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Minutes - 2004 Northeast Regional Cooperative Soil Survey Conference

Tucker County, West Virginia

June 21 - 25, 2004

Business Meeting - Thursday, June 24, 2004

Agenda

  1. Conference Proceedings reports getting in
  2. Follow-up experiment station report
  3. Hydric-subaqueous committee
  4. Standard committee rename
  5. Adding NCSS to all publications
  6. Next location
  7. Point of committee
    1. By-laws
    2. Reorganization of NRCS
    3. Steering committee

Meeting called to order at 4:00 pm with Dr. John Sencindiver, NECSSC Co-Chair, presiding

1. Submission of committee reports

  • Submit reports to Dr. John Sencindiver or Steve Carpenter on Friday
  • Or send electronically to Dr. Sencindiver by Aug. 15th, 2004.
  • Use old formats of past reports. Format should be Word document or Word Perfect
  • All talks can go into proceedings

2. Experiment Station reports

  • Changing protocol from Experiment Station report to Research report of ongoing work.
  • More interesting and more appropriate. Length to be determined by host.
  • Vote passed unanimously.

3. Merging hydric and subaqueous committees or a subcommittee.

  • Which way to go? Hydric soils as standing committee with subaqueous soils as a subcommittee.
  • What do we call it?
  • Overlapping scheduling of committees is an issue with scheduling.
  • Possible Solutions: 1.) Series of night meetings and thoughtful sequence of progression of meetings with one or two at a time. 2.)Several breakout sessions with unlike committees scheduled at the same time
  • Options:
    1. Combine the two committees
    2. Set two committees at different times
  • Call for Motion: Steve Fischer (NY) – Planning at next conference don’t schedule hydric/ subaqueous/ standards/ taxonomy: These committees do not meet at the same time.
    • Maxine Levin – 2nd motion
    • Chris Smith (NJ) – amendment to motion Research committee meet after to above committees meet.
    • Maxine Levine – 2nd motion
    • Discussion:
      • Timing and lengths of days
      • Kip Kalesinskas– work needs to be done for committees ahead of time.
      • This year no regional Soil Scientist to organize.
      • The wrap up should occur at the conference with last minute discussion.
      • Other Comments: Enough work and talent in the Northeast that we should have to rely on certain people attending meetings.
        Not fair? Costing time etc.
        Lenore - Two hours is enough time to get the work done for hydric and subaqueous committees
    • Vote:
      • 19 For
        5 Against
        1 Abstention
    • Motion Passed

4. Recommendation to change the name of the Standards Committee.

  • Call for a Motion: Mark Van Lear (WV) –To change the name of the Standards Committee to include procedures: Standards and Procedures Committee
    • Steve Baker – 2nd motion
    • Discussion:
      National committee is called . . . separation
      Taxonomy VS. Standards . . . . . NSSH Procedures. ... Manual
    • Motion passes unanimously.

5. Adding NCSS on USDA publications. To pass a recommendation on to the National Conference

  • Call for a Motion: Maxine Levin (Washington, DC) –This conference make a recommendation to the National Conference that citations for Soil Survey related publications include NCSS in them.
    • Amendment – Including digital products for a recommendation.
    • Pam Thomas – 2nd motion
    • Point of discussion: Decision needs to be made at the National level.
    • Motion passed unanimously – vocal

6. Meeting Location for 2006 NECSSC

  • Call for a proposal: Ronnie Taylor (NJ) - Could schedule the 2006 NE NCSS Conference with the 2006 World Congress Soils Conference in Philadelphia
  • Discussion: Interject our meeting with the World Conference
    • Will help university people in getting approval for attendance – 1 tour
    • Advantage NRCS National meeting is at tail end
    • Invite international folks to view how a NCSS works
    • Abbreviated meeting
    • Northeast meeting meet at 4-6pm range on Tuesday and Thursday. Connecticut and Rhode Island is a fall.
  • Call for a Motion: New Jersey host the next NECSS Region in conjunction with the 2006 World Soil Congress, PA. If this is determined to cumbersome, go to Connecticut, Rhode Island but must be held at a later date – NECSS would need to take place later like August.
    • Maxine Levin – 2nd motion
    • Motion passed unanimously

7. By-laws - slate

NRCS East Region Soil Scientist – this position does not exist anymore.
Conference Chair
Conference Vice Chair
And Past Chair

Recommendation: Put together a committee over the next 6-9 months.
Planning committee held one year prior to the conference.
Look at the other things out of date and necessary changes.
Come up with a checklist of things for every meeting every year.

Recommendation: who should be on the committee
Current Steering Committee
Steve Carpenter – past chair
Ron Taylor – vice chair
Experiment station chair- no one from NJ
PA representative

Recommendation: By laws committee be a separate committee
No more than 5 people
Marty Rabenhorst will be on the committee
Steve Fischer MO-12
Call for Chair – Steve Fischer
Steve Carpenter – on committee
Another university representative: John Sencindiver will take care of it
Neil Babik – USFS Regional Planning Soils Scientist



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