Meeting Participants:

	Alabama
	Arkansas	Lynn Russell
	Florida	Nayda Torres
	Georgia
	Kentucky	Bonnie Tanner
	Louisiana	Ellen Murphy
	Mississippi	Beverly Howell
	North Carolina	Sandy Zaslow
	Oklahoma	Linda Harriman
	Puerto Rico
	South Carolina
	Tennessee	Shirley Hastings
	Texas	Kathy Volanty, Margaret Hale
	Virgin Islands
	Virginia	Eleanor Schlenker
	West Virginia

Kathy Volanty called the meeting to order at 9:00 am CST. Role was called. Items on the agenda for discussion included the draft agenda for the Southern Region Program Leader Meeting in Nashville and the competency project.

The agenda was reviewed. Mary McPhail Gray will be the first item of business as she brings us a report on the national FCS POW Impact Committee Report. The midwest regional group and the west group have heard her report. Dr. Margaret Hale will be giving the ASRED update as well as the ECOP update for Dr. Linda Willis, who will not be attending. Sarah Anderson and Carolyn Nobles have been invited to report news from PLC. Monday afternoon the regional committees will meet to discuss the Cooperative Extension Curriculum Project. During the evening, everyone is invited to attend a reception and resource fair.

Tuesday’s agenda will begin with a discussion by our competency subgroups. Progress will be shared as well as decisions made on next steps. At 10:45, all FCS PL’s will be involved in a CECP Overview discussion. Business items before lunch will be election of a 2003-03 FCS Pl chair, secretary, and PLC Representative. Dates and times will be suggested for FCS PL teleconferences for the coming year.

During the afternoon, a teleconference has been set up with Dr. Jane Coulter, Deputy Administrator, Family, 4-H and Nutrition, CSREES; and Dr. Anna Mae Kobbe. A dialogue with Dr. Ron Brown, Executive Director, Association of Southern Region Extension Directors will also take place. Suggestions included planning a joint meeting with community development. Contact will be made with the CD PLC for a joint meeting. Nayda Torres will also be bringing a report from the National FCS Leadership Committee.

Wednesday morning’s time will allow update reports from as many states as possible. State FCS Program leaders were also asked to bring a written one page state report to share. Time always runs short on Wednesday and people start leaving. A written report will make sure that accomplishments and news are shared.

The competency project progress was discussed. There has been good response from specialists who wanted to volunteer to be on the groups. Each group was contacted and requested to meet via teleconference before the Nashville meeting. Linda Bobroff, Florida, will be giving leadership to the first call of the Food and Nutrition group. Bobby Clarke, Tennessee, will be giving leadership to the first teleconference of the Health Group. Joyce James, Oklahoma, will be giving leadership to the first call of the Family Resource Management group, and Karen DeBord, North Carolina, will be giving leadership to the first call of the Child Development/Family Relations group. Requests for developing competencies for other groups, such as housing, have been received. It was noted that Karen Debord (North Carolina) was also working on a national competency project, as well as a national health competency project that Linda Patterson (Mississippi) may be involved in.

Linda Harriman was asked to briefly explain the idea behind core competencies. From our perspective, it is looking at the core knowledge that a new Extension educator must have to be successful. Most come to us with a specialized degree, but don’t have the breadth of knowledge that they need to successfully educate clientele in all areas. It is getting harder and harder to recruit educators with a breadth of knowledge. We may be arriving at the time that we will have to “grow our own” - take our new employees and be responsible for professional development that will give the new employee the skills needed in the specific Extension job they are hired for. So we need to identify the specific competencies they would need and develop training programs or courses that will bring them up to speed in those areas. We would work jointly across the South to develop and implement the training programs, many by distance education. States could also help train specialists in some base areas.

Margaret Hale said the subject of the Southern Region meeting. ASRED has formed a work group that is looking at professional competencies as well as subject matter competencies. CECEP is looking more from a distance education, learning objects, developing a standardization for modules that will become a part of the system.. It is a comprehensive approach for training and sharing resources across our region. Other regions are interested in our progress. It will make a nice connect with the e-Extension effort.

What FCS PL’s are doing will compliment the CECEP project. The next step would be working together to provide training resource support for the agent to develop those competencies. The Southern Region Development Center would be providing assistance in train-the-trainer opportunities. A systematic approach to create multi-state opportunities. There would be no duplication with FCS developing the subject matter competencies. We are working on four subject matter areas - Foods and Nutrition, Health, Child Development/Family Relations, Financial Resource Management.

Each of the groups will try to get together on an initial teleconference. The first person on each list will initiate the conference. Kathy will talk to each leader to get them started. After the first meeting, any questions we will hash out in Nashville. Discussion will center on progress of the groups, a standard format for the competencies. Communication with the groups will be important to keep everyone going. A timeline suggested was how far the groups could get by January 1, 2003. Each group would serve for six months.

Other topics at Nashville would be to select times for teleconference of the southern region fcs pl’s. Pl’s on the teleconference suggested that southern region meet at Kansas City at NEAFCS. Most Pl’s will probably be attending. A meeting time and room will be reserved.

Bonnie Tanner - Kentucky College of Human Environmental Sciences is going to be moved into the College of Agriculture as the Center for Family and Consumer Sciences. A University-wide committee recommended this. FCS could not remain a college. At the end of two years it will be up for grabs. Interior Design will be going to Architecture. A vacancy in Asst. Director for 4-H and Youth Development. A major reinvisioning of how Extension should be in relation to state faculty/administration, area program directors and county staff. Who performs what role and function. Not budget driven - streamlining. Report in to Dean by the end of month. Will have a report by August program.

Sandy Zaslow - State program leaders in 4-H and FCS had their Assistant Director titles taken back as a result of streamlining. Discussion on who should be a department and who should not.

Ellen Murphy - Louisiana also major restructuring. New Chancellor has decided that Research and Extension would be merged. 4-H and FCS No district agents or resident directors. Now have regional directors supervising research stations and Extension offices. Now have three major teams - nutrition, parenting and child care and family resource management. Eleanor supervises entire program and is a department head. 4-H and FCS made a department. School of Human Ecology and Department of Family and Consumer Sciences will be merged into one unit with research, teaching and extension.

Some interest in review of how other states are structured. Could be included on one-page update report.

Margaret Hale said that ECOP is looking at restructuring PLC framework. It is very important to have a representative at PLC. We need to elect a new one since Sarah Anderson is no longer in the program leader role. Lynn Russell is acting program leader.

Kathy Volanty thanked everyone for being on the teleconferences regularly. A draft agenda will be sent as well as instructions on the one-pager. Think about action items for the Directors.

Meeting adjourned at 10:15 am