Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

August 24, 2005 Program: 7:30 am - 10:30 am Travel to Plant Science Research and Education Center, Citra 10:30 am - 12 noon Butterfly Gardens tour 12:00 noon Lunch 12:30 pm Meeting called to order by Mike Barrett Clarence Watson): The SRAC-1 Group is more active than during past years, and appears to be functioning well. There have been several project reviews during the past year, with 8-9 responses for each project. The process has been simplified with 'yes/no' responses, but comments are still appreciated and they are used by the administration. Both an email link and an attachment are sent via email when projects are to be reviewed. The plant breeding proposal recently submitted had very little detail and it needs to be revised. Eric Young: The animal science projects are given to different department heads who are responsible of reviewing them, and then at their annual meetings the projects are reviewed by the entire group. The horticulture and the SRAC-1 groups review proposals as individuals, but proposals are not analyzed for budgets. However, if concerns are raised during the electronic reviews, then proposals are looked at in more detail. Mike Barrett: How important is more input to the project review process? Eric Young: Input is very important. There are several types of projects, including: 1) Information Exchange Groups (now Coordinating Groups), which are research focused. 2) The Southern Extension Research Activity (SERA) is integrated with research and extension, but they are not expected to conduct research. A SRAC group of department heads serves as the primary reviewer. 3) S- projects are regional projects and are expected to have research outputs. The SRAC is the initial reviewer of objectives, little detail is presented, and there is an explanation about how interactions are to take place and about the projects' relevance. The corrected project then goes to state directors after which a full proposal is written and reviewed by peer review. The recently reviewed Plant breeding Coordinating Committee did not have enough specificity. The Multistate Committee agreed and sent the proposal back to the writing committee. The Southern Directors are very supportive of this effort. Tom Stalker: How was the plant breeding list put together? I did not see a list of participants when I reviewed the proposal. Eric Young: The Director in each state adds names in an Appendix E. Adding names to SERAs is easy but additions to S- projects are difficult. Clarence Watson: An Appendix E will be sent with future proposals to give reviewers access to the list participants. Steve Hodges: Participation by faculty was not listed on the last two variety programs reviewed. Eric Young: A list of participants is now required on all new proposals. Clarence Watson: Many projects are active with many participants, but few names are listed. Jerry Bennett: Multi-state project participation has been decreasing in Florida because faculty receive little credit for these activities. Eric Young: If you are in a regional project, you do not have to be included on the state Hatch project that is associated with it. Federal funding for travel is sent to experiment station directors and at least $500 should be available for travel to meetings. Multistate projects must account for 25% of federal HATCH funds. Mike Bennett: In Kentucky, the Dean forwards funds to the department and it is then used for specific projects. Clarence Watson: Faculty do not see an advantage for being on multi-state committees. Eric Young: Only faculty interested should be on the committee anyway. Clarence Watson: Does the group want to be more involved? Group consensus: The way things are being done now is acceptable. Eric Young: A National Germplasm System Task Force has been established by state Directors and a National Germplasm Coordination Committee has been formed with nine members:

• Experiment Stations: Ken Graften, Lee Sommers, Jerry Arkin
• ARS Peter Bretting, Candace Gardner, Dwayne Buxton
• CREES: Ann Marie Thro, Ed Kaleikau, P. S. Benepal
• Tom Fretz (NE Region): Will help with committee functions.

Charge: To advise the ARS and CREES about the national depository system and about distribution and status of germplasm. Task: Funding is needed for all of the germplasm depositories. [Collections are held in both national and regional sites, and there are many collections at state experiment stations, for example, the clover collection in Kentucky and the tobacco collection in North Carolina]. The committee will review funds going through experiment stations. Additional members could be added, e.g., representatives from Foundation Seeds or individuals with expertise in intellectual property. Preston Jones: If the funds do not apply to processing or production, federal funds can be used for tobacco germplasm maintenance. Eric Young: Grantsmanship workshops will be held on September 7-8 in Washington DC. The workshop is full and has about 170 people registered. Another workshop will focus on NRI integrated proposals on January 19, 2006 in Baton Rouge, LA. The workshop is co-sponsored by the Southern Directors for research and extension. NRI is not receiving many integrated research and extension proposals. Extension personnel need to be more involved in the review panels. Registration will begin in late September 2006. Steve Hodges: Two integrated research/extension programs in Virginia were rejected before program review because the NRI people changed objectives after the RFA was published. This jeopardizes the integrity of the program and it is not being ethically run. Names and details available. Preston Jones: Are case studies being planned? Eric Young: This is for an internal use by NRI. A workshop is being planned to look at the process. Ramesh Reddy: What review level is necessary before a project is funded? Eric Young: NRI has the highest percentage of unfunded/fundable proposals. Multi-Institutional Collaboration Assistance is available at the website http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/saaesd//Multistate.htm. Scientist expertise: The CRIS system can sort by field of science or organism; all 1862 institutions in the Southern Region, bordering states and 1890 institutions are listed in the database. Outlying Research Station database: This is a locator of experiment stations. The database can search activities by instruction and research activities on the stations. It is updated annually and links to web pages for experiment stations are embedded into the site. Many multi-state projects include funding for shared facilities. MOAs and MOUs for multi-institutional collaboration: Either shared faculty or shared facilities. The elimination of formula funding was proposed in 2005. The potential loss would include 500 faculty, 350 staff, 250 other professions, and 500 graduate assistantships. Congress did not support any of the proposals, but the issue will resurface. Impacts will be important to maintain support, and it appears that someone wants all federal funding to be competitive; however, the base funds allows us to be competitive. Committee adjourned, traveled to the butterfly curation/research facility, and reconvened after lunch. 2:00 pm Robert McGovern, Director of Doctor of Plant Medicine Program (DPM) http://www.dpm.ifas.ufl.edu (See attachment for details) 2:20 pm Wendy Graham, University Florida Water Institute (See attachment for details) 2:45 pm Jim Cato, Senior Associate Dean and Director, School of Natural Resources and Environment; Director Florida Sea Grant College Program See attachment 3:10 Break 3:25 Sabine Grunewald, Distance Education Program in the Soil and Water Science Department (See attachment for details) 4:30 pm Preston Jones: Hopefully the federal budget will be approved earlier than during past years. The President's proposal to cut Hatch funding was not approved by Congress. With the retirement of A. J. Dye, there has been approval for an active NPL position that will combine forages and rangeland and it will be housed in Natural Resources. The forage and rangeland people have never worked well together, and hopefully the change will enhance interaction. Preston is retiring at the end of the year. Real time accountability is needed. The CRIS system is 18 months behind real time and there is no good way to retrieve information about the way funds were used. The line items increase each year, in large part because of the inability to designate funds for problem solving. Forages and plant breeding are two examples were there are great needs, but no resources are allocated. Forages are produced on more than 50% of managed lands in the U.S., but little support is given to these crops. August 25, 2005 8:25 am - Business Meeting

Approved minutes from 2004. Minutes from this years meeting will be distributed by email.

Nominations/elections:;

• Steve Hodges elected chair
• Mike Collins elected vice chair

Locations for next year:
Arkansas on the agenda; missed Washington last year; March or April is the best time for the group to go to Washington. We need good objectives, and if we want to meet with the national program leaders, September is a better time to attend. For NSF leaders and awards programs October is best for grants administrators. CSREES conference facilities can be used for meetings. Joe Touchton: Preference is September so we can interact with national program staff. Mike Collins: From a regional standpoint, going to Washington to meet congressional staff would not be of much value. Keith Cassel: As part of the Soil Science Society of America executive group, I went to Washington and dynamite programs were put on for the group. However, it took a year to plan the program. Jim Ballington: It would be of most value to meet with granting administrators. September is a difficult month for his schedule. Clarence Watson: Department of Energy also has many new programs. The consensus of the group is to meet in Washington during 2006. September 6-7, 2006 is a potential target. Twenty people will be an upper limit on participants. Mike Barrett: Suggested that the group should form a web site with minutes, history, and PowerPoint presentations. Clarence offered to help set up a web site, and Mike will take the lead in this activity. Tennessee (Neal Rhodes) has never attended the meeting and we need to contact him. Recognition for Preston: The group made a Statement of Thanks for his long service to the Southern Region and CSREES. Jim Ballington: Southern branch of ASA is a good meeting and graduate students should be encouraged to attend. State Reports: (See attachment for details)