Minutes of NSIP Board Meeting 5/11/2017

Meeting called to order by Past President Jim Morgan at 7pm.

Attendees: Matt Benz, Rusty Burgett, John Carlson, Lynn Fahrmeier, Cody Hiemke, Ben Lehfeldt, Jim Morgan, Brenda Murdoch, Brenda Reau, Mark Roembke, Bill Schultz, Kathy Soder, Todd Taylor, Walt Williams

Discussion:

  1. Reviewed Secretary’s Report by Walt Williams (April meeting).
  2. A few minor revisions to the attendee list were noted. Kathy Soder moved to accept, Bill Schultz seconded. Approved
  3. November meeting minutes had never been approved. Matt Benz moved to accept as written; Cody Hiemke seconded. Approved
  4. Reviewed Treasurer’s Report by Walt Williams (attached). No actionable items.
  5. Reviewed Program Directors report by Rusty Burgett (attached). No actionable items.
  6. Membership continues growing – mostly as a result of Rusty’s presence at events.
  7. The Eastern NSIP Ram Sale is coming together nicely to be held 8/12. Some of the stipulations have been modified at the request of NSIP members. The June 1 deadline for consignments is flexible.
  8. So far in 2017, about 92 +/- flocks have run data – good trend.
  9. Reviewed Technical Committee Report by Ron Lewis (attached). No actionable items.
  10. Dr. Brenda Murdoch, a molecular geneticist from University of Idaho, has agreed to join the committee.
  11. She attended the meeting and gave a brief update on the wide-ranging research she is conducting at the University.
  12. Jim Morgan led a discussion of a newly discovered issue with our liability insurance. Since the Program Director (Rusty Burgett) is not a NSIP board member, our insurance coverage does not extend to him. To resolve the issue, it was decided to add a new office to the board and appoint Rusty Burgett to hold that office. This change will not affect our insurance coverage or cost.
  13. Ben Lehfeldt moved to create a non-voting office on the NSIP board with the title of Program Director. John Carlson seconded. Approved.
  14. Ben Lehfeldt moved to appoint Rusty Burgett to the office of Program Director on the NSIP board. John Carlson seconded. Approved.
  15. Ben Lehfeldt updated the group on the most recent meeting of the ASI Let’s Grow Committee.
  16. The Committee prioritized their funding objectives for the coming couple years and NSIP is at the top of that list.
  17. They want the NSIP and Let’s Grow coordinators to work together to determine the funding requirements to get NISP to the point of self-sufficiency.
  18. Next Board meeting scheduled for July 13, 2017.
  19. Meeting adjourned at 7:30 pm.

Attachments:

Executive Report

Hello board,

Sorry that I will not be able to be on the call. The executive committee has not met since our last board meeting and we have not had business that required our attention. Except recently, it has become known that Rusty Burgett is not covered under our liability insurance. To get him covered, we need to appoint him to the board. Therefore, we support two motions: "First, create a new executive director position on the board. Then, we support appointing Rusty to that position.”

Have a nice meeting,

Reid

Treasurers Report

All.

Attached are the NSIP financials through April from Larry Kincaid and our re-statement of the P&L into "Pass-Thru" and "Ordinary" Operations. Our cash on-hand remains at $32k - a slight decline since the last meeting but still adequate. Also, our Accounts Receivable have remained steady at $9k which is still an issue Rusty is striving to resolve. This is down from $16k at the end of FY 2016 but still high.

YTD through April, our Pass-Thru Operations are break-even which is just what they should be by definition. This fluctuates month-to-month due to timing of receipts and payments -- especially the Data Fee revenues and payments to MLA. We'll have a sizable payment due to MLA at the end of the 2nd quarter.

Through April, our Ordinary Operations show a net income of nearly $8k. However, our enrollment fee collections are a bit behind pace but we expect that will improve considerably in the coming couple months.

Please contact me with any questions.

Respectfully Submitted,

Walt Williams, Sec/Treas

NSIP P&L Analysis
Note: Pass-Thru Ops include Data Fees & Grants. Ordinary Ops are all other line items
Pass-Thru Ops / Ordinary Ops / Total (Pass+Ord) / FY 2017
April '17 / YTD '17 / April '17 / YTD '17 / April '17 / YTD '17 / Ann Budget / YTD %
($1000's) / ($1000's) / ($1000's) / ($1000's) / ($1000's) / ($1000's) / ($1000's) / of Budget
Income (thousands)
Enrollment Fees / $3.5 / $13.5 / $3.5 / $13.5 / $39.2 / 34
Data Fees / $2.5 / $29.3 / $2.5 / $29.3 / $43.8 / 67
Grant - NSIIC / $0.0 / $7.0 / $0.0 / $7.0 / $24.0 / 29
Grant -- ALB / $0.0 / $0.0 / $20.0 / 0
Grant - LetsGrow / $0.0 / $4.6 / $0.0 / $4.6 / $34.5 / 13
Interest / $0.0 / $0.0 / $0.1 / 0
Sub-Total / $2.5 / $40.9 / $3.5 / $13.5 / $6.0 / $54.4 / $161.6 / 34
Expense (thousands)
Consultants
Contractor / $0.0 / $5.0 / $0.0 / $5.0 / $5.0 / 100
UniversityNeb / $0.0 / $0.0 / $10.0 / 0
Data Charges Aust / $0.0 / $6.5 / $0.0 / $6.5 / $43.8 / 15
NSIIC Support Grant / $0.0 / $12.0 / $0.0 / $12.0 / $24.0 / 50
ALB Support Grant / $0.0 / $12.0 / $0.0 / $12.0 / $20.0 / 60
Let's Grow Grant / $0.0 / $5.2 / $0.0 / $5.2 / $34.4 / 15
Let's Grow - Fine Wool / $0.0 / $5.2 / $0.0 / $5.3 / $0.0
All Other / $0.1 / $0.6 / $0.1 / $0.6 / $7.5 / 8
Sub-Total / $0.0 / $40.9 / $0.1 / $5.6 / $0.1 / $46.6 / $144.7 / 32
Net P&L (thousands) / $2.5 / $0.0 / $3.4 / $7.9 / $5.9 / $7.8 / $16.9 / 46

May 2017 NSIP Program Director’s Report

New enrollments are coming in weekly so we are still growing membership. Most of the new members are producers that attended one of our workshops so those events are making an impact. As Walt pointed out in his Treasurer’s report, membership renewal is slower compared to previous years. I think the main difference is that I have relied on the newsletter as a reminder to renew memberships rather than an individual email to members. We still have decent open rates on the newsletter but it’s evident that it isn’t the best method to relay critical information. I will send individual reminder emails to the current members who haven’t renewed for 2017 yet (mostly range flocks that are typically a little later).

We are winding down our first Let’s Grow project, the U.S. Sheep Genetic Improvement Initiative that we started with the first round of Let’s Grow funding. I have 2 trips remaining on that project then we will transition to our round 2 and round 4 projects. Our online searchable database project has been progressing nicely. I finally found a good developer to work with and I have a prototype I’m testing now. We should wrap that project up in the next 2 months with the goal of having it ready for ram sale season. I’ll also be promoting the “Certified NSIP sires” program before sales and there is an article coming out in the next Sheep Industry News about it. I submitted an application for the latest round of funding to facilitate a meeting between NSIP and the leaders of the breed associations with support from several of the major breeds.

I’ve also been busy with the Eastern NSIP Sale, which is coming together nicely. There has been lots of interest in the sale for consignments and buyers. Consignments are due on the first of June so we’ll have a better idea of numbers then.

Thank you,
Rusty