National Council Meeting Minutes - January 20, 2009

I. Luis Hernández, President, called the meeting to order at 6:10 pm.

II. Roll call was taken and quorum was established.

Note: National Council-7 members required for a quorum

Present

President, Luis Hernández
Executive Vice-President, Astrid Martinez
Secretary, Eileen Vale
Treasurer, Jorge Camacho

Regional Representatives

West, Roney Gutiérrez, CA (tardy)
Midwest, Heather Medina, WI
South Central, Cresencio Perez (tardy)
East, Tim Garrahan
Caribbean Area, Jorge Ruiz (tardy)
South East, Jazelle Jusino, FL

Guests Reporting:

Amanda Hasemeier, Carmen Ortiz

Absent

Vice President, Mario Morales (illness, excused)
Regional Rep Northern Plains: Ted Lucero (excused)

III. Approval or Changes made to the Agenda: Luis Hernandez asked the National Council to see if any modifications needed to be to the agenda. Luis suggested that Amanda Hasemeier be moved from VI. On going Business item E to item C. Astrid Martinez made a motion to approve the changes. Jorge Camacho seconded the motion, no more discussion, motion carried.

IV. Approve Minutes: Luis Hernandez asked the National Council to review the draft minutes from November 18, 2008 teleconference. Roney Gutierrez made a motion to approve the minutes as amended. Jorge Ruiz seconded the motion, no more discussion, motion carried.

V. Treasurer’s Report:

Jorge Camacho presented the treasury report listed above. Luis Hernandez asked if we had received any deposits. Jorge stated no. Carmen Ortiz asked what is happening with the money from the automatic payment draft for membership fees and there should be deposits from membership going into the account. Astrid Martinez stated there should have been deposits made very month from the automatic drafts. Jorge stated that the money is more than likely being deposited in the Wells Fargo account. Astrid stated that NFC will have to be notified about the change of bank accounts. NFC will have to change the routing number for NOPHNRCSE. Luis asked Jorge Camacho to talk to Rocemi and Gocha in regards to this situation. It was also suggested that Jorge call and inform NFC about the change of NOPHNRCSE's bank account and routing number. Tim Garrahan had a concern in regards to not receiving a statement or receipt for membership dues. Luis stated that he would like to set up a teleconference with Jorge Camacho, Rocemi Morales, and Gocha Rodriquez in regards to getting NFC in order with the correct account and routing number and membership receipts/notifications in place. Eileen M. Vale made a motion to approve the treasury report as amended. Astrid Martinez seconded the motion, no more discussion, motion carried.

VI. On-going Business

A. New Website Update:  Carmen stated that she, Luis, Mario and Lori met via teleconference in December and discussed revising the contract to better meet NOPHNRCSE needs. Carmen drafted the new contract and sent it to the committee to review. The Committee will meet via teleconference to discuss on January 22nd. Once the draft of the revised web contract is completed, the committee will review it with ComRush via teleconference. The results of the meeting with ComRush will be presented to the National Council in February’s Meeting.

B. Proposal to do Webinar Presentations: Luis Hernandez contacted Carmen Ortiz to ask her what are webinars and how can it benefit NOPHNRCSE. Webinars are still in a test mode in NRCS. Webinars are meetings or trainings that can be offered by using a combination of the internet (visual aid) and telephone for audio aid. Luis suggested that this might be a tool NOPHNRCSE may be interested in to offer trainings to members. There are some disadvantages at this stage. The facilities that are currently testing the webinars can only accommodate 21 participants. A webinar IT person will have to available at all times if any problems occur.  Recorded sessions sometimes do not have audio or video.  However, NEDC is offering that we pilot a session to test this capability. We can use it as a source of training available through out the year. One concern that was brought up was if we do use webinars for training or seminars, can it be done with the use of government owned equipment. Luis Hernandez will find out and report to the National Council in the next teleconference.

C. Update on 2009 Conference: Amanda Hasemeier was happy to report that they now have all committee chairs in place. All planning committee chairs met last week (week of January 12th). Their main objective at this time was to get the conference program outline in motion. Since the SEPM/HEPMs are going to be attending this year’s conference, the numbers of participants will be high. Jackie Padron, NHEPM, has gotten approval to have the joint meeting with us. Therefore, we will have more people arriving on Sunday to attend the conference.  Co-host states for the 2009 conference; Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, will be sending NRCS personnel to the conference to help assist NOPHNRCSE in supplying equipment, supplies, or assistance with functions. Amanda stated that we contracted with the hotel 150 people. We are estimating 40 HEPM/SEPMs that will be attending the conference on Monday. Not all SEPM/HEPMs will be attending the conference for the entire week.  Amanda Hasemeier stated that the theme for the 2009 Conference is: Together envisioning the future – reaching our goals- Unidos, imaginando el futuro – alcanzando nuestras metas. HEPM/SEPM registration fee will be $25, plus the additional NOPHNRCSE registration fee of $450.00.  Jackie Padron will be involved with the program planning. She is very outgoing and has a great personality. We have a set registration fee of $425.00. The $425.00 registration fee may not be enough to cover all expenses. It will depend on the final of number of exhibits, HEPM/SEPMs, NRCS, NOPHNRCSE, and NON-NRCS participants attending.

D. NOPHNRCSE Brochure:  Luis Hernandez stated that the brochure was ready to be sent out to members and past members. He said he would like to credit Lori Valadez and her committee members for all hard work they did.  A suggestion was made to include a mandatory question to the applicant what region are they in.

E. Proposal on How to Work Effectively with Hispanic Producers: Irma Hernandez with assistance from Astrid Martinez has been working on a proposal How to Work Effectively with Hispanic Producers. Irma Hernandez would like to present this proposal to the NEDC to use on future trainings given at NOPHNRCSE conferences. Irma presented the proposal to National Council to look over. Irma informed Luis that it would have to be presented to the NECD by her supervisor, Tom Christensen. The National Council questioned why it had to be presented by her supervisor and not by NOPHNRCSE. Luis stated that he will find out why it has to be proposed this way.

F.  2009 Business Plan: Briefly Luis Hernandez reviewed the 2009 business plan. He asked if anyone had any questions or comments to email or call him.

G. Conference Selection Process: Luis Hernandez stated that this Thursday, January 15th all the professional organization’s presidents are going to have a teleconference to discuss whether or not to have a joint meeting in 2010. If they do not decide to have a joint meeting, Luis suggested that we send invitations to the South central and West regions to present their presentations on site locations for the 2010 NOPHNRCSE Conference. If a Joint Meeting in 2010 was to occur it would have at least 500 participants. It would have to be held in location that can accommodate that many people in hotel and meeting rooms. Luis will keep us updated on this situation.

H. Career Enhancement Scholarship Program: Astrid Martinez stated that we currently we have a $7000.00 budget. In the past, $1000 would be set aside for each region. This $1000 would pay for two approved applicants at $500 each.  Only two participants received funds last year through the career enhancement scholarship program. Heather Medina suggested that the program needs to be advertised harder by regional reps. NOPHNRCSE members need to be aware about the program. Furthermore, Heather proceeded to state her concern in the increase of costs of books and tuition at colleges and universities. Heather suggested that we increase the scholarship from $500 to $750 or $1000.  It was proposed that a Career Enhancement Scholarship Program (CESP) selection team be formed. The selection team will consist of three persons. The committee will be responsible for revising the application for the CESP and presenting it to the National Council before distribution. Once the applications have been distributed by regional reps, the selection team will evaluate the applications and present their recommendations to the National Council. Astrid Martinez requested to regional reps to find NOPHNRCSE members who might be interested in serving on this team. Ted Garrahan made a motion to approve increasing the career enhancement scholarship to $1000 and to form a CESP Team. Cresencio Perez seconded the motion, no more discussion, motion carried.

I. Career Development Survey: Luis Hernandez stated that Frank from Greensboro, NC will be making a presentation at the NOPHNRCSE Conference in Philadelphia in regards to a career development survey. He creates these surveys for all the professional organizations. Luis stated that he was very interested in seeing the Organizational Climate Survey Roney Gutierrez created.

J. Organizational Climate Survey Update: Roney Gutierrez reported he had only received 50 responses. All responses varied by region. The Survey definitely did give the National Council feedback from NOPHNRCSE members on what the NC can do to help improve NOPHNRCSE. 

K. Membership Drive Proposal: Luis Hernandez stated it is important that we move forward with the membership drive proposal. We need to all do our part and outreach to members and past members. It was proposed that a cash reward of $50 be given as a prize to who ever can recruit the most new members in each region. Other prize suggestions included a NOPHNRCSE windbreaker, 50% discount on registration conference fee, and one year free membership. Astrid stated she still needed to check with her SAO to be sure we are not breaking any rules of ethics. Tim Garrahan stated he talked with his SAO and stated that she did not see a problem on the prizes we were considering on offering. Heather Medina suggested that Ted Lucero and Tim Garrahan work with Rocemi Morales to see if they can all brainstorm more ideas for the membership drive.

L. Standing Committee Chairs Update: This will be tabled for next month’s teleconference due to Mario Morales absence.

M. Regional Representatives:

• West, Roney Gutierrez: Roney stated he has been working on the climate survey and correspondence
• Caribbean Area, Jorge Ruiz stated that he has been forwarding job annoucncements and that he had concern for hte low numbers of NOPHNRCSE members in the Caribbean Area.
• Northern Plains, Ted Lucero: Absent
• Midwest, Heather Medina Sauceda stated that she forwarded job announcements, general correspondence, and presented her copy of last year's career enhancement scholarship program application to the national council.
• South Central, Cresencio Perez stated that he has been forwarding email and talking with Salvador Salinas about to Texas NRCS supporting the 2009 conference.
• South East, Jazelle Jusino reported that she has been forwarding emails, job announcements, etc.
• East, Tim Garrahan stated he has been forwarding job announcements, general correspondence, etc.

Briefly, Jorge Camacho asked to see if there was a limit on how many excused absences a NC member was allowed. Eileen Vale stated that there was no limit, but there was a limit on unexcused absences. Jorge suggested that maybe we as NC need to discuss to see if we need to set a limit on excused absences also. This topic will be tabled for discussion at next month's teleconference.

VII. Adjournment

Jorge Camacho made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Heather Medina seconded the motion, no more discussion, motion carried.

Meeting adjourned at 8:15 pm CST.

Luis Hernández, President
Eileen Vale, Secretary

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