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 can use to recruit industry relevance review panel members (as well as a short email invite). These documents can be found in the Box Folder, ‘NICH Outreach Documents’: https://app.box.com/s/y4mbul2ab5cutlgdp3zyena00mwwc0ye
• Is there a limit on the number of names to send Tom? No. He’s seeking names of qualified reviewers from the industry for all types of panels, and consumer hort should have a voice in the relevance review process.
• We ask potential relevance reviewers to serve ~ if they are willing/able to serve, then we/they get back to Tom with their contact information.
• To Do (Ellen): Link informational .pdf on website ~ a place where potential reviewers can go for more information.
• Deadline for sending out email invites and on-pagers: within the next two weeks (before the next NICH conference call)
• To Do: Ellen will send out the email on the NICH listserv, from the Exec Committee (please proofread before sending it out)
b. Grant Preparation Task Force Members (Casey):
• This group will prepare the grant pre-proposal ($50k for one year) that will go to NIFA for review . . . will prepare full proposal if we are selected to submit a full proposal.
• Grant proposal will be used to fully develop the NICH strategic plan.
• Funds (probably) need to go through a land-grant university / federal sector ~ which land grant will submit; who will be PI or co-PIs? This will be one of the decisions that the task force will make.
• Folks who serve as relevancy reviewers can not serve on the grant preparation task force (or at the very least, they may need to recuse themselves from certain applications).
• Volunteers for task force: Tom, Julie, Ellen, Shannon (depending on timing), Casey, Gail, Cyndi, Dave Close
2. Engagement
a. Upcoming Conferences/Presentations List: Tom U. developed a list of NICH visibility opportunities. The second part of the list is to document what actually happened, with regard to NICH outreach/visibility.
• If you have upcoming presentations, please send that information to Tom. Please follow up after presentation to report outcomes/what happened.
• Debbie can present at the Green and Growing Show.
• Is it possible to get article written for the Digger into other industry newsletters (good time would be ~ January).
• A cohesive NICH message should be going out, when we give these presentations ~ with a cohesive look and branding: Share these presentations on the Box site as a first step towards developing a 2-3 slide stock that folks can use for presentations.
• Action item: If you have items to add to Tom U’s list (upcoming presentations and/or outcomes), please send them his way
b. First Committee Meeting Dates Goal (Casey)
• Has a firm date been set for first committee meetings? Goal was to have first committee meeting by the end of September.
• Environmental committee invite will be going out, today. Meeting will happen in the next couple of weeks.
• Economic committee tentatively scheduled to happen by the end of September.
• Social/Community committee will be meeting next Monday.
• Non-profit council and Industry Council are targeting early October for a meeting.
• Land Grant Council targeting sometime in September to touch base.
3. Road Map: Establishing Timelines and Priorities (Suzi, Casey)
a. Action Item: Reminder to send 5 high-level benchmark deadlines to Suzi by EOD September 20, 2016.
• Suzi to compile and Gail to Communicate.
• There was a question about whether or not we should wait on this until committees have had a chance to meet? No ~ timeline is high-level, broad view outline of key dates, deadlines, goals. Timeline can be modified as needed.
• Look at goals/objectives, and think about what we need to do . . . key benchmarks to meet . . . in order to get there. Also, think not just about the work of your committee, but the big picture of NICH.
• In the future, can we map out a time to have committees/councils touch base with each other, to ensure that our efforts are coordinated? If we get the planning grant, this will be part of a retreat where we can start to map these things out.
• Can we post committee agendas/notes, so that we can all see them? Yes (we can do this on our Box working site).
• Clint, Suzi, Ellen, Casey to conference call to discuss high-level timeline.
4. Communication and Recruitment
a. Seed Your Future: Casey met with Susan Yoder and Doug Needham(sp?) about Seed Your Future. Re-enforced that our efforts are complementary. Casey and Suzi are on the Seed Your Future Advisory Council. Susan will be a member of one of our groups.
b. Final Update on Recruitment of Chairs: all chairs are recruited, with the exception of the Honorary Chair
• Honorary Chair: Suzi and Casey to conference on the honorary chair position ~ and will bring ideas back to the committee
c. One-Pager Use and Distribution (Shannon, Suzi)
• Where to get it: Box File entitled ‘NICH Outreach Documents’ (direct link = https://app.box.com/s/y4mbul2ab5cutlgdp3zyena00mwwc0ye )
ii. Key messages:
1. Join our unified effort to make this happen
2. Offer your expert advice
3. Spread the message
• The one-pager is stand-alone. There is no accompanying email to go with it.
d. Digger Article: Gail will send out updated draft (which incorporates Casey’s and Ellen’s comments) to all for review. Action Item: Deadline for getting comments back to Gail is this Friday.
• Debbie has copyright free photos of nursery production, landscape. These can be posted in the NICH Box file.
• Article can be used/modified for use in other newsletters ~ should have a strategy for communication/distribution. Suzi/Shannon and the communication team will develop a communication strategy. Action Item: if you have places where you want to see the article distributed, contact Suzi, who will be developing a list to foster coordinated communication.
• We need to also have a high quality copy of the NICH logo on the Box file.
e. Other Marketing/Communications Team Updates (Suzi, Shannon)
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