Commodity Promotion
(Generic Advertising and Commodity Promotion)
Minutes of NEC-63 Meeting
March 20-21, 2003
Westin Grand Hotel, Washington, D.C.
Secretary/Treasurer's Report: Cynda Clary reported by email that the treasury has a balance of $5,293.11. This implies a loss of approximately $3,000 from Fall 2002 meeting. Harry Kaiser will check to see if all registration fees from that meeting were received. Clary has been asked to provide a breakdown of expenses to identify sources of loss. Clary reported that NEC-63 web page is complete except for search-engine programming for the "article/abstract" submission section of the page.
Administrative Advisor's Report: Dan Rossi congratulated the committee on the quality of the Spring meeting's program, which was entitled "Emerging Roles for Food Labels: Inform, Protect, Persuade" and was co-sponsored by Farm Foundation and Food and Agricultural Marketing Policy Section of the AAEA in partnership with AMS/USDA. The NEC-63 designation has been made permanent (and replaces NEC-1003). Increased funding for the National Research Initiative, if approved, would permit 24-26% of submitted proposals to be funded. Rossi suggested that to improve participation the business meeting be moved to late afternoon of the first day.
CSREES Representative's Report: Mark Bailey reported an increase in NRI funding of $40 million, but not much of this will go to social science. A commodity price trigger may be implemented wherein farmers would receive direct payments if prices dropped below five-year averages.
Proceedings from Fall 2002 meeting: Harry Kaiser reported that papers from the Fall 2002 meeting are set to appear in the Spring 2003 issue of Agribusiness: An International Journal. Authors should be receiving galleys soon.
Nominations Committee: The nominations committee consisting of John Nichols (chair), Walt Armbruster, Chanjin Chung, and Kevin Kesecker presented the following slate of officers: Tim Richards (Chair), Shida Henneberry (Vice-Chair), Cynda Clary (Treasurer), and Chanjin Chung (Secretary) and the following executive committee: Julian Alston, Walt Armbruster, Harry Kaiser, Henry Kinnucan, John Mengel, Steve Meyer, and Lynn Morgan. The slate was approved unanimously. The term of office is Spring 2003 through Spring 2005 meeting.
Spring 2003 Meeting: Shida Henneberry reported that owing to honoraria and other expenses, the current meeting is likely to run a deficit. It was agreed that NEC-63 funds could be used to cover 25% of the deficit up to a maximum of $2,000. The Food Distribution Research Society has agreed to consider conference papers for publication in a forthcoming issue of the Society's journal. Shida and Walt Armbruster plan to write a Choices article that summarizes the conference. Attendance (as measured by registrants) was approximately 80.Fall 2003 Meeting: The fall meeting will be held in Lake Tahoe, October 6-7 at Embassy Suites Hotel. The meeting's theme is state-based product differentiation and critique of 2002 Reports to Congress. The planning committee is Lynn Morgan and Tim Richards (co-chairs), Changin Chung, Henry Kinnucan, and John Nichols.
Spring 2004 Meeting: Tentative theme role of commodity promotion programs in an increasingly industrialized agriculture. The planning committee consists of John Nichols (Chair), John Folz, Archie MacDonald, Steve Meyer, and Ron Ward. Baltimore and Orlando were suggested as possible sites.
Fall 2004 Meeting: Archie MacDonald will host this meeting in Canada. Details will be forthcoming. Volunteers to serve on the planning committee are sought.
Respectfully submitted,Henry W. Kinnucan
3 April 2003