Director's Message

Neil McRoberts, NPDN Executive Director

I mentioned in last month's message that I was just about to head for Little Rock AR, to attend the annual National Plant Board (NPB) meeting as part of our shared effort to improve collaboration and cooperation between NPB and NPDN.  NPB is the national organization which brings together the State Plant Regulatory Officials (SPROs) from all 50 states, Guam and Puerto Rico.

It was a huge surprise, but also an enormous pleasure, when at the awards banquet, the outgoing NPB President Stephen Long presented NPDN with an outstanding partnership award in recognition of our devotion to collaborating with state and federal partners on plant pest issues.

It was an honor to be there to collect the award on behalf of NPDN. That award belongs to all of you for the amazing work that you all do. The ongoing budget stagnation for NPDN has meant increasing calls for membership to do more with less, and the NPDN Leadership Team is acutely aware of the level of volunteer activity that members are being asked to donate to NPDN to achieve the goals for accreditation and professional development that are included in the current cooperative agreement.  I hope that the recognition shown to NPDN by our state plant health partners, will go some way to letting everyone feel that the hard work is valued outside NPDN itself. Plans for a small delegation from the Leadership Team to visit the NIFA director in the fall are still progressing.  Recognition such as this award by partner organizations gives us important leverage in the discussions about long term support.  We can add significantly to that message if we have success stories, or endorsements from our wider population of stakeholders, for our diagnostic activities, so please do send any success stories from your work to your regional centers.