October 17th Conference Call

Posted on by The NICH Team

National Initiative for Consumer Horticulture (NICH)

Bi-Weekly Tuesday Conference Call Minutes

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Attending: Pam, Debbie, Ellen, Casey, Clint, Suzi, Gail

  1. SCRI listening sessions – Floor
    1. https://nifa.usda.gov/nifalistens
    2. In-person sessions in Sacramento, Atlanta, Greenbelt (MD), Kansas City (MO)
      1. Who submitted abstracts?:
        1. Ellen (GA)
        2. Missy Gable (CA)
      2. Who is going?:
        1. Ellen plus industry representatives (GA),
        2. Missy and Gail (CA),
        3. Clint is tentative for Greenbelt (MD), perhaps Casey
        4. no one yet confirmed for Kansas City
    3. Written Comments: accepted through December 1st
      1. We should work with our supporters, stakeholders, friends to submit written comments. Reaching out to our industry supporters, now – and making it easy for them to provide comment – is critical.
        1. Comments are searched, electronically. If they are the same, identical comment, they are counted as one.
        2. Comments should be unique.
        3. We can use an email blast to provide a sample – and then ask our stakeholders/friends to submit a unique comment.
      2. NICH should submit a written comment
  2. NICH Emails: Upcoming list – Suzi and Others: start the subject line of all NICH emails with ‘NICH’
    1. Casey and Suzi are not currently getting the NICH email blasts. They will follow up, to make sure they are subscribed, and/or to make sure the email is not going to spam. Casey will also check his database, to make sure emails are correct.
    2. Folks can sign up for the emails by visiting https://consumerhort.org/, and clicking on the ‘Connect with Us’ button that is under the large, white text that says ‘CONSUMER HORTICULTURE’
    3. At the very bottom of the page, there is a ‘Get in Touch with Us’ form. This generates an auto-email to Casey and Richie. Casey/Richie can then sign them up for the email list.
    4. There could be more clarity on what happens with the ‘Connect with Us’, ‘How Can I Help’ buttons, and the ‘Get in Touch with Us’ form, ‘Leave a Reply’ form.
      1. Remove the ‘Leave a Reply’
      2. Re-order ‘How Can I Help’ on the website
      3. To Do: Casey and Ellen will talk about how to reconfigure the buttons/forms on the website
    5. Timeline for future emails
    6. NICH SCRI Listening Sessions SENT
      1. Week 5) – invitation to supporters to provide written comments to NIFA (Gail)
      2. Week 7) economic survey
      3. Week 9) community/social committee objectives ranking
      4. Week 11) economic committee objectives ranking
      5. Week 13) environmental committee objectives ranking
  3. SCRI Pre-Proposal – Ellen and Gail are working on it, and a draft will soon be shared with the Executive Committee
    1. There was concern expressed about moving forward on a proposal before the industry has identified the research and extension priorities for consumer horticulture. The idea may be good, but it may not be the idea identified by industry as a high priority.
    2. Also, there is a need to focus on bringing the industry together and along with us.
      1. Position the industry with stakeholder groups, internal and external to the industry
      2. Identify priorities for research that will allow industry to move forward in positive ways
        1. Conversations and interviews with industry have been about engaging industry to identify these priorities
    3. The benefits of submitting now include getting comments from industry relevance reviewers (and scientific merit reviewers, if we go to stage two)
    4. Clarification that this is not a ‘NICH’ proposal. The proposal might be one that individual NICH members and committees might want to get behind, but it should not be NICH driven.
    5. The discussion sits between the differences between industry/academia. In academia, the call for grants comes out, and they are looking for something specific. In industry, we want to hear high priorities, and hope (or look for) there is a grant that will fund those needs.
    6. This discussion may also represent a ‘growing pain’ for our group. This is the first time that there are academic leaders and industry, working together on a coordinated effort.
    7. To Do: Casey and Debbie will conference offline, for further discussion
  4. New Items – Floor
    1. To Do: Debbie and Ellen will follow up on survey
  5. Review Action Items
    1. To Do: Casey and Ellen will talk about how to reconfigure the buttons/forms on the website
    2. Casey and Debbie will conference offline, for further discussion
    3. To Do: Debbie and Ellen will follow up on survey

Next Meeting: November 1st

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