Minutes

James L. Steele, presiding

July 9, 2000

Present: James Steele, Chair; Nolan Clark, Vice Chair; Stan Weeks, Past Chair; Ken Lomax, District 1 Rep.; David Beasley, District 2 Rep; John Reid, District 3 Rep.; Dennis Larson, District 4 Rep.; Daniel Wambeke, District 5 Rep.; John Cundiff, Awards Committee Rep.; John Dixon, International Commission Rep; Robert Graves, PEI Rep.; Carly Washmon, Preprofessional Rep.; Ted Tyson, Section Steering Committee Rep.; Saied Mostaghimi, SW Rep; and Mark Crossley, Secretary

Guests: Larry Huggins, Harmon Towne, Wayne Skaggs, Roger Rohrbach, Claude Brown, Murray Madsen, Chi Thai, Larry Grueberger, Kelly Detra, Neil Detra, Billy Lawson, Russell Persyn, and Curt Weller

Staff: Melissa Moore, Mark Zielke, Tina Schultz, and Linda Young

The meeting was called to order at 1:35 p.m. and introductions of the attendees were made. It was noted that Ken Lomax was serving as proxy for Gene Giacomelli.

Review of Agenda
Jim Steele overviewed the agenda and an initiative fund proposal from the Quarter Scale Tractor Committee, a Finance Committee Liaison Report and the Results of the Membership Survey were added. With no further additions, the following motion was made:

Motion: To accept the agenda for the Membership Development Council (MDC). Seconded and passed.

Minutes of the July 18 & 22, 1999
The question of acceptance of the minutes from the last MDC meeting was presented. John Dixon, representative from the International Commission, asked that his affiliation be changed from International Committee to International Commission on both the Sunday and Thursday attendee lists. The changes have been noted and will be made and posted on the MDC web page at www.usgmrl.ksu.edu/asaemdc. With no further changes, the following motion was made:

Motion: To approve the minutes, with changes noted above, from the July 18 & 22, 1999 MDC meeting in Toronto, Canada. Seconded and passed.

Results of Email Voting July 22, 1999 - July 8, 2000
There was one email vote during this time period to establish an undergraduate student mechanization branch at Southwest Texas State University. The MDC overwhelmingly approved the creation of this student branch (Attachment A).
Budget
Past MDC Chair, Stan Weeks, who is also liaison to the Finance Committee and Chair of the MDC Budget Committee, gave the Finance Committee liaison report. He began by reviewing the budget flow process (Attachment B) and then moved to the 2001 Proposed Membership Budget (Attachment C). Weeks reiterated the fact that ASAE is not in the business to make money, but rather to serve our membership. With that in mind, he opened the floor for questions/comments concerning the proposed budget. John Dixon asked if there were any monies for grants for international members to attend the annual meeting. There currently are not in this budget and it was suggested that a proposal to the Foundation requesting funding would be more appropriate. This might also be a great use of the international rebate funds.

There is currently a line item of $5,000 under Section Communications for travel. Considering the shear number of sections to be visited, it was questioned if this was enough. Mark Zielke reported that in 1999 $5,400 was spent on travel to sections and that this was a pretty accurate projection for 2001. Larry Huggins then assured the group that if more than $5,000 was to be spent, they would find a way to cover the costs because of the importance of section visits by the Membership Director, headquarters staff and Society officers. Chi Thai pointed out that cyber meetings were a viable option as well. With no further budget discussion, the following motion was presented:

Motion: To accept and recommend the 2001 Proposed Membership Budget to the Finance Committee as presented in Attachment C. Seconded and passed.

Weeks went on to report that the restricted reserve is very healthy and that there needs to be more proposals for funding made to the Initiative Fund. Larry Huggins added that the Board of Trustees developed six key Strategic Initiative areas to help ASAE focus on the future and that these areas will be used as markers by which proposals to the Initiative Fund will be measured. He also reminded the Council that all proposals must first go before the Foundation and if declined, then to the Initiative Fund for consideration.

At this point, Jim Steele formally introduced Larry Huggins, Harmon Towne, Wayne Skaggs and Roger Rohrbach who temporarily joined the group. Huggins expressed his thanks to the MDC for their support and leadership. He stressed the importance of continued membership growth, participation and increasing visibility of the profession. He sited the Quarter Scale Tractor Competition as a model for excellence in programming and member participation. Harmon Towne also thanked the MDC and encouraged the continuance of membership growth and the positive direction the MDC has taken. Wayne Skaggs concurred with the previous comments and stated that Society members, their commitment and the efforts of the MDC have always impressed him.

Membership Survey Results
Melissa Moore presented results of the membership survey recently conducted by CESSE (Attachment D). She explained that this compares ASAE member opinions to those of other engineering societies. Since the last survey conducted in 1998, ASAE has shown significant statistical improvement in eight areas and slippage in only one. While the Society continues to improve, there are still 28 areas that fall below the median when compared to other engineering societies. Moore further pointed out that building the image of ASAE is critical in the eyes of our membership as is enhancing networking opportunities. The results of the survey will also be published in Resource.

Initiative Fund Proposals
Industry Outreach Program
Moore reported that a proposal for an Industry Outreach Program is proposed for grant funding (Attachment E). The brainchild of Russ Hahn and Wayne Maley, the program's goals are to build industry relationships; strengthen industry member participation in ASAE; foster understanding of ASAE missions, products and services; increase industry membership; and provide feedback from industry. In the beginning, one trip per quarter will be taken by each person in which multiple companies will be visited within the same geographic area. With no further discussion, the following motion of support was presented:

Motion: To lend support from the MDC for the Industry Outreach Program proposal to the Foundation. Seconded and passed.

Quarter Scale Tractor Design Competition
The Quarter Scale Tractor Design Competition Committee presented a proposal to establish ASAE as a source of basic funding for the Competition and to ensure the event continues regardless of future sponsorship levels. In the proposal, they are asking that ASAE support the event by becoming a corporate sponsor and funding the following areas: location with track; insurance for the Competition; ambulance stand-by service; and a progressive sled with crew. Corporate sponsorship is equivalent to $7,000 in funding. They are also asking that ASAE donate staff time and travel to the event and that annual meeting registration be waived for the top three finishing teams. Since the Quarter Scale Committee is asking for ASAE sponsorship on an annual basis, it was decided that this is really not an appropriate funding request for the Foundation, but rather a budgetary item and should be treated as such. Stan Weeks, Melissa Moore, Mark Crossley and the Quarter Scale Committee co-chairs will meet before the Thursday MDC meeting to determine what action is needed by the MDC concerning this issue at the Thursday meeting. The Quarter Scale Committee announced that they would like to submit another proposal to the Foundation, which will also be discussed on Thursday as well.

The meeting recessed at 3:30 p.m. until Thursday, July 13th at 7:00 a.m.

MEMBERSHIP DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL
ASAE International Annual Meeting
Milwaukee, WI - July 9 & 13, 2000

Minutes

James L. Steele, presiding

July 13, 2000

Present: James Steele, Chair; Nolan Clark, Vice Chair; Stan Weeks, Past Chair; Ken Lomax, District 1 Rep.; David Beasley, District 2 Rep; John Reid, District 3 Rep.; Dennis Larson, District 4 Rep.; John Dixon, International Commission Rep; Carly Washmon, Preprofessional Rep.; John Bruce Solie, Research Rep.; Ted Tyson, Section Steering Committee Rep.; Saied Mostaghimi, SW Rep; and Mark Crossley, Secretary

Guests: Chi Thai, Wayne Coates and Curt Weller

Staff: Melissa Moore and Mark Zielke

The meeting was called to order at 7:00 a.m. and Jim Steele asked for additions to the agenda. Two items were raised and added to the agenda: an issue from M-102 concerning student competitions and one regarding student branches and their names.

Quarter Scale Tractor Design Competition Budget & Funding Proposal
The proposed 2001 budget was distributed from the Quarter Scale Committee (Attachment F). After a reminder on the budget process from Melissa Moore and brief discussion, the following motion was made:

Motion: To support the 2001 proposed budget from the Quarter Scale Committee with the exception of the $22,000 special budget for the 2001 Past President's Pull.

The floor was then open to discussion and a vote. There was confusion as to what exactly they are asking for between this budget and the Foundation proposal. After much discussion, it was decided that the Quarter Scale budget needed further examination to clarify specific budget questions. The MDC Budget Committee will discuss the budget more closely with the Quarter Scale Committee and bring its recommendations back to the MDC within the next 30 days. With this action:

The motion was defeated.

The MDC felt it important to make sure the Quarter Scale Committee knows it has their support of the overall event. With that in mind, the following motion was made:

Motion: To support the concept of the Quarter Scale Tractor Design Competition and its related budget before the MDC. Seconded and passed.

Conversation returned to funding proposals to be submitted to the Foundation by the Quarter Scale Committee. A second funding proposal was then presented by the Committee (Attachment G). It proposes to gain funding to outfit the ASAE Quarter Scale Tractor Trailer with decals and a travelling promotional walk-through display so that the disciplines of agricultural and biological engineering; participating universities, event sponsors and the competition itself may be better promoted. This mobile display would then be taken to professional events such as the Louisville Farm Show, the FFA National Convention and the ASAE Annual International Meeting. Questions were raised concerning specific proposal budget items and the dollar amounts associated with them. The group was reminded the that there shouldn't be too many obstacles in the grant request process making it too difficult to obtain funding or committees may give up submitting requests altogether. While the MDC supports the concept of the proposal, the budget portion needs further research. John Reid will work with Melissa Moore, Mark Crossley and the Quarter Scale Committee to further examine the budget. With that, the following motion was made:

Motion: To support the concept of the funding proposal submitted by the Quarter Scale Committee to the Foundation. Seconded and passed.

The focus of the group then returned to the special budget for the proposed 2001 Past President's Pull in Sacramento. In the budget, there is a $10,000 line item for travel to help subsidize transport of additional tractors and staff to the 2001 Annual Meeting. Briggs and Stratton helped with travel costs to bring tractors to the Annual Meeting and the schools have been responsible for funding their way home. This line item is to assist smaller schools with no budget funds for travel that might not otherwise be able to afford to come to the Annual Meeting. Upon further discussion of this special budget, it was suggested that this budget really belongs under the Meetings Council as it relates to Annual Meeting expenses. In light of this, the following motion was made:

Motion: To recommend that the special budget for the 2001 Past President's Pull be referred to the Meetings Council for budget consideration. Seconded and passed.

NCEES Survey Update
Curt Weller, Chair of the P-414 Committee gave an update on the NCEES Survey (Attachment H). In response to a request from NCEES, a task analysis was started in October of 1999. Out of this effort resulted the survey. Out of 3,000 surveys mailed, over 1,000 were returned. Final results are not known yet, but are expected by the end of the Annual Meeting. Please see Attachment H for further details. The following motion was made:

Motion: To accept the report given by Curt Weller and to thank P-414 for their support of this effort. Seconded and passed.

MDC Bylaws
An amendment to current MDC bylaws to allow officer terms to be extended to two years and to remove the Transition section was then discussed (Attachment I). It has been suggested that one year officer terms is an inadequate amount of time for the Chair to both learn their duties and carry them out. The proposed changes are outlined in more detail in the attachment. With no further discussion, ballots were distributed for voting. All ballots indicated approval votes. The following motion was made:

Motion: To accept the amendments to the MDC bylaws and have Jim Steele serve one more year as Chair. Seconded and passed.

John Dixon, International Commission Rep. expressed that the International Commission should be treated as a district and have the same representation as the other district reps. do. This issue will be addressed in the future.

Environmental Student Design Competition
Russell Persyn has submitted a funding proposal to the Foundation to create an Environmental Student Design Competition. The Competition will link professional engineers, regulatory agencies and students to provide engineering solutions to real-world problems (Attachment J). The M-102 Awards Coordinating Committee overwhelmingly supported the funding request and recommends the support of the MDC (Attachment K). The following motion was made:

Motion: That the MDC endorse the funding request to the Foundation by the Environmental Student Design Competition. Seconded and passed.

Central Illinois and Chicago Section Revitalization
John Reid reported that both the Central Illinois and Chicago sections have meetings planned for the fall. The Chicago section had March and June meetings as well. At the June meeting, officers were elected for 2000/2001 and they are planning a joint meeting with the Central Illinois section and possibly the Quad City and Wisconsin sections as well. They are also looking to update their bylaws. The Central Illinois section is also looking to make bylaws changes. Both sections are facing membership issues and will be looking at recruitment issues in the near future. See attached report for further details (Attachment L).

District Reports
District #1
Ken Lomax reported that the agricultural engineering program at Rutgers University has been dissolved at the undergraduate level.

District #2
David Beasley reported that the Florida section has been collecting dues when their bylaws have prohibited it. They have been calling them special assessments. Their bylaws have recently been changed which now allow them to collect section dues.

District #3
See above report on Central Illinois and Chicago Section Revitalization. No further report given.

District #4
Dennis Larson reported that the New Mexico section is not totally inactive, but is nearly so.

District #5
No report.

Headquarters Report
See attached report (Attachment M). The question arose of what ASAE does when someone does not respond to paying their invoices. They are currently mailed an exit survey (Attachment N) along with a final invoice.

Awards Report
Nolan Clark reported that 17 of the 19 awards were presented this year. He also reported that several award committees have adopted a two-page nomination form to encourage more submittals.

Carly Washmon, speaking on behalf of the P-207 Student Organizations Committee, brought up the issue that students feel that many of the student-related awards committees are difficult to approach under the current structure. Since the student awards are not really awards at all, but rather competitions, they might better fit under P-207 (Attachment O) for administrative management. This action is endorsed by the M-102 Awards Coordinating Committee

Motion: To approve moving student competitions under P-207. Seconded and passed.

Education Report
No report. The Education Steering Committee was disbanded in 1999.

International Commission Report
John Dixon spoke to the group concerning issues currently before the International Commission (Attachment P). He reported that there has been a proposal to form an International Institute of Agricultural Engineers which has been tabled at the moment. The Commission also stressed the importance of having the American Society of Agricultural Engineers spelled out on all Society publications. He was pleased to inform the MDC that the Commission has developed a partnering program for ASAE members and CIGR attendees who attend the joint meeting in 2002 (Attachment Q). Lastly, he reported that a new dues structure for members from low-income ($15), low-middle income ($35) and upper-middle income ($55) countries as defined by the World Bank is being introduced for dues year 2001. These members would have email memberships only and they would not be charged the $10 application fee. There would obviously be an overall loss in dues revenue, but it is thought that the sheer number of new international members gained would make up for the loss. To offset the loss in funds from no new member application fees, the International Commission will apply their yearly section rebate monies to compensate for this loss. See attachment for actual figures (Attachment R). With no further discussion, the following motion was made:

Motion: To approve the dues fee structure for international members from developing countries. Seconded and passed.

This issue will now go before the Board of Trustees for a vote and then a notice announcing the change in the dues structure must be mailed to the entire membership three months prior to the start of dues year 2001.

Research Committee Report
John Bruce Solie reported that over the last eight years, P-303 Research Committee has only existed to periodically develop research priorities and review and revise them as needed. When the Committee met yesterday, there were only two members in attendance. Solie further reported that P-303 is no longer a functioning committee and feels that research issues are far too important to ASAE for this to happen. He suggests that the ASAE President assemble a committee of Society members to identify future research needs and priorities every four years. See report for further details (Attachment S).

Section Steering Committee Report
Ted Tyson reported that at the recent Section Steering Committee (SSC) meeting, SSC bylaws were discussed and approved. He also stated that three other issues were addressed at the meeting including the collection of voluntary section dues; Section Officer Handbook updates; and the Section Achievement Award Program. See attached report for further details (Attachment T). Concerning the section dues collection issue the following motion was made (Attachment U):

Motion: To accept the recommendation of the SSC that the existing $10 limit on section dues collected via the ASAE dues invoice be removed with the following stipulations:

1. Each section desiring to collect such voluntary dues must first amend section bylaws to approve such and must have a specific section vote recorded in section meeting minutes authorizing the amount of such collection.
2. Further, such section must present these amended bylaws and recorded section vote authorizing the amount of voluntary section dues to ASAE headquarters before ASAE can collect such voluntary dues on the annual ASAE membership dues invoice.

Seconded and passed.

Preprofessional Report
Carly Washmon began her report with the statement that all areas of concern that were expressed at the 1999 MDC meeting by the Preprofessional Committee have improved. She then expressed three areas of discussion brought up by the preprofessionals: an increase in activity in services to graduate students; an overall decrease in students who classify themselves in Agricultural Systems Management; and industry exposure to ASAE and the image of the profession. This last item is being addressed through the creation of a career fair at the 2001 Annual Meeting (Attachment V). Washmon reported that the Student Advisory Board loved the idea of this event and will work towards making it a reality for Sacramento. The goal for the first year is to attract 150 companies. With no further discussion, the following motion was made:

Motion: To endorse the concept of a career fair and urge the Preprofessional Committee to work towards creating this event for the 2001 Annual Meeting. Seconded and passed.

Web Privacy Statement
With the 2000/2001 Member Roster available via the Internet this August, a privacy policy needs to be developed. The attached language was presented to the group for approval (Attachment W). See attachment for further details. After discussion, the following motion was made:

Motion: To accept the proposed privacy policy statement for the electronic version of the Member Roster. Seconded and passed.

Membership Composition Committee
Due to time constraints, this topic was not discussed fully. It was decided that the Committee needs to be retained for the future.

Web Site and Electronic Access by Members
No report. See Attachment X for further details.

Nominating Committee
The Nominating Committee re-elected Nolan Clark to the office of Vice Chair for a second year as defined by the officer bylaws change adopted earlier today. He will become MDC Chair at the 2001 Annual Meeting. The Committee also formally thanked Stan Weeks for his service to the MDC as Past Chair. He was presented with a gift.

Addition to the Agenda
John Reid reported that an issue has arisen at the University of Missouri concerning changes in academic programming and student branches. Apparently, the University of Missouri is undergoing changes in their academic program. It is moving more towards biological engineering and the student branch feels that it is in jeopardy. They have asked that the MDC investigate ways that students can form a branch officially recognized by ASAE, but with the name of the Biological and Agricultural Engineering Student Branch or something similar. They will need some resolution in the near future, preferably early in the school year. It was noted that any resolution must be cognizant of and in compliance with article B12, paragraph 1 of the ASAE Bylaws or needs to recommend to the MDC and the Board of Trustees an amendment to the bylaws. With no further discussion, the following motion was made:

Motion: To form a subcommittee to further investigate this issue. The subcommittee will consist of John Reid, Chair, Carly Washmon and Dennis Larson. Seconded and passed.

Due to time constraints, any remaining agenda items not discussed will be addressed via email at a later date.

With no further business before the MDC, the meeting adjourned at 10:10 a.m.