The meeting was called to order by Charles Cox and guests were introduced.

Terril Faul reviewed the Biennial meeting. The schedule was reviewed: 1-5 is registration and 6 P.M. is the opening banquet. Each state is required to have an exhibit. Each state will receive $1500 to assist with registration, transportation, etc, in support of the Rural Youth Grant. Opening speaker Crystal Kuykendall will focus on Adult / Youth Partnership. The afternoon and evening will be educational activities / tours. Morning on Tuesday will be abstract presentations. Exhibit requests will also be forwarded to all. Tuesday will also be concurrent sessions for both educational programs as well as position specific break-outs. Wednesday will have a speaker with the program ending at 12. $150 Registration fee plus the hotel fee will cover the costs. The location is the Hotel Monteleone, 214 Rue Royale, New Orleans, LA 504-528-3341.  He confirmed the committee for abstract review and indicated that correspondence would be resent about abstract proposals. A quick count of potential participants was completed.

The 2006 Site for the Biennial meeting needs to be set soon. Mississippi volunteered.

Several of the items from yesterday needed to be covered.
 

Fee generation and privatization:

Several states have been through the process. In Iowa, the reasons for implementing a program development, based on enrollment, charged against the counties. Counties found a way to raise the fees through local fundraising, charging the youth, etc. Extensive time was spent in selling the idea. Year one was tough. In other regions, they are using the name of cost recovery. Iowa and others have developed fee or cost recovery methods for all delivery modes. Missouri has done cost recovery for indirect costs such as volunteer screening, curricular materials, etc. Many counties / states are trying to work to find ways to help pay for the items which are beyond salaries. Iowa built in a way for individuals who not pay (kept confidentially). The lesson learned in Iowa is that people are more than willing to pay for 4-H. The concern that other funding sources would reduce allocations was not realized, although there was a small reaction. Iowa put the assessments to the county extension councils back into staff – it paid for five full time specialists. If the process is framed correctly, this can happen. Several states add an administrative fee to state events. Many states do charge for all literature. In any situation, the finances must be transparent. The stage must be set appropriately.

Thearon noted that budget management and financial skills is a big skill building area that 4-H (in the PRK) has not addressed very well.

Texas discussed a “whole plan” about how the 4-H program is supported. They discuss fee supported rather than fee based. They also charge $5 per day per camper for facilities improvement.

Iowa did subcontract and added a fee to cover event management. One approach he took was to keep the assessment for a given number of years. The reason the fee worked, in Iowa, the community club work is valued so highly.

Susan will share items from the other regions and the Trust will continue to explore. Kyle has participated in a cost recovery process in Ohio. They decided to hike up costs of curriculum. He tends to think that the Iowa assessment is appropriate. He would pay $10 to support the 4-H program.

Budget situations:

• Bo discussed the situation in Georgia and the conservative approach that the general assembly has taken. In 4-H, they will probably have a $900,000 cut, with strategies to get through the next two years. Maintaining the infra-structure within the county is important.

• Susan Holder discussed the situation in Mississippi and noted that all their rainy day funds were depleted. This year, an election year, there were different circumstances. All the educational groups came in a level funding. State Extension knew they had too much in personnel. The reorganization must come not from the top, but have input from all levels. They have a 4-H presence in every county, although it may be a para-professional. The professional staff serve multiple counties. It gives them more flexibility, particularly with grants and contracts. They have 82 counties. We need to be careful about unfunded mandates if we portray a specific program area as being able to handle many issues. Listen to everyone, but make it a plan developed for the situation in your state. 

• North Carolina has declared a fiscal crisis late in the year and restricted travel. 8% cut and positions lost have hurt. Thearon discussed the urban 4-H monies and how they dedicated those dollars to program assistants (matched by counties) in every county. Their camping program projected a $300,000 deficit and they have put a committee together to develop a sustainable business plan. Additional findings were very valuable. They were running a scope of a program that was larger than the 4-H enrollment could support.

• Darlene shared the experiences in 4-H in Arkansas. They’ve been in close calls and looking at the possibilities of restructuring. Bad news is that they really don’t have a large number of full time 4-H agents.

• Virginia, reported for Bob Meadows, several years ago lost 30% of his 4-H agents. Some of the counties were able to provide funding for some. This year, they got 10 4-H agents (along with others) in a special critical needs budget allocation. They are currently putting together the next critical staffing plan to help bring back staffing levels.  

• Terril discussed Louisiana in which a tobacco tax that allowed them to fill 12 4-H positions. Had raises for the last several years, some which have come from with the system. Starting salaries have been raised: BS $30,000 and a MS is $33,000. Have staff in some communities/counties in which staff have really been lacking. Have had a good governor for the last several years, as well as legislative support. They do invoice local government by program areas, not by individual. They are keeping their 4-H program county based and moving FCS / Ag / Natural Resource to multi-county because they want a higher level of expertise. Do get funding from the local school board because they are in the schools. They base their programs on reaching school standards. In addition, there are looking at building another leadership / camp near Baton Rouge with some new donated property.  

• Texas has experienced financial difficulties reported Martha. They had a 7% rescission that caused them to lock down positions. Had a voluntary civil service retirement which resulted in 60 people leaving. There have been 25 other retirements. They began to work more intensely with the legislature. Budget deficit for them was about 12% to make up. They only got a 3-5% cut in Extension due to key legislative support, but did lose some positions-so there are many positions vacant. On top of that they had an organizational excellence plan – organized into region. Some of her district 4-H agents are now 4 regional programming individuals.

• Alabama – Paul reported that everything in Alabama is an “if” with tremendous shortfalls. The buy-out had 70 individuals which creates a tremendous hole. Their raises have to come directly from state and Federal monies. The state was looking at increased tax for the state. The vote for this comes on September 9 and the outlook is not good. This is going to impact education a great deal. Extension is looking at the staffing plan implemented by Alabama. Some area agents will have to be certified to serve in a specialized area. The 4-H program is in the schools and superintendents are not favorable for volunteers leading any of the programs in the school setting. It doesn’t look good at all.

• Oklahoma is about where Mississippi is – in probably a couple years. Things are changing currently. Counties are picking up more, and the state would fund more from an impact team serving multiple counties. Commodity groups have played a part in reacting to changing staffing patterns. They are trying to eliminate more positions both on and off campus. All programs are being examined for grant funded positions, focused initiatives, multi-disciplined, or base programs. Decisions to eliminate will be based on singular, non-funded programs at the University level. Departments / colleges will be merged. Some faculty may be eliminated as well. Charles is supporting 17 graduate students as the only remaining Extension faculty in Ag Ed. County programs will be handled by 20 county based professionals, additional program assistants, and district agents. 176,000 members are enrolled in community clubs with 197 FTE (all agents at 50%, with 20 at full 4-H agent).

• Langston, reported by Dorothy, is working with less. Programs on soft money are eliminated when the money runs out. It appears not very good in the future.

• Alice, in Tennessee, went through a major staffing plan change. They assess each county, based on an ability to pay, with 23-50% of funding coming from the county. Now have a 9% cut last year. Each department was able to hold, most by vacancies. They have a new Governor and a lottery was passed with dollars not designated. They also have about 100 FTE 4-H agents with a presence in every county. There are vacancies in the state office. Her position has changed.  She works with the administrative team as an Assistant director and a department head. She has been able to hire a few individuals with creative staffing of assistant level people. A meeting is coming up with a “what if” focus that will look at the future. They still have four district specialists who do answer to the 4-H office.

• Florida is working through coping with two years of budget cuts.

 
Legal Issues

• Thearon discussed the liability issue associated with handling eggs (salmonella) which is a concern of some of the superintendents of schools.

• Obesity as an issue is coming forward as an intervention process with physical and psychological interventions, as portrayed through FCS. We need to place the clover on all that we do and take this as an opportunity to not just treat this as an intervention approach.  

• Bo discussed problem associated with livestock last year. Resources available to us are the Department of Agriculture regulatory division, the State Health Department, and the FDA.

• We need to take a look at National Science Foundation RFPs, which now have a youth orientation. The inclusion of a youth element is often critical to the success of these proposals. A formal codicil with other colleges may be an interesting way to see support from colleges outside the home college. There are also opportunities for collaborative positions across departments.

• Texas is strongly considering the stopping of tasting food at fairs and exhibits. In problems of local advisory accounts policies need to be examined. The policies have to be in placed and correct authorization for use of the logo and name. Need to review the charter language. Texas is now preparing to charter the county level group for authorization. Virginia has an excellent plan and process.

• is working on screening of volunteers – including driving youth, financial responsibility, staying with youth (above suspicion), etc., if there is a stated role the volunteer should have a screening file.

• Plan of work and program implementation using the research base of essential developmental needs of youth was discussed.

• Screening of volunteers was also discussed. It is important to also not allow pictures of children’s faces. Liability associated with falsified credentials is a real concern. Screening, reference letters, interviews, etc., will scare aware some people. Be sure you have a process. 7% have red flags nationally. Georgia instituted a “serious incident report” that is on-line to share information with others who would need to have that information. They also put in an accident report to document what happened. Virginia camping handbook has good material.

• Bob Meadows shared information about the incident that occurred in Virginia during the summer. He dealt with everything as proactively as possible. A task force was formed to help deal with the consequences to help review. Additional security, access for information on weekends, etc., were institutionalized as a result. We can’t have volunteers ignore their responsibility of oversight for youth activities. It is disappointing that people believe what they see on TV.  

• Susan recommended that if an issue of potential magnitude emerged, that we let the National 4-H Council and USDA know so that they can at least manage an information flow to the rest of the system. The process at the national level is to review any inquiries back to the appropriate state.

• Thearon discussed the problem in email-flaming which is a liability issue and needs attention at the system level.

 
The group reconvened for a joint meeting with FCS State Leaders.

• Charles provided a bridging introduction for the need/opportunity to work together on common programs, introducing Dr. Linda Harriman’s work with After School programs.

• Sample programs in nutrition education include: Kicks for Kids

• Texas is gearing up to identify all the resources that have something to bear in the area of childhood obesity. They realize there is great interest, money flowing, and that the school environment is being addressed first. Appears to be a lack of information for addressing the child in the context of the family, e.g., how parents can be involved in decision making, physical activity, education beyond school, etc. It was brought up that obesity will be brought up as an intervention design. In FCS it is not seen as an individual intervention, but rather that it should be a broad based information, behavioral change. Will we be able to have access to the larger resources (financial, funding, etc.)? If NHI is trying to get obesity listed as a disease, they haven’t got that done yet. We still need to be sure that all are eating healthy – that children are eating healthy. It sells well with State Department of Agriculture(s) to talk about how food is packaged and processed and moved it into marketing and consumption. HHS might go about it in a prevention perspective, but we need to come from a lifestyle, educational approach. This is being framed in obesity prevention, rather than intervention or treatment. We need to see what we can do environmentally- working with the family, exercise, community recreation for individual use, and partnering with the schools for healthy snacks.
  
  

• What models can we can draw from? Ideas that were suggested:

  • Something as simple as a note from school does help.

  • Efforts to get unhealthy snacks out of school.

  • Reporting weight to parents.

  • Healthy weights for healthy kids – Virginia

  • Buy out time of 4-H agents / others to sponsor healthy weights for healthy kids. Coupled with training program; had some good administrative support.

  • Camp settings might be a good delivery method that could be a right place. Maybe also looking at the canteen at the camps.

  • Strongly encourage the sharing of FCS information with the access provided by 4-H.

  • Healthy vending machines, underwritten by Southeast Dairy Association.

  • Action for Nationwide healthy kids – linked to agriculture and their Washington conference.

  • Check with national commodity groups for potential.

  • Wise Guys (assembly program basic training for good health) Good access to the youth – military approach.

  • We all need to think about what is in our vending machine.

  • Mississippi – Wellness, Inc. – developed program Take Ten (minutes for activities) – 10 week program, teachers held up their commitments.

  • Kellogg funded and is now extending the program to another group of states. The preliminary evaluation is positive, another phase of evaluation is to move into talking with parents and possibly design a longitudinal study.

  • There are also opportunities to partner with the medical schools.

  • 1890’s did FF news (Families First). Information is still being gathered for evaluations. Some data is available from this effort. Much overlap of potential programs.

  • Arkansas – partnered with health education centers – targeting overweight children (although children did not know). Camp run-around. FCS provided much healthy eating content, and then 4-H provided expertise in working with the kids in developing a workable program. They recruited the kids and sponsored the youth. The reward for the kids was to participate in the camp. They also brought the teen counselors. Walk through “body walk” (30’ x 36’). A workbook (k-4^th grade) supplements the experience. Three big clovers on the Body Walk Truck. Verbal immediate feedback was very positive. Will need to create proposals for replication of some of these projects, as well as new items that may come from additional dialogue. There are also other program areas that could be closely involved to generate new and tried ideas. Charles called for a task force or an organized approach that could be recommended to the PLN. Volunteers to help draft the statement: Charles, Thearon, Carolyn Nobles, plus several others.
    
    

After School programs was also introduced as a topic. Linda initiative began as a result of several different things: School Age Child Care initiative had a task force to work in afterschool, and the National 4-H Council work with JC Penny who indicated that all they wanted to work on was After School efforts. A task force was initiated to help move Extension into this arena. Also the 21^st Century Grants became available. Two grants were obtained, the first a planning grant, and the second – 4-H AfterSchool in a Box. This curriculum is primarily a sampler of various activities as well as a staff development guide. Many FCS agents are already involved in Child Care Providers and do training; this staff development is comfortable. The three guides in the “box” has been very popular and is a good resource. Last spring, there was a national roll out conference in St. Louis. A state plan was required. In addition, we have had access to the rural development grants which had as a component of After School. It is very important that Extension partner with other partners in youth development based in the community. This is very important as a part of the next stage. We also are seeing Clubs in a club. Having the kids and the place, there is a great opportunity to serve kids. 4-H agents may be a barrier, but they need to see that the process is the same. It is being promoted throughout the JC Penny stores.

We want to insure that all Extension professionals realize that the agents continue to provide educational services to after school staff, not work directly with the youth. FCS and many other program areas have a great opportunity to have information presented in a club / afterschool setting. Childhood obesity is a wonderful topic for work in an afterschool setting. Teen 4-Hers and HERO members could be involved in teaching. Arkansas – LIFE after school (Leadership Information for Educators)– great experiences.  

Susan Halbert, from National 4-H Council, needs to know that we as both FCS and 4-H State Leaders are supportive of this. JC Penny wants Extension to be working through the other partners – they see Extension as an educational partner with positive things to contribute to the effort.  

The groups parted and continued meeting separately. 

Innovative Grant opportunities were shared by Dorothy Wilson. OrganWise kits – for 5^th graders and adolescents. EFNEP / FNP and 4-H could purchase and then share. Training is extremely important. FF News is also a good vehicle.  

Susan recommended that we always keep ourselves aware of how we incorporate young people into a long-term series of supportive environments. And that we are continuing to sustaining the relationship with FCS.

CECP

• We need to identify some of the working teams to develop the module content.

• As a resource, the group reviewed the 4-H PRK model, for items that need to be considered. A division occurred when we realized that there needed to be greater discussion on the joint ownership of the 4-H PRK model, and a greater tie to 4-H. We may also need to have a copyright protection.  

• Some modules that need particular attention on why we do what we do including: financial / fiscal accountability, liability, adult/youth partnerships, etc.  

• Thearon was asked to send the check-list of competencies / self-assessment. He noted that we are in the third year of a TRY-It , teens teaching teens. This is an outgrowth of national conversations of preparing youth to teach.  

• Charles asked if CCS could be involved in the development of modules that help new agents understand how the curriculum is developed and the training for agents in background, usage, and ways. We could move this into moving CCS into an on-line system with some cost recovery for access to CCS materials.  

• It is important to also work closely with CCS Board. The research that is being done in individual states should also be shared across state lines, possible replication of research in other states, posting abstracts of studies, simple research abstracts, sharing monographs, etc. A web-based source of abstracts, monographs, etc. could be a great place to develop. The sharing and reporting of research in relationship to 4-H PRK is critical.  

• We, as State Leaders, need to find the tools to help young agents and then prepare them to use those studies. Rich Learner and Tufts has a Center on Community Youth Development – has some good resources. New Jersey has some great tools and evaluation systems on line.

Items to be included on the plan of work-presented by Charles (incomplete list)

• Present the CECP to biennial and get teams

• Teamwork in legal issues

• Teamwork in Rural development

• Provide update to CCS on CECP …

• Work with FCS, maybe others in Childhood Obesity

• PRK

• Publish current research

• Create the investigation of process to present research

• Reporting on Rural America grant via abstract and exhibits

• Regional Planning for the Rural America grant

Recommend the following dates for the State Leaders Meeting – March 23-25, 2004, at the National 4-H Center. This should be shared with the Regional Chairs. We will meet alternately East and West.

The concept of “Club in a Club” has possibility, particularly for after school and urban community.

State Reports:

South Carolina sent a state report and a job description.

Virginia provided a written report of urban and rural reports.

Arkansas reported on the afterschool training that was conducted, and shared the resources that were provided. Mike Klump did the leadership initiative training, staff development training modules.

Meeting adjourned 4:45 PM

The meeting was called to order at 8:30. Dr. Charles Norman and Dr. Henry Brooks were additional guests, and later during the morning, Dr. Anna Mae Koebbe joined the group.

State reports were given both orally and in written reports.  

Meeting adjourned 11:00 a.m.

Notes taken by Marilyn N. Norman, Florida.