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This year’s annual meeting was held on August 4th and
August 5th in Murfreesboro, TN at the Lane
Agri-Park. Central Basin RC&D Council was our host and
thanks to the wonderful job they did with the planning
and logistics, we had a successful and educational two
days. Door prizes were provided by each of the councils
and Tom Pointer, Five Rivers RC&D Council, was
responsible for awarding the prizes at various times
during the annual meeting.
The first day started with lunch
from Whitt’s BBQ and from there we moved into our choice
of afternoon sessions – “The Business of the RC&D
Organization” or The Business of RC&D in Communities.
“The Business of the RC&D
Organization” had two presenters – Kurt Simon and Donna
Hunter. Kurt Simon, Coordinator of the Little
Kanawha RC&D Council in West Virginia conducted a
session on Capital Campaigns and Endowment. He
addressed issues of starting an Endowment Fund and
proper techniques for setting up and managing a Capital
Campaign. Donna Hunter, Communications Director
for the National Association of Resource Conservation
and Development Councils led a session on “Growing a
Council of Courage”. Donna‘s session enlighten board
members about their fiduciary and financial
responsibilities to their RC&D Council. Donna also gave
everyone the booklet, “A Guidebook for RC&D Directors”,
which was provided for us by the National Association of
RC&D Councils.
“The Business of RC&D in
Communities” had a variety or topics and speakers for
the afternoon. The following were the speakers and
their topics: Brad Bingham, U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service –Partners in Fish & wildlife, Dodd Galbreath,
Tennessee Department of agriculture – Storm Water
Reduction, Margo Farnsworth, Cumberland River
Compact – Building Outside the Box, Caneta Hankins,
Center for Historic Preservation – Farm Assistance
Clearing House & Century Farms, and Gray Anderson,
TN Wildlife Resources Agency – Tennessee Landowners
Incentive Program. The speakers provided the
opportunity for councils to be involved with new
partners and/or new projects.
At the conclusion of both sessions,
the groups came together for a brainstorming session.
After receiving instructions and
questions to be answered the attendees were divided into
smaller groups with a facilitator for each group.
The four questions addressed were:
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What can be done to strategically raise the
awareness and value of the RC&D program within NRCS?
- What does your nonprofit RC&D
Council need to do to become stronger and more
viable rather than vulnerable to the uncertain
funding future from the Administration?
- What Alliances need to be
built to accomplish the above?
- Are the performance goals that
NRCS currently uses appropriate for your RC&D
Council?
This was an excellent opportunity
for all attending to participate and comments were
shared and captured on paper to be distributed later.
Prior to our dinner, Joe Jack Dement welcomed everyone
to Rutherford County. Dinner was catered by Front
Porch Catering and entertainment was provided by Don
King, Dave Woodard and Brant Miller, Second Nature.
The country/bluegrass musical group writes and performs
songs relating to wildlife, outdoors and family. Their
music was enjoyed by all the attendees.
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