MINUTES, BOARD MEETING
NATIONAL CLEAN PLANT NETWORK FOR GRAPES
PUTAH CREEK LODGE, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS
MAY 1, 2012
Board Members Present: Eric Amberg, Mark Black, Cathy Caldwell, Mike Colvin, Ken Eastwell, Phil
Freese, Marc Fuchs, Deborah Golino, Jan Hedberg, Jon Held, David Johnson, Margaret Kelly, Bob
Martin, Dan Martinez, Tim Martinson, Dennis Rak, Rhonda Smith, Vicky Scharlau, Liz Vavricka
Additional Meeting Attendees: Maher Al Rwahnih, Kari Arnold, Gary Ballard, Josh Chase, Phillip
Corbiere, Mike Cunningham, Katie Filippini, Dave Fujino, Steve Huffman, Justin Jacobs, Vicki
Klaassen, Joel King, Carole Lamb, Joanna Luna, Judit Monis, Tammi Olinka, Fatima Osman, Josh
Puckett, Wenping Qiu, Isaac Rainwater, Melinda Richardson, Adib Rowhani, Erich Rudyj, Pimpa
Rudyj, Tia Russell, Sue Sim, Keith Striegler, Nancy Sweet, Athar Tariq, Violeta Tsolova, Tom
Wessels, Debbie Woodbury.
The Board meeting of the NCPN Grapes was called to order by Chair Deborah Golino at 9:00 a.m.
on May 1, 2012, in the Putah Creek Lodge on the campus of the University of California, Davis.
Self-introductions were made.
The draft minutes from the conference call meeting of December 16, 2011, were approved after
motion by Eric Amberg and second by Marc Fuchs.
Deborah Golino introduced the new Board member, Margaret Kelly, from the New York State
Department of Agriculture & Markets. Ms. Kelly replaces Carol Holko from Maryland.
Keith Striegler announced that he had resigned from the NCPN Grapes Board the previous Friday
due to his new position as Outreach Coordinator for the NCPN network. That resignation
necessitates replacement of him as Vice-Chair of NCPN Grapes. Deborah Golino indicated that
the Board should think about whether or not the position filled by Striegler should be continued or
allowed to lapse, in light of the large size of the NCPN Grapes Board.
NCPN Update and Report on Farm Bill
NCPN Program Coordinator Erich Rudyj spoke on the status of the NCPN in the context of the
next Farm Bill (2013) legislation. As of May, 2012, the NCPN is composed of 23 programs with 19
cooperators in 15 states. More than $14 million was distributed to the NCPN programs between
2009- 2011. His power point presentation will be posted on the website.
Status of 2012 NCPN RFA
Erich indicated that approximately $5.5 million will be available for allocation in the 2012 NCPN
RFA process. The USDA has not typically claimed a lot of overhead costs, usually about 10%. He
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estimated that there would be about 18-20 viable applications for the 5 crop networks. The RFA
closes on May 25. The Governing Board is currently taking a good look at past performance by the
programs that have previously been awarded funding by reviewing the progress reports.
Outreach Update
Keith Striegler gave a report on NCPN outreach activities. He indicated that the Governing Board
now looks favorably on providing funding for implementation of NCPN education and outreach
efforts. He then reviewed the NCPN outreach activities for the past year, including publications,
websites, and presentations at conferences.
Keith proposed several projects for the future that would be common to all the NCPN crop
networks: (1) a slide show/power point presentation for NCPN Grapes; (2) edit, revise and use the
network brochures; (3) preparation of an accomplishment sheet for the networks; (4) development
of studies showing the economic benefit of clean plant material; (5) preparation of a consumer
oriented information or fact sheet for use at retail nurseries; (6) a short chapter for the Master
Gardener’s handbook; (7) link NCPN materials to e-extension; and (8) communities of practice.
Deborah Golino and Dennis Rak complimented the Cornell publication by Tim Martinson and
Tom Burr that describes realistically what can be expected from nurseries in a clean plant program.
Rak believes that the NCPN slogan ‘Start Clean, Stay Clean’ might set unrealistic expectations.
Consumer focus is lower on the NCPN priority at this point. Announcement by breeders of new
varieties can create a problem with premature demand prior to the time those varieties can be tested
and/or cleaned up in clean plant programs. Tim Martinson stated that outreach efforts can publicize
where the material is in the clean plant pipeline. Deborah Golino asked the Board and other
attendees to let the plant centers know if there is a breeder who the clean plant centers should reach
out to work with in expediting the material through the system.
NCPN Communications Plan
At the Leadership Workshop in Maryland in November, 2011, the Governing Board approved the
draft Communication Plan from the Education and Outreach Working Group and authorized each
NCPN crop network to customize the plan to meet its individual needs. Keith Striegler commented
that he was present at recent board meetings for the Berries and Fruit Trees NCPN networks which
spent 2 to 3 hours on the Communications Plan. NCPN Grapes was forced to handle the issue
somewhat differently due to the size of the agenda.
Keith proposed that NCPN Grapes appoint a committee to create a recommended Communication
Plant for Grapes and return it to the NCPN Grapes Board for discussion and approval. That idea
was adopted and the first meeting was scheduled for May 2, 2012, between 2:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m.
at FPS. Vicky Scharlau was appointed Chair of that subcommittee; the committee members were
designated as the Extension/Outreach Board members of NCPN Grapes (Mark Black, Ken
Eastwell, Marc Fuchs, Deborah Golino, Bob Martin, Tim Martinson, Rhonda Smith, Fritz
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Westover), Eric Amberg, Tia Russell (Duarte Nursery), Cathy Caldwell, Steve Huffman (Vintage
Nurseries), Debbie Woodbury. A work group will be set up on Collaborative Tools.
NCPN Grapes Website Advisory Committee
Nancy Sweet reported that FPS indicated in its 2011 proposal for funding for the NCPN Grapes
website that a website advisory committee would be created. The Board decided that the same
group appointed for the Communication Plan (see above) would constitute the website advisory
committee for the NCPN Grapes website.
A discussion was then had about linking the NCPN Grapes website to other sites or publications of
interest to grapes. Marc Fuchs cautioned not to link the site to diseases and publications not related
to NCPN issues. The website advisory committee should provide guidelines for how far to go.
Deborah Golino stated that the NCPN Grapes site should be linked to the National Grape Registry
and the grapes clean plant center websites. She also asked the grape clean plant centers to update
their information on the site.
Economic Study – California Grapevine R&C Program
Deborah Golino, Tim Martinson, Miguel Gomez (Cornell), and UCD graduate student Kate Fuller
are cooperators on a research project regarding the economic value of the California Grapevine
Registration & Certification Program (the longest-lived and largest grape certification program in the
United States). The project will be funded by an MOU with APHIS. The primary issue will be to
quantify the value in a grapevine certification program.
Vicky Scharlau asked whether the research project could assess from the prior Cornell study and the
UCD study whether conclusions on value could be extrapolated to states other than New York and
California. Tim Martinson stated that Cornell will seek funds in the 2012 RFA process to generalize
Miguel Gomez’ prior leafroll study to other areas of the country.
APS Meeting and NCPN
NCPN-Fruit Trees will be featured at this year’s APS meeting on August 5. Six to seven talks with
NCPN Fruit Tree focus will be presented. Speakers will include Clark Sievert, OSU (on the
economic benefit of NCPN-FT), Marc Fuchs, Ken Eastwell, Ruth Welliver and Erich Rudyj.
NCPN National Procedures & Protocols
FPS was granted NCPN funding in 2010 to develop procedures and protocols for use by the grape
clean plant centers. Sue Sim, Adib Rowhani, Maher Al Rwahnih and Vicki Klaassen have
participated in this effort at FPS. Deborah Golino reported on their progress at the Leadership
Workshop in Maryland in November, 2011. At that workshop, Bob Martin noted that the issue of
procedures and protocols crossed all the NCPN crops, that any protocols might be shared across
crops and suggested that the protocols be made available to all centers on Collaborative Tools. A
Collaborative Tools site was established on the UC ANR server for this project and the FPS work
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has been posted there. Deborah Golino said that any interested NCPN Grapes Board members or
NCPN clean plant center scientists should let FPS know that they wish to be included in the group
on the site; access will be limited to those people because of the sensitivity of some of the
information on the site.
Presentation on Myths and Truths about the Leafroll Epidemic
Dr. Neil McRoberts, U.C. Davis Department of Plant Pathology, gave a presentation on his research
entitled ‘Persistent, persuasive and unrealistic’: Myths and Truths about the Leafroll Epidemic’.
Update on Russell Ranch Foundation Vineyard
Mike Cunningham, FPS Production Manager, reported on progress in the Russell Ranch Foundation
Vineyard.
Election of New NCPN Grapes Vice-Chair
Nancy Sweet will manage an email election for a new Vice-Chair to replace Keith Striegler. The
eligible nominees include any Board member from the former Eastern region of NCPN Grapes.
At the same time, the Board will vote on whether or not to continue the Board slot that Keith filled
(one of the Extension and Outreach representatives from the former Eastern region). The NCPN
Grapes Board currently has 7 representatives for Extension and Outreach for the Eastern region
and 6 from the Western region.
Presentation of Funding Pre-Proposals by NCPN Clean Plant Centers
Erich Rudyj made some preliminary comments about the RFA process. He indicated that the
Governing Board does not prorate the available funding among the commodities in advance of
reviewing the applications from the clean plant centers; each proposal is considered on its own
individual merit, in light of the ad hoc industry committee recommendation from each NCPN crop
network. He stated that the Governing Board is generally fiscally conservative. There will be about
$5.5 million available for allocation this year.
The following grape clean plant centers presented their pre-proposals for NCPN funding for 2012:
(1) Marc Fuchs, Cornell University; (2) Deborah Golino, Foundation Plant Services, University of
California, Davis; (3) Violeta Tsolova, Florida A&M University; (4) Wenping Qiu, Missouri State
University; and (5) Ken Eastwell, Clean Plant Center of the Northwest for Grapevines, Washington
State University. [The power point presentations by these centers will not be posted on the website as the
information was intended to be confidential to the NCPN Grapes Board members].
Meeting of Pre-Proposal Review Committee
The NCPN Grapes ad hoc committee met in closed session to prepare a review and recommendation
of the five pre-proposals for the Governing Board. Members of that committee included: Dan
Martinez (Chair), Vicky Scharlau, Phil Freese, Jon Held, Cathy Caldwell, Eric Amberg, Dennis Rak,
Tim Martinson, Rhonda Smith, Bob Martin and Mark Black.
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Adjournment
The regular meeting of the NCPN Grapes Board was adjourned at 3:30 p.m. in order to allow the ad
hoc committee to conduct the review of the pre-proposals.
NOTE: The minutes of the May 2 meeting (Work shop on State Certification Programs) are
posted separately.
Respectfully submitted,
Nancy Sweet
May 22, 2012
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