Wednesday Feb 11 th, 2015 Conference Call Minutes FINAL Board Members: Christine DeRooy, Crystal Dentman, Morgan Webb, Krista Erickson, Chantal Lecavalier, DaNell Jamieson, Michele Kulba, Brigette Moore, Ken Penner Past President: Dianne Gilhuly (absent) Guest Members: Janine Maruschak (CFIA/SSTS) (absent), Jennifer Scott (CSI) (absent) Executive Director - Betty Girard 1. Motion to approval of. Motion by Morgan 2 nd by Krista All in favour. Carried 2. Motion to approval of Minutes of last Board meeting Nov 19 th 2014 Motion Krista. 2 nd by Michelle. All in favour. Carried 3. CSI update provided by Jennifer. Danielle Fletcher, the new Western Rep, has started working part time (Tuesdays and Thursdays), should be back full time sometime in March. She will be attending the annual meeting this year as I have a conflict. We have three more grader training sessions planned for the spring - London, Saskatoon and Winnipeg, all through March. Chantal Lecavalier is coming to London, Shirley Baraniski in Saskatoon and Morgan is coming to Winnipeg. Ken is also attending each of the sessions to help deliver the training. Ken S. is working on developing licensed seed sampler training using some funding that we have until the end of March. 4. CFIA/SSTS update none provided by Janine (absent). 5. Updates by Regional Directors: Chantal: attended Nov 28 th Conditioners meeting in Quebec; did presentation on proposed new Weed Seed Order, did some quizzes with them and had 4 conditioners win the seed swap collections. Have sent out French donation requests; getting ready articles for French magazine. In April will be either what certificate tells you or Vegetable one. Grant article has been sent to French Ag School. Morgan attended convention planning meeting, getting seed swap ready. Ken P. attended convention planning meeting, nothing else to report.
Brigette - nothing to report. DaNell SCST is being updating constitution and bylaws; working on uniformity of seed testing and lab audits programs for lab accreditation in the future. 6. Vigour Committee update by Krista. Referee samples are ready. Crystal and Krista just finishing up germination testing. 2 responses so far plus offers from board members today. Crop tested will be wheat. Crystal developed a spreadsheet to record data. Once ready for mailing, CSAAC will do that. Preliminary report will be submitted during members only section of the annual meeting. 7. Upcoming Saskatoon convention 2015. Hotel is in place just waiting to plan meals closer to date. Buses are booked for workshop and banquet night. Things are looking good. Draft agenda for annual meeting and board meeting have been circulated. About 25 attendees registered so far. Will send out another notice about the meeting expanding on the workshop agenda as well as changes in M&P. Annual meeting room has been moved to be closer to the coffee/break area. Registration will be held in hospitality room as last year. Works very well. CSAAC brochures will be available. 8. Workshop 2015 draft agenda in place. Samples and items are being prepared. It is important presentations are available in French as well for our Quebec members to follow along. 9. Awards Nominations for 2015. Christine advised only 1 nomination for MG award so far. Deadline is February 15 th. Betty will advise Jan to go ahead and start sculpture. Once decision is made, Jan will be advised of the name to help personalize the sculpture. 10. Executive Director Update and Financial Report. See attached. Highlights are the review of membership requirements and privileges including Inactive status. Policies draft review was circulated. Will further discuss in person in Saskatoon annual board meeting. Financial Report with explanation is prepared for annual meeting and has to be circulated in March.
High ED hours are noted. This is happening to the shift of workload from the Nov/Dec time to Jan/Feb which already is heavy with the convention planning. To even the hours out later; time in July and August may have office closed for holidays. Betty is keeping an eye on the situation. Membership has gone up and down with people changing either from senior/associate and/or inactive. GST expecting large refund. Auditors checked and report was right. 11. Election year so call for nominations will go out in March. Positions that remain in affect are the moves to Past President, President, 1 st Vice President and Membership chair. All others are up for election. 12. Update on audits for yearend Oct 31 st 2014 and stub year Dec 31 st 2014 are completed just waiting for draft and final copy to come out from auditors. Board members will each receive a copy once approved. 13. Budget for 2015 need vote on the books to accept. Motion by Chantel. 2 nd by Crystal to approve 2015 budget. All in favor. Carried. 14. Items for registration bags for June 2015 AOSCA meeting/csga request has been completed with order made for USB sticks with seal on them. Motion by Kirsta to increase spending to $1,200. 2 nd by Morgan. All in favor. Carried. Betty will send CSAAC Brochures in English and French as well to Crystal to send with the USB sticks directly to CSGA office. 15. PT testing and actions taken. General discussion was held. Education needs were discussed. Seed Image booklet is waiting for Janine to check on copyright with CFIA. Important to have more purity training on other weeds in minimum list and Betty will follow up with having this at Quebec City with Leeanne to attend to provide the training. Discussion on availability of all seeds on minimum list. You can order individual sample for $3 each. There is a booklet for sale as well but does not include all of them. Betty will look into webinars and costing and how we can use this tool for education of members. If seed image booklet is a success, then other booklets will become available. Discussion also on when accreditations are taken away and the costing of not only that but the cost to get them back. We are talking about people s livelihoods and to take a whole crop grouping away when weeds found aren t even found in those crops is very harsh. The important thing is finding them.
Seed ID is important but if a lab wasn t sure they would send to SSTS for identification or just mark it Genus spp. non noxious. Is there another way? Do we know how hard this is on the labs involved? 16. Quebec City 2016 Workshop idea see above. Purity workshop on minimum listing of other weeds. With some smaller presentations to break it up in the all day workshop. 17. French translations are becoming important and Betty will try to keep ahead of the game. Seal contract is now available in French. Though English is the official language having French translation of items will help retain and expand Quebec membership. A gift of $250 was presented to Frank Hogg with a card for his outstanding service to CSAAC. He was indeed very pleased with getting this. 18. CEP database will be updated and it is hoped will tie into Website so only one set of records have to be maintained and Website is under construction until the bugs are worked out of the system of having individual passwords. Provided by Betty 19. Other item Grant applications none so far. Need to develop a checklist for reviewing the applications and essay. Suggested try to go outside the board to get committee members. Asked so far Gail, Cathie and Cecile. Deadline is May 15 th so lots of time. 20. Other item M&P proposals have been sent in for review. March 4 th is the next meeting of the committee. Presentations at convention will be done by Steve and Cathy. Betty will do one on the Kinds Not Required to be separated on the morning of the annual meeting in only membership forum. 21. Next Board meeting Wednesday April 22 nd, 2015 at usual meeting time. 22. Adjournment motion by Crystal and 2 nd by Brigette. All in favour. Carried
Research after meeting on webinars Webinars are fairly easy to assemble and the cost is not unreasonable. As you can do it month to month. Costing depends upon the type of webinar you have and how fancy you make it along with # of trainees you expect. This seems like a viable option for training. Will need to develop topics and uses in the future. Examples are review of M&P proposals before the meeting, seed purity training, review of results of referees, general training on purity and germination and training on crops and weeds. Plus in the future updates in grade tables, updates on seed regulations, etc. Signed by Date Christine DeRooy, President Signed by Date CSAAC Executive Director