PSC-ED-OVAE
Moderator: Sherene Donaldson
02-11-14/1:00 pm CT
Confirmation #3990356
Page 1
PSC-ED-OVAE
Moderator:Sherene Donaldson
February11, 2014
1:00 pm CT
Coordinator:Welcome and thank you all for standing by.
At this time all participants will have open lines throughout the duration of today’s conference call.Please mute your lines when not speaking.If you do not have a mute facility you may press Star 6 to mute or unmute your phones.
This call is being recorded.If you have any objections you may disconnect at this point.
I will now turn the meeting over to Ms. Sherene Donaldson.Ma’am you may begin.
Sherene Donaldson:Thank you (Brian).I’d like to first welcome everyone to our second call for our State Agriculture Education Leaders conference call.As you know this is a call that’s offered three times throughout the year to help update the field on agriculture education issues as well as issues coming from the U.S. Department of Education.
I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to listen in to our call and participate.
We have a packed agenda so we will begin very shortly.
I’m going to ask that everyone please mute your phone if you have not done so already.
As you heard this call is being recorded.All of the information that’s provided today will be posted on the PCRN web site and you can have access to it at a later date.
What we’re trying to do is provide an archive of the information that is being presented during the conference call so then that way if you’re not able to attend the call you can always have access.
Our first presenter today is going to be coming from the National FFA Organization so I will transfer it over to them for their presentation.Thank you.
(Bill):Sherene thanks very much and hello everyone from Indianapolis, chilly Indianapolis, Indiana coming to you from the FFACenter.We have six reports for you beginning with Convention, Awards, Recognition, Events and Service Management Division
And I give you Mr. Dale Crabtree.Dale.
Dale Crabtree:Good afternoon folks and thank you for allowing us some time with you this afternoon.I want to walk you through some real quick things that come out of our division.We’re going to start with the Convention and Events Management Division.And focus on some of those things that are convention related.
The 2014 Convention Housing for Chapters are currently open.They need to log in through AgCN for more information.But they can at this time book their rooms.We have a number that have already started doing that.
The other thing to share with you is a cost factor for this year’s convention.And the fees for that are set at $50 for preregistered and those staying within the housing block or locals that are driving within 100 miles; $65 preregistration that are not staying within the housing block or obviously outside that range and then anybody that registers onsite is $75.
The other thing convention specific deals with band course and talent, we’ve had some questions about when that application will be available.It will be in the middle of April.Other things that if you have questions or your teachers do about convention would encourage them to go to the web site that’s there.Sherene will share this PowerPoint later and that link is live.
When we look at the awards and recognition portion of this particular division I’ll start with the SAE-based programs, there is a new online course for 2014 out there.Teachers have the opportunity of filing their American Degree either way.We’re working on finalizing the new online form for an American Degree certification and proficiency state check request.That’ll be coming soon.Rosalie Hunsinger will be sending some information.
But as you request your state checks and you send in who your American Degree candidates will be this year that will be done online.
Agriscience Fair, new this year is a state staff signature on the application.This is the only process that we have not asked for state staff signature in the past.And to be consistent and to make sure we have what we need that will be new.
The electricity in the declaration is for those projects that have electricity as a part of their presentation.We will not be providing electricity if somebody’s just wanting to light up their display.So please make sure your teachers understand that electricity request is only for a part of the actual program presentation.
We’re also offering for the first time a template as a resource, not required but it helps the development of the research report.It’s on the web site.If your teachers are looking for a way in which they can report out that portion of the event they have that available.
And then the online certification due this - new this year, teachers need to enter the grade level that the student was at the time at which they qualified at the state level.So again please encourage your teachers to take a look at that.
Also the National Chapter timeline piece that we’ll share is as you request your plaque, your spurs for your state we would ask that you do that four weeks in advance so that we can make sure that you have them in time for your state conferences.
And then the new certification piece on this one.Teachers must select if they are a middle school or high school chapter on that National Chapter Application.
Scholarships hopefully your teachers and students got everything in that was postmarked last week.Advisors needed to make sure that they submitted their online approval and the students had to send those signature pages in.So at the end hopefully you got that taken care of.
There is some information there that follows this that I guess at this particular time I apologize isn’t pertinent anymore because that’s how they should have done it.
So (Bill), that’s everything from our end unless people have questions.
Steve Brown:Dale this is Steve Brown.On the lighting on the Agriscience, there’s no electricity provided, just to light your display.Is that correct?
Dale Crabtree:That’s correct.Yes, we...
Steve Brown:Are they allowed to and maybe I’m getting too deep, are they allowed to use like batteries or any kind of other lighting to light their display if they so choose?
Dale Crabtree:It’s not necessary Dr. Brown.The lighting is sufficient enough.And so in order to provide a consistent appearance for judges we chose not to do any lighting.We do have some students that actually have used electricity as a part of their research project.And so that is.
But to clip a light on the top of a board just to illuminate it no, not that’s not an option.
Steve Brown:All right, thank you for clarifying.
Dale Crabtree:Yes sir.
(Bill):Any other questions for Dale?
Dale thanks very much.
Our next up is the Agriculture Career Network.And I turn it over to (Clay) (unintelligible).
(Clay):Good afternoon.Just wanted to update you on a few things about Ag Career Network; over the past six months Dr. Armstrong, Mr. Bledsoe, the OPS Team and various others have had an opportunity to speak to various stakeholders of - about Ag Career Network and ask what could be done to make it a more viable tool in the classroom.
I’ll - sorry.A list of those goals are right here and they were compiled.And these goals are what - on the screen are what we’ll be looking to continue for 2014 as they apply Ag Career Network.
To help ease the workload and save time we’ve already released a few of these changes.The first is we heard that the roster system is a bit cumbersome, too many places to click and too many things to find and move around on.
So we’ve made available as of February 1st this new enhanced roster.All you have to do is hit the Go button.This enhanced roster allows users to pull reports, approve members, change passwords, all in one location rather than going to multiple menu items.
In addition state staff can also access this to do all their batch information and pull a complete batch report for state staff.
Also we heard that they wanted all the national applications to be centralized.If (we still) only had to fill out one for local and then move it on, that would be also great.
So we had centralized this to the FFAApplicationCenter.You’ll start to see this year the Discovery, Greenhand and Chapter Degree there under that.In addition and over the next year we will begin to move all applications, certifications, et cetera, to this one area.And this will also allow us to keep a full reporting tool there that you can access also.
An update, here are some of the basic information on some of the applications that we have that you’ll see.You’ll have basic applications that’ll look like this.And they’ll be prefilled out with the information in Ag Career Network.They’ll have a central viewing section for the student, the teacher and state staff based upon their access load.It’ll auto populate and it’ll eliminate duplicate work and wasted paper.
As far as those classroom degrees we discussed, the Discovery, Greenhand and Chapter Degree are already located here.And again they prefill out information or there are - is an opportunity for a student to fill out that information in one area.It then creates an online either a printable application or one they can push on to the teacher.
And then ultimately the teacher will be able to actually have a printable certificate to end the process.
Lastly, we want to let you know about the new FFA online experience that’s coming out.After additional discover it was determined that we needed to improve the overall online experience of ffa.org.
Grant computer giant IBM, they came through and reviewed our entire ffa.org web site and provided us with extensive feedback.Right now our Communications Team is busy putting these suggestions into motions.They will integrate Ag Career Network into one location in ffa.org.They will create a single logon system and it’ll provide much more user-friendly interaction.
Couple things about the future release dates.Some new items will come out on June 1st.The completed roster that we - and the enhanced roster will go live on September 1st eliminating the old roster; as of right now they have the ability to use either the old roster or the enhanced roster as you choose fit.
In addition the National Chapter Application, the proficiency and the Star Battery will also be available, will begin September 1st.And the new ffa.org will be available sometime in November.
If you have any further questions or feedback we definitely appreciate that.You can send it to .I don’t always respond to all the feedback right away because I try to put some of those things that you offer me in motion.So please keep them coming and we really appreciate the opportunity to serve you.
(Bill):Any questions for (Clay) on the Ag Career Network?
Seeing none, we’ll move onto our next item of business off to the National FFA Alumni.And it gives me great pleasure to present to you the new Executive Director of the National FFA Alumni Association, Mr. Tony Small.
Tony Small:Well thank you (Bill) and it’s exciting to be in this situation and really be able to work with dedicated council members and members of the Alumni Association.
There’s so many opportunities to grow alumni membership and engage supporters and advocates for local programs.And we know how important that is as we work to grow and retain the number of teachers across the country and making their jobs easier and keeping them in place to teach and lead their students.
So with that there are a number of things that are going to be done in this upcoming year.We’ve got a really good National FFA Alumni Council that’s working hard to make some needed changes that will be very useful in growing and making things happen for alumni.
One of the things that did happen kind of bitter sweet, Amber Smyer after serving ten years with the National FFA Alumni will be moving back to the West and is taking a role with the Nevada Department of Agriculture as their Ag Literacy Coordinator.
So we’re excited for her.And the things that have gone right to move her back to the West where she’s excited to join back again with them.
I lost my notes here, just a sec.
(Bill):How about those Regional Conferences?
Tony Small:Okay.Thanks (Bill).My screen went blank.The Regional Conferences, those Regional Conferences are going to be happening throughout the year.The first of those will be happening March 1st there in Kansas City.
We are looking at the numbers that are coming in for registration right now and it’s extremely important that we get some more people registered for that conference.
But we’re excited to put those on.We had a pilot conference a year ago that was very, very helpful in really identifying ways to enhance local affiliates, alumni affiliates.
And this year we’re going to focus on understanding the role of teachers and local alumni members and their roles, the role of officers in the alumni and responsibilities, growing the alumni members and affiliates and Ag Career Network training so that we can get all alumni engaged in that process.
Information on the tax exemption status for alumni is always something that is helpful to them and then idea sharing and promising practices, just a number of things that will be very helpful to alumni affiliates as they start to identify areas for success for local programs in those states.
So later this Fall, we’ll also have one in Tennessee and then there’ll be another one in Hermiston, Oregon in November.
So look forward to those alumni programs, regional programs out there for some success.
The Alumni Development Conference this summer, actually July 8 through 12th, it’s going to be in Grand Rapids, Michigan.A great conference is being planned.I know there are a number of really challenging workshops that are going to really help local affiliates and states to come back and implement some changes that are being done through alumni.So we encourage all states to get your alumni’s there and be a part of that.
The all new New Visions Newsletter, about to come out.It should come out this next week.Really a beautiful new format with a lot of promising practices and stories with great human interest and news and updates to keep everybody abreast of everything that’s going on with the alumni so a lot of good things happening there.
We continue to work with the Ag Career Network and getting alumni members engaged and online and being a part of that.And more and more resources will become available for alumni members as we move forward.
(Bill), that’s really what I had for today.
(Bill):Tony, thank you; any questions, comments or condolences for Tony?
Next up is an exciting program, something just outstanding.We’ve really been experiencing success with, The Give the Gift of Blue FFA Jacket Campaign.Here to share about that is our Director of Information Lee Anne Shiller.Lee Anne.
Lee Anne Shiller:Good afternoon everybody.I would have to say this is probably the most exciting program I’ve ever been a part of since I’ve been at FFA.
And I sent out several emails over the last couple of months to keep you up-to-date on what’s going on.
But today I just wanted to go over that and to make sure you didn’t have any questions.
All the information can be found at is important that advisors understand the program is intended for members who would not otherwise be able to afford a jacket.The advisor is a gatekeeper for which members they encourage to apply and which applications they approve.
So make sure they understand the intent of the program.With limited funds we want to make sure the jackets are going to those members that really need them.
Members just need to sign onto Ag Career Network to apply and click on The Give the Gift of Blue logo.
And advisors do the same thing.They go to Ag Career Network to approve the application and click on The Give the Gift of Blue logo.
When all of these activities happen and they’re going through the application process we are sending automatic email to each of the members and the advisors to tell them where they’re at in the process.
And depending on funding available at the beginning of each week a jacket order will be placed on Monday morning at which time an email will be sent to the recipient letting them know the jacket has been ordered and to make sure they confirm the personalization on the order confirmation.