International Society of Precision Agriculture (ISPA) Board Meeting Minutes
 
February 07, 2019
 
Conference Call
 
Participants: Ian Yule, President; Jess Lowenberg DeBoer, President Elect; Terry Griffin, Treasurer; Victor Alchanatis, Secretary; Nicolas Tremblay, Immediate Past President; Ken Sudduth, Past-President; John Stafford Past President; Quentin Rund, Executive Secretary
 
Could not participate: Raj Khosla, Founding President;
  Ian welcomed the forum. Jess in Germany talking about robotics.
  No other items.
  Nicolas noted an inaccuracy at the audit discussion, which was corrected.
Remaining action items were noted for follow up at the next meeting:
The minutes were approved in the revised form.
  Terry reports that there were no financial activities from last meeting.
Quentin reported that memberships can be seen on the web site. Today, 477 members.
  John reported on PRAG statistics and performance. The increasing problem of finding reviewers was raised. After the end of ECPA reviews, John and Jess will address this.
 
Springer sponsorship: John, Raj
Emails were exchanged on this issue. Nicolas discussed with Springer and suggests that we do more for Springer, in order to expect them to contribute more to the society. For example encouraging reviewers, awards for excellent reviewers etc.. But this has to be discussed with Springer as a whole package.
Nicolas will start an email conversation to put a draft, circulate it, and then talk with Springer.
  Ian reported about his contact with Mulla. The message from Mulla was presented, which expressed willingness to host 2020 ICPA, upraising the facilities and the possibilities in Minneapolis.
Quentin reported that TFI will be assuming the assets of INPNI. They did not like the arrangement up to now, they were not very receptive. They did not want to make engagements about 2020.
All the board members agreed that Minneapolis is the first choice.
Quentin will look for hotels and other facilities availability for the weeks beginning on June 14th , 21st , 28th  2020. Will bring the data to the board after the first week of March 2019.
  Quentin reports that this month he has one from Jess and two from members.
Nicolas will prepare additional items for the newsletter the next two days.
Long articles from members: It was noted that short versions of the articles are included in the newsletter and the whole content is uploaded on the website.
  Quentin and Ken will prepare the topic of country reps for the next meeting
  Update from Nicolas: Nicolas has contacted by email the communities leaders  to encourage them to be active. He has offered them tools to help them, listserv for them to use, and mentioned the ECPA meeting and expectation to suggest sessions. Also suggested the newsletter as a platform to use. Update from Nicolas. The process is in its final stage. Alex and Nicolas have asked for comments for the different definitions, this was done through a common file on the cloud. Alex will summarize and submit the results to the board.
  Ian and Terry will get together next week and report to the next meeting
  A list of events is on the website. He posts everything that he receives, he suggests to go through the events and note if there are things that do not belong to the list.
Review the events and remove non relevant events for the members
  This is a follow up to see whether to filter automatic messages. It seems that there is no immediate need now. Stipend – Springer to be discussed at the meeting after next meeting
  March 7th, 2019, 1:30 UTC-6
  Adjourned 14:37 UTC-6
 
Action items that remained from last minutes:
 
Ken: two years ago the reps were contacted.
Ken will send the results to Ian
Ken will talk with Quentin and report
 
Update on the Board audit discussion on November 19:
Terry described his discussions with potential auditors. PAQ is uncomfortable to do that since it handles the conference issues. Looking at a local auditor. Quentin can go to the Tri societies auditor.
Everybody is satisfied with Quentin’s handling, and everything is working as it should be. There are no issues that we feel there are a reason to have an audit but it is more an administrative process that the society feels that has to be carried out to demonstrate to the outside world that everything is working as it should be.
A point raised was whether to have receipts from PAQ audited as well? Or look only at the ISPA books. Ian and Nicolas suggest to keep the audit process simple: both ISPA and ICPA material.
Ian and Terry will come up with a specific proposal to be voted on the next board meeting.
Ian and Terry will meet next week late Monday, and report to the board.
 

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