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| Attendance: | Ivory Lyles Chris Deren Mike French Lynn Russell Tom Troxel Brett Powell Kent Rorie Darlene Baker Tom Riley |
Nina Boston Kelly Bryant Charles Whitaker Don Johnson Tony Windham Joe Waldrum Bob Reynolds Eugene Thomas |
Dick Kluender Wayne Davenport Dennis Gardisser Bernadette Hinkle Donna Rothberg Judy Riley Quinton Hornsby Alberta James |
| By Interactive Video in Hope: | Mike Phillips |
The meeting began at 1:30 p.m. in Classroom 3 of the Little Rock State Extension Office.
(Connection with the interactive video in Fayetteville was not available.)
Dr. French introduced Dr. Kelly Bryant to the group. Dr. Bryant has been serving as Interim Center Director for the Southeast Research and Extension Center since January 1 due to the retirement of Dr. Ed Colburn. This was Dr. Bryant’s first time to attend an Admin Cabinet Meeting.
Agenda Items
Overview of Extension’s Sexual Harassment Policy: Donna Rothberg discussed Extension’s Sexual Harassment Policy, CESP 2-7, which can be found: http://intranet.uaex.edu/policy/civilrights/harassment.asp
She also discussed the Grievance Procedures, CESP 2-14, which can be found: http://intranet.uaex.edu/policy/civilrights/griev.asp
Points emphasized were the many definitions of sexual harassment and the supervisor’s role of awareness and responsibility in reporting alleged incidents. This subject will be included in the training in November for Staff Chairs and Section Leaders. There is also a need for training for all employees.
Proposed Policy on Vendor Rebates: Brett Powell discussed a proposed policy on vendor rebates. There is a need for a policy since there has been no way to track these rebates in the past. Rebates are incentives offered by a vendor to provide additional consideration or compensation to encourage the purchase of goods and/or services from that vendor. Examples of rebates include but are not limited to cash, credit toward future purchases, free goods (including food and beverages), and coupons. Authorized rebates are the property of the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service and are used to offset the expense incurred to generate the rebate. Rebates to Extension may not be used for individual or non-University purposes. When making direct purchases, departments may not solicit rebates from vendors. Unsolicited rebate offers must be submitted in writing to the Purchasing office for approval before the rebate is accepted. In general, quantity or payment discounts should be negotiated by the Purchasing office in lieu of supplier rebates or incentive payments. However, when a rebate or incentive payment is approved it shall be returned to Extension as a check rather than credits to make additional purchases. Rebate checks must be made payable to the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service. The rebate check must be deposited to the appropriate account and unit using the same Fund, Orgn and Account from which the purchase was made. If the purchase order or contract only provides for rebate credits, credits shall be used promptly to purchase needed goods and services for the University program or activity that generated the credit.
County Agent Starting Salary Increase: The new starting salaries for county agents are: $27,000 for BS Degree and $32,000 for Masters Degree. We will no longer keep program associate salaries the same as county agents. There will be a $5000 increase for completing requirements for the Masters Degree. A letter will be sent out soon.
Masters Degree Required for Staff Chair Positions: Effective January 1, 2004, the Staff Chair position will require a Masters Degree. Those already in the position will be grandfathered into the system. No new appointments will be made with a BS degree only.
Strategic Planning Meetings: Dr. French updated the group on the progress of the Division Strategic Planning effort which also includes Lynn Russell, Darlene Baker, Judy Riley, Rich Poling, Donna Graham, and Rick Roeder as the committee. The statewide kickoff meeting was held in Little Rock in December 2003 and was a great success. Three of the 15 area meetings have been completed to date with good feedback. Each area meeting consists of representation of four to six counties with about 10 from each county. The area meetings will be completed in three to four weeks. The Admin Cabinet members will be sent a list of the dates and locations of the remaining area meetings and are asked to notify Mike French if they wish to attend. There is also a plan for input from employees and some special interest groups.
Mission Statement: There have been several versions of the Cooperative Extension Service’s mission statement appearing lately. Dr. Lyles and the Executive Team reviewed a variety of versions and decided that the statement that emerged from the strategic planning process in 1992 is the official mission statement. From this date forward, and until it is updated through a legitimate formal process, Extension’s only official mission statement is: “The mission of the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service is to provide research-based information through non-formal education to help Arkansans improve their economic well-being and the quality of their lives.” The official and correct mission statement is on the CES web site.
In-Service Training: There were 116 in-service training proposals submitted this year. Eighty-three were cut because they did not meet the minimum enrollment requirement of 10 participants. Too many proposals are being submitted. There is concern that some agents are signing up for training that they already have expertise in and don’t need. Are we tracking enrollment close enough? Are supervisors doing enough professional development counseling? Hopefully when the new software is installed, it will be easier to track proposals and enrollment.
Admin Cabinet Retreat: Wayne Davenport provided information on the Admin Cabinet Retreat which will be held May 20-21 at Queen Wilhelmina State Park Lodge that sits atop Rich Mountain in Polk County (Mena). The retreat will focus on major gifts fundraising as well as related financial resource development issues. Any input about topics/issues/concerns of interest to you should be sent to Wayne Davenport by email or by calling 501-671-2079. Rooms should be reserved individually by contacting Brenda Lynch in the Marketing and Sales Department at 1-800-264-2477 or 479-394-2863 or by email at brenda.lynch@mail.state.ar.us. Rooms are being held for the 19th (for those who want to come early) and the 20th. Preliminary plans are to begin the meeting at 10 a.m. on Thursday morning and conclude the retreat by 2 p.m. on Friday, May 21. Reservations must be made by Friday, February 27.
Reports From Cabinet Members
Kent Rorie / Judy Riley – Delta District
One Division of Agriculture Strategic Planning session has been conducted in the district. Two additional sessions will be held next week and two more the last week of February.
In the process of selecting applicants for internal positions announced last month.
Numerous county crop production meetings have been held in the district and will continue through the end of February.
Many FCS agents are conducting FSNE school programs.
Brett Powell – Financial Services
By April 9, each individual with an Extension cell phone will have to switch over their service to one of the options on a list that will be provided. Will be able to keep the same phone number.
Brett handed out copies of the Purchasing Card Pocket Guide for Cardholders. Questions can be referred to Renee Perkins, Purchasing Card Coordinator. Web information can be found at the following link: http://www.uaex.edu/depts/financial_services/purchasing/default.htm
Joe Waldrum – Organizational, Staff and Leadership Development
We continue to evaluate online training management software. Educator is being used by
Steve Dennis and Sherry Roe in a free trial to implement their required child care course training. Their experience will be valuable in deciding between that and Blackboard. The survey results will be e-mailed to the cabinet.
LeadAR Class 11 leaves for Wisconsin/Washington D.C. on February 24 and will return
March 6. Besides visiting with our congressional delegation and several federal agencies, we will meet with Asa Hutchinson and Ray Simon.
New Employee Orientation is still planned for March 29-31 at the 4-H Center.
Karen Ballard will be rolling out an AIMS quarterly enhancement that includes the following: An e-mail announcement will be sent to all faculty early this week announcing AIMS changes, which will be live on Thursday.
Based on user requests and data report needs, there will now be reporting choices to identify multiple volunteer audiences. Users will have coding choices at the time of reporting for Civil Rights reporting needs.
FSNEP Enhancements will only go to FSNEP/FF news users – these changes will address problems identified with user errors. AIMS Enhancement tutorials will be sent as attachments with the e-mail announcement to support user training.
Plan of Work changes for the 2004/2005 program year are due to section leaders/program leaders and Karen Ballard on Monday, February 16.
Two training sessions were held by OSLD staff in the Computer Lab on January 30 and February 3 for all specialists who desired help with identifying and making POW changes.
CSREES Federal Report & the VP Report guidelines and support materials were e-mailed to all specialists, section leaders and administrators on February 2. The due date for submission to Mike French, Lynn Russell and Darlene Baker is March 1. We have requested that the final edits be done by section leaders prior to submission for final review by Mike, Lynn & Darlene. The final approvals for submitted material will be made by the Associate Director/Program Leaders. Approved program content will be submitted on CD to Karen Ballard by March 8. Karen Ballard will compile the joint report. The report will be finalized by March 30 and transmitted to CSREES for the April 1 deadline. The employee time survey will be sent out this week to District Directors, Program Leaders and Section Leaders. This survey is needed to compile the employee FTE’s devoted to each federal goal and program investment calculations, as required for the CSREES Report.
Electronic step-by-step instructions have been sent to all specialists, for accessing AIMS data reports for their programs. There are multiple reports provided in AIMS that specialists can use for preparation of the VP & CSREES Annual Report of Accomplishments. Mary Poling will be contacting all section leaders this week to offer additional training support to specialists for accessing their key reports.
Allisen Penn reports that as of January, the Faculty Leadership Program has completed the seventh and final seminar for Class One. The National Study Tour to Washington D.C., March 20-27, and a graduation event tentatively scheduled for April 16, 2004, will conclude the program. The class members have submitted leadership projects that range from implementing an Organizational Culture Enrichment Program and a Mentoring Program for New Faculty to projects that have specific impacts on subject-matter programming. Each class member has also completed a Professional Development Plan outlining their long-term career goals, and their plans to achieve their goals. These and other projects and assessments completed by the class will serve as benchmarks for evaluations to monitor the medium and long-term impact of the program on the progress of the class members. Plans for the Faculty Leadership Program, Class Two are underway and will follow this time line:
July and August, 2004 Advertise for new class
September 30, 2004 Applications due
November 15, 2004 Selection process complete
December 1, 2004 Announcement of Class Two members
December, 2004 Class members complete pre-work for program
January, 2005 Faculty Leadership Program, Class Two begins
Rich Poling reports that three of the 15 multi-county strategic planning meetings have been conducted. The remaining meeting will be held over the next three weeks (3-5 per week). Participants in the meetings have, so far, been actively involved in the process and many have expressed appreciation that we are asking for their opinions. The Strategic Planning Committee will now be starting to develop the on-line survey process for our faculty and staff to give input into the strategic planning process. We hope to have that part of the process completed by April.
Darlene Baker – 4-H Youth Development
Fifty-two agents/paraprofessionals participated in 4-H 101 training this month
New publication released for use by 4-H club treasurers to assist in compliance with financial management policies
4-H working in collaboration with FCS will receive an Ameri-Promise Fellow. This person will be working on a youth health initiative and will be house in the 4-H office.
Arkansas has been selected as one of five states to collaborate with the United States Army in a pilot project, “Understanding Military Culture”. The pilot is being designed to assist children of Army personnel who have been deployed and will provide $30,000 of implementation funding.
Arkansas 4-H members were very visible at the press conference when Governor Mike Huckabee kicked off the “My Community” project. To date, 55 communities have indicated an interest.
Faculty members are making final plans for three additional in-service training opportunities to be offered this spring.
The state 4-H Ambassadors will meet next weekend at the 4-H Center
The C.A. Vines Arkansas 4-H Center has been selected as the site for the 2005 National Extension Volunteer Coordinator’s Conference
A 4-H faculty committee has been established to design a 4-H Alumni search, their goal is to identify as many 4-H alumni as possible prior to our 100th birthday in 2008
Eugene Thomas – Print Media Center
The Print Shop is receiving work orders more frequently from outside clients. Currently they receive as many from outside clients as inside clients and expect that outside work will increase in the future. Employees are encouraged to schedule their print jobs to allow plenty of time for completion.
Bob Reynolds – Communications and Marketing
Chris Meux held a workshop on Illustrator to a packed room recently. There seems to be an interest in learning how to use Illustrator to help design quality Extension material. Also, there has been a request for a workshop on Photoshop. Chris and Jennifer will work on that.
As a result of a Communications and Marketing retreat that occurred in late fall, we have two committees that have been meeting semi-regularly to develop plans for improving our marketing of Extension in an urban setting. Most of our meetings in December were cancelled due to various members wrapping up the year with annual leave. However, we were back and pulling our plans together in January 2004 and both the Food Safety and Youth PR and Horticulture PR committees are moving along very nicely in developing plans that should enhance our presence in central Arkansas. I was scheduled to report our progress to the Executive Team in February, but have asked for an extension to the March meeting when we hope to have complete plans.
We continue to get great play on KUAR/KLRE, the two public radio stations that broadcast from UALR. We have approached the radio station that broadcasts from Arkansas State University and they are showing interest in playing our spots. We will be contacting the public radio station that broadcasts from Fayetteville as well and will be pitching our radio spots to them as well. In addition, the spots are going up on our web site. Kevin Quinn has taken over this duty and is on the look out for ideas that play well to white collar urban/suburban audiences. Any ideas, contact him.
Real Living, a new slick, four-color magazine, recently featured Master Gardeners and the Cooperative Extension Service. The Communications and Marketing staff worked with the Pulaski County staff in gaining the coverage.
The Media Production Center is very busy – FSNEP displays are going out daily and I’ve received excellent feedback on their design and look. The center is also producing ABIP displays, FSNEP impact sheet displays, demonstration signs and some work for UALR.
We are receiving applications for quality candidates for a public relations specialist and a media center manager. The deadline for applications on both positions is Monday, February 16, 2004. Once the applications have been turned in, the interview procedure will begin.
Kelly Bryant – Southeast Research & Extension Center
Extension specialists were very involved in the Cotton Beltwide Conference held in January.
Busy now with production meetings.
Richard Kluender – UAM Forest Resources
Had a good Center meeting January 8-9
Promotion documents are to be finalized this week
Forest Resources Symposium is scheduled for May 26
Field Day has been set and is on the calendar
Donna Rothberg – Human Resources
Requesting patience from employees since benefits position was vacated in December. Human Resources only has four employees at the present time:
Lynda Lee (filling in right now on retirements and benefits)
Veda Thompson (new policies and revisions, unemployment claims)
Billie Coleman (employment ads, secretarial testing and paperwork, main desk)
Donna Rothberg (EEO, civil rights, disciplinary issues, legal issues, etc.)
Tom Riley – Environmental & Natural Resources
Master Farmer Program plans are progressing. We have advertised a coordinator position and are in the process of establishing a selection committee.
The Nutrient Surplus Area project is in its beginning phase. The total project is three years in length with a budget of 1.365 million dollars. It has 819 thousand dollars of grant support from the EPA 319 program through the Arkansas Soil and Water Conservation Commission. It includes all or parts of fourteen counties in north and west Arkansas. Included are (all or most) Benton, Washington, Carroll, Boone, Marion, Madison and (part) Baxter, Searcy, Newton, Franklin, Crawford, Sebastian, Scott and Polk Counties.
Included in our responsibilities are development of training programs for Applicator and Planner Certification and the education of farmers in the affected region about the changing regulations. The actual certification will be the responsibility of the state regulatory agency. In this case the Arkansas Soil and Water Conservation Commission. We are in the process of advertising a coordinator position for this project.
We continue to be involved in educating growers about changing regulations associated with Animal Feeding Operations and Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (AFO/CAFO rules). These are changing concurrent with the Nutrient Surplus Area Rules noted above and with a court ordered set of rules in the Eucha/Spavinaw Watershed in Benton County. To say there is confusion is a gross understatement.
We have advertised a Forestry Instructor position that will assist in developing a forestry educational program primarily directed to the needs of forest land managers/owners in north Arkansas. We are preparing to interview two applicants.
Nature Mapping is going forward with the naming of a steering committee. Dr. McPeake was invited to submit a full proposal to the National Science Foundation in support of the Nature Mapping Program.
Environmental and Natural Resources Specialists are working with Researchers, Engineering, Poultry Science and Pest Management to evaluate an “In House” poultry litter management technique to reduce clean out risks and increase the quality of the production environment in poultry houses. The work is continuing this week.
Specialists are working with Washington and Benton Counties to propose an Urban Storm Water Management program. We have met with the regional planning district and have a proposed budget that will be taken to their planning council within the month. If successful the project will fund an agent with the primary responsibility of helping cities in the region to comply with the education and public outreach components of new EPA Stormwater rules.
Upcoming: Arkansas Forest Center Symposium – May 26, 2004
UAPB Rural Life Conference – February 13, 2004
Agent Core Competency Training – March 17-19, 2004
Quinton Hornsby / Alberta James – Ouachita District
Busy filling internal positions and interviewing
5 Strategic Planning meetings in the district in February
Working on joint project with Louisiana on pecan trainings
FSNEP
Body Walk
Dennis Gardisser / Lalit Verma – Biological & Agricultural Engineering
All BAE faculty made presentations on their 2003 accomplishments and plans for 2004 at the Annual Program Review held on January 6.
Karl VanDevender held a Reg 5 Planning meeting with key swine producers and industry representatives and started preparations to hold the meetings.
Karl VanDevender worked with Mike Daniels to meet several times with ASWCC and NRCS on developing the training curriculum for the Certified Planners and Applicators in the Nutrient Surplus Areas.
Karl VanDevender participated in the January 29-30 winter meeting of the National Pork Board's Swine Educators Advisory Group. This meeting reviewed current educational efforts/curriculum/programs, planned the September train the trainer meeting for county agents and Ag educators, provided guidance to the NPB's Producer Education committee to assist them in setting funding priorities.
Phil Tacker attended the Beltwide Cotton Conference and presented posters in two different poster sessions. Also represented Arkansas in a special meeting of Humid Area Cotton Irrigation Work Group.
Phil Tacker attended AR Soil And Water Education Conference at ASU. Joint author of presentation made by Earl Vories and presented 2 posters in the poster session.
Phil Tacker made a presentation at the AR Crop Management Conference.
Phil Tacker received written notification from ASWCC that 319h grant that he and Earl Vories submitted was approved - "Demonstrating the Impact on Water Use and Runoff Water Quality of BMP Implementation for a Rice Rotation in the L'Anguille River Watershed".
Dennis Gardisser was inducted into the BAE Academy at the annual meeting held in January.
Dennis Gardisser participated in two PAASS (Professional Aerial Applicator Support meetings) – one held in Arkansas, one in Missouri.
Dennis Gardisser received Missouri AAA Service award at their meeting in January.
Dennis Gardisser taught new required training school for ASPB – those that had violations in 2003 were required to attend – 116 in class.
Dennis Gardisser was an invited speaker at IFCA (Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association) in Peoria.
Fly-Ins will start soon – two in late February.
Dennis Gardisser is busy conducting numerous meetings on grain drying, chemical applications and GIS Utilization.
The annual meeting of the Southern Region BAE Department Heads (AC-5) was held on the U of A campus during January 7-8, 2004 in the Poultry Science conference room. Bob Gustafson, ASAE President, Dick Hegg, CSREES representative, and Bill Brown, Administrative Advisor joined the 11 department heads who attended this meeting. The second day included a tour of field research.
The BAE Academy inducted its third class of members on January 8, 2004. Four members were inducted in the ceremony. The academy members held a brief meeting before the induction ceremony and elected new officers for the coming year.
The 2004 Annual International Meeting of the Institute of Biological Engineering (IBE) with the theme of “Exploring Frontiers of Biological Engineering” was held during January 9-11, 2004 in Fayetteville, AR. The five technical areas included were Bionanotechnology, Biosensing, DNA Computing & Bioinformatics, Bioprocessing, and Ecological Engineering. The first day included invited plenary session speakers with technical sessions and posters on the second day, followed by program summary and recommendations in each of the five areas on the third day.
A Biomedical Engineering Forum was held on January 12, 2004 with participants from University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, Washington Regional Medical Center, and UofA faculty.
A proposal for a Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering has been approved through the various committees on campus and will be considered by the Department of Higher education this spring. We hope to have this in place for fall 2004.
Proud to have Ms. Dawn Farver as our first Walton Distinguished Doctoral Fellow. She comes to our program from The Ohio State University and will be working with Dr. Marty Matlock in the Ecological Engineering area.
Don Johnson – Pest Management
Busy with county production meetings
Crop Management Conference was held in January with about 300 in attendance.
Ples Spradley is taking the lead effort in Rice Pest Management.
Rice Technical Work Group meeting coming up in late February and early March. Several specialists have been nominated for research awards.
Entomology meetings at the end of the month
Boll weevil eradication lawsuits will be coming in the next month or so.
Tom Troxel – Animal Science
The FDA will ban feeding poultry litter in late February.
Changes in section – Shane Gadberry took over the position George Davis was in when he retired. Now have vacancy for beef improvement coordinator.
Southern Section meetings will be held in Tulsa next week.
Bernadette Hinkle – Finance & Administration
Construction has started on the new UALR Special Events Center. If weather permits, employees will notice some fence posts being set in lot 13. Those poles will delineate the position of the construction fence for the building of the center.
Legislative Requests – Capital requests include CES Building II, Information Technology request $1.3 million; Personnel requests – if there are any new classified positions that are needed, work with Donna Rotherg and Bernadette in compiling the request.
Positions advertised: Benefit Manager, PR/Writer, one-half time Data Manager, Landscape Supervisor, and Director for Financial Services
Lynn Russell – Family & Consumer Sciences
From mid-September, 2003 to January 30, 2004, nearly 13,000 students have experienced the University of Arkansas Body Walk. The exhibit is scheduled to visit 54 more schools before the end of the school year. A grant from the Blue and You Foundation ($107,000) will help us to cover annual operating costs.
All FCS core competency teams have met and competencies in Family Resource Management; Health; Food, Nutrition, and Food Safety; and Marriage, Parenting and Family Life are being finalized. Core competency training for 2004 will be established based on the recently developed competencies.
The Healthy Steps program will continue through 2004. This month’s Healthy Steps focuses on having healthy blood pressure. Encourage your faculty and staff members to adopt one new practice (healthy step) each month.
Thirteen Arkansas Extension faculty members participated in a tri-state public policy forum sponsored by the NEAFCS affiliates in AR, LA and MS. The two-day training introduced participants to skills needed to conduct an issues forum. Health care was the topic used to demonstrate how public issues forums were conducted.
The 21st Century Families Conference: Emerging Issues is scheduled for April 20-22 at the Peabody Hotel in Little Rock. This national conference includes four tracts focusing on topics of interest to professionals who work with families and children. To date we have registered 270 people. Registration is being handled on line via the conference website. We are hoping to register 350 to 400. The conference will serve as in-service training for FCS agents.
In partnership with CSREES and ARS (Delta NIRI) we are planning to employ a Regional Program Leader-Rural Nutrition to begin the strategic planning process for the development of a regional Center for Rural Nutrition. The Position description is being finalized and a concept paper is being developed.
March 9-10 are the dates for the AEHC officer training. The meeting will be conducted at the Arkansas 4-H Center.
An FCS Advisory committee is being established. Members will represent all areas of FCS and will represent diverse audiences. Specialists are recommending individuals to serve on the committee. Recommendations for membership should be sent to Lynn Russell.
Mike French – Agriculture & Natural Resources
Grant requests need to be sent through the approval process well in advance of the deadline. Lately, administration has been receiving these the day before the proposal is to leave the state office and this does not allow enough time for all to review and sign. Dr. Lyles will no longer sign off until the appropriate associate director has signed. Also need plenty of notice on the salary incentives. Some have been holding briefing conferences before the paperwork comes through and this is helpful, however, time is still needed to review the budget when the actual document is routed through the system.
Need more ag participation in LeadAR classes. LeadAR is a good program that we strongly support. Encourage agents and specialists to consider involvement in the program.
Chris Deren – Rice Research & Extension Center
Will have good representation at the Rice Technical Work Group meeting in New Orleans at the end of the month.
Three new rice varieties – 2 long grain and one medium grain
Working on 2003 production meeting summaries
Charles Whitaker – Physical Plant
The on-site vehicle oil change and maintenance process is going well. It has been opened up for private vehicles as well as Extension vehicles. Good participation.
Nina Boston – Information Technology
The LRSO building is now wireless. Ed Erwin and Mark Barnhard recently completed the project as one of their 2004 goals. The wireless network is set up to provide Internet access throughout the educational wing, offices and meeting rooms. It is segregated from the office Novell network for security reasons. The high amount of metal in the building and building firewalls have caused a low-signal zone in the eating area behind the vending machines that will be addressed at a later time.
IT is moving forward with the document imaging project. Final specifications are being developed for the server hardware and software. Human Resources and Financial Services will be the first participants.
Mark Barnhard and Brent Milligan worked late the night of January 26 and early the next morning to protect Extension from the onslaught of the MyDoom virus. Attacks from the virus and its offspring have finally begun to wane, dropping from 50 – 70 attacks per hour last week to about 27 per hour this week. We block the attacks before they reach our GroupWise server.
The migration of county offices to DSL or cable modem continues. As of this week, 32 counties have been migrated, giving them roughly 10 times the bandwidth at a savings of over $61,000 per year.
Training is available for the Cooperative Extension Curriculum Project. The last training session on February 2 was recorded and sent to Nina Boston as a standalone executable file that can be viewed on your desktop. The recording can be fast forwarded or stepped through section by section. Contact Nina if you wish to view it.
BeVerly Sims is converting the 4-H Orama database to a web application. This will allow counties to enter the information directly for aggregation.
The new Calendar of Events is now live. Events can be retrieved by month, category or keyword. A recent enhancement, suggested by Bernadette Hinkle, presents the search results in date order.
The redesign of the publication inventory system has begun. A committee met February 3 to discuss the changes needed to merge web, for-sale and in-house publication management into a common database. As the redesign progresses, specialists and department directors may be contacted for their input.
Tony Windham – Agricultural Economics & Community Development
The Arkansas Procurement Assistance Center now has a web-based bid listing system, thanks to Chalmers Davis's extraordinary work. APAC continue to co-host monthly meetings of the Arkansas Chapter of National Contract Management Association. APAC met contract goals for period ending September 30, 2003, as reported to Defense Department on December 15, 2003.
Several Section members serve on the Public Policy Issues Education committee that recently submitted a final report to Dr. Lyles.
Ron Rainey participated in a Listening Session sponsored by the USDA Risk Management Agency in Little Rock.
Ron Rainey organized and funded the Horticultural Risk Management In-Service training.
Tony Windham organized and funded the Livestock Marketing In-Service training for the Ozark District on January 27, 2004. Also funded travel expenses for Agents in the Delta District to attend a commodity marketing seminar conducted at the Forrest City Ag Expo.
Mike Phillips – Southwest Research & Extension Center
Hosted the LeadAR group, well received
Participating in area Strategic Planning meeting
Grants Writing Workshop recently held on U of A Campus
Planning meeting on February 17 for a Pecan Day
Four to five papers presented at Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists (SAAS) meeting in Tulsa. Arkansas will host this meeting in 2005.
Dave Hensley – Horticulture
Southern region ASHS annual meeting will be held in Tulsa February 14-17
Fruit pruning demonstration at Clarksville had approximately 100 in attendance. Thanks to Janet Carson, Dan Chapman, Kenda Woodburn, and the crew at the Fruit Research Substation.
Spring enrollment is 75 undergraduates and 16 graduate students in Horticulture.
Teaching/Research and Extension faculty participated in a 3-week course, entitled Special Topics in Horticulture, Turf and Landscape, in January as part of the General Ag Masters offerings. The course was designed primarily for county agents to provide basic information and resources in home and commercial horticulture topics. It was attended by 4-5 county agents.
Jim Barrentine – Crop, Soil & Environmental Sciences
2004 Beltwide Cotton Meeting
2004 Southern Weed Science Society Meeting
Production Handbook for Grain Sorghum is completed. It is a quality document. Dr. Espinoza is to be congratulated for making it happen.
CSES Specialists have been spending most of their time with county meetings. High interest and most of the meetings have been well attended.
Proposals were completed and submitted to the promotion boards.
Brian Ottis , PhD student of Dr. Talbert, was selected to participate in the leadership program supported by the Rice Federation.
Dr. Derrick Ooosterhuis was named the first recipient of the Clyde Sites Professorship. The Altheimer Foundation and Walton funded this professorship.
Closing Comments:
Brett Powell is leaving Extension March 6 to go to work at UALR. Dr. Lyles expressed his appreciation for the work Brett has done here.
Contact Bob Reynolds for copies of the Annual Report.
Dr. French expressed to the group that through feedback from production meetings and strategic planning meetings, he feels that CES is still thought of very highly around the state.
Dr. Lyles agreed and stated that Arkansas Extension has an outstanding reputation and our credibility in the southern region has increased significantly.
Reminder: The next Administrative Cabinet Meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 8, in Classrooms 1 & 2 at 1:30 p.m. and will not be using the interactive video.
Minutes were taken by Pat Walters.
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