Minutes

Minutes

SDASCOE FALL BOARD MEETING MINUTES
October 13-14, 2011

sdascoe@yahoo.com

SDASCOE

The fall board meeting was held at the Staurolite Inn in Brookings on October 13-14, 2011.

Peggy Groen, President, opened the meeting by welcoming all of those in attendance to Brookings and then
introduced our SED, Craig Schaunaman.

Mr. Schaunaman answered some questions that had been submitted from the employees; these will be
published in the newsletter. We had a great discussion with him and he’s working very hard to meet the
challenges he’s faced with especially when it comes to budget. He also told us we need to keep a positive
attitude and think of ideas how county offices can help out their neighboring counties with certain heavy workload
programs. With these stressful times, Mr. Schaunaman wanted to remind us that his door is always open and
that we can contact him about anything and he’ll try to help any way he can. We thanked Mr. Schaunaman for
taking time to come speak to us.

Larry Olsen, the Northwest Area Executive (NWA) gave us a report on what’s going on at the national level of our
organization and in Washington, DC. The NWA Rally is going to be held in conjunction with the NASCOE
convention in 2012. The Rally will be held on Tuesday morning and then NWA members will help Idaho with the
national convention; this is to save some money for those in the NWA planning on attending both. Since the
national convention is going to be in a NWA state, it just made more sense to combine the two events.

Larry reminded us that in these uncertain times, employees should signup for CAPWIZ and then be sure to
respond to the alerts that are sent. This needs to be done on our home computers. Also he encouraged us to
contribute to the PAC so that we continue to have a voice in Washington, DC. His full report will be in the
newsletter.

The minutes from the last business meeting were discussed briefly. Roxie made a motion to approve the
minutes as published in the newsletter and EJ seconded the motion; motion carried.

Brenda gave the treasurer’s report. Roxie made the motion to approve the report as given and Joann seconded
the motion; motion carried. Brenda led discussion on the audit of the 2011 SDASCOE books. It was decided
that Mary H. and Racheal will do the audit at the spring board meeting. Jennifer made the motion and EJ
seconded it; motion carried.

The committee chairs gave their reports which will be published in the newsletter as well. Stan L made a
motion to approve all the reports and Joann seconded the motion; motion carried.

Brian Stewart, who was a SDASCOE director, was transferred from Jackson County to Hughes-Stanley. Since
these two counties are not in the same district, Peggy had to move Kay from the alternate position to active
director and then appointed Janelle Adrian as alternate.

Becky commented on the fact that home emails need to be given to the directors so they can get them to
Racheal to be submitted to the NASCOE database.

Jim Anderson, the NWA legislative chair gave his report. He said that only 575 members nationwide have
signed up for PAC-this is FSA’s “life insurance policy”. He also said that anyone can use CAPWIZ (friends,
relatives, etc). This is our tool to contact our congressional people in Washington, DC. This can be used
anytime, not just when alerts are sent out. This is FSA’s lifeline to keep our jobs.

He told us that NAFEC (National Association of Farmer Elected Committees) is looking at trying to get the county
committee pay to come from some place other than program dollars. Thereby saving their jobs as well as
keeping our offices running smoothly and efficiently

There will be some mini legislative fly-ins going on with certain state, but that there will probably be a full fly-in
sometime in February 2012 due to the fact that all three South Dakota congressionals are actively involved with
the Farm Bill.

The Brookings county staff invited all employees to “Bum” a ride with your “Hobo Friends” to the 2012 state
convention in Brookings on April 20-21. It will be held at the Staurolite Inn. Brookings requested a budget for
entertainment. Roxie made a motion that a $2000 budget be given to Brookings County for the state convention.
Kay seconded it; motion carried.

More discussion was held on the full legislative fly-in. EJ and Bill will automatically go from South Dakota
because they are our co-legislative chairs. Larry Olsen and Jim Anderson will go on behalf of NASCOE. We
would like to have 4 more people go to represent South Dakota so we’re asking for volunteers from the state. If
you are interested and are willing to go to WDC sometime in February, please let your director know. The
legislative co-chairs, Jim, Larry, and the officers will decide on the people who will represent us by having a
random drawing from the names submitted. Also a budget was set for $12,000 for the legislative fly-in. Joann
made the motion and Jennifer seconded it; motion carried.

Lynda gave a report from RASCOE. She said the first year’s membership to RASCOE is free when you retire. A
new thing is you can now pay multi-year membership to RASOCE – full or associate dues. She also said there
are lots of benefits with JM Marketing which includes spouses, COC, etc.

A discussion was held on the 2012 delegates for NWA Rally and national convention. The Rally and national
convention will be held August 6-12, 2012. We are also looking for volunteers from the state willing to be
delegates. We tabled this item until our spring board meeting where we will vote on the delegates at that time.

Mary made a motion to adjourn and Joann seconded it; motion carried.

Respectfully submitted,

Racheal Kirkebak