Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Dave Lamie and Elizabeth Gregory North presented an overview of SERA 47 using the power point presentation that was developed.

Eric Young described the SERA requirements, the most immediate of which is an Annual Report, Eric must approve the report in order to approve the next annual meeting.

The results of the Delphi study that identified the top ten issues was presented by Quisto Settle and it was discussed by the group.  The top ten issues team completed their tasks and the team members transitioned to other work groups.

Leadership Team

Chair: Elizabeth Gregory North

Vice-Chair: Iris Cole Crosby

Secretary: Karen Vines

Top 10 Issues: Liz Felter and Jennifer Taylor

Developing Learning Communities: Leslie Hossfeld, Liz Kramer, and Iris Cole Crosby

Resource Bank: Elizabeth Gregory North

Impact: Joseph Donaldson and Zola Knowles Moon

Successful Organizational Structures: Dave Lamie and Kenrett Jefferson

The Leadership Team will have a monthly call for the first year, and then reassess frequency. Work group meeting schedules will be determined by the groups. The Leadership Team will meet on the third Tuesday of each month, at 2:30 Eastern/1:30 Central, beginning January 2018.

Eric shared recommendations regarding Annual Meetings:

• The entire SERA should meet face-to-face every year.
• The annual meeting should be at least one whole day, not just a couple of hours tacked on to another meeting.
• At the annual meeting, don’t spend the greatest percentage of the time in work groups. We need to work together as the whole group.
• Everyone should come to the meeting with a commitment to be there for the whole time.

Grant Opportunities

Rachel shared information and an update on AFRI CARE grant proposal that SERA-47 was working on, each team contributed to the proposal. T   Candace Pollock-Moore shared information on SARE grants. More information on SARE grant programs can be found on the web site: southernsare.org under the Grants tab.

Communications

The south-foods e-mail list is a large group that includes many people who are not officially part of the SERA.  A separate email list was set up for the SERA 47 group by Rachel.

Additional Goals

• SARE Professional Development Program (PDP) grant proposals

The AFRI CARE grant application was completed and submitted with SRDC as the lead. The Adelphi study by the Top Ten Issues team was completed and data summarized.  The results indicated the following Top Ten Issues within the Southern Region Land Grant System: profitability, support for local food systems, education of public, farming practices/knowledge, marketing and promotion, accessibility/affordability, lack of farms and farmers, regulations, infrastructure, coordination of efforts. The Learning community team is on program at SSAWG meeting in Tennessee.