Present
Keith Baldwin, North Carolina A&T State University
Alan Barefield, SRDC
Bo Beaulieu, SRDC
Hank Cothran, University of Florida
Jenny Fertig, West Virginia State University
Kristen Grifka, CSREES
Sally Maggard, CSREES
Bill Molnar, Clemson University
Emily Shaw, SRDC
George Smith, University of Tennessee
Kay Shubert for Greg Taylor, Texas A&M University
Joe Sumners, Auburn University
Deborah Tootle, Chair, University of Arkansas
Louis Whitesides, South Carolina State University
Mike Woods, Oklahoma State University
Joe Zublena, North Carolina State Extension
Welcome and review of May minutes (Deborah Tootle)
Deborah Tootle called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. Central. She asked the committee to review the May minutes; there were no changes.
Advisor's Report (Joe Zublena)
Joe said that he is looking forward to seeing the committee at the ASRED meeting in Puerto Rico. He talked about dialog going on with southern region and nationally on CREATE-21. CREATE-21 is relooking at funding streams for CSREES particularly in Extension and research. It basically moves funds to more competitive arenas.
Bo commented that currently the way CREATE-21 is classifying regional centers in a competitive category as opposed to capacity category.
Joe talked about the recent survey from Bo Beaulieu on USDA Rural Development & Extension in Partnerships. It looks like there is some collaboration but not a great deal. Talking about trying to get closer together; the primary barrier is the lack of communication and understanding between the two organizations. The feeling is that both groups could benefit each other and benefit the communities.
Joe also mentioned that since it is now hurricane season, anything on community preparedness now is the time.
CSREES Report (Sally Maggard)
In terms of the hurricane season, Sally wanted to thank Bo and Deborah for their assistance on a report last week. Sally had four hours notice to get a summary of work that had been done in relationship to the Land-Grant systems, cooperative extension programs and rural development centers as it relates to hurricane recovery particularly Katrina and Rita. The report was sent to the secretary's office that will go to the White House. Paul Coreil helped with the report. The feedback was that it was an excellent report.
Sally also told committee about a follow up on the survey that Bo did that will showcase states with that kind of partnership in a meeting on August 22nd with rural development people on how to continue follow up and how states need to work on relationship.
Sally announced that Kristen will be joining in on regular conference calls with the RRDC communication staff. Each region there will be someone that will help with the communication work and newsletter through rural development centers, so that on the national level they could be thinking on how their communication thrust parallel with what we are doing at the regional and state level.
Bo stated that Emily will place on the website the latest issue of Rural Realities, "Rural People Rural Places: The Hidden Cost of Hurricane Katrina," and he asked members to distribute because it has some very useful information.
PLC Update
No report.
NACDEP Updates (Hank Cothran)
Hank stated that the NACDEP conference is scheduled for April 16-19, 2007 in Philadelphia. There is currently about 415 members and NACEP got accepted into JCEP (Joint Council of Extension Professionals). The dues are being raised. He also said that the conference in San Antonio was a great success. It netted a little over $30,000.
Emily gave committee the title for the next year's conference. It is "Declaration of Interdepence: The Fabric of Community" and the theme of preconference workshops are "We the People: Building Inclusive Communities" and "Foundations of Practice: What's all this about?".
Sally informed the committee that on April 19th, there will be a National Leadership Council for Community Development meeting to get together national dialog to better develop a voice for community and rural development to start working together.
CECP Update
Bo talked about the CECP framework is more of an impediment because of certain formats. He suggested meeting at PLN to find a systematic way to think collectively on how theses courses may be offered and in what format.
Alan stated that he and Emily met and looked at what the southern region has done or planning on doing in this area. He said that in about three weeks there will be a student worker. The student's main responsible will be getting information up on CECP framework.
Joe will forward to directors concerns on where CECP is going with web-based curricula and quicker/better funding. He will also clarify any connection with eXtension.
Certification Update (Deborah Tootle)
Deborah updated committee members on the certification program. She said that they will pull pieces apart to see where they fit together but talk about them individually. She discussed issues of teaching the foundation on how to some of the work that centers are doing in offering coursework like SRDC course through in-service training, NACDEP training as well. She talked on separate certification that it was originally setup and see how it fit in with the teaching foundation. Degree Program issue work with faculty at different Land-Grants to provide some special problem courses for faculty that want to get graduate school credit.
Bo, Deborah and committee members that are interested will lay out a detail plan at the RSS meeting and discuss in Puerto Rico.
National Leadership Council for Community Development
Kristen announced that she and Sally sent to the leadership council a draft report that summarized discussions that went on at the meeting in May. The report is lengthy and they ask for feedback from state leaders and the planning team by August 14th for editing and cutting down. The final report may be out before PLN meeting. Deborah commended them for a terrific report.
SRDC Strategic Planning Update (Bo Beaulieu)
Bo stated that there is a link on the website to all roundtables that have been organized. States that submitted their updated report will be highlighted in green. Bo confirmed that Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama, and Tennessee had finalized their dates. North Carolina, Louisiana, Kentucky, Florida, Virginia, West Virginia, and Texas have not finalized dates or in the processing of doing so. The number of participants at roundtable ranges from 12 to 50+.
Bo also announced on October 24-25, 2006 in Atlanta, there will be a meeting to get consensus of priority and specific kind of activities to pursue. They will pay for one person/state preferable the coordinator of roundtable or a representative. They will invite some people outside of land-grants to come for valuable contributions to the discussion.
Bo announced that Kellogg has finally approved the no-cost extension and that everyone should have received their contract that have finalized the dates; if not speak to Kathy Ibendahl.
Request for Extension material (W, S or NE) on growth restrictions issues & land use
Bo asked committee members for education materials or insights on restriction growth, land use issue and issue on growth management for Tom Harris.
Sally sent a note to center directors and ask them to think about attending the 2007 Urban Extension Conference in May 7-10, 2007 in Kansas City. Sally suggested organizing sessions on what cooperative extension is doing on rural and urban interface issues; economic development going from rural to urban discovering new markets; or on how to bring this world together.
eXtension Communities of Practice meeting information item [Sept. 6-8 in Nashville]
Emily said that they returned the signed contract this morning and she will email members of the group about reservation procedures by end of the day.
Bo stated that the meeting in September is an opportunity to organize in systematic ways to begin producing some products by end of year for the website that eXtension has on entrepreneurship.
August Agenda for Puerto Rico
Deborah reminded committee members to fill out the state report template electronically. It needs to be filled out by August 1st. The template is designed for information technology people to put reports together and distribute so that everyone will have access to all reports. The web site is http://survey.uaex.edu/CD/cdpln.htm. Deborah will send a reminder to entire group.
Meeting with middle management, organizational development, and/or Ag & Natural Resources
Deborah said that she made connections with middle management, organizational development, and/or Ag & Natural Resources about joint meetings and the feedback that she received is that their agenda is full; no one was excited about having joint meetings.
Other Business
Sally told the committee about the report from the Office of Management & Budget (OMB) on community & economic development programs as well as related programs in CSREES, a portfolio submitted to OMB as "Grants for Economic Opportunities and Quality of Life for Rural America." She explained that depending on the "PART" (Program Assessment Rating Tool) score received, this portfolio of programs could loose money, or be taken out of the budget process. A PART review helps identify a program's strengths and weaknesses to inform funding and management decisions aimed at making the program more effective. Sally was responsible for the material submitted to the PART scoring process related to our work and the rural development centers. The PART rating of "Effective" this portfolio of programs received is the highest ranking a PART review makes. The review included "assessment action scores" that were also high: 100% on strategic planning, 80% on program purpose and design, 92% on program management and 84% on results and accountability.
Meeting Adjourned at 10:05 a.m. Central.