Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Full minutes are attached as a PDF to this page. USDA-NIFA Advisor Report: Dr. Tom Bewick opened the meeting with an overview of the internal reorganization of CSREES to NIFA. He also discussed the Farm Bill and the growing importance of non-food horticultural crops (hence his attendance at this multistate meeting). He also mentioned the importance of Institutional Review Board (IRB) reviews, as some Hatch proposals have been deferred  universities need to designate 25% of hatch funds received for station so they can use hatch funds. Specifically, our group needs IRB approval because we are submitting a survey that involves human subjects before the survey is conducted. Each university IRB will have to go through IRB process because it is a national survey, and each university will need to obtain permission to use the survey. There was some further discussion between the project participants and Dr. Bewick (refer to the full minutes for discussion). Dr. Bewick also gave the group guidance on reporting in the CRIS database. He recommended not reporting the same objectives from the outreach /impact section, instead try to give an indication of: 1) Numbers of people using the information generated from the various projects; how many jobs provided, and economic impacts for people that we serve. CRIS reports are read when some administrator (or politician) asks a question. Thus quantifiable impacts are needed to justify funding. Station reports were then given by the various participants (please refer to the accomplishments, Publications and Impacts sections below). These were followed by three graduate student research presentations, given by (1) Adam Newby (Ohio State University) on Increasing water use efficiency with precise irrigation control; (2) Nick Pershey (Michigan State University) on Scheduling irrigation with daily water use conserves water and reduces runoff and; (3) John Majsztrik (University of Maryland) on Modeling Nutrient Runoff from Nursery and Greenhouse Operations in Maryland. The NC1186 Business meeting was held on January 25, 2011. The NC1186 groups Administrative Advisor, Dr. Doug Buhler (Michigan State University) opened the meeting with some comments. Please refer to the meeting minutes online for full details. He indicated that there had been discussions at the Experiment director level to build multistate activities around grant opportunities rather than the traditional multi-state project. He advised that we should form a committee for the specific purpose of writing grant proposal(s). He noted that some multi-state committees have done workshops  by adding a day onto their working group meetings. He indicated that we could host a high-end workshop with little additional cost, as a possibility to increase visibility of information to our real stakeholders. Dr. Buhler indicated that he was accepting an interim Dean position at Michigan State, but he would like to continue working with us and the other committees with which he works. He is proud of helping pull us together  we are off to a good start. Dr. Lea-Cox thanked Dr. Buhler for the entire group for all of the help you have given us for the past 3 years. Dr. Marc Teffeau (American Nursery and Landscape Association / Horticultural Research Institute) then addressed the group, as our and Industry Advisor Comments (Marc Teffeau). He gave a brief background on HRI, its mission, endowment and funded projects in 2010, which totaled $219,000 in last round of grant funding. Dr. Teffeau explained the review and ranking system used by HRI in this process (see full minutes for details). He also explained that HRI was moving to a business model  given the current economic state of the industry, and consumer demographics which are rapidly changing, along with discretionary spending levels. HRI and the industry therefore need to develop new revenue streams to fund /make an impact on the industry. HRI is commercializing projects e.g. keratin (chicken feather) pots being non-degradable plastics, with an exclusive license for use in Canada & US. In next 5 years, HRI expects a 7-figure income return to HRI via commercialization prospects  income will be invested into research endowment fund and then used to fund industry driven research. Dr. Teffeau also explained the Floriculture and Nursery Research Initiative (FNRI), which is in the base budget of ARS, and which funds a number of NC1186 members. He mentioned that he also works with the USDA 1021 multistate group  primarily being economists and horticulturists. An interactive discussion was then held with Drs. Bewick and Teffeau about SCRI and Industry issues, related to the grants process and funding, and documented in the full meeting minutes. Following these discussions, the members then discussed new business items: (1) Discussions on the development and submission of a SCRI Containment planning grant (see addendum document in the minutes); (2) A discussion of the formation and development of a NC1186 website, regarding format, maintenance and domain name issues. Dr. Dunwell made a formal motion to develop a website and a domain name, and suggested the domain name should be short and descriptive. The motion was seconded by Dr. White, with unanimous approval. There was further discussion to develop a website committee for development and maintenance. Dr. Lea-Cox moved to establish a website committee, comprising the Chair-elect, incoming secretary, and the past president. Dr. Fernandez seconded the motion, with unanimous approval. After some discussion and research the domain name http://hortwater.org was approved by all attendees.; (3) eXtension Group Development: Dr Yeager asked if there was interest within the group to form a working group in eXtension. A lively discussion followed, as reflected in the full minutes. The general consensus was that there was little interest at this time, due to time commitments of various members, and the duplication of material on the web among various sources. Nomination and Election of New Secretary: Dr. Amy Fulcher was nominated by Dr. Fernandez; Dr. Dunwell seconded the nomination. Dr. Fulcher was unanimously approved as secretary. Location and Date of next meeting: The Floor was then turned over to Drs. Owen and White, as incoming Chair and Chair-Elect. A discussion was had about the next meeting, as reflected in the full minutes. A suggestion was made to have it in Portland, OR associated with the Far-West show, particularly if the Containment Planning grant was funded, as various members could use that opportunity to get to the meeting. An alternative suggestion was made to hold NC1186 meeting in association with the OFA meeting in Columbus, OH instead of Far-West. Following the Business meeting, a discussion of the national survey and IRB ensued, as reflected in the full minutes (see attachement)

Accomplishments for the first year of this group' activities are detailed in the station reports. Outputs in terms of publications are listed under publications. A PDF of all station reports is attached to the publications page.

NC1186 Group publications for 2010 are attached as a PDF document.