Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The NCERA 197 committees goal are to develop and support action groups for each of the 12 agricultural safety and health priority areas identified in the National Land Grant Research and Extension Agenda for Agricultural Safety and Health, develop assessment tools to measure impact, and to create a supportive environment for exchange of ideas, partnering, and involvement of stakeholders. Each of the 12 priority areas is broad-based and multi-faceted. The decision was made to focus on one area and develop an action plan model that could then be used for the other priorities. The end product of this action plan model would be a White Paper on the topic to be shared and distributed to researchers and interested parties. The priority area selected was Operating Agricultural Equipment on Public Roads. An action plan template was developed, action steps were identified and deadlines established, and chair persons were identified. At the same time, the committee will begin information gathering on the priority area of Sensors and Guarding. Activities: a) National Agenda was included as background in presentation to proposed U.S. Coalition for Farm Safety; b) A presentation on the national agenda was made to a University of Iowa School of Public health graduate class; c) National agenda priorities were presented to National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing (AgFF) Sector Council as part of overview of agricultural safety and health.; d) The Operating Agricultural Equipment on Public Roads priority topic was divided into 7 specific subtopics to better facilitate development of the White Paper; e) Timeline were set for the several steps involved in developing the White Paper, with goal of having a completed paper to present at the 2008 National Institute for Farm Safety Annual and American Society of Agricultural & Biological Engineers Conferences. Milestones: a) NASULGC Administrators sent emails to experiment station directors encouraging agricultural safety and health to be included as a topic at their annual conference; b) A web-based online survey was developed to document current research and extension activities occurring at land grant universities in the 12 priority areas identified in the National Land Grant Research and Extension Agenda for Agricultural Safety and Health; c) An Action Plan Template with specific steps and processes were developed to help guide development of White Papers for selected priorities.