A. The board has the power to employ an executive director to be known as the Consortium Director. The salary and fringe benefits appropriated to the position must be derived from funds directly assigned to the consortium for this purpose by the General Assembly.

B. The director has the following powers and duties to:

1. direct supervision over all consortium proposals;

2. prepare consortium proposals to be submitted to interested agencies;

3. prepare an annual summary of all submitted proposals;

4. negotiate funding levels for proposals submitted by member institutions;

5. provide an accounting to the board of the director’s development funds;

6. request and receive funds from local, state, federal, and private sources for use by the director, consortium, individual member institutions, or other persons;

7. gather, maintain, and make available to interested persons natural resource information from state and federal agencies, higher education institutions, and any other appropriate entity;

8. designate the location of the consortium office, subject to the approval of the board;

9. exercise all incidental powers necessary to carry out the provisions of this chapter.