Present

Alan Barefield, SRDC
Brian Calhoun, Virginia Tech
Hank Cothran, University of Florida
Jenny Fertig, West Virginia State University
Ed Jones, North Carolina State University
Cheryl Lloyd, North Carolina State University
Deborah Tootle, University of Arkansas
Rachel Welborn, SRDC
Michael Wilcox, University of Tennessee
Tony Windham, University of Arkansas
Tia Wright, Florida A&M University
Joe Zublena, North Carolina State University

Welcome Brian Calhoun, Vice-Chair

• Rachel Welborn was welcomed by the committee as SRDC’s new Program Manager.

Advisor Report-Joe Zublena

• Joe Zublena reported that the current crossover version of the Farm Bill includes significant cuts to Extension programming at the Federal level (~$1.244 billion).
• Joe suggested that the committee continue to stay informed and begin to contact Congressional representatives as information becomes available.

BR&E Training This Summer-Alan Barefield

• A BR&E training will be held July 21-23 at Galveston Island, TX in conjunction with the Texas Economic Development Conference.
• Negotiations are underway with the hotel for lodging.
• An announcement will be sent out as soon as possible.

PLN Conference-Alan Barefield

• The PLN conference will be held August 25-29 in Greensboro, NC.
• Registration website should be up soon.

 

PLN Keynote Speaker Response-Alan Barefield

• Dr. James Weaver, Assistant Surgeon General, will be providing the keynote address at the PLN conference. 
• The four programmatic committees (ANR, CD, FCS, and 4-H and Youth Development) are being asked to provide a 4-6 minutes response to Dr. Weaver’s address.
• The suggestion has been made that James Barnes, Chair-Elect of the SERA-19 (Rural Health) group, provide this response. This suggestion was unanimously endorsed by committee members present.

eXtension Entrepreneurship Website-Alan Barefield

• The official launch of the Entrepreneurs and Their Communities website on eXtension was held at the USDA Ag Outlook Conference.
• Accolades were extremely high and this Community of Practice has the second highest membership of all CoPs (the home horticulture group has the highest membership).
• Alan asked that committee members make an effort to encourage Community Development agents and specialists to register for an eXtension ID and join the CoP.

Galaxy Conference

• The Galaxy conference will be held in Indianapolis from September 15–19, 2008.
• You may make your hotel room reservations for Galaxy III via the conference website beginning March 15 (https://sharepoint.agriculture.purdue.edu/ces/galaxy/default.aspx ).