Present:
Nina Boston, Information Technology, University of Arkansas
Gae Broadwater, Community Development, Kentucky State University
Paul Coreil, ASRED Advisor, Louisiana State University
Beverly Howell, Family and Consumer Sciences, Mississippi State University
Gloria Mosby, Communications, Prairie View A&M University
Joe Schaefer, Middle Management, University of Florida
Ellen Smoak, Middle Managers, North Carolina A&T University
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
L. Washington Lyons, AEA
Absent:
Mike Bratcher, Information Technology, North Carolina A&T State University
Nelson Daniels, PLC Chair-Elect, Ag and Natural Resources, Prairie View A&M University
Gina Eubanks, AEA Advisor, Southern University Cooperative Extension
Frankie Gould, Communications, Louisiana State University
Ray McKinnie, AEA Appointee, North Carolina A&T State University
Paul Mask, Ag and Natural Resources, Auburn University
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
Thelma Sanders-Hunter, PLC Chair, Family & Consumer Sciences, Tennessee State University
Welcome and Roll Call
Nina Boston, PLC chair, welcomed the committee and reviewed the agenda.
Advisors' Report
Paul Coriel reported that the '07 federal budget is still under a continuing resolution. The Extension directors are discussing what it will mean for our programs. ASRED met at the national extension directors' meeting and there was quite a bit of discussion about the implications of the resolution.
The new budget looks like all earmarks will be wiped out. Many states had earmarks in their budgets. Fortunately, those dollars were not lost and were put into the CSREES budget to be distributed through the Formula Funds. Every university has seen tentative drafts of numbers indicating how the Formula Funds will be allocated. This will be a one-time distribution of $185 million in allocations through the universities.
We will be back to a clean slate with the '08 budget and we do not know if these allocations will be maintained. The directors are watching this very closely. It looks like our '07 budget will end up with increases since the earmarks will be distributed through Formula Funds and not necessarily to the projects that were funded in the past. Much of these dollars invested in programs and people will now take a major cut with only 2/3 of the year left.
In the '08 budget, eXtension will see an increase (double) from $1.45 million to almost $3 million. This is a result of support from the President and administration. The big news is there is a push to move money from Formula Funds to competitive funds. Our Experiment Station colleagues are not pleased as Hatch funding and McIntire-Stennis funding would be shifted to competitive funding.
The '08 budget did not reflect CREATE 21 entirely. Merging ARS with CSREES is a major component of the changes. Along with restructuring CSREES, the spirit of CREATE 21 is supported, but it must maintain the growth of both Formula and Competitive funds.
ASRED And AEA Updates
L. Washington Lyons said the Extension Administrators held their winter meeting in Las Vegas, January 28 - 29. The program chairs and vice chairs joined them for this productive meeting and a lot of issues were covered.
He is pleased with the proposed '08 budget. EFNEP funding is included.
CREATE 21 continues to meet. There will be a conference call this afternoon. A lot of items are covered in the USDA farm bill proposal, but it doesn't go as far as CREATE 21 has gone with recommendations for new funding. A lot of work still needs to be done. Overall, the Administrators are pleased with the budget and the Farm Bill and will continue to monitor.
Ron Brown reported on the three ECOP funding priorities for '08--Formula Funds, eXtension, and EFNEP. ASRED received a report from Gail Buchanan at CSREES that one of the initiatives they are pushing is bioenergy. We all need to get geared up to work in this area. We will see this issue in the adopted proposal.
ASRED will meet jointly with SAAESD, April 2 - 4, 2007 in Lexington, Kentucky.
The Extension directors have been busy visiting key organizations in their states. Some of those visits have been made (Farm Bureau and other groups). Feedback has been positive.
Committee Reports
ANR No representatives were present.
COMM Gloria Mosby reported that Communications held a conference call on January 24 th . Terry Meisenbach met with them and gave an update on eXtension and they continue to meet with Terry to see how the committee can better interface with eXtension. Terry told the group that a new call for additional Communities of Practice will be issued soon.
Robin Adams is on the CECP Steering Committee and gave an update on the new and current modules being placed on eXtension. Bob Reynolds volunteered to participate in a training on how this will be done.
Communications continues to work on CECP modules. The Copyright module is complete. Disaster Communications, Newsletters, News Writing, and Media Relations are almost complete. More work needs to be done on the Photos module.
They are working on the disaster survey from EDEN.
Communications will meet again in April.
CD Gae Broadwater said that CD held a conference call at the end of January. Most committee members are in the process of preparing for NACDEP (National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals) in April. The meeting will be held in Philadelphia, PA.
FCS Beverly Howell told the committee that FCS continues to work on CECP modules. There will not be a spring module-development workshop this year as the committee feels they are further along. Jorge Atiles of FCS is the new CECP chair and will be scheduling bimonthly calls with those who are working on CECP projects.
The Board on Human Sciences meeting will be held in Washington next week. The National EFNEP meeting will be held the second week of March in Washington.
4-H Dorothy Wilson said 4-H continues to work on modules. The National 4-H Conference will be held in Washington next month and they are busy with preparations. They have a leaders conference coming up to prepare for the national meeting.
IT Nina Boston reported on the IT conference call held last week. Three on the IT Committee, Larry Lippke, Ann Adrian, and Greg Piazza are helping the CECP Steering Committee with training. IT is working on a disaster technology skill survey to try and hone in on the skills that Extension specialists need in times of disaster. They are making it brief and more targeted. Nina is heading up that challenge and they hope to be done by August.
Nina asked PLC for feedback on learning management needs. This will allow them to know what is needed in a learning management system when the CECP Steering Committee helps eXtension make the transition. Please respond. Feedback is needed.
MM Joe Schaefer said that Middle Management held a conference call a few weeks ago. They discussed the agenda for the up-coming Middle Managers conference beginning April 12 th .
PSD No representatives were present.
Update on the Louisville Meeting
Plans are moving along for our annual meeting in August. The theme this year will be "Building New Resource Support: Rural and Urban Opportunities." Nina asked for help in identifying a keynote speaker. Suggestions received so far are Harvey Sloan, former Louisville Mayor, and Victor Ashe, former Knoxville Mayor.
Also, we need to find a leader in the Extension community who is involved in resource development. Cheryl Lloyd at North Carolina was suggested. Please give Nina other suggestions as well.
During the Tuesday general session, in addition to a keynote speaker, Larry Lippke will give an update on CECP.
Ron Brown said there is lot of discussion in NASULGC on urban programming. Perhaps we could get someone like James Wade to update us on what NASULGC is doing.
Since the Urban Representatives are meeting on Monday during the pre-meeting time, we need to find out what they plan to discuss and make sure we coordinate our discussions. We are going to ask that group to help facilitate breakout sessions after the keynoter and wrap up with a panel discussion to report back and update us on current urban programming.
The next PLC meeting will be held Thursday, April 19, 2007 at 9 a.m. Central.