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Oklahoma SCS/NRCS Retired Employees
Oklahoma SCS/NRCS Retired Employees
Minutes of Meeting October 25, 2013
Oklahoma SCS/NRCS Retired Employees met at the Golden Corral Buffet
at 520 South MacArthur Blvd. in Oklahoma City.
Forty-five people were in attendance.
President Dan Runnels called the meeting to order.
He reported that Jo Ann Leaverton, widow of Erwin Leaverton,
had fallen recently and hurt her leg.
She had called to say she
was unable to attend.
Tom Perryman, retired AC from Woodward, recently had surgery in
Norman. He is currently
recuperating there.
Randy Freeland provided the blessing for the meal.
Everyone enjoyed the buffet meal.
Following the meal, President Runnels again called the meeting to
order. There were no
first time attendees or recent retirees in attendance.
Those in attendance introduced themselves and their spouse if
in attendance.
Secretary/Treasurer Sandra Hough read the minutes of the April 26,
2013 meeting. They were
approved as read. The
treasurers’ report showed a balance at the last meeting of $845.12,
with $160.00 dues deposited for a beginning balance of $1,005.12.
Expenses for this meeting were $208.90 leaving an ending
balance of $796.22. There
were 322 notices mailed, 7 returned, 4 re-mailed.
Current address is needed for Ken Taylor, McAlester.
The retiree website (www.cyber-shack.net/nrcs/
) has been helpful in our effort to keep retirees informed.
This website also has a posting of the attendees, minutes and
pictures from each of the meetings.
Four emails were received to provide update address
information as well as to report the death of a retiree.
Fred Fortney read a list of recent retiree deaths:
JoAnn Keltch, retired clerk, Woodward TSO, 5/8/13; James
Ludwick, retired Hydrologist, Chickasha WPS, 6/10/13, retired in
1990 was 82 yrs. old; Eden (Buzz) Matheny, retired DC from Madill &
Marietta, residing in Ardmore, 6/25/13; Joe Stinchcomb, father of Ed
Stinchcomb, DC at Chandler, August 2013; Carl Marvin Williams,
worked in Clinton, Wewoka and OKC, 9/9/13, retired in 1974, was
residing in the Leedey area.
A moment of silence was observed and Fred offered a prayer.
Recent retirees from the Oklahoma Conservation Commission,
Conservation Districts and NRCS include:
Jack Hudman, Cotton County Conservation District Director, 52
years of service; Fredia Rice, Cotton County District Secretary, 23
years of service and wife of Stan Rice, retired RC&D Coordinator ;
Mark Harrison, Information Officer for OCC; Tom Wilson, SC at
Hobart, with 41+ years of service; and Chris Shepherd, DC at El Reno
in June.
President Runnels introduced a special guest, Gary O’Neill, NRCS
State Conservationist for Oklahoma.
Gary is a native Oklahoman from Osage County and started his
SCS career in Oklahoma. Dwaine
Gelnar, current State Resource Conservationist in Missouri and
former Soil Scientist in Oklahoma, encouraged Gary to apply for a
job with SCS. His career
took him and his family to several other states before returning to
Oklahoma. Gary was the
Assistant State Conservationist for Operations
and State Administrative
Officer prior to becoming the State Conservationist.
It is rare that an employee within a state be selected as
State Conservationist.
He provided the group with an overview of the activities happening
within the state. NRCS
is operating without a Farm Bill which affects programs administered
by NRCS; however, several programs were funded through 2014.
Contract management continues to be a major workload for
field offices. As an
example, Leflore County alone has over 500 contracts.
He reported that the Watershed program has not been funded
for several years; however, rehabilitation of watershed structures
has helped provide technical assistance funds to keep our expertise
in watersheds operating for now.
There are 2110 watershed structures in Oklahoma many of which
have reached their designed life span but there is only $14 million
nationwide available for rehab. In
2005 Oklahoma had 350 FTE’s (full-time equivalent employees) and
currently only have 295 FTE’s.
Most of the retirees remember upward of 500 FTE’s as the norm
at one time. NRCS is
doing more with less these days.
Gary noted that NRCS has been able to maintain a presence in
each of the 77 counties.
He emphasized the importance of conservation districts in the
relationship with conservation producers.
The information Gary provided was very interesting and his
attendance was appreciated.
President Runnels ask for volunteers to serve on a nominating
committee to provide a slate of officers at the next meeting.
Those agreeing to serve include:
Jim Frie, Duane Crider and Otho Lamar.
Randy Freeland is the Oklahoma representative to ARCSE and uses
information gathered at the meeting to provide news articles for the
newsletters sent to members of the organization every other month.
Dues are $18 per year and he has membership applications for
anyone interested in joining.
He asked those in attendance to ‘jot down’ on an information
sheet something he could include in the newsletter.
Everyone in attendance was challenged to personally contact retirees
who have not been attending and invite them to attend our next
meeting or even better yet, bring one or more with them to the next
meeting.
The next meeting is scheduled for Friday, April 25, 2014, at the
Golden Corral on MacArthur Boulevard in Oklahoma City.
There was no other business to bring before the group and the
meeting was adjourned.
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