Administrative Advisor addressed separation of objectives and operating model of NCs and NCRs, reducing administrative burdens to NCR and delegation of more flexibility to committees. a. Despite this anticipated separation, there is still a need for clear accountability for the project - a need for immediate accomplishment. Review will be in third year (FY 2007) for midterm, so the committee needs to conceptualize and activate a productive output to demonstrate in this review. b. Appendix E's have been filed for the representative for each University, Two new states have been added, Kentucky (Tassos Karathanasis) and Oregon State (Jay Noller). Terry Cooper replaces Jay Bell for Minnesota, Andrew Manu will replace Tom Fenton (retired) for Iowa. Laurie Osher, Maine, has not filed an Appendix E for the new NCR-3. c. The NIMSS webpage is accessible through specific directions given in Appendix 3. Budget information for fiscal years 2004 and 2005 was distributed and showed that distributed funds have been cut by roughly 10% overall in 2004 but are projected to be level into 2005. d. Directors originally asked for multi-state committees to have a chair, chair-elect, and a secretary, and for each officer to serve for a two-year term, but this is under discussion. David Hammer thanked Jerry for his extraordinary service and support through the renewal efforts, and observed that Jerry had kept in touch with the committee throughout the year and had attended and participated in all meetings. Report from NRCS Representative Russ Kelsea:

1) NRCS re-organization: there are to be three new national technology support centers (NTSC) with core soil scientist to focus on interpretation and proper use of soil information (Greensboro, NC, Ft. Worth, TX, and Portland, OR) in place and operational by Sept 2004. Soil Survey's charge is to develop and promulgate soil resource information and this re-organization will address the contemporary needs of the survey users. Office of Management and Budget has found that this is a weak link for the agency, but still has problems deciding under whose jurisdiction this falls. National Headquarter changes: Ken Lubich will be the Program Manager (Replacing Maxine Levin), Carolyn Olson will transfer to Washington as the new Science Advisor, and eventually new national leader will be named for to replace Dr. Olson in Lincoln. This position will combine the investigations and research with the director of the National Soil Survey laboratory.

2) National Cartographic and Geospatial Center (NCGC) to open in Morgantown, WV, as a mandated center through CESU, emphasis on new technology development - first project will be to get the existing centers to work together (Information Systems Plan). NCGC won aggressive bid but will have to reduce personnel to follow up on digital survey production job. The agency is now deciding on best method of delivering the product and amending bills to move from requirement of electronic promulgation only to optional print format. Shifting to an electronic format has been challenging because the existing federal guidelines require that soil surveys be in 'book' format. A more generic set of working guidelines is being proposed.

3) There has been a reduction of roughly half the number of soil scientists from 1970 to present. Many more soon will retire and opportunities to hire many new, young soil scientists will be available in the upcoming years. Committee members raised questions on whether or not the agency will try to make information available to potential employees and simplify the application process. A perceived problem in recruiting new hires is that the agency uses human resources personnel to recruit rather than allowing field soil scientists to recruit and explain the nuances of a career in soil survey. Russ Kelsea noted that future soil scientists will have different career tracks, and a new spectrum of skills and opportunities exists. Additional commentary followed on reaching high school students and continuing soil-judging programs at the undergrad level.

4) NASIS/TERRA (Forest Service) issues are being addresses at the NCSS. Forest Service views Resource Inventory as an empirical survey whereas NCSS tends to be a stochastic inventory (i.e., landscape mapping). Issues will be addressed at NCSS. Old Business: Eroding Mollisols (reported by Ken Olson) focuses on taxonomic problems associated with erosional phases - eroded Mollisols = prime timber soils and loss of genetic 'thread'. Proposal written by K. Olson was sent for review to M. Ransom, D. Hammer, N. Smeck, and T. Fenton and criteria were refined for the mollic epipedon thickness requirements, OC content, color, to exclude timber soils. Russ Kelsea suggested that we need to define the characteristics of these soils to help the survey folks make best interpretations. M. Ransom advanced the idea that the entire landscape needs to be evaluated rather than specific sites and perhaps the taxonomic problem should be less important than interpretation and land use capability. Dave Hammer suggested that subcommittees should look at specific problems and produce white paper reports of their findings. He further suggested that this is the kind of activity and reporting that administrators are expecting of multi-state committees. New Business:

1) Ken Olson presented the updated list for officer sequence through the states and then brought a motion to have three officers as suggested by the multi-state research committee. T. Cooper second - passed as stated. The suggestion that officers serve two-year terms was rejected. Officers will serve one year term only as traditionally done in the past. New officers for next year Chair - Cynthia Stiles, Chair-Elect - Terry Cooper, Secretary - Mickey Ransom.

2) Meeting for 2005 will be 20-21 June in Madison, WI, with arrangements being made by C. Stiles.

3) Mickey Ransom made a motion to organize subcommittees into 'action' and 'service' categories, seconded by G. Steinhardt, motion passed by voice vote.

Subcommittees current at meeting time were: Soil taxonomy; Hydric soils; Nominating committee; Soil survey advisory; Precision farming; Database; Spatial and temporal distribution of soil organic carbon committee, which replaced the Eroded soils committee in 2003.

The following new subcommittees and members were confirmed:

New service subcommittees:

Soil Taxonomy, (C. Stiles carryover, G. Steinhardt new) ; National Conference on Soil Survey, (G. Steinhardt carryover, D. Hopkins new) ; National Soil Survey Advisory (inactive; K. Olson volunteered as contact) ; National Soil Survey Database (T. Fenton has been handling this and it is generally inactive but not officially so; M. Ransom volunteered to work on this); Inactive service committee: National Soil Survey Standards ; Motion made by M. Ransom to accept these action committee as suggested, R Kelsea second, motion passed by voice vote.

New action committees

Soil Organic/Inorganic (Eroded Mollisols): Olson (chair), Hammer, Ransom, Zanner; Education and Training: Ransom (chair), Cooper, Hammer, Steinhardt, Stiles; High intensity Survey: Steinhardt (chair pro-temp) Focus to be on scale, quality assurance, procedures and standards ; Interpretations: Hammer (chair) Focus to be on user population, their needs, and moving to web-based information and data

Motion made by K. Olson to accept these service committees and chairs as suggested, seconded by C. Stiles, D. Hammer will e-mail absent members to participate in these committees, G. Miller suggested that we act quickly to define objectives and consider ideas for action. M. Ransom volunteered to update list-serve for committee members. Motion passed on voice vote. 4) Mickey Ransom made a brief progress report on NC-94 (renewed as NC 1018): 'Impact of climate and soils on crop management'. He and Brian Slater (Ohio) are responsible for contributing appropriate soil information for this project. 5) Mickey Ransom suggested that committee chairs update membership using a listserve, and Mickey volunteered to establish the listserver. 6) Ken Olson suggested that we be open to interaction with national committees and participate in the national Soil Survey Work Planning Conference, and that we send at least one member to this meeting each year that it is held. The ensuing discussion produced the following suggestions for topics:

Working with NRCS for national education and recruitment goals.

Intepretation revisions from eroded soils.

Precision agriculture and first order soil surveys

Quality assurance

Standards

7) Possible NCR-3 objectives were discussed and included:

Create 'critical mass' for policy decisions.

Identify soil and landform research needs.

Develop and coordinate interpretations.

Bring interpretations to national recognition

Business meeting adjourned at 11:15AM after the exchange of state reports and reaffirmation of next year's officers. Approved: ______________________________ Cynthia A. Stiles Date NCR-3 Secretary 2004 ______________________________ Gerald Miller Date NCR-3 Adminstrative Advisor 2004