The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is asking fluid milk processors and other interested parties to nominate candidates for the National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Board. The Secretary of Agriculture will appoint seven individuals from those nominated to succeed members whose terms expire June 30, 2010. Appointed members will serve 3-year terms from July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2013. To nominate an individual, please submit a copy of the nomination form and a signed background form for each nominee by October 31, 2009.

The National Fluid Milk Processor Promotion Board was established by the Fluid Milk Promotion Act of 1990, as amended, to develop and administer a coordinated program of advertising and education to promote fluid milk products. Of the board’s 20 members, 15 represent geographic regions and five are at-large members. The at-large members must include at least three fluid milk processors and at least one member from the general public. Currently, there are four at-large processor members and one member from the general public serving on the board.

The national fluid milk program is financed by a mandatory 20-cent per hundredweight assessment on fluid milk processors who process and market commercially in consumer-type packages more than 3 million pounds of fluid milk products per month in the contiguous 48 states and the District of Columbia, excluding those fluid milk products delivered directly to consumer residences.

USDA will accept nominations for board representation in five geographic regions and two at-large positions. Nominees for the five regional positions and at least one of the at-large positions must be active owners or employees of a fluid milk processor. One at-large position may be either a fluid milk processor or a member from the general public. The geographic regions are: Region 1 (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont); Region 4 (Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina); Region 7 (Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin); Region 10 (Texas); and Region 13 (Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming). No fluid milk processor shall be represented on the board by more than three members.

Fluid milk processors and interested parties may submit nominations for regions in which they are located or market fluid milk and for at-large members.