The Friday General Session is still up in the air; ideas are still being accepted and should be sent in ASAP. Suzanne Morse will let Bonnie know by Friday regarding the possibility of a Thursday lunch session. Emily will send out a list to the group of those registered. Evelyn related that AL would only be sending one person due to agent director training.

There will be a CRD program leader meeting at the conference on Wednesday, May 19 at 8 a.m., which means travel into Tampa will need to be the day before.

Larry Arrington will check on more agents registering from Florida. The question was raised whether program leaders need to appeal to the states or by to write a letter to Extension directors/administrators. Larry will take this to ASRED in Savannah next week.

Virgil thanked Larry for agreeing to make the welcome at the conference. Sally reported that CSREES will give a $5000 grant for the conference to be used for travel and expenses for diversity for the conference such as to agents of underserved populations Bonnie noted that no protocol has been established yet for deciding who these scholarships will be awarded to. As soon as details regarding possible travel scholarships are available, CRD Leaders will be informed. Sally also noted that the conference materials need to mention CSREES as a sponsor.

Bo raised the question of whether or not participation and travel to Washington really pays off. Sally emphasized that plans for the meeting will show concrete outcomes (i.e., state plans of work, measurements, integrating budgets and demands).

Bo and Bonnie met with a team of four evaluation experts in Atlanta, a meeting that was recommend by the Board and TOAC. The purpose was to answer the question: how to we better document the Center's impact in the region? From this one-day discussion a blueprint has come out on how to document what difference the Center has made; to answer the return on investment question. The evaluators are to serve as an objective 3rd party, and this CRD committee will be asked for some help such as what impact has our training had. The evaluation team who met were Scott Cummings, TX, Glenn Israel, FL, Matt Lelle, MI, and Nancy Ellen Kiernen, Penn State. Glenn Israel has agreed to prepare the evaluation based on the evaluation team's input with a new rural sociologist at Penn State who is moving in May to Florida.

Business Skills/Econ Dev track-see Regional Training Reports below

SRDC Bullets/Facts at a Glance: There was a meeting of the four Centers w/ Board members and Linda Kay Benning and Sally to find a way need to provide sophisticated impact to show why we need restored funding (due to the 10% budget cut). It was decided that the Centers needed to develop "talking points" of our impacts and then to develop these in more detail with stories. We need to get to Linda Kay Benning to get to blue ribbon committee. Jack Payne, ECOP Budget Committee, said that the legislature might cut/delete programs if don't hear backlash from budget cut, so need to show/articulate our legislative leaders why we value the Center and want them to be continually supported. We need to figure out what you are willing to do to as a committee to relate what the Center does for you. Sally said there is only a narrow wedge that people will have to bring budgets forward. Bo told of the importance of having "hard" information. We need members to pass along the information to us (example: Rick's Asset Mapping story). We need directors to hear of the Center's work so they know what value the Center holds to them/their operation. Larry pointed out that new people in region need to be targeted with proactive information in order to make it "real" to their work with "down home stories."

Lou Swanson and Bo visited with the 1890 Research Directors and 1862 Experiment Station Directors and gave a presentation about the new RSS book "Challenges for Rural America in the Twenty-First Century." Bo talked to the group about what issues in the book apply to the South. He felt there was a positive response from the Research Directors, though they offered a challenge: they want him to come back with a blueprint for how to effectively address greater research investments; need help from grassroots and Extension side. Next week, Bo will be meeting with the 1862 Extension Directors and in the summer with the 1890 Extension Administrators.

CECP update (Alan Barefield)
Alan sent an email to the group with attachments containing the taxonomies for economic diversification and the subcomponent E-Commerce that Kathy Ibendahl worked on. Alan asked that the group send any comments and/or suggestions to Alan or Kathy. The core competencies are still being developed. The Extension Directors in Phoenix taxed themselves for e-Extension. Larry told about the 0.8% Smith Lever 3d and c funding and that a formal vote is still to come. The plan remains to fold CECP into E-Extension. Faculty in the South need to think about how to develop these materials. Bo told the group that the E-Commerce program is trying to move forward and put into CECP and hopes to develop a competitive grants program for teams