Executive Summary:
The following is an executive summary of the minutes of the Program and Staff Development Committee. Much of the content is informational. Action items the committee will be pursuing in the coming year are labeled ACTION ITEM and are bolded.
Officers:
Elections were held and the new committee leadership for 2002/03 includes:
| Michael Lambur, Chair Department of Agricultural and Extension Education 234 Smyth Hall Blacksburg, VA 24061-0452 540-231-9423 540-231-6284 (FAX) lamburmt@vt.edu |
Mitch Owen, Vice Chair Personal and Organizational Development Campus Box 7569 North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC 27695-7569 919-515-2819 919-513-1242 (FAX) Mitch_Owen@ncsu.edu |
Debra Davis, Secretary Institutional Research and Organizational Development P.O. Box 25100 LSU AgCenter Baton Rouge, LA 70894-5100 225-578-4565 225-578-0777 (FAX) ddavis@agctr.lsu.edu |
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Paul Warner, 1862 Administrative Advisor (until a new one is appointed by ASRED) Leodrey Williams, 1890 Administrative Advisor (until a new one is appointed by AEA) Joe Waldrum, 1862 Representative to PLC Thelma Feaster, 1890 Representative to PLC |
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Attendence:
| Joyce Martin (OK) | Mitch Owen (NC) |
| Joe Waldrum (AR) | Michael Newman (MS) |
| Mary Ellen Blackburn (GA) | Ronnie White (MS) |
| Debra Davis (LA) | Richard Rohs (GA) |
| Allison Penn (AR) | Rich Poling (AR) |
| Julie Sexton (MS) | Herb Byrd (TN) |
| Greg Price (GA) | Jerry Gibson (VA) |
| Leodrey Williams (LA) | Della Baker (SC) |
| Paul Warner (KY) | Michael Lambur (VA) |
| Roger Rennekamp (KY) | Robert Richard (LA) |
| Barbara Stone (TX) | Scott Cummings (TX) |
SR-PLN Structure and Guidelines:
Joe Waldrum reviewed the draft SR-PLN document with the group. Following a discussion of the draft, a concern was raised about the document stating that replacements for vacancies on the PLC due to non-attendance would be filled by the Executive Committee. The concern is that the groups who elected the representatives should be involved in selecting a replacement, not the Executive Committee. In regard to the SR-PLN issue of the executive committee replacing members of the PLC when vacancies occur, the guidelines will now read something like: ...the Executive Committee will appoint replacement positions in concert with the program team leadership.
CECP Competency Taxonomy:
Julie Sexton (MS) discussed the core curricula taxonomy for program and staff development in relation to the Cooperative Extension Curriculum Project (CECP). A suggestion was made to accept what the CECP working group had decided and work from there. This idea was accepted by consensus of the group.
The goal of the committee at this point, based on the recommendations of the CECP, was to identify the competency topics that the PSD Committee would address initially as part of the CECP. Committee members divided into five smaller working groups. Each group was to look at one domain from the CECP competency taxonomy for program and staff development. The tasks for each group were:
- Determine if the topic items belong in that domain
- Eliminate duplication of topics within that domain and (where possible) between domains
- Add any additional items that are needed (fill any gaps)
- Prioritize topics in the domain according to regional needs (Decide what you can live with)
- Select 3-5 topics to bring back to the entire committee to consider for final selection of CECP topics for the PSD Committee
Criteria to be used in prioritizing competency topics in the small groups and in final prioritizing by the overall committee included:
- There is a high volume of resources available
- There is a critical need for the topic
- There is potential for broad usage of the information on the topic
- The topic has a long-shelf life (it is not time sensitive)
- Expertise is available on the topic
- There is high interest by individuals to develop the information (it would be fun for someone to develop it)
Committee members broke out into the five small working groups for the Tuesday morning session. The five working groups reported back with the topics they selected as priorities within each domain. The five domains and the priority topics selected for each were:
| Knowledge of the Organization - |
Partners (Funding and Organizational Structure) |
| Program Development |
|
| Communications |
Impact Writing |
| Personal Effectiveness |
Conflict Management |
| Collaboration and Partnerships |
Group Facilitation Skills |
After reviewing and discussing the priorities from the groups for understanding and clarification, duplicate items were combined. The committee members then voted on what they felt were the top priority topics overall. Dots were given to committee members to place on the topics they felt were the top priorities based on the established criteria. The ranked topics, based on the voting were (total votes in parentheses):
| 1. | History (Legislation) (33) |
|
2. |
Impact Writing (30) |
| 3. | Presentation Skills (26) |
|
Tie |
Instructional Skills (26) |
| 5. | Collecting Situational Data (22) |
|
6. |
Group Facilitation Skills (20) |
| 7. | Managing Change (17) |
|
Tie |
Partners (17) |
| 9. | Models for Change (15) |
|
10. |
Working with Public Officials (13) |
| 11. | Cultural Competence (10) |
| 12. | Managing and Acquiring Resources (6) |
| 13. | Effective Use of Committee Structures |
| 14. | Customer Service (4) |
| Tie | Conflict Management (4) |
| Tie | Teamwork (4) |
ACTION ITEM
After discussing the results, the following topics were selected for the development of educational training modules by development teams:
History (Legislation)
Impact Writing (aka Writing Impact Statements)
Presentation Skills
Group Facilitation Skills
A discussion followed as to how development teams will be put together and organized. The decision was made to allow committee members to decide with what topics they would like to work and to sign up to be a team facilitator or team member. Committee members were also asked to nominate others who were not present to be members (with their consent) of development teams.
The PSD Committee development team topics and memberships are:
| Topic: | HISTORY (LEGISLATION) |
|
Co-Facilitators: |
Julie Sexton (MS) and Michael Newman (MS) |
| Members: | Satish Verma (LA), Randol Waters (TN), Leodrey Williams (LA), Joanne Bankston (KY), Someone from NCA&T, Roger Rennekamp (KY), Richard Rohs (GA) |
| Topic: | WRITING IMPACT STATEMENTS |
|
Co-Facilitators: |
Michael Lambur (VA) and Della Baker (SC) |
| Members: | Scott Cummings (TX), Dan Rahn (GA), Lex Bruce (VA), Karen Ballard (AR), Chris Boleman (TX), John Richardson (NC), A representative from county operations people or from the middle management committee. |
| Topic: | PRESENTATION SKILLS |
|
Co-Facilitators: |
Allisen Penn (AR) and Rich Poling (AR) |
| Members: | Susanna Coppernall (TX), Susan Seal (MS), Mary Ellen Blackburn (GA), Joyce Martin (OK), Ronnie White (MS) |
| Topic: | GROUP FACILITATION SKILLS |
|
Co-Facilitators: |
Debra Davis (LA) and Barbara Stone (TX) |
| Members: | Mitch Owen (NC), Michael Lambur (VA), Herb Byrd (TN), Someone from the CRD committee. |
Facilitators for each team will contact team members who were nominated by others to ensure their willingness to serve on a team.
MAP/EXCEL:
Richard Rohs reported on the MAP/EXCEL program. The middle management group is still interested in continuing MAP, but not on a regional basis this year. Several states indicated a desire to do something on a multi-state basis.
ACTION ITEM
Ronnie White (MS), Michael Lambur (VA) and Mitch Owen (NC) will help Richard Rohs (GA) with investigating and organizing any upcoming MAP/EXCEL activities in the region.
New Agent Orientation Committee:
Jerry Gibson (VA) reported on the activities of the New Agent Orientation Committee. This group met in April in Athens, GA to bring and share orientation materials that are used in the states in the southern region. This committee collaborated with the CECP team to develop the demonstration module on Seaman Knapp that was presented at the opening session of the PLC meeting.
ACTION ITEM
This coming year, this committee will be developing a starter kit for new agents and employees. Some of the possible components in this kit will be resource materials (in electronic format) on: Extension history, office management, and introduction to Extension, and a sample training program. When asked if this committee could serve as the development team for the CECP history module identified by the PSD Committee, Jerry indicated that his committee would not be doing that module. Mitch Owen asked that Lanny Hass be added to the New Agent Orientation Committee to replace Bernadette Watts, who is retiring.
Strengthening Extension Advisory Leadership (SEAL):
Ronnie White reported that the inaugural SEAL conference held last year was a huge success, however, as was mentioned earlier, the second conference was canceled due to low registration. The second major effort in this area was the development of curricula. Ronnie distributed a handout outlining the materials that have been developed for the canceled conference. He asked everyone to take the outline back home with them, review the outline, share it with others (including advisory group members) and provide feedback to Judy Groff (judy_groff@ncsu.edu) over the next 5-6 months. Mitch will check with Judy to see if a feedback link could be added to the SEAL Website.
ACTION ITEM
Ronnie White (MS) indicated that the group plans to go forward and develop additional materials that would address other areas. Many of these pieces would fit well into the CECP areas the PSD Committee identified.
CRD Committee:
Members of the CRD Program Committee joined the meeting, and Bo Beaulieu shared a brochure describing a multi-state, integrated training program being offered across the region, "Creating Vibrant Communities in the South." This program offers a number of different institutes and workshops in locations across the region in the areas that have been identified as the five CECP areas of the CRD Committee: economic diversification; community planning tools; service infrastructure; civic engagement; and youth and adult workforce development. Discussion continued on the issue of taking these courses/institutes for graduate credit and the options of states providing tuition support and/or discounts for agents taking the programs for credit. The CRD Committee would also like to receive a copy of all of the programmatic topics and materials that PSD Committee members have. A goal of the CRD Committee and the SRDC is to provide more distance education activities.
ACTION ITEM
Barbara Stone (TX) and Rich Poling (AR) volunteered to work in liaison with the CRD Committee.