Minutes of meeting of the Society of OAFs held on 28 January 2016 at noon in University House

1. Present: OAFs Barlow. Beard, Falvey, Larkins, White and Wood
2. Apologies: OAF Hickey
3. Activities since previous OAFs meeting

Commiserations were extended to OAF Hickey who was a late apology because his house (or part thereof) had been flooded during recent heavy rain in Geelong.

OAF Falvey had been busy travelling in SE Asia for most of January. Fittingly, he presented copies of his latest book Understanding Southeast Asia to the assembled company, which was gratefully received. He reminded us that the inaugural International Integrated Development Award was now being advertized.

OAF Beard had enjoyed a quiet time after her review of administration etc in the University of the South Pacific. She had been reflecting on the concept of integrating agriculture and related disciples into a College of the Environment at Melbourne, which had been discussed at high level some time ago, but never acted upon.

OAF White had a quiet festive season but had been busy, with Brian Davidson, analysing the impact of the revised methodology for sequestering carbon in soil under the Federal Government’s Carbon Farming Initiative. The results would be submitted as a paper to an international journal.

OAF Wood had completed much pruning on his estate using powered shears and managed to avoid any OAFish incident. He too had been thinking about the state of agricultural education.

OAF Barlow had survived an ‘avalanche of grandchildren’ over the holiday period and was recovering. With co-authors, he had compiled an article on university responses to the ERA mechanism and how agriculture faculties seemed to have improved their performances overall.

OAF Larkins produced copies of his recent book Australian Higher Education: Research Policies and Performance 1987-2010, which were gratefully received. He reported that he, with co-authors, had prepared three articles on various aspects of higher education that would appear in Wednesday editions of The Australian over the next few weeks. He was also congratulated on being hung in recognition of his long and outstanding service to International House.

At the end of these brief presentations, OAF Falvey resolved that OAF papers and articles such as those referred to should be circulated among the OAFs, either before (for comment) or after publication (for OAF discussions, information and the archives).

4. Minutes of the meeting held on 16 December 2015: These minutes passed without comment having been circulated earlier.
5. Matters arising

(a) Sponsorship of the proposed Food and Agriculture Award was under consideration by a potential sponsor.

(c) The kangaroo meat topic was a ‘work in progress’.

(d) The issue of agricultural education and research in the University of Melbourne, and more generally in Victoria, stimulated much discussion. The main points to emerge were:

(i) The University of Melbourne’s annual income from all sources was now about $2.5 billion.

(ii) There has been rapid growth in postgraduate education, especially course work degrees, for which the University can charge large fees (unregulated). The growth rate of research postgraduates has been slower and these were mainly recruited from overseas students, again with high fees.

(iii) Currently, postgraduate students comprise 55 percent of all students at Melbourne (total 58,000) and this figure is expected to rise to 60 percent within a few years.

(iv) The faculty structure of the University is largely set, being determined primarily by the need to provide degrees programs in the major discipline areas such as medicine, science, engineering, arts, law and commerce. The question has arisen in the University at regular intervals over the past 25 years at least – where does an applied discipline such as agriculture (including forestry, horticulture and food science) fit in this structure?

(v) Despite professed concerns about global food security, climate change and its effect on this and the wider environment, as well as the disconnect between an increasingly urban society and rural and regional communities, no satisfactory answer has been provided to this question.

(vi) At the end of the discussion, there was general agreement with OAF Larkins’ advice (subsequently eloquently expressed by email) that a strategy to provide a sharper focus on agriculture/food R&T at the graduate level has merit. The graduate area is the one that has priority in Melbourne’s growth/restructuring plans. It would be valuable to involve some current UoM academic leaders in any proposal coming from the OAFs. A Graduate Centre/School/Institute for, say Agriculture and the Environment, has more chance of being accepted than a proposal that challenged the many vested interests associated with existing faculty structures.

(vii) OAF Beard undertook to ponder more the ideas discussed for developing professional graduate ag-related programs and how fostering an environments-focused collective (natural, farmed, built) might be progressed, mainly from the perspective of being at the cutting edge of a more integrated approach to managing and using the environment, which might also play into a reduction of organizational units in the University.

(viii) All this was by way of saying – if the OAFs intended to progress these idea and make a proposal, what were the key objectives and who was the target audience?

6. Other business

Subsequent to the meeting, the proposal was made that Jeff Topp, recently retired from the faculty, be invited to join the OAFs. This will be considered at our next meeting.

The question of when the OAFS might have their first anniversary remains unanswered.

7. Next meeting. See the calendar below.

OAF White, Hon Secretary

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Minutes of meeting of the Society of OAFs held on 2 March 2016 at noon in University House

1. Present: OAFs Barlow. Beard, Falvey, Larkins, White and Wood
2. Apologies: OAF Hickey
3. Activities since the previous OAFs meeting

Thanks were extended to OAF Hickey for his eloquent presentation of the qualifying factors for the OAFish incident award for 2015. He registered a postal vote for one of the candidates.

OAF Falvey had been busy attending CGIAR meetings in Washington DC for 10 days, settling in a new CEO for Hassad, and retreating to his ‘cave’ at Kilmore while his wife was overseas.

OAF Beard continued to reflect on agricultural education at Melbourne, particularly on the integration of teaching and research in the ‘built’ and ‘natural’ environments. Her inquiries about the past history of this idea had not elicited any positive response other than that the vehicle for this might be the Office of Environmental Programs.

OAF Wood had continued, without any untoward incident, pruning many of the trees on his estate to enhance the growth and harvesting of truffles. Preparation for upcoming truffle festivals was not leaving him much spare time.

OAF Barlow was about to engage in vintage, while contending with flocks of cockatoos and corellas. He also acts as a host to bees in Melbourne (Welcome Klansmen!). He attended a climate change mitigation workshop in Darwin and has been ruminating on the gathering and use made of ‘big data’ in agriculture. He didn’t mention his article on how well or otherwise universities had responded to the ERA mechanism.

OAF Larkins reported that the second of three articles on higher education funding had been completed and was due to appear in next week’s Australian, education section. The full version would be circulated.

OAF White reported that his paper, with Brian Davidson, on the costs and benefits of sequestering carbon in Australian soils had been published online in Economics and Natural Resources Research. A copy is sent with these minutes.

4. Minutes of the meeting held on 28 January 2016: These minutes passed without comment.
5. Matters arising

(i) The second anniversary of the OAFs’ gathering was acknowledged, as was OAF Wood’s birthday, toasted in aqua pura.

(ii) It was agreed that Jeff Topp, recently retired from the Faculty’s administration, should be invited to join the OAFS – Janet to contact him.

(iii) The vote for the OAFish incident award for 2015 went unanimously in favour of OAF Wood. This award would be formally presented on 1 April, or as close to that date as possible. OAF Barlow was urged to try harder next time.

(iv) There was nothing to report yet on sponsorship of the proposed Food and Agriculture Award.

(v) The topic of agricultural education provoked much discussion and revisted much of the ground previously was covered (see previous minutes). The history of events and ideas went back to the McColl Report of the late 1980s and the Dawkins reforms of higher education. In the end, the critical questions that need to be answered were identified as – what were the objectives of any proposal coming from the OAFs, who were the key people to be sounded out who could be implementers (and champions), what was the pathway for delivery, and if the State government were to be approached for support, were there convincing answers to two questions – would the proposal create jobs and would it bring more income to the state? The OAFs agreed to mull over these points in the intervening time to the next meeting and, if inspired, to circulate some ideas beforehand.

(vi) It was decided that no further action would be taken in respect of CSIRO’s changes in strategic direction.

(vii) Kangaroo meat was still cooking.

6. Other business
7. Next meeting. See the calendar below.

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Minutes of meeting of the Society of OAFs held on 6 April 2016 at noon in University House

1. Present: OAFs Barlow, Beard, Falvey, Hickey, Larkins, Topp, White and Wood
2. Apologies: None
3. Welcome to New LOAF – Jeff Topp
4. Activities since the previous OAFs meeting

The chronicles of Larkins-Marshman continue with the third episode focusing on, inter alia, how much money universities generate per EFTSU. Universities such as Melbourne and Sydney are doing very well on that score.

OAF Beard reported that one of her daughters had recently married. She herself was looking forward to some leisure travel overseas from May onwards.

OAF Falvey has been busy with International Livestock Research Institute matters. However, with the appointment of a new CEO, the work load with Hassad Australia had decreased. He noted that he and Simone had recently celebrated their 10^th wedding anniversary. Lindsay was congratulated on his efforts to secure funding for the proposed Food and Agriculture award (see below).

ToppOAF has recently bought a house in Castlemaine and was busy renovating it. He is planning a ramble along part of the Pennine Way with a friend later in the northern summer.

OAF Hickey has recently completed an enjoyable cruise with Cunard to Shanghai and back. Family activities were keeping him busy. He was pleased to present the 2015 OAFish Incident certificate to the winner, OAF Wood, who was suitably grateful, as shown by the official photograph of the day (courtesy of OAF Falvey).

Consistent with the last report, OAF Wood was making slow progress with pruning trees on his estate to enhance the growth and harvesting of truffles. He had been somewhat diverted from this task by the recent sale of his house in Melbourne and there were, of course, the upcoming truffle festivals.

OAF Barlow had been attending meetings on science and research in Canberra and Hobart. We were told that his notoriety as an incendiary ‘city slicker’ had extended as far as Strath Creek. Your humble scribe had to look up Strath Creek on Google Maps and found it is slightly left of nowhere (north of the Kinglake National Park).

OAF White managed to survive the rigours of his cruise in the South Pacific on the Golden Princess; he has sworn off any future cruises in this part of the world. On OAF White’s recalling that Lindsay’s wedding was the last occasion on which he had worn his kilt (MacGregor tartan), it was suggested that the OAFs should have an annual dinner at which such finery could be worn. There was general support for this idea, to be put into effect in July or whenever an opportune time occurred (see below).

5. Minutes of the meeting held on 2 March 2016: These minutes passed without comment.
6. Matters arising

(i) Lindsay reported the excellent news that Doug Shears had agreed to provide $5000 a year for eight years to sponsor the Food and Agriculture Award. The terms and conditions of the draft award are circulated with these minutes. Lindsay had been in contact with Professor Tim Reeves of the Agriculture Forum of ATSE to see whether ATSE is prepared to administer the award. An extract from his email to Tim Reeves and Margaret Hartley is appended, for the record, to these minutes.

‘The Award has progressed to the stage that it is appropriate for the Agriculture Forum to manage. Doug Shears has generously agreed to sponsor the award through the ICM group for a period of 8 years at $5000 per year. This is to be based on an agreement for that annual commitment rather than the alternative approach of a capital sum invested to yield sufficient for an annual award. Before the 8th year it is expected that the Award would be reviewed and revised or terminated according to the food and ag sector’s needs at that time.

As you (Tim) suggested, the next logical step is for the Ag Forum to meet and determine the selection committee, the name (if any) of Award and organise for the Award to be ready for presenting to a worthy recipient at the next AGM dinner. In terms of the selection panel, the originators of the Award – the Society of Old Agriculture Fellows (OAFs) – have nominated Emer. Prof. Robert White as their representative. I would also suggest that Doug be formally invited to be on it also.’

(ii) The topic of agricultural education continued to engender much discussion, provoked to an extent by an article of Mick Keogh’s in the Australian Farm Institute’s ag forum on how ‘to fix agricultural innovation’ by shutting down G8 agriculture faculties. The consensus view seemed to be that practical agriculture skills are best acquired at rural colleges and TAFE colleges and that a university such as Melbourne, with its research-intensive focus, should follow the example of education, science and engineering and develop graduate programs in agriculture and related disciplines that offered a range of subjects, broadening and deepening a student’s knowledge and experience, as well as their communication and problem-solving skills. This would involve staff in agriculture developing appropriate subjects in collaboration with other faculties such as science, commerce and medicine. This was the path most consistent with the Melbourne Model, and one that should appeal to parents and high-achieving students alike.

The OAF’s minutes record in more detail many of the ideas and suggestions that have been discussed over several lunches. It was noted that the new Dean of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences would arrive mid-year. A dinner hosted by the OAFs could be a propitious time for our group to meet the new Dean and find out what his ideas for tertiary agricultural education might be. This could provide a suitable opportunity for the OAFs to expound their ideas further and to see whether they fitted in with the Dean’s and Faculty’s thinking.

(iii) Data are becoming available on the use of kangaroo meat for pet food in Victoria – watch this space.

7. Next meeting. See the calendar next page

OAF White, Hon Sec.

 

 

PROPOSAL

The _____________  Award for Food & Agriculture

Preamble

The Award is to be established in 2016 to be presented annually by the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE).

The Awardee will be a graduate scientist or technologist who has achieved substantial peer or industry recognition for work in the past five years in a field critical to continued improvement of the overall food sector, from production inputs through logistics, processing to marketing.

The Award will consist of an appropriate certificate and a cash prize of $5,000.

The Award is to be funded by an annual commitment for a period of 8 years with payment by a date to be mutually agreed between the donor and ATSE. Within the latter years of the commitment, the Award will be objectively reviewed and its continuance, modification and termination determined.

The first award is to be made in 2016 and presented at the ATSE AGM/Oration Dinner in November 2016. It will usually be presented at the same event each year.

The governing body of ATSE will select highly qualified professionals from the field to serve as a selection panel for the Award. Initial selection of the panel will include input from the initiators of the Award, the Society of Old Agriculture Fellows (OAFs).

Name

• The Award will be known as the __________Award and consist of a certificate and a cash prize of $5,000
• ATSE will obtain the necessary registrations for the Award and its name.

Purpose

• To elevate among the technology and innovation communities the professions critical to the production and distribution of food in Australia and the world.
• To bring to the attention of Federal and State parliamentarians, administrators and business leaders the key role that science and technology play in maintaining an efficient and sustainable food sector as part of a global system.
• To reinforce within these communities the contribution that sciences related to agriculture and food make to Australia’s reputation as a centre of technological and innovative leadership

Criteria

The Awardee will:

• Have demonstrated excellence, innovation and impact in a field related to food and food production
• Be graduate of an Australian university or have substantially worked in Australia over several years
• Be 40 years or under on the first day of the year in which the Award is made
• Be clearly acknowledged by peers for an outstanding contribution to the wider food sector in the past five years
• Have advanced the standing of the broad profession of agriculture and food

Nomination Process

ATSE will seek nominations annually from:

• University leaders
• Fellows of the Learned Academies
• Relevant food and agriculture professional societies
• Major employer organizations
• Publicly Funded Research Organisations

This will be effected by

• Letters or emails to specific addressees
• ATSE Newsletters
• An advertisement in Focus
• Media release

Self-nomination will be allowed, in which case two Referees will assume the same roles as Proposer and Seconder described below.

The Nomination process will be in two stages

Informal stage

The first round will require a two-page assessment of the achievement, signed by the nominee or a Proposer and Seconder, with sufficient detail to enable the Selection Panel to assess the merits of the achievement and determine whether to invite a formal nomination. The Selection Panel will be comprised of three persons who are Fellows of Learned Academies or equivalent with an appropriate degree and substantial career experience in a field of food and agriculture.

Formal stage

In this round the Chair of the Selection Panel will approach selected nominees or Proposers and invite formal nominations

• Each such nomination must be supported by a Proposer and Seconder, or two Referees
• One of these must be a professional agricultural or food scientist
• The Proposer or a Referee will need to complete a proforma nomination
• The Seconder or second Referee will need to support the nomination with a letter clearly indicating her/his detailed knowledge of the work for which the nomination has been made
• The Nominee must confirm the accuracy of all facts in the nomination by signature

Nomination Timetable

Informal stage

• ATSE will open a 6 week call for Informal stage nominations in March each year
• Informal nominations will be assessed during May
• The Investigator will contact Proposers of the selected nominees by the end of May seeking formal nominations

Formal stage

• Formal nominations will close at the end of July
• These will be assessed during August
• Short-listed nominees will be called for personal interviews during September
• The Awardee will be determined and advised during October
• The Award will be presented in November

Promotion

In addition to the publicity to stimulate nominations, the Awardee will be proclaimed by:

• Announcement letters or emails to specific addressees
• Announcement in relevant newsletters
• An article in appropriate food and agriculture magazines
• Media release

Provision for review

The need for and operation of the Award will be reviewed after 8 years.

Secretariat Support

The CEO of ATSE will oversee any necessary professional and administrative support.

Draft 5: 14 March 2016

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Minutes of meeting of the Society of OAFs held on 18 May 2016 at noon in University House

1. Present: OAFs Falvey, Hickey, Larkins, Topp and White
2. Apologies: OAFs Barlow, Beard, Wood
3. Activities since the previous OAFs meeting

OAF Larkins is continuing his painstaking task of going through the old documents and minutes for the purpose of writing the history of International House. With Ian Marshman, he is continuing to review the funding information published by Australian universities.

OAF Beard is currently enjoying her visit to Brugge where we assume she is gathering material for her seminal paper on agricultural education. OAF Wood reported that truffles have been included under the Australian Food Awards and he has been invited to be an inaugural judge.

In the past weeks, OAF Falvey has been to Ethiopia, Strasbourg and Rome, the last to follow up on the new funding arrangements for the CGIAR system. He is now chairman of the Board of ILRI.

ToppOAF is now on his way to Europe, visiting Malta, Sicily and the UK (to ramble along part of the Pennine Way as previously minuted).

Our indefatigable ‘cruiser’, OAF Hickey is planning to go to Canada for his summer sojourn (followed by another cruise), but in the meantime has to be content with a vacation on Daydream Island (grandparent duties!).

Carbon farming has continued to preoccupy OAF White, who with Brian Davidson has written an op-ed for the June issue of Australasian Science. In the context of soil carbon and GHG emissions, he drew the OAFs attention to the accelerated rate of clearing of bush and woodland in Queensland in recent years, currently estimated to be 300,000 ha annually.

4. Minutes of the meeting held on 6 April 2016: These minutes passed without comment.
5. Matters arising

(i) Mr Doug Shears of ICM Australia has agreed to provide additional funding of $2000 per annum for administration of the proposed Food and Agriculture Award, which now has the support of the Agriculture Forum of ATSE. The final approval for the establishment of this award is expected at the next ATSE Board meeting on 17 June. In order that the involvement of the OAFS in originating the award is not overlooked, OAF Falvey reminded the CEO of ATSE that OAFs White and Hickey were willing to serve on the selection committee.

(ii) The topic of agricultural education and research was deferred to a later date, as was any further discussion of the idea of an annual dinner (linked to the arrival of the new Dean?).

(iii) No further information on kangaroo meat. We should decide at our next meeting whether to continue with this agenda item.

6. Any other business (i) OAF Falvey reminded the group that last year we had discussed the possibility of writing a history of the Faculty of Agriculture, in its various incarnations, to chronicle events from a previous date (to be decided) to the present time. He judged that the time might now ‘be ripe’ (see minutes of 12 February 2015) for such an endeavour. With their background, memories and experience, members of the OAFS could make major contributions to this account of Faculty events. OAF Falvey undertook to formulate a proposal to be considered at the OAFs’ next meeting, which is as follows.

Proposal for Book

Rather than attempt a researched history of the faculty up until the formation of the FVAS or beyond, it is proposed that short essays by each OAF and other key senior figures of the predecessors of the FVAS be collected into a volume. The period up until the formation of ILFR can be included by summarizing the existing volume ‘Land & Food’. Thus the product would be a story, or stories of the faculty rather than a history. Editorial work could be conducted by OAFs Falvey and Topp (if they agree).

It is further proposed that this be a project of the OAFs and that the resultant publication, be it paper or electronic, be duly registered as a publication of the OAFs though the ISBN and Catalogue in Publication system – which incurs a minimal charge.

Next Steps

If the general proposal is accepted, OAFs should jointly suggest a limited number of additional persons who could be contacted to write a few pages about ‘the faculty from your viewpoint during your tenure’.

Timeline

The project could be completed within less than one year.

(ii) Another item concerned the matter of money being offered to the old VCAH Services company, with which OAF Hickey was well acquainted. Currently the sum available is $58,000 less 25 percent retained by the company that is recovering the funds (additional sums may be forthcoming). After some discussion as to the source of this money and uses to which it could be put, it was resolved to ask the Acting Dean, Associate Professor Brian Leury, to open an account to receive the money, with the stipulation that the funds be used in support of agricultural education. OAF Falvey undertook to do this (now agreed to by Brian), suggesting that the university person designated as the account holder be someone like the ‘Dean of the FVAS or the most senior academic responsible for agricultural education within the University of Melbourne’; also that allocation of the funds be conducted by or in conjunction with those FVAS retirees previously associated with the board of VCAH Services, being Hickey, Wood, Topp and Falvey.

7. Next meeting. See the calendar below (OAF White will be overseas until 27 July).

OAF White, Hon. Sec.

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Minutes of meeting of the Society of OAFs held on 29 June 2016 at noon in University House

1. Present: OAFs Falvey, Hickey, Larkins, and White
2. Apologies: OAFs Barlow, Beard, Topp and Wood
3. Activities since the previous OAFs meeting

Encouraged by OAF Beard and husband, OAF Hickey has taken up croquet and is enjoying the strategic challenge (drafts vs chess). He informed us that the ‘lost’ income’ (some $55k) due to VCAH had now been paid to the Trust section of the University’s administration. OAF Falvey is to meet with Brian Leury to discuss possible uses to which the money could be put for the benefit of the Faculty, including students.

OAF Falvey has returned from a series of meetings in Washington and Thailand to do with the reorganization and funding of the CGIAR system, and the international PhD program in Thailand that he and OAF Hickey are supporting.

OAF Larkins is discovering some ‘skeletons in the cupboard’ in his task of writing the 60 year history of International House. The next article in the series he is writing with Ian Marshman on ‘Domestic Student Load and Financing Trends for the Deregulated Demand-Driven Australian Universities system’ is available on the Martin Institute website. A condensed version had received prominence in The Australian of 22 June.

Having returned from overseas, OAF Beard is very busy advising Victoria University on the merger of Arts and Education, so much so that she may not be able to attend OAFS’ meetings for a time.

Carbon farming ‘myths’ have continued to preoccupy OAF White. His co-author, Brian Davidson is currently in Turin and has been invited to go to Waginengen to give a seminar on our analysis of the economics of carbon farming. He, with Mark Krstic of AWRI, is also waiting to hear from a couple of publishers as to whether they will publish a new book on healthy soils and vines

ToppOAF would no doubt have reported on his recent trip to Europe, but was unfortunately detained by a traffic snarl-up on the Tullamarine Freeway (a misnomer?).

4. Minutes of the meeting held on 18 May 2016: These minutes passed without comment.
5. Matters arising
6. OAF Falvey had previously circulated a draft outline on the proposed faculty history. After some discussion it was decided that each OAF who could contribute would draft about 1000 words, recounting significant events they were involved in, with emphasis on the question – what have we learnt from this experience that could be informative for others? Once this was done, it should become clearer which events were particularly salient, possibly enabling differing recollections/interpretations to be reconciled, and so aid in the final editing.
7. No further news on the Food and Agriculture award.

iii. In order to advance our discussions on agricultural education and research, the OAFs accepted Frank Larkins’ suggestion that, to assemble some hard facts on trends, a good place to start was the ERA data for, say, 2010 to 2015. Subsequent to the meeting, he circulated the 2015 ERA entry for Ag & Vet, available on the internet. Related to this topic was the OAFs’ idea that the New Dean of Vet and Ag might be interested to talk to us – OAF Falvey said he would try to arrange an informal meeting between the Dean and two of our number.

1. With OAF Barlow’s agreement, the topic of kangaroo meat was dropped from our agenda. Similarly, it was agreed that if one of our number had not participated in our business, directly or indirectly for some considerable time, that person would be dropped from our mailing list.
2. Any other business

It was agreed to invite Professor Kwong Lee Dow, a former Dean of the Faculty, to join the OAFS.

7. Next meeting. To be determined (see calendar below).

OAF White, Hon. Sec.

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Minutes of meeting of the Society of OAFs held on 3 August 2016 at noon in University House

1. Present: OAFs Barlow, Falvey, Larkins, Topp, White and Wood
2. Apologies: OAFs Beard, Hickey and Lee Dow
3. Activities since the previous OAFs meeting

Professor Kwong Lee Dow has accepted our invitation to join the OAFS. However, he was unable to attend the lunch because he was attending the funeral of Dr Lawrie Shears, a former Victorian Director General of Education, who taught returned servicemen at the Rural Training Centre at Dookie, following World War II.

OAF Larkins, with Ian Marshman, is preparing the fourth paper in the series student loads and financing trends in the Deregulated Demand-Driven Australian Universities system. He is also planning a trip to the USA to visit old haunts and new.

OAF Falvey had some unexpected free time during which he has made excellent progress in compiling a draft of the Faculty history up to c.1990. He is seeking contributions from other Faculty ex-executives along the lines adumbrated in the last minutes.

The truffle season is in full swing and has kept OAF Wood busy. After recently attending the New Zealand Truffle Growers’ Congress, he concluded that the Kiwis, who were pioneers in truffle growing in the southern hemisphere some 25 years ago, had now ‘lost the plot’.

ToppOAF is to be congratulated on securing a part-time position in fund-raising with St Vincents public hospital. He said little about his recent trip to Europe and walking part of the Pennine Way.

OAF Barlow attend the International Cool Climate Symposium in Brighton UK in late May where some of the English speakers were lauding the production of sparkling wine on the Chalk and limestone soils of Southern England, now that the climate had warmed by c.1 degree in the past century. He also had time to tour in Scotland.

Still on a wine theme, OAF White attended the 11^th International Terroir Congress in Oregon in July, which included a two day tour into eastern Washington, territory familiar to OAFs Barlow and Larkins. He then spent time with family in Houston Texas.

4. Minutes of the meeting held on 29 June 2016: These minutes passed without comment.
5. Matters arising
6. OAF Falvey updated the group on progress with the Faculty history. Submissions from others involved in Faculty activities after 1990 were invited. Material that was not directly used in the history could become part of the archives.
7. Approval of the Food and Agriculture award by the ATSE Board has been withheld for various reasons. ATSE Fellows who are also OAFs were confident that the difficulties could be resolved after further discussions with the Agriculture Forum of ATSE.

iii. With respect to our discussions on agricultural education and research, information on the 2015 ERA entry for Ag & Vet and documents originating with the Australian College of Deans of Agriculture has been circulated. For the OAFs to formulate a discussion paper, they need to decide what the key objectives of such a paper should be. It was likely that agricultural education and research would be a topic for discussion with the new Dean, Professor John Fazakerley, who has agreed to dine with us on Thursday, 5 August.

6. Any other business

OAF Barlow has suggested that the Associate Dean (Research) be consulted as to how the VCAH funds, now secured in a Faculty account, could best be used to support students, particularly postgraduates.

7. Next meeting. To be determined (see calendar below).

OAF White, Hon. Sec.

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Minutes of meeting of the Society of OAFs

held on 20 September 2016 at noon in University House 

1. Present: OAFs Barlow, Falvey and Kwong

2. Apologies: OAFs Beard, Hickey, Larkins, Topp, White and Wood

3. Minutes of the previous meeting

Assumed accepted by no one mentioning the subject

4. Activities since the previous OAFs meeting

OAF Falvey: Busy month with sister-in-law’s funeral in France, back for Hassad meeting, then Denmark to award World Prize and Thailand for Thaksin Univ, interspersed with Faculty history.

OAF Kwong: Mainly activities were in Tasmania for the Council of the University of Tasmania, and the Underwood Centre, which aims to lift school participation and retention across the State.

OAF Barlow: Review of the Academy of Science’s Decadal Plan for Agriculture to provide feedback and devise ‘hooks’ for funding for research and education from otherwise benign conclusions.

5. Matters arising

1. Faculty History: A partial draft for the ‘modern era’ has been circulated and comments received and incorporated; new material has since been submitted by OAF Kwong and Ron Slocombe, discussions conducted with OAFs Topp and Kwong, and promised by OAF Beard, Bill Malcolm and Nick Uren. The project is roughly on schedule. Discussion of the Richardson era and various anecdotes consumed most of the lunch providing quotes that may well find their way into the history. These included: the Academic Board being ‘a seething mass of vipers’ (OAF Kwong); the difficulty for a rational-economist Dean to deal in the ‘socio-political fuzz’ of the university (OAF Barlow), and a general conclusion reached by OAF Kwong’s analysis of the full VCAH integration being an ‘impossible ask’.

1. Food and Agriculture Award: The Award has been increased to $5K for each of a male and female + up to $5K for administration per year by the sponsor as part of a re-submission to ATSE in the coming weeks.

iii. Recovered VCAH Services Funds: A proposal, apparently from OAF Hickey, was considered acceptable in general. It was suggested that selections of recipients should involve an OAF from the VCAH, preferably OAF Hickey. It was also suggested that travel grants may be more readily available these days and that a greater current need may be for young academic staff lacking operational research funds necessary to accept scholarship-qualified candidates. These suggestions were to be carried forward to the next meeting.

22. Dinner with the new FVAS Dean: This went well. A photo (missing a late-coming OAF) records the gathering. A follow-up email was sent. It was noted that the Dean presents his lecture this Thursday, September 22.

1. Agricultural Education and Research: The item was discussed briefly in the absence of OAF experts Beard and Larkins, and the question posed: can the current influx of new students be sustained?

6. Any other business

Although unannounced at the meeting; it went without saying that the OAFs have clearly arrived at the highest status in the University of Melbourne by their inclusion on University House notice boards as photographically recorded on the occasion of the OAFs dinner with the new Dean.

7. Next meeting.

To be determined (OAF White to coordinate).

OAF Falvey (for OAF White, Hon. Sec.)

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Minutes of meeting of the Society of OAFs

held on 8 November 2016 at noon in University House

1. Present: OAFs Falvey, Kwong, Larkins and Wood

2. Apologies: OAFs Barlow, Beard, Hickey, Topp, White

3. Minutes of the previous meeting

A previous minute to the effect that the VCAH merger into the Faculty served little purpose for agricultural education was deferred to the agenda item about the Faculty history.

4. Activities since the previous OAFs meeting

OAF Falvey: Just back from Chairing ILRI Board in Nairobi and sporting an accoutrement that may qualify as contention for the OAFish Award (photo).

OAF Kwong: Arrived direct from flight from the University of Tasmania with tales of innovation, links to Wageningen and developments across the island’s north.

OAF Larkins: Having traversed 8,000km by road up the west coast of the USA, regaled stories of anti-Washington sentiments and intimidation by Trump-ians.

OAF Wood: Between moving houses, reviewed the year’s truffle adventures and advised that the next stage of evolution may be entering into truffle trading.

5. Matters arising

1. Faculty History: OAF Wood concurred with a conclusion attributed to OAF Kwong appearing in a draft chapter that the diversity of culture between the colleges that formed VCAH was greater than the difference between the Faculty and VCAH, and that the merger was never going to work. OAF Larkins referred to VC Gilbert’s open-door policy to board chair Claringbold complicating Bob Richardson’s role. OAF Falvey advised that the Roush chapter was coming on slowly, probably because Rick remains angry at the treatment he received; a draft chapter prepared from (semi-) public documents and gossip will be sent to him to stimulate comment. The target of a first draft of the book by Christmas remains, with the intent to cater for OAFs’ holiday reading/examination. It was further noted that the OAFs – being, through their name, the living legacy of the “Old Agriculture” Building – should duly observe the passing of the building before it is demolished next year.

1. Food and Agriculture Award: The increased value was ‘gratefully’ and finally accepted by ATSE with the complication that they wish to name it for the person rather than the company providing the funds. Discussions continue.

iii. Recovered VCAH Services Funds: Having previously minuted that selections of recipients for travel grants or operational funds for young staff should involve OAF Hickey, it was agreed to hold the item over until OAF Hickey was present, emphasizing the first award should be made soon.

1. Agricultural Education and Research: The item was held over until the next meeting.
2. Any other business

An email received from OAF Beard suggesting an OAF lunch or dinner before Christmas was considered a fine idea.

7. Next meeting

To be determined (OAF White to coordinate).

OAF Falvey (for OAF White, Hon. Sec.)

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Minutes of a meeting of the Society of OAFs held on 9 December 2016 at 6 pm at University House

1. Present. OAFs Barlow, Beard, Falvey, Hickey, Kwong Lee Dow, Topp, White and Wood 2. Apologies. OAF Larkins
2. Minutes of the previous meeting. These had been circulated some time ago and no one remembered whether there were any items to comment on (but see later).
3. Activities since last meeting. This item was not pursued because the OAFS by then had had a few drinks and so the reports may have been too discursive.
4. Matters discussed.

(i) Food and Agriculture Award. OAF Falvey reported that the name of the award had finally been agreed with the Board of ATSE. It will be called the ICM Food and Agriculture Award. ATSE will now be arranging for the first award to be made next year, with a member of the OAFS invited to be on the selection committee.

(ii) The Faculty history has been proceeding well and OAF Falvey intends to circulate a complete draft for comment before Christmas.

(iii) The item on Agricultural Research and Education was deferred again to the next meeting.

(iv) Recovered VCAH Services Funds. Although this item was deferred from the previous meeting so that OAF Hickey could be present, it was overlooked until late in the meeting when he had left to catch a train back to Geelong. However, OAF Hickey’s previous advice on the use of these funds was that ‘the funds should be managed by the Associate Dean of FVAS to be used for postgraduate students to attend conferences where they are presenting papers. The funds might best be used for postgraduates with insufficient funding to attend otherwise. Perhaps a limit of 2 per year would provide a means to extend the life of the funding. An appropriate name reflecting the source would also be a good thing, given the efforts of the volunteers that made the Services Company a success.’ This advice will be considered at our next meeting.

(v) It was noted that OAF Falvey was a front runner for the 2016 OAFish Incident Award, having broken (strained?) his ankle while in Nairobi. OAF Larkins is also a possible candidate.

(vi) OAF Wood suggested that there could be an OAF Quote of the Year. Some suggestions were offered, though none too seriously.

(vii) Climate change policy was briefly discussed, with attention drawn to the Government’s misstep in indicating an Emission’s Intensity Scheme might be considered, which was put in juxtaposition with the report by the Chief Scientist saying that the Government would not be able to meet its Paris commitments under current policies.

(viii) The contribution to dinner was agreed at $60 per head. Since the total cost was $427, this means that there was a surplus of $53. OAF Falvey suggested this should be the seed capital of an OAFS Trust Fund, to be administered at present by the Hon. Sec.

(ix) Date of next meeting – to be held in February (see calendar below).

OAF White Hon Secretary