Minutes of the
Board of Directors
of the
Iowa Association of County Extension Councils
June 23, 2012
The Board of Directors of the Iowa Association of County Extension Councils met in Ames on Saturday, June 23, 2012. Terry Maloy called the meeting to order. Introductions were made. Those board members present include Don Moore, Al Pokorny, Mary Giese, John Dockendorff, Jennifer Penning, Dave Turner, Kathy Ebert, Terry Maloy, Diann Anderson, Judi Hertle, Frank Kelly, Jo Kenkel, Jim Ed Beach, Jayne Lupkes, and Mary Jo Wagner. Also present were Dr. Cathann Kress, Gene Mohling, Craig Hertel, Mark Settle, Sherry Glenn, and Julie Baumler.
10:00 AM There were no additions or corrections to agenda. Judi moved to approve the minutes from the January 28, 2012 meeting. Jo seconded the motion. The motion carried.
Kathy Ebert gave the treasurer’s report. Our balance in checking is $2,0451.13. A bill of $750 for website maintenance was submitted by Whetstone Resources. Dave moved to approve the payment of the bill. John seconded the motion. The motion carried. Jo moved to approve the treasurer’s report. Jayne seconded the motion. The motion carried.
Terry gave the executive committee report. The accounting software committee sent out an RFP to seventeen vendors for bids. They hope to have the pool narrowed down by August. They will use results from a survey that was sent to council chairs and county staff to help them determine the criteria that is desired. Our current provider will likely make a bid, in addition to others.
The MOU Committee will have their first meeting is today at 2 p.m. to look at the current MOU and see what changes may be desired. The MOU has not been changed since right after the reorganization. Now with a few years of experience under our belt, we probably have a better idea of what we want to include. IACEC plays a significant role to play in the development of this and we want to make sure we represent the needs of the counties as we go through this process.
Terry reported success in our legislative outcomes for 2012. We saw an increase for ISU for the first time in several years. IACEC may want to explore legislative coffees in the fall.
Board members were encouraged to review the year-end report of Board and committee accomplishments for 2011-2012 that were in their packets.
Dr. Cathann A. Kress, Vice President for Extension and Outreach spoke to the group. She has appreciated the open and honest communication with councils as she has worked with them. About a year ago, when she started, the IACEC Board suggested some priorities which she has kept them in the back of her mind while moving forward.
Dr. Kress noted the following highpoints for the year:
· Leadership summit – over 500 people attended yielding good discussions of where we’ve been and where we want to go. This helped launch our ability to put together the strategic plan.
· Structural reorganization on campus – introduced a new county services unit. This group is dedicated to providing support and services for our primary constituent – the citizens of Iowa
· Program leadership – high quality educational programs are a focus
· Operations - developing consistent and efficient processes to do business
· Organizational advancement - keep track of mission and doing what we should be doing. We are communicating our successes. This also includes professional development and scholarship.
Dr. Kress reported that the budget is doing well. There is greater transparency and understanding of ISUEO finances. Seventy proposals were received for strategic initiative funding.
Developing partnerships on campus has been a focus. We are identifying ways that ISUEO can partner with each of the colleges at ISU for better outreach to Iowans. These partnerships include additional funds to accomplish these goals.Extension and Outreach could work on “Big Issue Areas” that cuts across each of the colleges on campus and counties – K12 Outreach, Economic Development, and Global Food Security are three examples of where we can be effective.
Dr. Kress has talked with Terry to identify needs of councils and how we can meet those needs. ISUEO is planning a series of town hall meetings. Dr. Kress disbanded the Citizens Advisory Council because there was the potential for disjointedness. She would instead prefer advisory councils for each of the program areas. She also wants to ensure that IACEC was the go-to organization to help with the overall extension and outreach advising. Terry and Dr. Kress will hold town hall meetings as a way to receive citizen input throughout the state – both current extension and outreach supporters and those who may not have been involved with extension and outreach.
Mary asked how the program leadership integrates with organizational advancement.
K12 outreach – any programs we do with young people in this age range. Dr. Kress responded that 4-H is our premier delivery mode. ESET (Extension, Science, Engineering and Technology) is another program. The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) program will be an addition. The College of Design has a program with communities and community development for K12. They are also trying to bring together other youth outreach across campus.
Nancy Franz, Director, Extension to Families discussed program development and a program catalog. They are working on a program development process that is driven by needs assesment. Some programs will be retired. Nancy handed out templates of the catalog. One of the main drivers for this is that council members have said they didn’t know what programs were available if they want to try some new things or meet some emerging needs. This also allows more opportunities to communicate about the needs in the county and helps identify how to use specialists for those needs that counties want them to be doing. Also, we want to provide support for county-paid program staff. We are getting more sophisciated about how we want to do programming at the county-level. This should help us to understand if we have our resources in the right areas. This will also hopefully align county and state needs. We hope this will help us be more intentional about planning our programming and shift from a program-focused model to an issue-focused model.
On July 15, program directors will submit their programs and the catalog will be available Sept. 1 for councils. There will be two programming seasons: November – April and May – October. The catalog is a tool, but programming will still allow for responsiveness for emerging needs and additional items that are not in the catalog. Nancy asked that IACEC would share the news about the catalog with council members and that we provide feedback back to staff on how the process goes.
Regional Director Craig Hertl talked about the 2013 Budget process and survey findings. Councils have a better understanding of the budget. The quality of the budget is better. Council members participated more in the budget process and continue to want more participation in the process. As councils look at the catalog, they might start thinking about building budgets to meet the programming needs. This also allows for regional conversations to work together to leverage your budgets to work on emerging needs.
Julie Baumler shared the new IACEC Website redesign and updates. She is open to suggestions to increase website traffic and usability.
After lunch, Terry called to order the 2012-2013 Board. Election of Officers was held.
Jennifer moved to nominate Diann Anderson as president. Dave seconded the motion. Dave moved nominations cease. The motion carried. Jo nominated Jim Ed Beach as president-elect. Diann seconded the motion. Dave moved nominations cease. The motion carried. Jo nominated Jennifer Penning as secretary. Diann seconded. Jayne moved nominations cease. Motion carried. It was decided by general consensus that Kathy Ebert remain as treasurer.
Judi moved to approve the Board Process Issues (as attached). Kathy seconded the motion. The motion carried.
Dave moved to appoint Mary Jo Wagner as Board member for Region 7 and Al Pokorny as Board member for Region 18. Jo seconded the motion. The motion carried.
Jayne moved to approve Wells Fargo as the financial institution for the IACEC checking account and to allow Julie to deposit dues checks directly without sending to the treasurer in a move to be more effecient. Dave seconded the motion. The motion carried.
The following standing committee chairs were named:
Policy & Finance – John D.
Legislative – Jayne
Marketing -- Fred
1:00 The committees met and reported back.
Marketing
The marketing committee discussed the website and recommended that we put member benefits piece on the website. Liaison/member communication options were discussed. We currently send notices to a liaison in each county who then forwards the information on to the council members. However, we have received feedback that it would be nice to send information directly to all council members, when possible. After discussion, the board decided to try the MailChimp service for email blasts and evaluate how it is received.
The marketing committee would like to explore purchasing IACEC Banners to be shared throughout the state to publicize our presence. Julie will check into prices with input from board members.
The Legislative Committee recommended that we not do Legislative coffees this year. Instead we will ask councils to invite their legislators to a council meeting after the November elections. They asked the marketing committee to put together an IACEC packet to help identify who we are and what we do and our relationship with ISUEO. Include a postcard in the packet. Also include a stakeholder report. The committee recommended hosting a legislative day again and identifying incentives for council members to come.
The Policy and Finance recommended adding a second signator to the checking account. John moved that the chairperson should be a second signator on the account. Jennifer seconded the motion. The motion carried. John moved the treasurer should reinvest the CD at the best rate found. Judi seconded the motion. The motion carried. The committee recommended sending an invoice to all counties along with member benefits along with a self-addressed envelope. Julie will plan to do this.
The board discussed how we can support the effort for training for new council members on Dec. 1. John moved supporting these trainings for $2,000 to be divided among the sites. Mary seconded the motion. The motion carried.
County concerns, issues, and updates were discussed. John reported that Des Moines County is working on definitions of officer and committee roles. They are also putting together a “task calendar” for regular business that occurs each year to help remind them of reccuring agenda items. They are also putting together a resource checklist of concrete tasks for new employees. Sherry will bring this up with Emily L. to see if she could help put together a resource.
Terry shared a form for travel expenses that can be used by council members. Terry will share the link with Julie to go on the website.
Judi mentioned that their council is hosting a thank-you dinner for fair volunteers and will also conduct training at the same time.
Terry shared that as exec director he is meeting with individuals at the university to leverage the buying power of the university for our members.
Jim Ed has someone that would be interested in talking with us about health benefits.
John asked how the changes in Open Public Meeting Law will affect us. Mark noted that it does not change the law, but instead will provide a review board rather than a punitive method. It also defines the difference between draft documents and final documents and how those need to be shared. This is seen as a positive outcome.
Jim Ed moved to approve board member travel expenses of $1,915.11. Judi seconded the motion. The motion carried.
1:59 PM The next meeting date was set for Nov. 10.
2:00 PM Dave moved to adjourn the meeting. Jo seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
______
Jennifer Penning, Secretary
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