Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Minutes of SERA003 Meeting Sheraton Downtown Hotel Oklahoma City, OK April 5-7, 2005 Chair-Elect Jonathan Edelson called the meeting to order at 2:15 pm on April 5, 2005. The first order of business was a research report given by Kris Giles reporting for Tom Royer on the Glance and Go expert system and decision support tool for greenbugs on wheat.

Ames Herbert reported on the Virginia Ag Pest Advisory, which is electronic news alert for growers, agents and consultants in which multiple numbers of specialists can enter advisories by commodity or pest group. The Southern Region IPM Center offered to help others in developing a similar e-newsletter.

Ted Holmes, Southern Region Sales Manager for CDMS and Dan Sonke from the University of Florida demonstrated the ChemSearch program, which is being piloted in each state in the Southern Region. CDMS has contracts with about 104 chemical manufacturers for current labels information on pesticide products. It is updated daily.

Bill Coli presented a program assessment talk entitled How to Answer the So What? Question related to program outcomes. A productive and lively discussion ensued but did not result in an action item for the group. The first day session was adjourned at 6:00 pm. April 6, 2005 Pat Bolin called the meeting to order at 8:10 am. Jonathan Edelson presented the minutes. Tom Fuchs moved that the minutes be approved as read and Clayton Hollier seconded the motion. Motion passed. Dr. Edelson presented on the ECOP/ESCOP meeting held in Washington, DC on September 15-16, 2004. The purpose of this meeting was to plan for pest management research and education program collaborations among states, USDA/CSREES and other federal agencies. Jonathan Edelson also gave the administrative report for Dr. David Boethel was unable to attend the SERA003 meeting. Several items in the SERA003 renewal forms were to be addressed and resubmitted for approval. A discussion of possible outputs from SERA003 that could be used in the renewal ensued. Possible outputs included: 1) Ideas are taken back to the states from the meeting 2) Priorities for the SR IPM Center 3) Offer of help from IPM Center for state websites 4) Minutes from SERA003 meetings ACTION ITEM: Dr. Tom Fuchs agreed to provide minutes, SERA003 membership list and meeting participant list to NIMMS website within 60 days of meeting. ACTION ITEM: Dr. Jonathan Edelson will work with Dr. David Boethel to update the website and to confer about what kinds of outputs and outcomes result from SERA03 that should be listed in the renewal. Dr. Jim VanKirk gave an update on the Southern Region IPM Center. He indicated that the Center serves as an information network to connect regulators with stakeholders, to provide data for better decision making, to develop a state contact network and to help coordinate pest management activities and information delivery. One goal is for the Center to become the clearinghouse for all IPM-related information. Dr. VanKirk briefly addressed e-Extension and also offered the Centers help in developing/updating state IPM websites. Members of SERA 003 indicated that this help would be greatly appreciated. The Southern IPM Center runs 3 grant programs: IPM Enhancement Grants- 50% of the budget RIPM- $835,000 for research and Extension, land grants only PMAP- this is still a national competition but 30% of score for grants relates to how the proposal addresses regional priorities Some members of SERA003 expressed concerns about the relevancy panel which now is a part of the grant review process. Dr. Jim Criswell addressed the group regarding state contacts and the Southern Region IPM Center. He suggested that it might be helpful if state contacts met with SERA003 so that they were better informed about what it going on in IPM. He also suggested that the Center continue to improve communication with stakeholders and try to keep RFAs as consistent as possible from year to year. No action was taken on the suggestions. Dr. Mike Fitzner gave a CSREES update and handed out a Plant Science Update and a list of Projects Funded in Fiscal 2004 by CSREES Plant Systems Section. The number of awards funded was 432 totaling $89,318,727. Mike also shared a copy of the Presidents proposed CSREES budget with SERA003 members and briefly discussed the budget. Dr. Carlos Bogran announced the availability of an Assistant Professor and Extension Entomology position with Texas A&M which will be headquartered at the Research and Extension Center at Weslaco. He asked for help in soliciting candidates. Janet McLeod Scott, Associate IPM Coordinator at Clemson reported for Dr. Geoff Zehnder on suggestions for the Southern Region RIPM grant program. She outlined several suggestions to encourage a greater number of submissions, especially in the Extension category. These included the following: 1) provide more specific information to help applicants better determine if a specific project fits into SRIPM priorities, 2) provide a listing of previously funded Extension projects (brief titles) to give potential applicants ideas and examples of appropriate projects, 3) encourage submissions for Extension Agents to do on farm demonstrations with growers similar to SARE On-Farm Research Grants Program and 4) establish a train-the-trainer category for training Extension agents and other professionals similar to the SARE Professional Development Program (see http://www.griffin.uga.edu/sare.callpage.htm.) These suggestions were discussed. The SERA003 group did recommend the following to the SR IPM Center: 1) Allow 60 days between RIPM grant announcement and the proposal due date 2) Include more information in RFA to help potential submitters to determine if potential projects fit within SRIPM priorities 3) Provide a listing of previously funded Extension projects 4) Develop and/or enforce reporting requirements ACTION ITEM: SERA003 participants also recommended funding priorities for the SR IPM Center. The following priorities were selected as the top priorities from a list of 12 suggested priorities but are listed in no certain order: IPM evaluations/assessments (economic, environmental etc) Community IPM including school/landscape/structural IPM Invasive species Biologically based IPM Emerging pest problems in agricultural systems A discussion regarding the time and location of next years SERA003 meeting followed. Doug Johnson moved that the 2006 SERA003 meeting be held no later than the Friday of the first week of March and that we ask the SRIPM Center to move their advisory and steering committee meetings to meet with SERA003. Clarence Collison seconded. The motion was defeated. ACTION ITEM: Mike Linker moved that SERA003 in 2006 met with the National IPM Symposium on April 3, 2006. Norm Leppla seconded. Motion passed. ACTION ITEM: Norm Leppla was nominated for secretary-elect of SERA003 and was unanimously elected. The 2005 SERA003 meeting was adjourned at 5:00 pm. A Southern Region IPM Coordinator Meeting was held on April 7, 2005. Chairman Pat Bolin called the meeting to order at 8:08 am. Chairman Bolin turned to meeting over to Mike Fitzner who talked about reporting requirements for IPM Coordinators. He indicated that IPM Coordinators would be asked to prepare a 3-year Plan of Work this fall to cover 2006-2008. Reporting for FY2005 will be done using the current PPARS system. The new plan of work will require more budget planning indicating how 3d dollars coming to states are used. This will be done using rather broad categories. CSREES is considering the use of areas of emphasis similar to the CRIS system. Reporting will place more emphasis on success stories. Jim VanKirk visited with the group about the SR IPM Center and how terms to the committees are established. The term for the advisory committee is January 1-December 31. The Center will try to rotate 1/3 of members each year. There are currently 7 members on the Advisory Committee that are IPM Coordinators. The Chair and Vice Chair of the Advisory Committee are automatically on the Steering Committee. ACTION ITEM: Doug Johnson made a motion, seconded by Clayton Hollier that the chair, chair-elect and secretary of SERA003 at the time the Advisory Committee meets in the spring will automatically be members of the Advisory Council of the SR IPM Center. Motion passed. The SERA003 group will elect 4 other members each year at the SERA003 meeting. Ames Herbert, Pat Parkman, Clayton Hollier and Henry Fadamiro will volunteer to serve this year. ACTION ITEM: Since Gus Lorenz is currently serving on the Advisory Council, Jonathan Edelson will as ask Gus if he wants to serve during 2005 and if so, Henry Fadamiro will step out for 2005. ACTION ITEM: Doug Johnson moved that SERA003 recommend to SR IPM Center that there be a minimum of 2 permanent positions on the Steering Committee from SERA003. Mike Linker seconded. Motion passed. State reports from IPM Coordinators present followed. The meeting was adjourned at 12:37 pm. Respectfully submitted, Tom Fuchs Secretary SERA003

20 research and Extension scientists and administrators with common interests in IPM were brought together to discuss issues facing IPM and to exchange information relative to IPM Results from 2 Southern Region IPM funded projects including the Glance and Go system for monitoring greenbugs in wheat and the Virginia Tech Pest Advisory information delivery system were shared by investigators Southern Region IPM Center personnel shared ongoing programs, goals and directions for the Southern Region IPM Center with the group. A number of suggestions from the group will strengthen both the Center and the relationship of SERA003 and the Southern Region IPM Center Suggestions to the Southern Region IPM Center advisory and steering committee relative to SERA003 representation on each committee and a prioritized list of suggested IPM priorities for Southern Region grant programs was developed for use by the Center. Budget lines from the Presidents proposed budget were shared with SERA003 members Revisions to the renewal application for SERA003 were discussed Training on evaluation of IPM programs was conducted IPM Coordinators in each state shared results of high impact programs with other states