North Carolina Cooperative Extension

North Carolina Cooperative Extension State Advisory Council

February 5th – 7th, 2008 Meeting Minutes

Onslow County

Jacksonville, North Carolina

Tuesday, February 5, 2008 Total Attendance (33)

North Carolina Cooperative Extension State Advisory Council Members in attendance: (22)

Ireni Autry, Josh Bridges, Ron Joyner, Jack Parker, Chuck Moseley, Pete Miller, George Quigley, Jo Ann Stroud, Shelly Willingham, John Schnautz, , Jacob Furr, George Quigley, B. A. Smith, V. Mac Baldwin, , Charles Boyd, , Larree Cherry, Sam Brake, Connie Buckner, Mary Ann Lumpkins, Jackie Lewis, Lynn Yokley, Dave Woodmansee

A&T Administration in Attendance: (3) Dr. Shirley McNeill, Sheilda Sutton, Dr. Ray McKinnie

NCSU Administration and Staff in attendance: (7) Joy Staton, Dr. Jon Ort, Dr. Danny Shaw, Dr. Wanda Sykes, Kevin Gamble , Peggie Garner, Pam Dickson

Guests: (1) Mr. Alvin Barrett, County Manager

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Meeting began at 2:00 p.m.

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Welcome and Introductions: Mr. George Quigley, Chair of the State Advisory Council, opened the meeting at 2 pm at the Comfort Suites in Jacksonville, NC.

Dr. Danny Shaw, Southeast District Director, welcomed everyone to the Southeast district. Thanked everyone for being here and for what they do for Extension. Danny Shaw thanked Wanda Sykes for the great leadership she has provided for this district in the past. Chairman Quigley introduced Dr. Connie Buckner, a new Advisory member. She introduced herself and invited everyone to come to Madison County.

George introduced Peggie Garner, Onslow County Extension Director, who welcomed us to Onslow County. They have a busy schedule planned for us. They have a great relationship with County Government. They have a great relationship with the military community and the county supports the ones left behind so that those deployed can concentrate on their safety. In the morning we need to make sure everyone is on the vehicles no later than 9:30 am. Bring things you need with you for the entire day because we may not be coming back to the hotel.

George introduced Mr. Alvin Barrett, County Manager of Onslow County. He welcomed us all to Onslow County. Mr. Barrett grew up on a farm. Times have changed. The role of Cooperative Extension has changed because of urbanization of the counties. Onslow County has a population of 160,000 including military and the county is expecting 9,000 more troops. Onslow County would be described as a transient county. Onslow has become the home of choice for military retirees. The county takes pride in providing the best customer service possible and networks with Cooperative Extension to achieve this goal and to prevent duplication of services. Cooperative Extension has requests from the county to help with landscaping projects, food and nutrition programs, and many other county projects. Mr. Barrett thanked us for coming to the county.

George introduced Dr. Jon Ort, Assistant Vice-Chancellor and Associate Dean & Director of North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service. Dr. Ort came to give us the Administrative Update from the University.

Dr. Ort welcomed everyone to the meeting. He remarked that he is proud to stand before you as a friend and colleague in Extension and we have the best partnership with A&T than any other land grant universities in the nation. Strength others lack is in volunteers and partnership with county government. Without that partnership we could not deliver the research based information that we need to get out to the citizens of our state.

Dr. Ort thanked everyone for helping put together the agenda. Dr. Ort thanked Wanda for the legacy she has left in the Southeast. He is excited for what she will do for the Northeast.

We’re concerned about tomorrow’s leaders in Extension. Kevin will be talking about the rollout of eXtension. . Will be hearing about our strategic plan and marketing rollout. There are very exciting things that are part of the change management in marketing leadership. Danny will talk about the new 6 districts and what that means to our state. We will see a different attendance of district directors at meetings. Each District Director has more counties added to their district and with that they have looked at a different plan for attendance. The host of district will attend all three days and contingent district directors will be here a minimum of one day each. All District Directors are welcome to attend the SAC meetings as much as their schedule will allow above minimum recommendations. We will see new slogans and how we market and talk about Extension. Included in the packet that Dr. Ort brought are some statistics from NCSU on academic programs. We are third in the country in student enrollment in the College of AG and life sciences. Also included is a new brochure from the Research office which shows some of the innovative programs we have on research side. We continue to work with the committee that has been assigned to work with research stations. Dr. Ort has a handout on NC 4-H Camps and Conference Centers planned projects. We have received 7.5 million but will ask for the additional 1.5 million in the next short session. Dr. Stewart will be here tomorrow to discuss this more.

Regional conferences – all SAC members are invited to attend.

UNC tomorrow listening tours – across the state have heard glowing remarks about Cooperative Extension. When that report is authored we want to make sure that our two land grants are discussed and elevated to notoriety so that the system knows who we are, what we do. Some had not heard of Cooperative Extension within the system (such as App State, WCU, etc.) Ed Jones is on the committee to put the report together.

Budget – federal budget came out yesterday, it looks like for Cooperative Extension there will be no increase in dollars but no major cuts. There is a major shifting of funds for Hatch funds. What that means is that if I am a Research Director and I had a 4 million dollar budget, I will now have about 3.2 million less.

This year when we go to PILD we will spend our money trying to keep our noses above water, keeping what we have as opposed to new funding. We will fight to get our earmarks back, targeted programs – those have been very productive. State Side - Kevin Howell won’t have anything for us until March, important on state side to think about strategizing Back Home Visits.

Chairman George Quigley introduced Larree Cherry, who represents A&T on our Advisory Council and introduced those from NC A&T in attendance Sheilda Sutton, and Dr. Shirley McNeill.

George introduced Dr. Ray McKinnie from A&T University who came to give us the Administrative update from A&T.

Dr. McKinnie thanked us for opportunity to come and interact with SAC. He thanked us for Shelly Willingham’s involvement in the SPC council. Dr. McKinnie stated that they are going to 2009 now for budget. We are hopeful that when a group from A&T goes to Washington next week that they argue for getting back to level funding of 08 standing and maintain funding. Personnel standpoint – A&T is busy recruiting an animal science specialist, nutrition specialist, natural resources and environmental sciences specialist Dr. McKinnie asked that we continue to build the relationship between SAC and SPC and continue to work together. We are working for the betterment of all North Carolinians. Dates of Grassroots Leadership Conferences - will share and would like for SAC members to attend. March 30th – April 5th – Small Farms Week. Designed to appeal to small farmers and those that work with them – a lot of the sessions will be at University farm. 1890’s research and extension components June 8th – 11th in Memphis, TN for system wide conference, centering around alternative energy, health and obesity, food safety and youth development. Held press conference today to announce new initiative – Cosby Kids Initiative, partnership with Guilford schools, Guilford Community College and A&T and help African American and Latino children with mentoring and encouraging them to get through high school and further their education.

Dr. Cosby will be commencement speaker this year.

Chairman George Quigley introduced the SAC members that had attended the General Hugh Shelton Forum in Raleigh in November and asked each one to give their thoughts on the forum.

General Hugh Shelton Forum –

Dave Woodmansee: This was the 4th one he had attended, terrific opportunity to attend forums, encouraged all of SAC who have not done so to take advantage of opportunity. It was a very stimulating forum. Makes you think of what leadership is all about. Talked about the speakers he got to hear speak. Shelton Leadership forum will become Shelton Leadership Center and will become a permanent fixture.

Jackie Lewis – her first attendance, thanked Dr. Ort and Joy for allowing her to attend. Teaches value based leadership. Talked about the different speakers she had listened to - highly encouraged everyone to attend when given the opportunity.

Jacob Furr – General Hugh Shelton was a 4-Her and came up through Cooperative Extension. Challenge Institute – 2 across the state, Charlotte – good leadership program - opportunity for networking with others. At NCSU athletes are participating in Hugh Shelton leadership program as mentors.

Sam Brake – his first time, thanked Joy for asking him to attend, if you want to get motivated attend the Hugh Shelton leadership forum.

George introduced Dr. Kevin Gamble, Associate Director, eXtension, NCCES. Kevin gave an overview of eXtension, which is available online 24/7/365. It was collaboratively built to offer non-formal education and information system available on any Internet –ready device. Kevin gave the group a power point presentation on Why eXtension? How it works, Communities of Practice, Why is eXtension good for me? Kevin showed an example of the home page where people can ask questions into the system and get an answer back.

National eXtension Launch will be Feb. 21 -22, 2008 at Ag Outlook Conference in Washington, DC.

George Quigley introduced Dr. Wanda Sykes, Northeast District Director, who gave a talk on the “Leadership Institute for New & Aspiring County Extension Directors”.

Wanda addressed the fact that many directors are getting ready to retire. Leadership is dealing with people so we are trying to teach those skills and what they need to have to be a county extension director and give them the tools they need. It is a program that seeks to develop future leaders from within the field faculty of NCCES. We will have a lot of positions to fill in the near future. You have to submit an application and be selected for the program.

The program was developed and is taught by a partnership between District Directors and Personal and Organizational Development personnel. There will be 4 sessions this year of 3 days/2nights at Camp Caraway. 15 individuals will participate that were selected by a selection committee of CEDs, DEDs, and PODS. Wanda went over the program content.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008 Total Attendance (30)

North Carolina Cooperative Extension State Advisory Council Members in attendance: (19)

A&T Administration in Attendance: (2) Dr. Shirley McNeill, Sheilda Sutton

NCSU Administration and staff in attendance: (9) Joy Staton, Dr. Jon Ort, Dr. Danny Shaw, Peggie Garner, Bob Edwards, Ed Jones, Marshall Stewart, Mitch Owen, Pam Dickson

Chairman George Quigley opened the meeting at 8:00 am

Larree Cherry gave us the thought for the day on “Teamwork”

George introduced Danny Shaw, the Southeast District Director, who spoke to us on District Reorganization

Danny asked the group to get together and come up with questions for him.

John Schnautz – Commented that some of Advisory members would have greater distances to travel that were on the edge of districts.

Shelly Willingham – when new people are selected to serve – notice where their residences are, to take in to consideration when selecting SAC members.

Do districts work better now? It is too early to tell.

Bob Edwards has 10 new counties, Deborah has 7 – many issues to identify and build relationships with co., govt.

Dr Ort – talked about 6 district models for a number of years. It seemed to the right time and right thing to do now.

Ron Joyner mentioned challenges District Directors would face getting to know new counties and that also applies to SAC members.

Danny thanked the group for the questions, mentioned that change doesn’t happen without a wide range of emotions. Time will take care of some of the issues.

George Quigley introduced Ed Emory, Duplin County Extension Director, Duplin is the largest county in the state. Ed talked about Agri-Tourism and its importance.

There is a website that SAC members can visit: HomeGrownHandMade.com which lists various places to buy direct from the farm: http://www.homegrownhandmade.com/ Tourism is very important industry in state – add agriculture which is largest industry in state and it will have a big impact. Only 8% of tourist dollars are spent in rural areas. People are trying to reconnect with the land and want to do things they remember from childhood. There is a movement of buying and eating local food. There is a partnership between NCCES, NCARTS Council, NCD of Cultural Resources and Hand Made in America. Cooperative Extension provides the technical assistance, educational programming, is the facilitator of community coalitions, site identification, trail development.

Now there are 16 trails, 77 counties, statewide launch in summer, 2006, promotions, guide books Website activity went from 187 visitors in November 2004 to 23,438 in 2008. Home Grown/Hand Made is publishing a guidebook, that will be in stores by mid-May. There will be a Public Kick Off – Tourism Day in Raleigh – May 13, 3 regional kickoffs in May and June, Snow Hill, Orange/Chatham Co, and Forsyth Co.

George introduced Stan Dixon, County Extension Director of Greene County who spoke to us on – Latino Efforts

Stan gave a power point presentation on Southeast District Latino Initiative Resource Council – consists of CED’s and Agents and specialist at NCSU Surveyed counties to determine current Latino programs and future needs, developed action plan from that Latino population in the Southeast District was estimated in 2005 to be 68, 269 documented, probably closer to 80000 or 90000 now. Developed needs assessment instrument in Spanish for county offices. Developed Latino Community Resource Directory in hard copy and on CD – Spanish and English