SOUTHEAST AREA

CLIFF FUSSELL PERRY DYKES
SE Area Executive Alternate Are Exec.

Committee Chairpersons

Southeast Area Report
Orlando, FL
January 20-21, 2008

States are staying extremely busy with the 2005-2006 disaster programs and know with 2007 being added farmers will be making another visit to check and see which year they are better with. The LCP program had 2007 added to it also, so for those whose cow numbers were more in 2007 will be coming back in the office also. This relief appears to be greatly needed after a year of fuel cost increases and fertilizer cost still going up. Many farmers in the SEA are trying to figure know what to plant in 2008 even with higher prices for there crops the input cost is more of a deciding factor know more than ever in what crop they can cash flow with.

Our future as FSA employees is much like that of the farmers we serve, waiting till the passage of the farm bill seems to bearing on all of us. The timing of when we will be implementing the new farm bill is a major concern, farmers are coming in the offices daily asking when will be able to make base payments, these advances have become a large part of a farms cash flow know until the farm bill is passed and we start making farm payments farmers are facing an uncertain future.

Southeast Area Goals for 2008

 Planning for a successful ALL SOUTH RALLY information attached.
Host more conference calls for state presidents and area program chairs
Continue working to improve all forms of communication
Strive to have membership levels increase
Increase participation in the NASCOE PAC
Improve communication through increased participation in CapWiz
Working as needed on problems that NASCOE can assist with

Communication – Thanks to all those in the SEA that are continuously working to improve the communication out to all the employees. State Presidents have done a tremendous job in keeping their states informed of NASCOE activities. The activity reports from NASCOE President Bonnie Heinzman have been a great source of the activities NASCOE works on for it’s members.

State Reorganization Plans – Once again, it appears that those states which were slow to submit their reorganization plans may not have to fully complete the process. This may or may not be a good thing. If funding for county office staffing does not increase, the workload will continue to be a heavy burden. This stress is beginning to show in the physical and mental health of our members.

OFFICE CLOSURES in the SEA

State Offices actually closed as of 1/14 Planned for Closure
----------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------
Georgia 13 16
Alabama Closed 5 Opened 1 office 5
Mississippi 0 7
South Carolina 0 2
Tennessee 0 7
Kentucky 8 8
Virginia 9 9
North Carolina 0 12
Florida 1 1
Louisiana 0 6
Arkansas 0 3 (Possibly Plan not Shared with Employees)

We did have some offices phoned on the 19 th of December and told to put a sign on the door that the office was officially closed, in order for the offices to be considered officially closed before the signing of the Omnibus Spending bill, farmers and employees were not properly notified in this process.

Training – Or the lack of it is a major problem. Computer-based training through Ag Learn is becoming overly burdensome and the time frames are becoming unreasonable. In addition, some of the mandated training is not relevant to our jobs. The expenditure of work hours is tremendous nationwide but the yield is relatively low. This raises questions about why employees aren't allowed to evaluate this training and have their feedback automatically sent to management. Shouldn't government contractors be held accountable too?

Staffing – Continues to be a problem, concerns about a new farm bill and the need to provide service to our farmers without adequate training.

 PT Reclassification – County offices are patiently waiting for DC response to new proposed job descriptions for PT reclassification.

Omnibus Office Closure Language – The approved language in the Omnibus Budget has created a problem in some states. Some states have CED vacancies that are not being filled because these are potential offices to be closed. This is forcing more shared management situations in states. Producers have been informed of the ability to transfer to new counties because of the office consolidation and now the consolidation is on hold. There are also situations where the County Committee’s would like to consolidate the offices (All parties are on board) but these are on hold as well.

 Leasing – Counties can’t get answers from their state offices, state offices can’t get answers from GSA, leasing is a mess that no one wants to provide answers about the problems.

 FERS SICK LEAVE –NASCOE must continue to push for the FERS employees to be credited for sick leave towards retirement.

Program implementation - Policies and program regulations still come from several different directions with no clear "direction" on where it should be coming from.  Ex:  Notices, amendments, Info bulletins, e-mails, State web sites, etc.  Most of our communications are through emails informing us to check some other site for instructions.  The agency appears to have no "chain of command of  info" of how policies should get to the field.

FLP - Factor for FLP work measurement should be consistent among states.  Why are employee ceiling for FLP employees not based on the Workload Report?

Health Insurance – NASCOE needs to continue working to have Health coverage extended for unmarried dependent children to the age of 25 years old.

State Conventions and Meetings

ALL SOUTH RALLY - March 27 - 30, 2008
Mississippi State Convention – April 11-12, 2008
North Carolina State Convention – May 28-30, da2008

Respectfully submitted,

/s/ Cliff Fussell
Southeast Area Executive