Present:

Nina Boston, Information Technology, University of Arkansas
Mike Bratcher, Information Technology, North Carolina A&T
Gae Broadwater, Community Development, Kentucky State University
Paul Coreil, ASRED Advisor, Louisiana State University
Nelson Daniels, PLC Chair-Elect, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Prairie View A&M University
Beverly Howell, Family and Consumer Sciences, Mississippi State University
Gloria Mosby, Communications, Prairie View A&M University
Mitch Owen, Program & Staff Dev., North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service
Thelma Sanders-Hunter, PLC Chair, Family & Consumer Sciences, Tennessee State University
Dorothy Wilson, 4-H Youth Development, FCS, CRD, Langston University
Noland Williams, AEA Appointee, Kentucky State University

Ex-Officio:

Ron Brown, ASRED
Kathy Ibendahl, SRDC
L. Washington Lyons, AEA

Absent:

Gina Eubanks, AEA Advisor, Southern University Cooperative Extension
Frankie Gould, Communications, Louisiana State University
Lamar Nichols, 4-H Youth Development, Auburn University
Paul Mask, Ag and Natural Resources, Auburn University
Jon Ort, ASRED Appointee, North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service
Joe Schaefer, Middle Management, University of Florida
Ellen Smoak, Middle Managers, North Carolina A&T University
Tony Windham, Community Development, University of Arkansas

Welcome and Roll Cal l

Nina Boston, PLC Chair, welcomed everyone and took the roll call

Advisors' Report

Paul Coreil gave a CREATE 21 update. Result of the vote in September was 86% positive. We will be proceeding with developing plans for legislation to be introduced in the next Farm Bill. There have been quite a bit of discussion continuing on the details to protect our funding (Formula Funds and growing the competitive funding). This is quite a change in how we approach funding. We'll continue to monitor and hopefully we'll see some success.

L. Washington Lyons added that an e-mail was distributed yesterday to the CREATE 21 group. There is an attempt to identify issues and concerns and address them. Dr. Brown said ASRED is developing a memo in response to concerns.

eXtension Report

Paul Coreil reported that the HorseQuest website has been launched at eXtension.org. This was done very well by horse specialists throughout the nation and is just the beginning of what we'll see in eXtension. There are several other sites on the verge of being released. Many other Communities of Practices will release their sites in the next year--horticulture, integrated pest management, and many more. Go to the eXtension site and look at the FAQ. It can be used by Extension people throughout the country right now. He encouraged this committee to register, use it, and encourage others to use it. It's easy and interactive. You can get directly involved. Paul Coreil will be chairing the governing committee of eXtension next year.

In the near future, NASULGC will be holding a meeting in Houston to discuss a variety of issues, including the Farm Bill.

AEA & ASRED Updates

AEA

• L. Washington Lyons reported that the 1890 administrators have been involved in CREATE 21, monitoring the progress and participating in conference calls. There will be a Farm Bill CREATE 21 conference call next Wednesday to put together the legislative information that will be shared in Houston.

• The administrators continue to work on language for EFNEP.

• Dr. Ray McKinney will become the new chair of AEA after that meeting next month. He will be the AEA appointee to PLC.

ASRED

• Ron Brown told the committee that ASRED voted to endorse the proposal from AEA regarding EFNEP. They appreciated AEA's stance on this. ASRED had a good discussion in Puerto Rico and appreciates AEA's concern that this needs to work for all institutions.

• Fran Wolak is the new ASRED chair following Dr. Coreil.

• Over the past decade, Extension directors have had to tell some key supporters that they were unable to participate in various projects due to a lack of funds. ASRED feels that now is the time to reestablish the message that Extension is the service branch of the land-grant institutions and we are able to accomplish what were created to do. Therefore, Extension directors are scheduling visits with key organizations to communicate this message.

• ASRED is working to identify sources of funding outside of USDA. This is a national effort we're all involved in.

• Some of you may have heard about the effort to establish an urban land-grant research and Extension system. The 1862 directors in South and North Carolina have drafted a letter to the president of NASULGC to educate him and let him know that our land-grants are currently involved in urban education.

Committee Reports

ANR Nelson Daniels told the group that the ANR has been working on developing Communities of Practice to support eXtension. There are opportunities to put specialists together to develop CoPs. ANR is looking at committees they support through PLN how the 1890 teams can work closer with them. One example is the water quality group.

COMM Gloria Mosby said that Communications held a conference call on October 11 th . While they were in PR, they made an effort to complete CECP modules and completed quite a bit. At this time, the module on copyrights is being reviewed. Others in the works are about digital photography and distance education. They have permission to use information on distance education from the University of Florida. That module will be reviewed in the near future. Communications continues to look for opportunities to get involved in eXtension.

Debbie Archer (University of Arkansas at Pine Bluffs) is the new committee chair.

CRD Gae Broadwater reported that CRD is working on five CECP modules. These are Developing Economic Diversity, Natural Resource Development, Leadership and Civic Engagement, Decision Making, and Community Services. In addition, they are focusing on developing a content outline for CRD certification. They have not met since our meeting in Puerto Rico.

Next week, the SRDC will be hosting a session to review the results of the rural development roundtable project that Kellogg sponsored. We'll be meeting in Atlanta to develop a report that the SRDC and use in its strategic planning process.

FCS Beverly Howell said FCS will hold its first quarterly conference call tomorrow. They plan to discuss the continuation or reestablishment of the obesity initiative. Texas A& M will be taking the lead. Other discussion will include a follow up of the disaster management conversation from PR to determine which direction FCS should take. Several CECP modules are complete and available online. A national meeting of state program leaders was held recently.

Upcoming conferences:

SERA-19 Rural Health Meeting, in conjunction with the Priester Extension Health Conference, "Extension on the Move: Advancing Health for Every Body"
April 10-12, 2007 in Kansas City, Missouri
http://www.muhealth.org/~cme/Priester07/priester07a.shtml

21st Century Families: From Research to Reality
Hosted by University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service, LSU AgCenter and Mississippi State University Extension
April 17-19, 2007 in Little Rock, Arkansas
http://www.arfamilies.org/21st_century/default.htm

Thelma Sanders-Hunter said she was in Louisville, KY last week for the eXtension community of practice, "Family Care Giving." This includes rural families. They are working on various modules. Each subgroup will chair the employed caregivers component. Thelma is now chair of FCS

4-H Dorothy Wilson reported that her committee held a conference call on October 12. They are working on CECP/eXtension modules and will be attending the national 4-H agents meeting in Milwaukee, WI, October 21 - 26, 2007. They anticipate good attendance, excellent presenters, and opportunities to network. Dorothy is on the curricula Task Force.

IT Nina Boston said that IT met last week through CENTRA and CECP dominated the conversation. The chair of the CECP Steering Committee, Julie Sexton, is meeting with Dan Cotton. They will create an internal Community of Practice to guide and manage that effort. The CECP Steering Committee will be giving leadership on what is going to be needed to make the transition to eXtension. They are looking at what training is needed across the committees. The Steering Committee will not be the ones to implement and manage the learning management system, but will be giving advice.

Also, IT is working on a security module. They are using WIKI tools to develop a southern region survey to help access technical readiness in case of a disaster. They survey will determine if people are prepared to deal with communication issues in an emergency

MM Joe Schaefer and Ellen were not in attendance.

PSD Mitch Owen told PLC that PSD has not met since Puerto Rico. They are trying to finish up a CECP module and coordinate a conference for 2007. Mitch attended the CECP Steering Committee where they talked about PSD's lack of involvement in module development. PSD is becoming more engaged with eXtension. Up to this point, eXtension's focus has been on the technical part of the system and not about learning. Nina said the IT Committee agrees.

2006 Meeting Evaluations

PLC received a summary of the meeting evaluations prior to this meeting. They discussed several of the main comments.

• Disaster planning report. The location of the lunch was not appropriate and folks could not hear the report presentation. Nina will be in touch with Ed Jones and the EDEN folks to obtain the report that was presented during Tuesday's lunch. She reminded the committees to complete the charge we were given.

• Mitch Owen commented that, while we labor over the money we have to pay a keynoter, it benefits the organization to bring in someone who is of high quality.

• Gloria Mosby suggested we keep the same topic (disaster preparedness and response) for our future annual meetings rather than just jumping from topic to topic. Each year we could give an update and add on to the previous year's topic.

Update on 2007 Meeting

• Location. Kathy Ibendahl told the group that we will be meeting at the Marriott Downtown Louisville, Louisville, KY. We have a nice sleeping room rate of $119 a night single and double. That is a 45% discount over their regular price. This hotel offers complimentary wireless Internet access in the meeting rooms and plenty of meeting space for our group. The meeting rooms are all on one level and we won't have to eat outdoors

• New Dates. The meeting will be held from Monday, August 27 - Friday, August 31, 2007. Our meeting days have changed. In 2007, we will begin our pre-meeting activities on a Monday and PLN will adjourn at noon on the Thursday. AEA and ASRED will meet until noon on Friday.

• Planning Committee. The following volunteered to serve on the meeting's planning committee: Mitch Owen, L. Washington, Ron Brown, Kathy Ibendahl, Nina Boston, and Gloria Mosby. This group will be meeting in the near future. A theme and keynote speaker needs to be determined asap.

ACTION: Everyone, please report back with your ideas for a theme and keynoter at the upcoming Centra meeting.

Planning for November 30/December 1 Centra Meeting

Nina announced that the PLC Winter Meeting will be held November 31st and December 1 st via Centra. Please make sure you have a microphone and speakers on your computer or headset. All the discussion will be through the Internet. Nina will set up practice sessions with small groups about a week before the meeting. If there are any dates in November that would be best for you to attend a 30 minute training session, please let Nina know.

ACTION - Nina will send dates to the group for possible training sessions. In addition, she will send links to purchase microphones if you do not have one. Your IT people may have them as well.

We will have two two-hour meetings beginning at 9 a.m. on November 31 and December 1. We will need to make sure the agenda doesn't take longer that the time allotted. She is excited about using a new technology.

Old Business

There was no old business.

New Business

Rhonda Conlon in IT will be contacting Kathy Ibendahl with the IT committee updates.

 

The meeting adjourned at 9:50 a.m.

Submitted by Kathy Ibendahl, SRDC