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| Sept. 12, 2007 (Kolonia, Pohnpei) Two important meetings were held in Guam last week: 1) Western Region Administrative Officers Meeting (Sept. 2-5); 2) COM Board of Regents budget meeting (Sept. 5-6). The Western Region Administrative Officers meeting, hosted by the University of Guam, was held at the Westin Hotel & Resort. Attendees represented different land-grant institutions in the Western region including the insular Pacific land-grants: American Samoa Community College, Northern Marianas College, College of Micronesia, and the University of Guam. Topics included issues relative to finance, accounting and accountability and reports. It also include presentations on different topics related to Human Resources. Main Presenters were: Ellen Danus, Branch Chief, CSREES/USDA; Barry Sims, CPA, CGFM, staff accountant, and Tim Nesbitt, New Mexico State University. On Thursday morning, Sept. 6, a working group session was held and attended by representatives from ASCC, COM and some from UOG. Ellen Danus and Barry Sims made themselves available to the working group for questions or comments. Many issues and concerns were raised and discussed. It was an informative session and allowed many staff to hear and understand some of the major guidelines and positions that are being implemented by USDA officials. A separate report on the details of the meetings will be provided later. On Sept. 5, the COM Board of Regents met at the University of Guam, CNAS' conference room, as provided by Dr. Lee Yudin and his staff. Attending the Board meeting were: Regent Masa-Aki Emesiochl, Chairman, (Palau); Regent/Minister Wilfred Kendall, Vice Chairman, (RMI); and Proxy Regent Graceful Enlet, FSM. (COM Regent Andrew Yatilman could not attend this meeting as he had to join the Micronesian Presidents meeting held in Chuuk during the same days.) Also attending were: PCC President Dr. Patrick Tellei; COM-FSM President Spensin James; Diane Myazoe-deBrum, Dean, CMI; Jim Currie, Vice President, COM-FSM; Thomas Taro, Vice-President, PCC; Dr. Singeru Singeo, Interim Director, AES/CES, and Executive Director, College of Micronesia. At the end of the meeting, the Board approved its meeting Directives which will be made available in PDF format soon.
Mar. 12, 2007 (Kolonia, Pohnpei) COM Executive Director's Trip Report - travel to DC and the future Funding Executive Director Singeo attended the annual meeting of the NASULGC's Administrative Heads along with the CARET group in learning about the future funding for the land-grant institutions. In short, here is a summary of interesting developments: a. The NAGULGC's group will be pushing for the creation of an institute within USDA that will focus on research (as well as extension and teaching) involving agriculture and food, under a project called CREATE-21. It is the feeling of many in the land grant system that the various agencies under USDA could be better coordinated especially the research programs and activities that are carried out by different agencies under USDA. More details about the CREATE-21 can be provided upon request. b. The US Congress has gone thru with its promise to cut all "earmarks" from the fy07 budget; and furthermore, has adopted a "year-long" continuing resolution, meaning funding for fy07 will be based on the fy06 level. So COM expects to receive its funding allocation that would be the same as fy06 allocation. c. On a related note, some of the funding that were under the "earmarks" category were taken out and then given to USDA to divide up among the land-grant institutions based on the formula for distribution of the Hatch funds. The impact on this one-time funding is there will be some increase for COM's share of the Hatch funds for fy07. While we're still confirming certain items regarding this increased funding, we will be consulting with the Board about the current needs for research facilities, particularly, in location where good research facilities are not in existence. d. The COM on-line reporting system was described again to CSREES' Bart Hewitt. He said he would be providing a series of workshops about the future Accomplishment Report format; and updates of the Plan of Work, in the upcoming Administrative Officer's meeting. Based on the proposed format for the new Accomplishment Report, it looks like we will be able to conveniently use the data from COM's online reporting system in the preparation of the new Accomplishment report. We'll see.
Mar. 6, 2007 (Kolonia Pohnpei) College of Micronesia Board of Regents Meeting At the last Board of Regents meeting, held in Palau, several important decisions were made. A copy of the directives of the meetings is provided below: Directives of the
Board of Regents Meeting The following directives
approved by the College of Micronesia (COM) Board of Regents (BOR) are hereby
issued for implementation as appropriate: 1.
The Board, hereby, approves the
immediate transfer of $250,000 (Two hundred fifty thousand dollars) from the COM
Land-Grant Endowment Fund’s equity investment to the Fund’s Securitized
account. Such funds shall be used to
cover budgetary obligations the Board had already approved for the current as
well as prior fiscal years. This
transfer of funds is also expected to “rebalance” the investment allocation
to be consistent with the Board’s investment policy. 2.
The Board, hereby, approves the
recommendation by its Investment Adviser, Mr. Daniel Roland as follows: Mr.
Roland is, hereby, authorized to negotiate and convert the fee structure of the
investment manager “Renaissance Investment Management” from CES (consulting
evaluation services) to FS (fiduciary services) for the purpose of reducing
service and management fees that are charged to the COM Endowment Fund. 3.
The Board, hereby, approves the
guidelines for a reduced research workload for the Hatch researchers as follows:
Each
Hatch researcher shall carry a research workload of between 3 to 4 USDA-approved
projects, at any given time, depending on the complexity, time requirement, and
other factors relative to the research projects involved. (The former guideline
is between 4-6 research projects.) This
revised workload guideline is consistent with the Board’s new FTE requirement
which calls for a reduction of the research FTE from 100% to 75%. Executive
Director shall work closely with the respective CRE Vice Presidents/Dean to
ensure that the researchers are notified about this new guideline immediately.
The COM Executive Director shall consult from time to time with the
Presidents of the Micronesian partner colleges to ensure that the guideline is
equitable to, and does not undermine, the workload policy for the teaching
faculty at the respective colleges. Any
problem that may arise as a result of this new workload guideline shall be
reported to the Board at the next meeting, if not earlier. It
is recommended that new research projects should focus on practical issues that
are relevant to the Micronesian needs and situation.
Furthermore, the scientists are, hereby, advised to develop research
projects that could be readily converted for multi-state or multi-institutional
emphasis as may be required for Hatch competitive funding starting in fy08 and
beyond. Executive Director and the
respective CRE VP/Dean shall provide adequate USDA guidelines regarding the
multi-state/multi-institutional projects; and facilitate exchange and
communication between, and among, not only the Micronesian institutions, but
also with the other Pacific land-grant institutions such as UOG, UH, NMC, ASCC,
and others in the land-grant system as may be appropriate to the research’s
subject matter. All
researchers must publish the results of their USDA-approved projects, during
and/or after the termination of the project as required by USDA. Copies of the
publications shall be compiled and disseminated to the public for information
and use as may be appropriate. The
President of the respective colleges should be consulted from time to time
regarding new research projects to ensure that such research projects do reflect
the program priority of the institution, the nation in which the research is
being conducted, and the USDA. 5.
Executive Director is, hereby, authorized to request from USDA the
broadening of the definition of the terms “multi-state” and
“multi-institution” so that collaborative research projects between, or
among, the Micronesian national colleges (PCC, COM-FSM and CMI) would meet the
Hatch’s multi-state and multi-institution requirement. 6.
The COM Board of Regents elects its
2007 Board officers as follows: ROP
Regent Masa-Aki Emesiochl is Chairman; RMI Regent Wilfred Kendall is Vice
Chairman; and FSM Regent Andrew Yatilman is Secretary/Treasurer. 7.
The next Board meeting shall be
held in Adopted this ____ day,
February 2007 in
Mar. 1, 2007 (Kolonia, Pohnpei) Developments in the last couple of years The last update for this website was made in Oct. 2005. Since then, many developments have unfolded in Micronesia. Unfortunately, we were not able to continue to update this website for the reason that we simply don't have staff to maintain it. We apologize for that. Although we still don't have staff, we will try to continue to update it and make it an informative website for those visiting it. In short, some of interesting developments affecting the College of Micronesia Land Grant programs in the past couple of years are as follows: a. The renegotiated Compacts for the FSM and RMI were implemented; COM's land-grant status is continued under the renegotiated Compacts of the two nations; b. The COM Treaty among the Micronesian governments has been extended to Sept. 2009, to coincide with the termination of the current financial provisions for the Palau Compact; c. COM-FSM got its new President, Mr. Spensin James; d. CMI's accreditation status has been thru a difficult period but is expected to come out of the probation period, hopefully, in the future. The current President is Dr. Wilson Hess; e. COM, like other land-grant institutions, were required to prepare and submit a new Plan of Work for FY2007 to FY2011. f. COM, working with some assistance from ADAP, has developed an on-line activity report system that would enable extension agents and extension specialists to submit activity reports from every corner of Micronesia, wherever they may be situated. It is hoped that the timely submission of the activity report will translate to better accomplishment reports in the future. g. COM Land-Grant Endowment Fund has recovered from the loss in 2000 but is expected to show loss after the recent drop in the financial market.
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