Present:
Nina Boston, IT, University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension
Charles Cox, 4-H, Oklahoma State University
Carla Craycraft, Communications, University of Kentucky
Beverly Howell, FCS, Mississippi State University
Thelma Hunter-Sanders, PLC Chair-elect, FCS, Tennessee State University
Ed Jones, PLC Chair, CD, North Carolina State University
Dan Lyons, MM, North Carolina A & T University
Roger Rennekamp, PSD, University of Kentucky
Louie Rivers, ANR, Kentucky State University
Kent Rorie, MM, University of Arkansas
Larry Turner, 1862 Advisor, University of Kentucky
Dorothy Wilson, 4-H Youth Development, Langston University
Ex-Officio:
Ron Brown, ASRED
Kathy Ibendahl, SRDCAbsent:
Michael Bratcher, IT, North Carolina A & T University
Paul Coreil, ASRED Representative, Louisiana State University
Tim Cross, ANR, University of Tennessee
Thelma J. Feaster, PSD, North Carolina A&T State University
Ernie Hughes, CD, Southern University Ag Center
Gloria Mosby, Past PLC Chair, Chair of PLN-EC, Comm, Prairie View A& M University
Shirley Calloway-Pope, 1890 Advisor, Alcorn State University
Noland Williams, AEA Representative, Kentucky State University
Welcome and Introductions:
Ed Jones, PLC chair, welcomed everyone and apologized for trying to set up the meeting on Centra at the last moment. A number of people needed more time, so we decided to hold off on using the new technology until the April meeting.Advisor's Reports:
Larry Turner shared the highlights of last week's ECOP and national Extension directors/administrators meeting in Nashville, TN. Key issues centered around proposed budget cuts for federal Hatch. The directors/administrators will fight for these funds and hopefully some will be restored. There is concern about what the implications of these cuts.Colien Heffran was present and spoke to the group about the slight budget increase. Discussions in the southern region centered around developing future leadership in light of a large number of upcoming retirements.Bill Hansell, president-elect of NACO, attended. His number one platform will be methamphetamine issues and how Extension can more closely coordinate efforts with county officials. CECP and e-Extension Updates:
Ron Brown reported that most of the CECP activity is now in the hands of the various Program Committees. He indicated that Kathy Ibendahl has revised the CECP website and encouraged PLC representatives to visit the site routinely. Brown indicated that the e-Extension staff met last week in Washington to prepare for a presentation that will be made at the National Extension Directors and Administrators meeting in February. Brown also reported that the e-Extension staff met last week with representatives from the Department of Energy who also expressed interest in e-extension as an outreach for the energy subject matter. Gloria Mosby indicated that the Job Board that had previously been maintained by the CSREES is now going to be maintained by the Journal of Extension. She encouraged PLC members to let HRM personnel know about this move. The eExtenion team unveiled a new prototype at the meeting. Momentum is building. It's encouraging. ECOP adopted a policy statement that if states do not provide their assessment to support this program, then they will not receive eExtension branding recognition. This is an important step to encourage participation. CECP Steering Committee:
Julie Sexton reported that the committee is in the process of developing curriculum review procedures. Each PLN committee will have an opportunity to provide feedback. A subcommittee is working on the review process and plans to take it to the steering committee in March. The goal is to send the review document to the committees for a final vote at our meeting in August.She said that exciting things are going on in each of the committees and believes we will see some progress when we get together in Charleston.
She hopes PLC will find time to showcase some of the committees' CECP work at our meeting in August. This would help generate excitement for CECP.
EExtension Update:
Carla Craycraft talked about the unveiling of the prototype last week. The design team has been working diligently and they are making great progress in creating something that every university can use. There will be no licensing fees. Currently, they are working on the branding. Carla described how the branding process will work. The information goes into a repository. When a user requests the information, the system will pull it and put the "skinning" branding format on it. This will be the user's local county office information in addition to the state Extension program. Credit will be given to the author(s). The group's next video conference will be held May 4, 2005 from 3 to 4 Eastern time. They are encouraging everyone to register on the project's website. The plans are outlined on the site as well. Ninety-nine percent of the comments they received are very positive.A brochure and PowerPoint presentation for internal use were distributed to the directors and administrators last week. These are to help educate our Extension folks. The brochure can be ordered at no charge through the intranet website or you may send an e-mail request to Carla. Annual Conference in August:
Opening session - Ed reported that he, Ron Brown, and Kathy Ibendahl met to discuss the content for the opening session. We will have one concurrent session, the opening session on the first day, just as we did last year. For the first half of the opening session, we are proposing a motivational speaker. Robert Egger, President and CEO of D.C. Central Kitchen, spoke at the meeting in Nashville last week. Dr. Brown said that Mr. Egger spoke for over an hour without audio visual aids and no one left the room. He spoke on doing a lot with a little. The group agreed to request Dr. Egger. If he is not available, then we could use some southern region CECP success examples.
ACTION: Kathy Ibendahl will contact Dr. Egger to see if he is willing and available to speak.
The second half of the opening session will be a report on eExtension. Dan Cotton has confirmed his attendance and Carla said she believed all eExtension team members plan to attend and a lot of progress will be made by that time.
ACTION: The committee gave Ed, Ron, Kathy, Roger, Carla flexibility to work up the agenda. They will get back to the committee if there is a significant issue.
Round table discussions - Roger Rennekamp described what will take place during this new addition to the program. During one of the lunch times, tables will be set with multi-discipline topic/programmatic issues signs. Facilitators will be assigned to each of the tables and people will be able to choose which discussion(s) to join. If we have enough interest, we could have two or three tables on one topic.
ACTION: Please e-mail your ideas for round table topics that bridge across program areas to either Roger or Ernie. Also, please let them know if you are willing to facilitate.
Using Centra:
Ed said that he will take a look at Centra and see if we can set up a test session between now and April so committee members can work with it and feel comfortable with its use before the meeting.Nina added that the system allows groups to vote online. This will help us in our decision making.
ACTION: Nina will contact Centra to see if we can integrate calls into the system, in addition to using computers, so that we can have full participation.
Committee Reports
4-H Youth Development
Charles Cox: 4-H program leaders throughout the nation will be meeting in Tucson, March 20 - 24. They have teams developing new modules. Jeff Howard is working on those.FCS
Beverly Howell and Thelma Sanders-Hunter: FCS is moving forward with module development. Four teams are currently working and a few of them have grant funding to assist them. At least one module will be completely developed by August.Obesity conference in Orlando. Those who attended said it was a good conference. Another conference is being planned and will be held by USDA in Washington in late March. Current efforts are focused on looking at obesity prevention and how Extension professionals can integrate their activities with each other and other agencies such as school officials.Most of the conference in Orlando consisted of work sessions. There are a lot of curricula out there already-"Color Me Healthy," Food Fiesta," etc. Curriculum development is not necessarily needed. Instead, Extension needs to develop methods of determining obesity's economic impact. We need this information to communicate with our legislators. Montana, Iowa, and Texas have been able to measure its impact in their states. ANR
Louie Rivers: National ANR leaders meeting will be held in Kansas City. The 1890 ANR Extension and Researchers will be meeting in New Orleans in early July. Module development progresses.COMM
Carla Craycraft: The group met via conference call on January 19. The committee's annual plan of work was reviewed and posted on the website. Communications is focusing on CECP module development and planning the program for August's meeting. CRD
Ed Jones: The first meeting of the National Association for Community Development Extension Professionals (NACDEP) was held last week in Las Vegas. About 400 were in attendance. Good first meeting. During the conference, the southern region held a brief program leaders meeting and discussed CECP modules in development. Information Technology
Nina Boston: The IT committee held a conference call February 17th using Centra. Larry Lippke (Texas A&M) will be holding another Centra demo on March 8 at 1 p.m., Central. If you wish to participate, it will give you a boost. Contact Larry.Centra is becoming more and more popular. Nina reported that Arkansas purchased 30 licenses. The University of Tennessee has 500 seats. LSU is purchasing licenses and Oklahoma State is looking into purchasing some. The committee's modules are moving along and another one should be ready by August. Middle Management
Kent Rorie: The Middle Managers Conference is scheduled for April 11 - 14 in New Orleans. The program is 90% complete. So far, 60 people from 10 different states have registered. PSD
Roger Rennekamp: Amened the obesity conference. It was a super meeting and the quality of the presentations showed on the program evaluations. The PSD committee has been holding quarterly video conferences. CECP modules are on schedule. Four are coming up on line in the late spring/early summer. Mike Newman and Ronnie White are working on an online survey to determine the instructional capacity of the southern region.
The Mid Managers and PSD committees held a joint meeting in Biloxi last August to discuss leadership development for PLN. The committee appointed to work on this contains members from both committees. This committee has met and will have a position paper and recommendations to give to directors and administrators at their April meeting.
The next conference call will be held on Thursday, April 21 at 9 a.m. Central.