Southern Region Director's Report

2005 - 2006

Southern Region Director1
James E. Riddell
106 B Hutcheson Hall
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, Virginia 24061
Phone: 540.231.9347
Fax: 540.231.5545
Email: jriddell@vt.edu

2006 Annual Meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio

NACAA and Kentucky and Ohio have planned an outstanding and exciting AM/PIC for July 23-27, 2006 in the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area. The latest reports have well over 1300 registered. You will see a very active and diverse agricultural region including both small and large scale agricultural operations. Kentucky and Ohio are planning an outstanding conference loaded with professional development opportunities and hosted in Cincinnati, Ohio. U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss, Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee is a keynote speaker. I hope you have made plans to be there!

2005 NACAA Annual Meeting

Just over 1400 agents, spouses, sons and daughters, and life members attended the Annual Meeting and Professional Improvement Conference (AMPIC) in Buffalo, New York. The educational sessions, tours and hospitality were top notch. The professional improvement opportunities at the Annual Meeting including the workshops and bus tours resulted in over 289 hours of planned professional development for extension faculty.

Items approved by the voting delegates:

1. Officers for this year:

   President	Mickey Cummings, Georgia
   President-Elect	Chuck Otte, Kansas
   Vice-President	Fred Miller, North Carolina
   Secretary	Leon Church, Texas
   Treasurer	Chuck Schwartau, Minnesota
   Past President	Glenn Rogers, Vermont

2. Host State for 2009 AM/PIC - Oregon

DSA & AA Recipients

Congratulations to your recent Distinguished Service Award and your Achievement Award winners. These individuals have been presented the highest awards that your national association can bestow on a memberâ - the top 2% of your state. Congratulations to your 2005 and 2006 DSA and AA winners. One recent DSA winner said, "This award means a lot to me" - because my colleagues think my work is high quality and important." Your state association and your national association thank you for your outstanding work and dedication. Congratulations to this year winners. Remember, NACAA now is allowing electronic submission of DSA and AA credentials in the future to expedite and improve the nomination and award process.

NACAA Works Through Committees - Councils

The heart and soul of NACAA opportunities for members---comes as a result of the work of the NACAA Committees. These committees are the lifeblood of our association. The working committees keep all of the special programs and excellent member benefits going. The 3 "wings" of NACAA shows how NACAA committees are organized and include: Program Recognition, Extension Development, and Professional Improvement. Your association is always in need of new committee vice-chairs, and chairmen. Applications can be obtained from your state president and the available committee positions are listed in the December issue of the County Agents magazine The Council Chairs and the Vice-President review the applications submitted and make recommendations to the Board. Committee work is the foundation and life blood of the association. Please let me or your state president know if you are interested in an area or committee.

Website, State Officers Tool Kit and New Database

NACAA depends on the state officers to keep the member information updated. It is important to the Association that each state completes the information so that professional development opportunities and information can be provided for the membership. For those who would like to use the e-mailing system for NACAA, you can find the e-mail address for officers, directors, council chairs, committee chairs, and even regions of the association on the NACAA web page - http://www.nacaa.com/. The State Officers Tool Kit is on the front page of the NACAA webpage and offers a wealth of information to help members and state associations keep current. All of the information on the awards and competition is listed on the NACAA webpage.

We've moved our membership database to a new online database. http://www.nacaa.com/members/ - or click on "Member Database" on the green navigation bar of most of the pages on the http://www.nacaa.com/ web site. This should give many benefits to both the leadership and the general membership. Features: One central membership database to be used for everything, Membership directory, create new reports as needed, restricted to members.

We should be able to do a better job tracking leadership positions, get the most up-to-date information, and you can update your own contact information. The scholarship information is being added. State secretaries (or their designee) can update information and add new members for their state.

NACAA Electronic Coordinator
John Dorner; E-mail: john_dorner@ncsu.edu
Phone: (828) 697-4891

County Agent Magazine

The NACAA Board continues to encourage agents to submit articles for publication in the County Agent Magazine. As a member you should receive four (4) issues per year. One arrives in April which contains all of the registration information for the 2006 Kentucky/Ohio AM/PIC. In September, you will receive an issue which will recap the AM/PIC and contain reports to the membership and the national award highlights. Another issue should be received in late October and fourth should arrive before Christmas holidays, which will have the Awards/Committee Directory. Please take a look at the E-County newsletter for members. This electronic communication allows NACAA to communicate with members in a timelier manner and to get items out to the members between the issues of the County Agent Magazine. If you would like more information on this you can go to the NACAA web page - http://www.nacaa.com/ and click on E-County.

Scholarships

You can be proud of your record of contributions and participation in the NACAA scholarship program. The scholarships are an excellent benefit provided to members and NACAA encourages you to consider applying for these funds to support your scholarly and professional improvement activities. Remember you must contribute $40.00 by June 30 of the year prior to making application to insure your eligibility. State Presidents should have a list of members who have contributed to the fund and the amount contributed. Applications for scholarships should be submitted by June 1 to the State Scholarship Chair and are approved each year at the AM/PIC. Typically $15,000 is awarded each year. A member who receives a scholarship now has 14 months from the end of the AM/PIC in which it was awarded to use the scholarship. The National Scholarship Committee began a program to benefit the Scholarship Program by selling NACAA Case knives. You can order knives from Scott Hawbaker at the National office for $50.00. NACAA has sold over 350 knives for the scholarship program.

Donor/Sponsor

Donor and Sponsor funds are important to your national association and the AM/PIC. Because of the loss of some sponsors some of the educational workshops have suffered and some of the award programs have been lost. Please encourage every one to make donors and sponsorships a priority. NACAA offers a member incentive program for getting donor/sponsor funds. If you get a donor or sponsor to contribute $2,000 to $4,999 your AM/PIC registration will be reimbursed. If you get $5,000 to $9,999 your registration for AM/PIC is reimbursed and you get $500 toward travel expenses and if you get $10,000 and above you get your registration for AM/PIC reimbursed and $1,000 toward travel expenses.

NACAA Hurricane Donations

NACAA colleagues across the United States have been generous in helping Extension workers in the areas devastated by the recent hurricanes. Over $38,000 has been received from NACAA member in the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges Hurricane Fund. The funds have gone directly to help Extension families and colleagues in the hard hit areas.

Southern Region Vice-Director and Director Rotation

NACAA Officers, Directors, Annual Meetings

Our key strengths in Cooperative Extension continue to be our strong, local, "grassroots" connections and quality educational programs. Our efforts to provide the best - unbiased information from our land grant colleges--sets us apart from many others. As a NACAA director and as a member I have seen the high quality and the strong commitment in our Extension efforts across this nation. We have long-lasting impacts on the families, the communities, and the agricultural industry with which we work.

NACAA and our state associations provide many opportunities for growth and professional excellence in Extension. The same strong, local grassroots efforts---are the keys to the success of our communications and professional development efforts. I encourage you to invest your time in the work of the professional associations. You will receive many rewards for this investment and the fellowship and experiences will last a lifetime. Thank you for your support as we all work to build on our strengths to serve you, your fellow members and NACAA to the best of our ability.

Last updated on 06/30/06.

Please send comments and suggestions to John Dorner.