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MONTHLY
UPDATE
News for C-FAR Members
Illinois Council on Food and Agricultural
Research
June/July 2008
Early summer greetings from C-FAR. Highlights
of the past month include…
YOUR C-FAR INFORMATION
PROFILE
If you are a representative to C-FAR and/or an Individual
member, you either just received, or will be very shortly,
your C-FAR Personal Information Profile. This is
a highly important annual communication to confirm your
role(s) within C-FAR and to update your contact information.
For this initiative to be effective, your response is
requested. Please take a minute to review and return your
profile. Of course, if you have any questions, don't
hesitate to contact me.
IL AG LEADERS RECOGNIZED
Justly and richly deserved, two of Illinois' prominent agricultural
leaders were honored this spring. Illinois State University's
Department of Agriculture bestowed its highest individual
honor (the Honorary Holbert Award) on Dan
Kelley - C-FAR member, producer, GROWMARK
chairman of the board and president, and long-standing and
loyal supporter of ISU and its Agriculture Department.
Lyle Roberts
was this year's recipient of the highly regarded Southern
Illinois University College of Agricultural Science's Service
to Agriculture Award. Since 1999, Lyle has served as
the chief executive officer of the Illinois Soybean Association,
having previously served the organization as director of
operations and chief operating officer. In addition to numerous
leadership roles, Lyle provided critical leadership to C-FAR's
founding and served as C-FAR's first chairman. This SIU
award is not new to those engaged in C-FAR. The previous
three recipients were Larry Fischer, Steve Scates, and Karen
Little.
How fitting and appropriate these recognitions are. Congratulations
Dan and Lyle!
NEW C-FAR MEMBER HANDBOOK
AVAILABLE
C-FAR's Member Handbook is the comprehensive resource
for every C-FAR representative and member. It is an A-Z
document on every aspect of the C-FAR organization and research
programs. The 2008-2009 edition of the handbook is now available
to you in one of two ways:
Note: If you are a recently appointed C-FAR representative
for an Organizational or Affiliate member, we will be sending
you a handbook along with additional information for orienting
you to the organization.
As we look to the month of July, we find the following notables…
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
TO MEET
As is usually the case for this particular meeting, an extensive
agenda awaits your Board of Directors who will convene during
the early part of July for a regular meeting. It is anticipated
their agenda items will include:
- Preliminary considerations of potential FY09 research
program allocations (pending the FY09 appropriation's
enactment). A key factor in these considerations is the
Strategic Research Initiative Program. It was previously
determined, by the Research Committee and Board of Directors,
that this program could seek new initiatives for FY09
funding should the appropriation be $5.5 million for greater.
The initial protocols for this program have been determined
- thanks to the Research Committee's direction earlier
this year.
- A significant number of financial end-of-year and other
matters will be reviewed. These financial matters include
FY08 statements of revenue and expense for the dues-based
membership accounts and FY08 statements of expense for
the office-based administrative accounts. For each of
these accounts, FY09 budgets will be considered.
- An update and review of 2008 memberships.
- Review of recent and upcoming legislative activities/initiatives
pertaining to C-FAR appropriations and related matters.
- Consideration of sponsorship for Agriculture Day at
the Illinois State Fair.
- An executive session for the purpose of considering
the executive administrator's annual review and service
to C-FAR.
- Updates on a number of statewide agricultural initiatives
including the Vision for Illinois Agriculture and Illinois
Agricultural Legislative Roundtable.
VOTING DELEGATES TO
ACT ON PROPOSED BUDGETS
First, this reminder…each of our Organizational members
designates a Voting Delegate (one individual per Organizational
member). These individuals represent their respective organization
in acting on membership-wide matters (such as budgets, Board
member elections, bylaw changes).
As I noted above, a July Board meeting topic is the consideration
of FY09 budgets. While the Board sets the office-based administrative
account budgets, Voting Delegates act upon budgets for the
dues-based membership accounts, upon the recommendation
of the Board. We anticipate these Voting Delegates being
provided the Board of Directors' budget recommendations
during July.
UPDATING THE MEMBERSHIP
ROLLS
Our membership rolls are formally revised every July to
reflect current membership. Organizations and individuals
who have not renewed their membership, per C-FAR policy,
are removed from the rolls pending any special circumstances
that might exist. We are quite grateful in that we have
had to remove only a very few number of members due to non-renewal
over the course of C-FAR's history. This year will be no
different, as there are only a handful of members who have
not yet renewed; and we certainly encourage and respectfully
request these renewals at their earliest convenience.
Of course, we warmly welcome our new members in 2008 as
they become engaged and compliment the existing C-FAR coalition.
15th ANNIVERSARY
REFLECTION
The rubber really hit the road in a meaningful manner 15
years ago this coming month. It was during July 1993 that
a steering committee organized by the UIUC College of Agriculture
Alumni Association met for their first meeting to consider
how to demonstrably improve Illinois' food and agricultural
research program. This July '93 meeting was the impetus
for several important subsequent meetings which of course
led to the birth of C-FAR later that year.
UPCOMING EVENTS
OF INTEREST
You may well want to mark your calendar and attend the following
upcoming agricultural-related events:
- 2008 Alternative Crops Research Field Day at Western
Illinois University in Macomb - July 17, 2- 4 p.m.
Over 30 different crops comprise WIU's newly expanded
demonstration plots. Pre-registration is not required
and the field day is open and free to the public. For
more information see http://www.wiu.edu/AltCrops/2008_field_day.htm,
call 309.298.1251, or send email to Dr. Win Phippen at
WB-Phippen@wiu.edu
- Agriculture Day at the Illinois State Fair -
August 12. A long-standing celebration of our state's
number one industry. Complete 2008 Illinois State Fair
information is available at http://www.agr.state.il.us/isf/
- Agronomy Day at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- August 21, 7 a.m. - 2 p.m. This year's Agronomy Day
theme is "Energizing Agriculture" and a special
noon program will feature biofuels issues. For complete
information, see http://agronomyday.cropsci.uiuc.edu/,
or contact Sharon Conatser at 217.333.4256 or sconatse@illinois.edu.
Pre-registration is not required and the event is open
and free to the public.
DID YOU KNOW…
On our website, a page is dedicated to providing links to
the websites of each of our Organizational and Affiliate
members and governmental partners. With the breadth of
C-FAR's membership, this is a valuable resource for linking
you to information on numerous food and agricultural-related
organizations and university and other public entities.
Find these links at: http://www.ilcfar.org/rlinks.html
IN CONCLUSION
Our thoughts are with our fellow Illinois citizens who have
been so tragically affected by flooding (several who are
C-FAR members). May their strength of will and our support
lead them to much brighter days.
Kraig
_______________________________________________________
Kraig A. Wagenecht, Executive Administrator
Illinois Council on Food & Agricultural Research (C-FAR)
1101 W. Peabody Drive · Urbana, IL 61801
Tel: 217.244.4232 · Fax: 217.244.8594
e-mail: wagenech@illinois.edu
GO
CUBS GO!
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