The NICH Team

Attending: Gail Langellotto, Casey Sclar, Pam Bennett, Debbie Hamrick, Ellen Bauske, Clint Albin, Cynthia Haynes, Tom Underwood, Dave Close, Suzi McCoy, Julie Weisenhorn, Penny McBride, Rick Durham, Shannon Spurlock, Margaret Pooler 1. NIFA Strategic Planning Grant Readiness: a.    Status of nominations to pre-application relevance review panel for Tom B.: Tom B. not able to be on call, today. Mentioned that he has received ~10 names, thus far. • this is a critical next step to the success of the initiative, • Nominations/Contact lists: Tom and Suzi have put together a one-pager that folks … [Read more...] about September 6th Conference Call

Attending: Cindy, Suzi, Clint, Gail, Casey, Rick, Penny, Tom, Dave, Ellen, Julie, Tom, Penny Communication and Recruitment Final Update on Recruitment of Chairs (All): Updating the Google Sheet for our Executive Committee to add Suzi as lead of the marketing team and Tom Bewick as our USDA Liaison. Decision was made to call the different sectors (commercial, NGO, land grant) sectors councils. Decision made to call goals (social, environmental, economic) committees. Steering Key Members to the Right Committees (Casey) We discussed a potential honorary chair for this … [Read more...] about August 23rd Conference Call

Attending: Cyndi, Casey, Gail, Debbie, Clint, Tom, Ellen, Dave, Shannon, Katie, Suzi, Tom, Penny 1. The Story of SCRI (Tom B.): a. As an aside, Tom noted that lots of NICH folks at ASHS. Lucy is giving a talk, later this week on NICH. Good visibility for NICH at ASHS b. 2002 Farm Bill. Small group of specialty crop industry tried to get SC into Farm Bill, unsuccessfully. They hired a former congressman as a consultant. One of the thing he told that small group (particularly United Fresh Vegetables) was that they needed to come to congress with a unified message. They created the specialty … [Read more...] about August 9th Conference Call

Attending: Casey Sclar, Gail Langellotto, Shannon Spurlock, Rick Durham, Tom Bewick. Tom, Debbie Hamrick, Dave Close, Pam Bennett, Tom Underwood, Ellen Bauske Update on Recruitment of Chairs Casey will be talking to Clint Albin, to on-board him as the commercial council chair. Tom has been talking to potential folks to find a Land Grant University Chair. A strategy may be to look to USDA people ~ this may be a good place for Margaret Pooler to stay engaged. Margaret had a few questions related to if she were to serve as Land-Grant/Federal Research as chair ~ particularly the potential advocacy … [Read more...] about July 26th Conference Call

Attending: Bradley, Underwood, Haynes, Durham, Dubow, Bennett, Pooler, Sclar, Spurlock Absent: Bauske, Bewick, McCoy 1. New Bi-Weekly Call Details: Casey shared the new call-in information for the bi-weekly calls. Time will remain the same. -Redacted- 2. Acknowledgements: Casey and others shared their thanks to the steering committee, those who coordinated and assembled in Denver, and to all involved in the initiative. All coming out of the Denver meeting are excited and eager to move forward. 3. Denver Meeting Recap (All) a. Key Outcomes (Lucy, Ellen, Tom U.) Lucy shared her brief recap of … [Read more...] about July 12th Conference Call

Attending: Tom, Gail, Lucy, Casey, Katie, Rusty, Rick, Katie, Suzi Denver Meeting Specifics Update on Registration: 15 people registered Budget, Contracts and Costs: Lucy and Casey have talked about budget, feeling like they have a good handle on costs. For the hotel contract, Casey is working with the hotel provider to avoid penalties. Transportation: Shannon and Rusty have personal cars. Casey also has a rental car. On last call, Shannon mentioned SUV rental that could be secured, if our numbers were low. With three cars, that is probably enough to ferry folks to and from the Botanic … [Read more...] about June 14th Conference Call