North Dakota JCEP Meeting Notes
August 10, 2006
Carrington Research Extension Center

Attendance: Gerald Sturn, NDAE4-H YW president elect, Jackie Buckley, NDAE4-H YW president, Marcia Hellandsaas, NDAE4-H YW past president, Macine Lukach, NDEAFCS president, Ellen Bjelland, NDEAFCS past president, Donna Anderson, NDEAFCS vice president, Peggy Anderson, ESP president, Dave Rice, NDAEA president, Steve Sagaser, NDAEA president elect, Randy Wald, ACE State Representative, and Duane Hauck

Absent: Mike Rose, NDAEA past president, Terry Gregoire, NDAEA president elect and Kathy Tweeten, ESP past president

Meeting Notes: Peggy, chair of NDJCEP, opened the meeting asking that we review the minutes of our last meeting, which she presented.

Old Business:
Parenting Resource Centers update:
Grow 21 draft (report available on SBARE's website) includes a request for $200,000 to keep existing centers up-to-date and to create an additional center in Minot (this is about 50% of the funding needed to keep these centers running.) Sean has shared the results of the Parent Survey conducted in our communities this past winter with the Family Life committee (Vanessa chairs this committee and Ellen Bjelland is a committee member.)

SBARE members used a scoring system to come up with a ranking for funding Grow 21. Parenting is ranked 9th of 13 of the initiatives. Thus, it will be surprising if the funding is granted. Duane will concentrate his efforts on seeking funding for about the top five initiatives (these being things like scab, 4-H and leadership development)

We need to visit with area legislatures about funding this if we feel it is important to fund the Parent Resource Centers.

Notes On Funding and Budget:
We can talk up anything on the ranking system and visit with our legislators if we feel strongly about anything on Grow 21. But, we are cautioned to not say that SBARE doesn't support some things they do, they just needed to prioritize the list and they are mandated to support agriculture.

Assistant Director -- Family Consumer Sciences Duties
Duane reviewed Deb Gebeke's duties as follows: program leader FCS, professional development and program evaluation.
Annual inservice training will probably be offered. Competency assessment will be the go-to place as well as professional development plans. It is the hope that the calendar will be the place where inservices will be posted.

New staff training will be organized and probably scheduled so that it will fit into the professional development piece.

Office leadership management for all staff will be an offering soon.

Training for mentors is also to be developed. Perhaps a team from Nebraska can come here and provide training for mentors.

Association Executive Officer Challenges:
What can our associations do to help support training for new staff?? Also, we need to work on leadership development and professional development pieces within our associations.

Mentors need to encourage mentees to join associations and state the benefits of joining associations, for example: scholarships available.
 

NDJCEP Assignments and Thoughts:

• Duane encourages us to collaborate to provide an annual e-mail to share professional development opportunities in each association.
• We need to look at forming a nominating committee for awards for our associations.
• We need a JCEP web page that links to our association web pages.
• We are encouraged to add things on our objectives "broaden our horizons." We could sponsor a conference.
• Minutes of our meetings need to be posted on the new NDJCEP website to be developed.

Citizen Support Group:
Deb is looking into some restructuring of this group. A group was assigned to look at what this was and what it should be. They will be deliberate in the way they figure out their role, who will we in the group, etc. They will become more of a political advocate group other than defining issues. Current members of the committee will be asked if they want to continue and then what new faces should be part of the group.

Grow 21:
The top six initiatives will be emphasized and 4-H and youth is a top priority. Extension and Ag Research lists will be shared with SBARE and they will see both top rankings. We need to push for the needs in the Grow 21 budget!

Federal Funding Update:
NASULGC wants a new structure for ag research. That restructure plan is called Create 21. Create 21 is an effort to establish a new Institute at the federal level that would include CESREES, ERS, ARS and the Forest Service (access www.CREATE-21.org for more information). The National Science Foundation is growing, National Research Funds are growing and formula money it going out. State directors will be voting yes or no for NASULGC formula funds. Duane thinks it will pass. If it does, the goal is to double our funding in seven years. 30% of funding would be formula funds that would be better than in the past. 70% of funds would be competitive. 55% would be research and 45% extension and that should be competitive.

PILD Conference:
The state will continue to support this and we need to encourage staff to attend as in the past.
 

New Business:

Association News:
Peggy announced that the national ESP convention will be in Fargo in 2009. Approximate dates are Sept. 13 - 17. There will be less than 300 people attending. She will be begging for people to apply for awards. Ag Awards are staff wide - don't forget!

Dave announced that their meeting was held in Cincinnati with 29 family members attending.

Jackie reported that about 16 members will be going to the NDAE4-HA national meeting in Milwaukee October 23 to 26.

Macine and Vanessa will be attending the NEAFCS meeting in Denver October 2 to 6. Vanessa will be receiving the national Continuing Excellence Award.

Randy reported that the new name for their association is Association for Communication Excellence. Andrew Thostenson has received the Communicator of the Year Award. Their national meeting was held in Quebec, CA and three members attended.
 

Concerns From Staff:

Chapman Professional Funds:
County support staff can now use Chapman Funds for professional development. District Directors will review submissions and also contact county staff to look at submissions for approval. Gerald is helping put together some competencies for technology, etc. for support staff.

Chapman funds have not been approved to pay tuition for college courses.

What are expectations of Advisory Councils?
We all need a group of citizens who can advocate for us (on the county and MPU level.) How are we ensuring that the programs we deliver are on track to what the citizens in our area want? Is there a voice out there who can advocate for us? There are definite benefits to having an established group! It is becoming more of a problem for commissions to drain their general budgets for extension. Thus, an advocate group is not a bad idea! Grand Forks has a nice council with six members, although they want eight. They are strong people who have been educated about the land grant system and how we have evolved into what we are today and where we are going for the future. They meet twice per year.

There seems to be some lack of communication from District Directors
E-mails of schedules from district directors would be appreciated so county staff know where they are.

Request that a program restructuring SBARE so that they would be more representative of all extension programming.
Broad based programs will not get attention without legislative change. Political capital of extension lies with us in the counties. We need to plant the seeds with them.
 

Next Meeting: The Monday of Fall Conference: November 6 (probably in the AM)