Call to Order: Director Chris Talley called to meeting to order at 10:10 am.
Kathy Dugan, Director of CES at Cherokee Reservation, welcomed the association to Cherokee.
Sarah McClellan offered some opening remarks concerning activities that were ongoing within Extension on the Reservation, including the Cherokee Fair festivities and the local emphasis on gardening and horticulture.
Attendance/Introductions: Members and Guests introduced themselves. In attendance were: Director -Chris Talley, Vice Director -Tony McGaha, Secretary -Silas Brown, Tammara Cole, Sarah McClellan-Welch, Ross Young, Stanley Holloway, Marvin Owings Tim Matthews, Rob Hawk, Bill Skelton, Hernando Morera, Kenneth Reeves, John Dorner, Julie Sizemore, Elizabeth Ayers, Diane Ducharme, Linda Blue, Alan Durden, Kenneth McCaskill, Jeremy Delisle and David Kendall.
Hernando Morera from Costa Rica who is currently working as an intern with CES on the Reservation was introduced and made remarks concerning his internship experience.
Chris introduced new officers: Chris Talley -Director, Tony McGaha -Vice Director, Silas Brown -Secretary, and Diane Ashburn remains as Treasurer.
Minutes: Minutes from previous meeting (3/24/05) were posted on the web and copies were forwarded to members via email. Motion was made to accept minutes as written. Motion was seconded and minutes were approved as written.
Treasurers Report: Report was given by Director in absence of Treasurer. Copies were distributed with account balances: $2417.38 in Checking, $5184.62 in Money Market, $33.09 in Shares. Motion was made and seconded to accept treasurers report and was approved by membership.
Chris encouraged agents to personally urge others to join association as members to add to numbers and strength of the association.
Old Business:
Review of State and National Meeting: Chris made comments on the state meeting as well as Kenneth R. and John Dorner. John made mention of a state and national winning “Farm Safety Program” that was showcased at the meeting, commenting that agent meetings were a good source for discovering new ideas for programming. Chris also commented on the Communications Awards exhibit and award winners, Diane Asheburn, Chris Talley, Steve Duckett, Cliff Ruth, Diane Silver and Linda Blue. Chris encouraged everyone to apply for these awards. Linda urged everyone to read and give special attention to the application rules.
Linda, John, Diane A., Stanley and Chris all attended the National meeting. Stanley said the shuttle buses was one aspect that lacked considerably at the national meeting, and could possibly one area that we could improve upon for the 2008 meeting in NC. The meeting was good overall, considering staff shortages within the state due to budget cut-backs this year.
Chris recognized Diane Ducharme as the 2005 AA Award Winner and also as a new Area Specialized Agent. He also recognized Julie Sizemore as a new agent in Henderson Co.
Review of SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) list:
Chris mentioned that the list, after a review, will be passed through administration for additional review and suggestion. Diane mention that one of the main intentions of the list was to benefit new agents. John recommended a need for someone under “row crops/grain crops” and suggested Keith Wood. Ross also mentioned a need to cover “agritourism” as a topic as well. Sara suggested reviewing and updating the list from year to year and John offered to put it on the website. Stanley suggested making it a resource list to include all agents in the district and not only association members.
New Business:
Chris gave an update on the state board meeting. Dr. Ort provided an administrative update: the $3.7 million was approved for salary adjustments, which will be made according to an equation including merit, time, position and past years EMAPS. 80% of all faculty are expected to be included in the adjustment, which will average out to be about 10% per eligible agent across the state. The adjustments should be included in the October pay and retroactive to July. Adjustments will only be from the state portion of salaries. Counties have yet to be asked to participate until 2006. More will be known following the next CED meeting and will be passed on through each county's CED. Also discussed, was the $850/2% raise, which is considered completely separate from salary adjustments. Counties are expected to participate in the annual raise process.
On the matter of the new Marketing/Change Initiative, Dr. Ort also discussed the core mission of CES being refocused primarily on Food & Fiber. Other issues would not be removed, but the focus would return to Agriculture.
On the 2008 National Meeting, Bill said they were still in search of major sponsors, but have received positive indications from Phillip Morris, Farm Bureau, Farm Credit & NC Pork Council of possible sponsorship. So far, there has been a total of $21,000 received from individual agents across the state, either from personal contributions, or local fund raising. A campaign will be underway to encourage agents to help raise funds for the meeting. If anyone has a prospective sponsors (groups, businesses, or even county extension budget money) within their county, they are encouraged to inquire about their interest of sponsorship. Diane suggested developing an informational statement to be able to pass along to potential sponsors.
Chris mentioned that the Federation Meeting will be coming up on 12/9/05, which will include Vice Directors from each district. If anyone has any questions or concerns for the Federation, please pass them to Tony McGaha.
The Young Agent/Lewis Howell Scholarship will no longer be a direct cash award, but will be a reimbursal award up to the cost of the trip or to the limit of the scholarship.
NC State Association has been asked to help sponsor a BarBQ meal a the 2006 National Meeting. The meal is expected to cost about $15,000. National is hoping to get $7500 from NC and an additional $7500 from the Florida Association. The state board has not made any definite decision as of yet.
John made a recommendation that there be an Internal Communications Committee with a representative from each district. One of the purposes – to maintain mailing lists from each district. Diane and Bill suggested mailing lists to include non-member agents, directors, specialists and retired agents.
Tammara mentioned that there were 32 current life members on the West District list.
John suggested sending post cards to life members informing them of upcoming meetings and encouraging them to attend. Tammara said she had been sending invitations of previous meetings would do so as well in the future along with minutes from the previous meeting.
Committee Review: All active members are required to participate on a committee. The committee lists and charges were review for needs of additions or corrections as follows:
-Linda Blue and Meghan Baker will be added to Benevolence
-David Kendall will be removed from Communications
-David Kendall, Elizabeth Ayers and Kenneth McCaskill will added to Extension Programming. Steve Duckett will be removed and David K. placed as committee chair.
-Julie Sizemore will be added to, and Diane Silver removed from 4-H & Youth
-Roger Hyatt will be added to, and Frank Bolick removed from Life Membership and Retired Agents.
-Tony McGaha, Bill Skelton and Silas Brown will be added to and Eric Caldwell removed from Nominating Committee.
*Stanley mentioned that standing Vice Director and Secretary usually service on Nominating Committee with Vice Director as chair.
-John Dorner will be removed from Resource and Programming Development/Professional Training/Professional Excellence Committee.
-Communications Committee name will be changed to include “Internal Communications Committee.”
Diane encouraged chairs of each committee to review committee charges and send any needed changes to Chris to be approved by Association. Diane also mentioned the need to work on communicating concerns within the agent community so that committees such as Benevolence can become more effective in its purpose.
2008 State Meeting:
The West District has been asked to host the 2008 State Meeting. This could come with difficulty due to NC being the host for the National Meeting that same year. Policy requires that there must, at least, be a business session held. The state board said it was totally up to us as a district to do what we wanted for the '08 state meeting, but did suggest that maybe we hold the meeting in Greensboro as a dry run for the National meeting.
Announcements:
Kenneth Reeves made mention that the guidelines for the 2006 AA, DSA and Young Agent Awards are posted on the web. The deadline for submitting application to him on the District level will be November 15. State deadline will be December 5.
Bill encouraged agents to take advantage of opportunities to get articles of successful programs into CALS Prospectives Magazine. Though they sometimes get backed up, they are cooperative and will try to get every article printed.
Congratulations to John Dorner on his new position with NACAA as webmaster.
District Director, Harvey Fouts, briefly joined the meeting and shared comments. He showed appreciation to agents for dedication and commitment and congratulated good works through grants and programming. He made additional comments on the salary adjustments and changes in marketing initiatives. Administration is working to integrate EMAPS and ERS by early 2006.
Thanks to the Cherokee Staff for hosting the meeting and providing refreshments.
Next Meeting is scheduled for Madison County in March. Ross will check on the date and members will be notified via email.
Sara invited agents to tour the Cherokee Indian Fair for lunch.
Meeting was adjourned at 12:40
Minutes respectfully submitted by Silas Brown, Secretary.
Posted on 10/18/05
Please send comments and suggestions to John Dorner.