Steve Hedstrom Reports from NACD Meeting

February 3, 2017

Greetings to the Conservation Districts of the great State of Montana,

It is so good to be home after 6 days in Denver for the 2016 NACD convention. I hope to give all of you at least a short report of some events that occurred this session.

The single most important item was election of new officers. Dick Went that some of you know lost the election to first vice president to a late comer by the name of Tim Palmer from Illinois. Second vice was won by Michael Crowder of Washington state. The new president is Brent Van Dyke of New Mexico. More on this in my opinion section.

The resolution from Valley CD that dealt with irrigation infrastructure was passed amended but intent is still there. The Leg committee that handled it put all their resolutions through a meat grinder and only passed 50% and those were all amended.

Language of Passed Resolution: NACD supports additional federal funding for irrigation infrastructure.

There were 43 resolution this year which was the most ever dealt with. Some items on the list were CRP, EQUIP, Sam and Duns numbers, power line siting, fuel load reduction. A full list can be made available if anyone is interested.

The resolution process is somewhat different than ours. The resolution is submitted on a prescribed form and then is review for duplication or other conflict with existing policy and then assigned to appropriate committee. The committees are made up of state delegates that are assigned by the president. You may not get the committee you wish. The resolutions are then acted upon.

if there is no dissent the resolution goes to the consent calendar and is considered policy
if it is amended or there is a split vote, it will go to the full board
if it fails it may be brought back to the floor by a 2/3 vote.

Roberts Rules of Order are followed and a parliamentarian is often in attendance.

I refer to the Board or Floor as the same entity. This is made up of a delegate from each state and territory totaling 58 members. There are 4 standing committees.

RPG’s – Resource Policy Groups are often requested to the president. These answer to which ever standing committee they reflect. The Natural Resource Policy Committee that I’m a member of has 6 RPG’s The RPG’s report to the standing committees, they report to the full board .

There is a mountain of information I could relate but I hoped to keep this short. If you have questions e-mail me or call.

I would like to thank Ann McCauley, Laurie Zeller, and Lisa Coverdale for there companionship and support in Denver.

Steve’s Notes

I wanted to keep my personal opinions separate from the report so this extra piece.

The NACD elections were not pretty. The late introduction of a new candidate that had not worked his was up to vice president, the normal progression was unfortunate. The new first vice president will be very capable and will no doubt do a good job but ignoring tradition of ascendancy has created some hard feelings.

I regret not taking my alternate, Dean Rogge, with me. There is way to much for 2 or even 3 people to cover especially with the formation of a new Public Lands RPG. There are too many opportunities and contacts to miss. My apologies to Dean. Ann did a excellent job meeting new people and presenting on the good work happening under the umbrella of SWCDM and should be commended.

Many of the procedures we use at NACD are efficient and proven so I intend to pass these to district operations for consideration.

Thanks,

Steve Hedstrom

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