Attending: Dee Shore, Debbie Archer, Tom Knecht, Gloria Mosby, Haven Miller, Frankie Gould, Bob Reynolds, Bernadette Hinkel, Robin Adams, Elizabeth Mosely.
October Minutes
Committee chair Dee Shore called phone conference meeting to order and asked if there was a motion to approve the minutes of the October 17 phone conference meeting. Gloria moved to approve minutes, Tom seconded. Minutes approved.
Announcement
Dee announced Elizabeth Gregory has agreed to be our representative to the Southern Region PLN Urban Task Force.
Guidelines for Charges, Royalties, & Permissions
Several committee members reported they were waiting to hear back from their administrators. Bernadette asked if the guidelines document was posted, Dee said it was not posted but she would e-mail it to Bernadette.
Haven said he had not shared the guidelines document with his administrator because he was still not clear about the document’s purpose. Tom said he corresponded with Carol about it and she provided some explanation. Tom said he thought Auburn started the process to get consensus among the various state extension directors as to what was, and was not, appropriate in terms of charging for publications. The document was developed, and Tom shared it with his extension director and vice president. He said to Carol he did not encourage it to be sent to his university counsel because it is not binding and not something on their radar screen and what his university is doing is already consistent with those practices. Carol told Tom it was someone else’s idea to run it by legal counsel, and she felt by doing that it may give the impression committee members are asking their university counsel to change our own respective policies to follow what other states are doing. Carol said she never intended that, and she has taken the issue about as far as she needed to.
Tom said he believed the committee may want to put forth the document as a recommended set of guidelines and let PLC vote on it. Haven said if he were going to forward it to his college’s attorney or his dean he’d have to be able to explain what it means to Kentucky. Haven asked if committee’s input was mainly to provide support to Auburn. Frankie said she believed it was discussed as representing best practices, and if approached as best practices then we tell the PLC we are adopting these. She said it’s not something to vote on, or adopt as policy. If Carol needs committee’s support Frankie recommended we go ahead, but LSU would not adopt the guidelines in the document because LSU has its own policies in place. So perhaps we say “go ahead Carol” and adopt them at Auburn. Tom said he concurred, and that every institution is going to do what it needs to do to meet its own needs. Bob said he didn’t view the document as binding, but more as something Auburn wanted to do. Frankie said we gave feedback to make it understandable based on everyone’s experiences. Therefore it could now be said that it was brought it to our committee and the committee said “yes, these are good best practices but we are not adopting it as a committee.” Bob said Carol was just seeking our input. Dee asked if that was our message back to Carol, i.e., that we approve the document as best practices and not something the PLC needed to vote on? Committee concurred.
CECP Modules Update
Disaster Communications: Haven said he sent a draft to Frankie and Ashley. He has someone at his university helping him start to put the draft in Moodle. He said the module is a first-draft in its early stages, and he welcomes review and suggestions.
Exhibit Design & Production: Frankie said the module is on-hold while she and Ashley determine direction in terms of converting to Moodle.
Rules for Writing: Bob said pre-writing exercises are being developed, he will send those to Gloria.
Digital Photography: Debbie has contacted Kevin Quinn in Little Rock. He sent PowerPoint on digitial photography that Debbie will share with Virginia. Moodle would be next step.
Media Relations: Tom said there was a question regarding intellectual property. He had written to Suzanne Steele, who was part of ACE group that commissioned the module on a regional level, but had not heard back. With Tom retiring, he said Garvin may wish to follow up with Suzanne.
Tom said the module on Copyright is finished. He is working on some issues that he believes can be easily cured. It also needs to be converted into Moodle. Bob said Tom could contact Larry Lipke at A&M for a Moodle account. Gloria said Larry has retired but is still involved and can still be reached via e-mail. Frankie asked if we can go in now and look at Copyright in CECP, and Tom said yes. He said if anyone wants to import the module to Moodle he would appreciate it. Haven said he’ll check with the person at Kentucky who knows Moodle. Robin asked Tom if he indeed was retiring, and he confirmed that he was retiring in seven days.
Marketing Task Force
Frankie said the task force met at the end of January in Orlando. She asked our committee to recall that a vote passed in November at NASULGC. At Orlando they met with a representative of Copernicus Marketing out of Boston, and they are moving forward on the survey. They will meet again at the end of March for an ideation session. The task force will develop the survey instrument that will be first piloted with some extension directors and others. Then the survey will go out nationally. Results will be reported at the NASULGC meeting. States will have the option of buying into the survey for $15,000 to obtain their own state version. States wishing to participate will need to make that known within the next 30 days. State results will reflect value of extension in your state (if you participated), and can be compared with national results. Frankie said for the money it is a pretty good investment. Bob Furbee and Elizabeth Gregory will be conducting a session at the ACE meeting in Michigan about this process. Robin asked why it was a tight vote at NASULGC. Frankie said it was not a money issue because the money was allocated years ago. It was a matter of committing to spending the money on this survey. Discussion at NASULGC related to questions about how this project related to national eXtension, with the point raised that the two are totally separate things, i.e., that eXtension is not market research. Frankie believes there is still some education to be done.
PLC Meeting
Frankie said the Program Leadership Committee meeting was held in December in Atlanta. Debbie was there representing 1890 communications. One of the main focuses was to plan the next conference to be August 25 – 28 at Greensboro, NC. The PLN conference focus will be wellness and healthy lifestyles. The conference title is “America’s Health Crisis: The Land-Grant’s Role.” Frankie said this title raised some discussion among the PLC. Some of the committee members weren’t sure how their subject matter areas would fit into the theme. Discussion included relevance to food & fiber, best management practices, carbon banking and the like, and the title was approved. The committee now is searching for a keynote speaker. The program might include tour of the large, dynamic complex being built at Kannapolis. Frankie’s chancellor will make presentation on suggestions for how you apply practices to your state. He has started a blog called the “Chancellor’s Challenge.” He writes it everyday during the week. Frankie said LSU has four nutritionists assigned to respond to him. The blog has earned rave reviews within the organization. Committee also discussed information action items, what constitutes what, etc. Discussion was about placing clearer definitions on the web site. Debbie said committee will encourage administrative advisors to help committees do so. Frankie said PLC had a teleconference the next day on February 21.
Miscellaneous
Bob invited participants to intensive training on social media & PR practices at the 2008 PRSA Southwest District Conference in Little Rock on April 9 – 11. Those interested should check out web site at www.nxtpr.org. Keynote speakers include Richard Edelman who owns the largest independent PR agency in the world and has as a top client WalMart.
Frankie said the “Media Relations Made Easy” workshop will be in Atlanta from April 13 to 15. Web site is operational, and registration is $100 less if completed by March 1. A tour of CNN is included.
Bernadette asked if other states were doing anything in connection with the February 21 launch of national eXtension. Frankie said Louisiana was doing a live launch video conference from a research station, and encouraging people to watch using the web links. They also put out a news release.
Meeting adjourned.