Present:
Bonnie Teater, Southern Rural Development Center
Gae Broadwater, Kentucky State University
Deborah Tootle, Louisiana State University
Greg Taylor, Texas A&M University
Rick Maurer, University of Kentucky
Hank Cothran, University of Florida

SRDC Update (Bonnie Teater)

• Improving Board and Organizational Effectiveness is scheduled for July 25-26 in Charleston, SC.
• Community Development Institute (CDI) is trying to recruit state teams. Training this year will be addressed a little differently. States are interested in more "train-the-trainer" programs and the 2002 CDI will accommodate them by adjusting the training process at CDI. They've included practice teaching sessions in the agenda.
• Other CDI training opportunities for this year include programs Business Retention and Expansion, Rural Health Institute, Value-Added Entrepreneurship and Economic Impact Analysis.
• CDI training opportunities still in the development stage for next year include Civic Engagement: From Vision to Action and Community Leadership Development.
• The National Workforce Conference is also scheduled for next year.

Joint Southern Region Program Committee Meeting (Gae Broadwater)

• Gae is looking for volunteers to talk about Training Resources for Building Community Development Skills to the other regional committees at the meeting. Volunteers would only need to spend about 15 minutes talking about the training programs available. Bonnie will make sure we have plenty of brochures available. Hank volunteered to talk to FCS and Rick to the 4-H committees. Bonnie volunteered Bo to help as well.
• Rick pointed out that a discussion of the new guidelines for the PLC needs to be included on our agenda. Gae and Bonnie will include it when they are putting together the agenda.

Washington Trip (Gae Broadwater)

• Gae and Dana Glen (WV) attended the joint North Central and Southern Program Leaders meetings in Washington, DC.
• Met with Sally Maggard's staff and Alma Hobbs and representatives from several other organizations representing a wide array of resources for rural development.
• Gae met with Scott Loveridge to discuss the possibilities of more formal collaboration They decided the Southern region is not yet ready for formal collaborative efforts between the regions, but that they can continue on a case by case basis at this time.

New Representatives in Southern Region (Gae Broadwater)

• Jessyna McDonald is the new representative from Clemson.
• Tony Windham is the new representative from UA.

Gae will repeat this call next Thursday, July 25 at 10:00 EST for those who could not make the call today. The meeting was adjourned at 11:30 EST.