Present:

Rick Mauer, University of Kentucky
Bonnie Teater, Southern Rural Development Center
Ed Jones, North Carolina CES
Alan Barefield, University of Tennessee
Virgil Culver, Mississippi State University CES
Warren McCord, Auburn University
Bo Beaulieu, Southern Rural Development Center
Hank Cothran, University of Florida IFAS
Dana Glenn, West Virginia State College

National PLC/ECOP (Rick Mauer)

• Rick Mauer reported on a recent meeting to looking at the ECOP/PLC and ECOP structure. There will be another meeting in November but not meeting in January. The group is looking at a very broad restructure. Currently strategic planning, PLC and others are separate. The argument has been made that they should not be separate. Rick raised the question of what would happen to base program teams after a restructure, some of which are active and functioning. He does not know what will happen, but they may not exist. Rick will keep us posted.

Southern PLC (Ed Jones)

• Ed Jones reported the Southern Directors approved a meeting with PLC in August. They talked about the communication and information technology committees splitting. No decision has been made.

Advisor's Report - N/A

Audubon International Meeting

• Rick and Bo went to Fort Myers to a meeting organized by North Carolina State. Steve Jones has been working with Audubon on a sustainable development center. During the trip to Florida, they looked at some projects that are environmentally friendly. The hope is to create a training program, which will enhance extension's capabilities to be involved with sustainable development. The next step will depend on funding. Bo said it is important not to get involved with something which will duplicated other efforts. Warren expressed the concern that we must keep extension involved. The CRD program office should be the entrée onto the campuses for this type of program.

Community Development Training (Bo Beaulieu)

• Bo gave the report:
  
  
  1. Hank just did a BR and E training-13 people attended, good session. Bonnie added that it was very well received. Participants from TN, FL, NC, AL, MS and TX were present.
  2. Value-Added training is coming up in Franklin, TN December 3-5. Please get the information out to the extension network.
  3. The Health Institute is next week. 25 students are signed up from 7 states.



• Bo and Bonnie mentioned the fact that the training institutes have been noticed at the federal level. The USDA wants SRDC extension to open up training to their rural development staff. Please let Bo know if you have a training they might be interested in.



• Note_ This could be a wake-up call- extension must be on top of our game because now the USDA could have staff trained in CRD. We must take care not to become obsolete.



• The SRDC will work with the other regional centers to expand training opportunities. This will be a financial commitment on the part of the USDA.

Miscellaneous Notes

RCCI (Bo Beaulieu)

• Bo reported he is in the process of recruiting community colleges. The Deadline is today, October 31. The following nominations have been received thus far: Two from MS, Three from TX and Six from NC.



• CRD leaders will be informed on which colleges have been nominated by the end of the day. The nominations will be reviewed in January, at which time the decision will be made regarding the final selection. Then there will be site visits.



• Bo also discussed the Pugh Partnership of Civic Change/Leadership Plenty. The SRDC has been invited to be a partner. They are trying to develop team approach involving extension, the TVA and the Southern Rural Policy Board. Five or six people will be selected to go to a train-the-trainer session in April. Let Bo know if you know someone who may be interested in attending the training.

CCEP Taxonomy

• Gae is working on a draft for CRD taxonomy. Bonnie asked for Gae to follow-up on this.

KY/TN CDI (Alan Barefield)

• Was held in Jabez, KY October 23-35- Alan reported it went well.



• Bonnie said she still needs proposals from AL, MS, SC, GA and FL. She needs letters of support and the demographic data for three communities by November 15. She must get a proposal to Washington by the end of November, so please get these to her.
  
  

The next conference call is January 31 at 10:00AM Eastern and 9:00AM Central.

Meeting adjourned.