Communications and Information Technology*
August 26-29, 2001 - Savannah, GA
August 27, 2001

1. The meeting was called to order at 1 p.m. by Committee Chair Nina Boston. Vice Chair Ellen Ritter served as secretary in the absence of Secretary Angela Corbett.

2. Report of the Program Leadership Committee Representatives - Carla Craycraft and Gloria Mosby.

Carla reported that Ron Brown had been introduced at the PLC meeting as a new officer of the organization who would be working to facilitate multi-state activity. A great interest of the the PLC is how we better address the need for cross-state programs, especially on emerging issues and priority needs. Carla indicated the PLC is interested in an inventory of materials among other items. They also want to speech up the process of communication among the committees, the PLC and the Directors. The PLC decided on Nashville for the Aug. 25-28, 2002 meeting at the Music City Sheraton.

Gloria asked the members of the committee to work together to become a more viable committee of the PLC by agreeing on and completing a project or projects. The Communications and Information Technology Committee (CITC) discussed this item with Nina and Ellen indicating that our group did not have as much to report as other committees. The CITC probably needs to follow up on projects, stay connected and meet throughout the year. It was noted that we have supplied support for multi-state programmatic efforts and we also need to claim our work on those project. It was suggested that Ron Brown be invited to meet with us since we don't have an administrative advisor.

3. Members of the committee introduced themselves.

4. Discussion of current committee projects:

Job Bank - Nina reported that there had been no progress due to lack of participation. There was discussion of whether this was needed in view of other web resources.

Image Database - Kevin Hayes reported that this project did not proceed during the last year due to lack of participation. Opinions were expressed that we started with too big a project (all media), that smaller projects, such as sharing CDs would be a start and that we need to get photographers and designers on board with the project as well as develop rules for using the images. Don Hamilton reported that Georgia will have such a system in place before long and he will provide the URL so this group can review it. Kevin Hayes and Tom Knecht volunteered to continue leadership on the project.

5. Discussion of the multi-state project concept:

Committee Role - This discussion centered on the fact that the committee has a role in providing support to other subject-area groups. The Money and Youth project and providing the communications/IT part of Competency Development for Ag Agents were cited. Some people believe that is the primary role and others argued that the CITC in some areas will be the content provider and/or should develop projects that enhance our own efficiency and effectiveness.

Sharing and transportable format for materials - The group agreed that the Directors need to support and reward multi-state sharing before specialists will engage in it. This issue applies not just to publications, but also to code. The group decided to make a recommendation about endorsement of, and conditions for sharing materials to take forward to the PLC for their endorsement and forwarding to the Directors. Kevin Hayes, Ashley Wood, Larry Lippke, Ellen Ritter, Carol Whatley, and Gloria Mosby volunteered to draft this for the committee's approval by the end of the meeting.

Intellectual property issues and impacts on sharing- Issues of protecting intellectual property, the desire of Extension Services to sell materials, and our experiences with university legal counsels were discussed. Oklahoma is developing a set of standard permissions to be used on its materials. Kevin Hayes will share that with the rest of the group as a possible model.

6. Election of 1862 Program Leader Committee Representative. The names of Mike Futrell, Larry Lippke and Kevin Hayes were placed in nomination. Kevin Hayes was elected.

7. Special Reports

Cost Recovery for Communication Departments - William Gray of North Carolina reported on his unit's move to capturing some $125,000 in salaries on a cost recovery basis and how they are managing both "free" and cost recovery services.

Competency-based Training - Charlie Stott, Don Hamilton and Larry Lippke discussed the need to support this project emanating from the ANR group to develop learning tools/objects for delivery via web to train agents. They will continue to work with ANR.

Radio Source Net - Ashley Wood reported on the first year of this multi-state, now multi-regional effort, including getting ADEC funding and contracting with the National Broadcasters Association for distribution.

Cloning News Conference - Janet Rodekohr reported on Georgia's successful news conference to announce cloned calves and the planning required for a large media event.

Library of Video and Radio PSAs - Bob Reynolds of Arkansas was scheduled to speak on this topic but was unable to attend the meeting.

Mississippi State Projects - Tom Knecht reported on the media guide they have available on CD which includes experts, stock photography and a capture of their web site. It's designed for reporters who don't have high speed web access. He also reported on an interactive multimedia project for employee orientation. He would like to share the project and have other states contribute modules.

8. Questions posed by the PLC to committees were discussed and answered as follows:

A. How do we address the need for multi-state programming more efficiently and effectively?

  • .Get buy-in early on, from all involved, included communications and IT
  • .Have a web site that shares information on state projects at the preliminary stages, so states can identify potential collaborators.
  • .Provide information on specialists that are involved in multi-state collaborations.
  • .Look at special areas such as the need for Hispanic publications and survey to see what can be shared.

B. How can the PLC facilitate better communication to speed up, improve multi-state programming?

  • Ensure all institutions can participate in meetings via video conference.
  • This is a people issue we can't control except to remove barriers.
  • Directors can keep the dialogue going at home.
  • Need a bulleted list of projects from committees shared across the board or committee reports to the whole conference at the Wed. am session. This will help us identify projects we can plug into across the committees.

C. What is the role of advisors?

  • Need consistent appointment of advisors - turnover
  • Listens to whole discussion and issues
  • Shares vision and administrative view
August 28, 2001

Communications Subcommittee Meeting - Chaired by Ellen Ritter

1. Old Business - The committee reviewed projects proposed at the 2001 Puerto Rico meeting.

Grammar training course - LaRae Donellan, who has now left Extension, provided Carla Craycraft with a CD of this course. Carla will review it to see if we can use it across the region. It evidently is also available through ACE.

Duplication of subject matter materials - This continues to be a thorny issue because of the role of the originating authors. A PLC recommendation to encourage more frequent involvement of specialists was discussed.

Image database/sharing - The subcommittee is pleased with the progress of the full committee in recommitting to this project. In addition, we agreed to share existing photo CDs and a sign-up sheet to provide and/or receive CDs was completed. We will review the usefulness of this sharing project next year.

Job description sharing - Agreed this was off the table.

2. New Topics

Crisis planning and management - Carla Craycraft shared the KY experience with a mare/foal reproductive disease that generated national and international media attention. Ellen Ritter discussed the 30-agency planning effort for Hoof and Mouth disease that is going on in Texas. In general discussion others cited good resources for background on crisis communication. Actual plans do not seem to be widely available, however. It was agreed that we would share resource citations, URLs, plans etc. on our area of the So. Region web site if that is possible. Ellen will solicit that input.

Spanish-language materials - We had a general discussion of the need for such materials and the problems involved, including differences in translation and/or authoring skills and geographic variations in the language. We discussed groups working on this issue and the potential for collaboration. Although the need to address Hispanic audiences was mentioned several times in the general sessions, we agreed that the PLC has not really educated the organization about this issue. We decided to recommend to the PLC that a general session speaker on this subject be included in the next conference.

Listserv on software for cataloging images - Many Ag Com units are working on this and we agreed to get those folks on a listserv to share information.

Information Technology Subcommittee Meeting - Chaired by Nina Boston

1. 4-H Projects Discussed - Larry Lippke demonstration the 4-H+ management system in Texas and discussed networking concerns. The group also discussed 4-H Tech teams and how those are being managed among the 4-H and IT units in the states and the need for tech saavy adult leaders.

2. Videoconference proposal - Developed a recommendation to the PLC that each 1890 and 1862 institution have videoconference capability in a administrative area to further interaction on multi-state projects. IT can set up a centralized directory of dial addresses and help the PLC learn to sue the system.

3. Training project - The IT group will set up cooperative workshops using video technology to reduce the need for and costs associated with outside training.

4. Share items on network security, mailing software, federal and state accessibility laws, and inventory software were discussed.

5. ANR training module - Larry and Don reported on their meeting with ANR on web-based competency training. Development of 1-2 modules seems possible this year.

6. Dwayne Hunter was elected as the secretary to begin a three-year rotation through the committee officer positions.

August 29, 2001

1. Report of the PLC Meeting - Gloria Mosby reported on the meeting which she and Kevin Hayes attended as committee representatives. Ron Brown and Bonnie Teeter asked that the states have someone present at the CSREES listening session on October 23 in New Orleans. The Directors have gotten requests to get examples of "engagement" (defined as clientele involved in planning). 250 word reports are needed from the states. Carolyn Nobles was elected PLC chair, Charles Cox is vice chair. The PLC indicated that multi-state projects need to be done on state funds. The PLC thought our committee report was good.

2. Subcommittee Reports - Ellen Ritter reported for Communications and Nina Boston for IT (see notes for Aug. 28 above.)

3. Projects, Workgroups and Recommendations Summarized.

Recommendations to the PLC from subcommittees were read and approved.

Schedule of PLC meetings announced. It was agreed that the chairs of working groups will report to PLC representatives (Gloria and Kevin for 2002) and the committee chair (Ellen for 2002).

Work Groups:

Gloria Mosby thanked Nina Boston for her service as chair this year with concurrence from the entire committee. Officers for the coming year are:

Submitted by Ellen Ritter, acting secretary, September 3, 2001

*This committee is no longer in existence. It has been split up into the Information Techonology and Communications Committees.