Program Leadership Committee
Conference Call
April 20, 2006

Present:                                     
Nina Boston, Information Technology, University of Arkansas
Mike Bratcher, Information Technology, North Carolina A&T
Gae Broadwater, Community Development, Kentucky State University
Frankie Gould, Communications, Louisiana State University
Beverly Howell, Family and Consumer Sciences, Mississippi State University
Ed Jones, Chair of PLN-EC, Community Development, North Carolina State University
Daniel Lyons, Middle Management, North Carolina A&T
Paul Mask, Ag and Natural Resources, Auburn University
Gloria Mosby, Communications, Prairie View A&M
Lamar Nichols, 4-H Youth Development, Auburn University
Jon Ort, ASRED Appointee, North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service
Mitch Owen, Program & Staff Dev., North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service
Louie Rivers, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Kentucky State University
Thelma Sanders-Hunter, PLC Chair, Family & Consumer Sciences, Tennessee State University
Joe Schaefer, Middle Management, University of Florida
Larry Turner, Advisor, University of Kentucky
Dorothy Wilson, 4-H Youth Development, FCS, CRD, Langston University
Tony Windham, Community Development, University of Arkansas

Ex-Officio:
Ron Brown, ASRED
Kathy Ibendahl, SRDC

Absent:
Lorenzo Lyons, AEA (Ex-Officio)
Noland Williams, AEA Appointee, Kentucky State University
Shirley Pope, Advisor

 

Welcome

Thelma Sanders-Hunter welcomed those present.  Everyone should have received the agenda and February meeting minutes via e-mail. Kathy will send the message again for those who have not seen it. For your information, we are keeping track of PLC meeting attendance and are making personal contacts with those who have consistently missed meetings.

Thelma announced that Shirley Pope will be replaced as the AEA-appointed advisor to PLC.  We are not sure who will be replacing her and are waiting to hear back from Noland Williams and Lorenzo Lyons. Dr. Lyons is traveling today and is not able to join us.


Advisor Report

Larry Turner gave an update on the following:

  • CREATE 21 Project. The process is moving forward. Extension is still at the table and waiting to see what will emerge. The plan that is developing looks at a new structure of programs for Extension, teaching and research.  Hopefully a decision will be reached in June or July. We will forward the outcome to everyone when it’s available.

 

  • The 2007 budget is under review.  It is being proposed that integrated programs should move to NRI. The Extension Directors are apposed to this due to management issues.
  • Ed Jones gave a good presentation on EDEN at the Southern Region Extension Directors meeting. There are discussions taking place to seek additional funding for EDEN.

 

  • ECOP – Communications and marketing will be an emphasis for ECOP. Larry Cody is putting together a national committee to look at the marketing of Extension. If you are interested in being on this committee or providing input, contact Larry Turner or Larry Cody.  eXtension is getting a lot of support.
  • Benchmarking is ongoing. A report from that committee will be available later this summer.

 

  • The Department of Energy education program is underway and may be tied to eXtension.
  • A new award has been established--The National Excellence in Extension Award. There will be both a regional and national award. The Personnel Committee of ECOP is putting the guidelines together and is planning for the first presentation to take place in November.

 

Committee Reports

ANR   

  • Louie Rivers said the ANR committee held its most recent meeting last month. They will be meeting again at the National County Agent meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio this July.
  • Work on CECP modules continues. 

 

  • Dr. Charles Cleland, the ANR national program leader at CSREES, will be in Kentucky in mid-May.

Communications

  • Gloria Mosby told PLC that they received a request from the CECP Marketing Committee to ask AEA and ASRED to endorse a marketing plan for CECP. A response was received and Communications is currently reviewing and preparing a response to forward to Robin Adams, the Communications representative to CECP.
  • The committee was scheduled to have a conference call yesterday, but it was cancelled as Bob Reynolds had a family emergency.

 

  • Frankie Gould reported that CECP modules on newsletters and exhibits are in the works. Communications is working with the CECP committee to determine how many modules are complete and whether these will be hosted on the Texas A&M server. This and other information is being gathered in order to write a CECP marketing plan.

Community Resource Development

  • Tony Windham & Gae Broadwater announced that the national CRD program leaders will meet in Washington, DC May 23-25. This is the first time the CRD program leaders have come together to work as a nation-wide group.  They will be meeting with CSREES people and other rural development leaders.

Family and Consumer Sciences

  • Beverly Howell reported that FCS held its last quarterly conference call on April 9th. During this meeting, the committee discussed its agenda for the joint meeting in August. 
  • FCS would like to use the online state report mechanism that IT is using. Nina Boston told the group that IT is currently upgrading the survey software used for these reports.  Please provide her with a Word document listing the questions you want committee members to answer in their reports. Nina will distribute a report template next week.

 

Below are additional instructions from Nina via her 4/20/06 e-mail to PLC. This e-mail included the report template as an attachment.

“If you choose to adopt this practice, edit the document to meet the needs of your committee and return it to me by June 15. We will create a unique reporting survey for each committee and provide the results back to you in time to allow you to make the appropriate copies for the committee members.  I'll also work with Kathy to see about posting the state reports on the SRPLN web site.  For this practice to be successful, each committee member will need to commit to posting the state report by August 1 to provide ample time for compilation and distribution.” Please let Nina know if you have any questions.

  • Several CECP module development committees are finalizing their work. FCS plans to hold another module development workshop in Atlanta, May 17 – 19; however, there has been some discussion about moving this to June.  UPDATE: The FCS CECP meeting has been rescheduled for May 30 - June 1.

 

  • Next week, we have the Preister National Health Conference in Louisville KY. This is always an excellent conference.
  • Thelma Sanders-Hunter added that the needs of the elderly will be a topic of discussion on the FCS agenda in August.

 

4-H Youth Development

  • Lamar Nichols and Dorothy Wilson said that the Southern Biennial Conference was held in Tulsa, OK and had great participation. Most of southern region’s staff was present.
  • Committee members continue their work on CECP modules.

 

  • The southern region program leaders are preparing for the national 4-H professional association conference in Wisconsin in November.
  • The committee met as a group at the National 4-H Program Leaders Conference in Washington last month. There they addressed the biennial conference attendance and the PLN meeting in August. They are moving forward in creating the agenda for PLN.

 

  • The committee held a brief conference call a couple weeks ago.

Instructional Technology

  • Nina Boston and Michael Bratcher reported that the IT committee met April 13th via Centra. They went over their plan of work and received status reports from members. A discussion about CECP and eXtension took place. They hope to facilitate the best transition of CECP into the eXtension effort when that time comes. Larry Lipke, a member of IT, sits on the eXtension advisory committee. They are looking at standards of CECP codes and want to make sure those categories match the national standards.
  • The committee’s next meeting will be held in July during which they will finalize the August meeting agenda.

 

  • Ross Hunter participated in the call last week as the southern directors are interested in facilitating a Centra conference. IT will assist them in this process.

Middle Management

  • Joe Schaefer said they are planning for the upcoming meeting in PR. Several are planning the urban pre-conference meeting. 
  • Middle Management has been having problems with its listserv and putting the plan of work on the website. Kathy Ibendahl in the SRDC has been working with them to resolve these problems. 

 

Program and Staff Development

  • The next PSD conference call will be held April 27th.
  • They are discussing and developing CECP modules and have a goal to develop an annual or biennial conference.

 

  • Committee members are working on their plan of work.
  • Mitch mentioned the 2005 SEAL (Strengthening Extension Advisory Leaders) conference held last October in Atlanta. A conference evaluation and summary are available at http://extensioneducation.tamu.edu/SEAL/.

 

Annual Meeting Update

Kathy Ibendahl shared details of the Joint Meeting in San Juan, PR in August. She will distribute a document with this information within the next few days. (The details document was distributed to all committees on April 20th.)

  • The conference website will be up and running in about two weeks. Kathy will e-mail all committees and groups announcing when it is ready.

 

  • You may go ahead and make your hotel reservations. The conference rate is $139 per night plus tax and a 10% resort fee. This rate is available several days before the meeting begins and several days after it ends. The hotel reservation deadline is Friday, July 28th. After that date, reservations will be taken on a space available basis.
  • Conference registration:
    PLN Only - $250 early registration/$275 late registration
    AEA/ASRED - $275 early registration/$300 late registration
    Both PLN and AEA/ASRED - $385 early registration/$410 late registration
    ”Early” registration ends July 31st and “late” registration begins August 1st.
  • Accompanying Guests.  Meal costs will be broken down for those accompanying persons who wish to join us for specific meals. The Tuesday evening cultural event will be open to these individuals as well. Committee field trips may be available for those wishing to get out and see the island. Kathy will provide tourist site links to the meeting website.

 

  • The committee asked Kathy to compile the program committee agendas and make them available to everyone to help with planning and coordinating joint discussions. Kathy will ask committee chairs to submit their tentative agendas to her by June 1st. She can make minor adjustments to these between June 1 and the August meeting. She will have these posted on the meeting website.
  • Please let Kathy know if your committee is planning a field trip. She needs to know the details.

 

Closing

Our next PLC conference call will be held Thursday, June 15, 2006 at 9 a.m. CDT.

The meeting was adjourned.

--Submitted by Kathy Ibendahl 5/2/06