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Cooperative Extension Service |
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Agricultural
Experiment Station |
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U of A Board Policies
Dale Bumpers College
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Cooperative Extension Service
Departments
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| Attendance: | Ivory Lyles Fred Bourland Gus Lorenz Joe Waldrum Nina Boston Lynn Russell Quinton Hornsby Judy Riley |
Mike French Dave Hensley Darlene Baker Tony Windham Eugene Thomas Dennis Gardisser Alberta James Bob Reynolds |
Bernadette Hinkle Dick Kluender Tom Troxel Charles Whitaker Sung Lim Chris Deren Donna Rothberg Jim Barrentine |
| Guests: | Judy Robison | Kelsey Bailey | Karin Grigsby |
The meeting began at 1:30 p.m. in Classrooms 1 & 2 of the Little Rock State Extension Office.
Dr. Lyles began the meeting by welcoming Dr. Gus Lorenz, Associate Department Head for Entomology, to his first Admin Cabinet meeting. He also welcomed Dr. Sung Lim, Department Head / Extension Section Leader for Plant Pathology, to his first official meeting. Dr. Lim attended a previous meeting but this was his first in his new role as Extension Section Leader.
Agenda Items
Overview of Draft Policy on Sabbatical Leave for Extension Faculty: Tom Troxel provided a four-page handout and discussed the draft policy that a committee of Brian Helms, Steve Dennis, Quinton Hornsby, David Hensley, Dennis Gardisser, and Tom Troxel put together for administrative review. Major points:
• An Off-Campus Duty Assignment (OCDA) or sabbatical leave is an appointment that allows eligible faculty and administrators to pursue an approved project while being relieved of Extension and/or administrative duties. The purpose is to enhance the individual’s value to the Extension Service.
• Academic faculty (instructors, assistant professors, associate professors, professors, and distinguished professors), county agents, department directors, district administrators and non-classified administrators who have completed six years of continuous full-time employment with the Extension Service or who have completed six years of continuous full-time service since a previous OCDA may apply for an OCDA. The application must describe the project which the applicant wishes to undertake, where it is to be done, and the anticipated value to the individual and to the Extension Service. To be approved, a proposed assignment must be consonant with the needs, objectives, and mission of the Extension Service.
• The proposed policy is consistent with the OCDA policy for the Fayetteville campus.
• An OCDA is a privilege, not a right. A limited number may be approved by the Board of Trustees each year upon the recommendation of the Vice President for Agriculture. Such assignments are made based upon the merit and accomplishments of the person requesting the OCDA and the significance of the work proposed.
• Off-Campus Duty Assignments cannot exceed six (6) months at full salary, or twelve (12) months at half salary. The Extension Service assumes no financial responsibility beyond the salary stated above.
• Within 60 days after returning from an OCDA, the faculty member or administrator must submit a written report of his or her activities and accomplishments during the OCDA.
• The recipient agrees to return to full-time employment with the Extension Service for at least one year following the end of assignment or the recipient will repay the Extension Service for the salary (including fringe benefits) during the OCDA.
ACTION: Review draft policy and send input to Tom Troxel. Put on the agenda for the next meeting (September or October).
Revision of Classified Employee Performance Evaluation Form: Donna Rothberg discussed the revised classified evaluation forms (EEVAL-156) which are now on-line. The technical competence of employees has always been a part of the evaluation process but a new component was added to evaluate attitude, commitment and cooperation.
Employee ID Conversion: Nina Boston reported the conversion from the use of social security numbers to ID numbers went very smoothly and was completed about a month ago. The conversion was not mandated but up to each individual campus. Donna Rothberg said that new employees will receive an ID card in their new employee packets. However, social security numbers are still required on the front-end for tax purposes. For lost cards or forgotten numbers, employees can go to Intranet Self-Service for assistance.
Time and Leave Reporting / Adjustments: Kelsey Bailey and Karin Grigsby were in attendance to give a status report on the recent change to electronic time sheet entry. It has been one year since it was put in place. The biggest problem has been with the number of adjustments that have to be made after the cut-off on the 20th of each month. The average is 180 adjustments per month and takes about 32-40 hours to enter into the system. A considerable amount of money is being lost when employees forget to report leave taken after time sheets are entered. Also, the current monthly payroll creates overpayment problems with employees who have been on leave without pay or leave the organization during the month since time sheets are closed several days prior to the end of the month to allow adequate processing time for payroll. Changing to a semi-monthly payroll would resolve most of these and similar problems. (See next agenda item.)
Semi-Monthly Payroll Proposal: For some time now, the Executive Team has been discussing changing to a semi-monthly payroll (24 pay periods per year). Dr. Lyles is ready for the Admin Cabinet to discuss the concept with their departments and provide input and discussion on the subject. Bernadette Hinkle is putting a proposal together on the pros and cons of the organization making this change. Hourly employees are already on a semi-monthly payroll and get paid on the 1st and 15th of each month. The transition to semi-monthly payroll would require a two-week lag in pay for the first check. Therefore, if funds can be obtained, a proposal is being considered that Extension would grant a one-time conversion incentive of two weeks pay to current employees to offset any inconvenience the transition may cause. This would not affect employees hired after the payroll change has gone into effect. For example, if the new payroll started on January 1, current employees would receive the one-time conversion incentive check on January 15 for the amount of one-half of their regular monthly pay. Then on February 1, the employee would receive a paycheck to cover the period worked January 1-15. The paycheck received on February 16 would be for the period worked January 16-31 and so on from there. This change would significantly help to resolve the time sheet adjustment issues discussed earlier but would require each employee to submit two time sheets per month. If this change takes place, employees would need to personally prepare by budgeting appropriately and making adjustments in their monthly personal payment obligations.
ACTION: Give comments, suggestions, feedback to Dr. Lyles within the next month.
Direct Deposit for Salary and Travel Checks: Most Extension employees are now on Direct Deposit. There are still about 30 hold-outs. From now on, if a check is lost in the mail, it could take longer than 30 days for an employee to receive a replacement check. In the past, if a check was lost, a replacement check was received in about 7 days. With Direct Deposit, lost or delayed checks are no longer an issue. Legally we cannot require employees to go on Direct Deposit but we have been encouraging them because of significant savings to the organization. In the near future, the system will become completely electronic. Employees will no longer receive the paper deposit advice slips. An email will be sent and employees can go into the Intranet Self-Service and print out their pay stub if they wish.
Provisional Positions: We will begin using a new term – “conditional” for these positions. Sometimes the language is not understood. These are 100% soft-funded, grant-funded positions. This does not apply to someone who was hired into a hard-funded position and then put on soft funding. A hard-funded slot is held in reserve for these individuals. The conditional positions will be identified and a list will be sent to supervisors to double-check. An annual letter will be sent to employees in conditional positions informing them that their position will be terminated if funding dries up. Donna Rothberg has also created a sample offer letter to new employees hired into conditional positions that their employment is contingent upon continued funding of the position.
Budgets for Program Technician and Program Associate Salaries: FYI – By June 30, 2005, the salaries for program technicians and program associates will be moved to departmental budgets and managed by departmental managers.
Internal Innovative Grants Program: Judy Robison was in attendance to discuss the Associate Vice President’s Internal Innovative Grants Program funded by Dr. Lyles from his administrative indirect account. An e-mail was sent to all employees on July 1. The goals of the program are: (1) to foster creativity and innovation (2) to aid specialists and agents in establishing a track record of receiving and successfully administering grant programs and (3) to fund pilot projects and increase chances of securing future outside funding. For FY05, $50,000 will be available. Half of the money is earmarked for county projects and the other half will go to state-level efforts. The maximum award will be $5,000 for a single entity or $7,500 for projects involving multiple counties/sections/departments/units. Projects cannot exceed one year in length (10/1/04-9/30/05). Since this is an internal grant program, no indirects will be charged on the projects. There will be a two-step review process. Following an internal review for technical compliance, an outside panel of retired Extension employees, each having had grant experience during their career, will review the proposals for merit. Complete details of this new program can be found on the Extension Intranet under the department pages. Information and application forms are listed under both Administration and Financial Services. Applications are due by the close of business (4:30 p.m.) on Monday, August 16. Dr. Lyles is looking forward to receiving proposals from all components of the organization.
Spam Filtering of E-mail: Nina Boston discussed the purchase of a filtering program to cut down on the amount of spam e-mail the organization is receiving. The program will block about 60% of the spam; however, some genuine educational e-mail may also get blocked. The program will inform the sender that their e-mail has been blocked. If an employee discovers that some genuine e-mail is getting blocked, they can inform IT and the sender’s address can be put on a “white” list and the e-mails can be received. It will not solve all spam problems but should reduce the volume. The program cost is $800 for the first year and $400 per year after that. The group gave approval to purchase the program.
Timeline for Submission of Promotion Documents: Lynn Russell reminded the group that August 30 is the deadline to notify employees who are eligible for promotion. Last year was the first year for the new process so the schedule ran a little behind. We need to be sure that eligible employees are notified in plenty of time to get their documents together and turned in on time. Dr. Lyles stated that the committee working on promotions for Distinguished Specialist/Agent needs to wrap up. He plans to offer the call for promotion to the distinguished rank every other year instead of every year. All promotions need to get on the same timeline.
Joint AES/CES Unit Head Meeting: FYI – September 15-16, 2004 at the UA System Office. A letter will be sent out soon. This meeting will mainly involve programmatic unit heads but other unit heads may wish to attend especially the first afternoon which will probably begin at 4 p.m.
Joint AES/CES “Management Plan” Meeting: FYI – November 8-12, 2004 at the Winrock Conference Center on Petit Jean Mountain (Morrilton, Arkansas). This meeting will involve all department heads in the Division of Ag – Teaching, Research, and Extension. The duration of the meeting will probably be three days, specific dates to come later. Focus will be Major Goals of the Division of Agriculture.
Leadership Program Study Committee: Tony Windham discussed the work of the Leadership Program Study Committee. The committee was created to evaluate both internal and external leadership programs in the state. They were charged to conduct an assessment of programs being conducted by Extension and outside groups, audiences served (adult, youth, communities, organizations), areas not being served, coordination of Extension programs, administration of Extension leadership programs, and to make recommendations. The committee will send out a web-based survey over the next few weeks to assist in defining external leadership programs. These are defined programs outside of Extension with leadership as the main focus. The District Directors were asked to mention the survey at their upcoming district administrative conferences and encourage agents to participate. The committee plans to wrap up their work by the end of the year.
Reports From Cabinet Members
Bernadette Hinkle – Finance & Administration
- FY04 year-end schedule to close July 23, 2004
- Budget carryover procedure and reports – justification required for carryover over 10%
- Reminder: Fringe Benefit Rate Increases as of July 1, 2004
Institutional Rate 27.43%
CSREES Rate* 22.63%
Temp Labor 8.01%*CSREES rate s/b used for formula funding only, not competitive grants.
- Faculty Salary Funding Incentive Program – changed salary percentage from 10% to 8.33% or approximately one month’s salary.
- Faculty Salary Funding Incentive Bonuses for FY04 = $8,603
Employees will receive payment in one lump payment in July or if the bonus will make the employee exceed their monthly line item maximum, the bonus will be paid out monthly.
Mike French – Agriculture & Natural Resources
- Will be busy with the ANR Core Curriculum Training on pest management, crops, soils, and horticulture this week (July 13-15) in Lonoke. 23 agents are signed up to participate.
- Future plans for the ANR Core Curriculum Training are to move some of the classroom training to web-based training when the software is in place. So that when an agent is hired, they can go on-line and complete courses and test.
Lynn Russell – Family & Consumer Sciences
- Contract with the Minority Health Commission ($156,000) has been renewed for FY05 to deliver “Eating and Moving for Life” in Lee, Mississippi and Sevier Counties.
- Currently developing a grant proposal to the Blue and You Foundation for continued support of the UofA Body Walk. During the 2004 school year the Body Walk traveled to 95 schools and reached 28,328 students. Funds for this project come from the Tobacco settlement funds, the office of Oral Health (Health Department) and the Blue and You Foundation.
- A NRI funding proposal to address childhood obesity was recently submitted in collaboration with MSU, LSU and ARS-Delta NIRI.
- The FSNE program recently received a monitoring review by DHS. The final report noted that “no exceptions” were noted in any area of the review. We are, however, being encouraged by DHS to find strategies to serve food stamp recipients in counties where CES currently has no FSNE program and to make efforts to reach more adult food stamp recipients.
- Dr. Judith Urich, Family Resource Management Specialist, has announced plans to retire effective July 31, 2004. We are currently advertising to fill the position of Family Resource Management Specialist.
- The 21st Century Families Conference was held in April, 2004. More than 350 participants from several states registered for the conference that was held at the Peabody hotel.
- Several FCS faculty members have been appointed to serve on regional FCS module development teams. Modules will be utilized to train FCS faculty in four core competency areas (Family and Child Development, Health, Family Resource Management and Food, Nutrition and Foods Safety).
Darlene Baker – 4-H Youth Development
- Regional 4-H O-Ramas are finished. The State O-Rama is coming up July 28-30.
- Tri-State Work Force Conference will be held at the 4-H Center August 4-6. 4-H members will be attending from Mississippi and Louisiana.
- Cynthia Martin has been hired as the new Food Service Manager at the 4-H Center and will start to work on August 1.
- Arkansas will have a team of 4-H members participating in the Third National 4-H Technology Conference in St. Louis, Missouri. Willa Williams is serving as a member of the National Design Team for this event.
- The Building 4-H Clubs Focus Group met and formed a state 4-H marketing committee.
- David Henderson, Vice President for Marketing with National 4-H Council, will be attending a portion of the Arkansas 4-H O-Rama on July 28.
Joe Waldrum – Organizational, Staff and Leadership Development
- The LeadAR program is currently recruiting for Class 12. We only have 11 applications. Two Extension faculty (one agent and one specialist) are eligible to apply for each class.
- Allisen Penn has formed a Faculty Leadership Advisory Committee to make recommendations for changes in the program. Recruitment for the next class of 20 begins this fall. She has also been named the Chair of the refocused Focus Program on Youth Leadership.
- Dr. Rich Poling has been working with Dr. French and the ANR Core Competency training. The first portion (Fundamentals) ends this week for the first cohort. They will start the second year of the programmed training in 2005.
- Dr. Poling also reports that Dr. Shult has named the writing teams for the Strategic Plan. They will meet this week to begin the writing phase based on the five federal goals.
- Mary Poling reminds us that any changes in AIMS for the 2005 Plan of Work need to be sent to her. Focus Program changes needed to be sent to Dr. Russell this week.
Charles Whitaker – Physical Plant
The on-site oil change service is going well.
Eugene Thomas – Printing Services
- The Print Shop ended the year in the black. Expect the coming year to be even better with more new clients and a bigger share from outside printing.
- Getting ready to introduce new procedures and ways to better save clients time and money
- Looking into new technology that will make jobs go smoother
Tom Troxel – Animal Science
- The 2004 4-H State Horse Show was conducted July 6-9 in Pine Bluff. Approximately 250 4-Her’s participated in this year’s event. The Animal Science Section would like to thank everyone who helped with the event.
- The 2003-2004 Arkansas Steer Feedout Program is completed. Overall the producers did very well making an average of $126 per head by feeding them versus selling them in the fall (2003). Since the price of feeder calves was so high last fall, it was initially thought that if the producer broken even, they would be lucky. Nevertheless, cattle prices increased which resulted in a profit for feeding cattle.
- The Arkansas Beef Council is sponsoring “Beef at the Ball Park” this Saturday night (July 17th) at the Travelers’ game. The Hamburger is 100 years old this year.
- The Animal Science Section is proud to announce to new employees. John Richeson joined Extension on June 2 as the ABIP coordinator. He is from Stillwater, OK and earned a BS degree from Oklahoma State University and a MS from Texas Tech University. Dr. Brett Barham will join the Animal Science Section on September 15 as Livestock Specialist – Breeding and Genetics. Dr. Barham is from New Mexico and earned his degrees from Texas Tech University.
- The American Society of Animal Science and American Dairy Science Association annual Meeting is in St. Louis on July 25-29.
- The Southern Regional Horse Show is in Monroe, LA July 28-August 1. Arkansas is co-hosting this event with Louisiana.
- On August 3-4 Dr. John Jennings is conducting a Clover and Legume in-service training. For additional information, contact Dr. Jennings.
- There are two Stocker cattle programs scheduled in August. On August 10, a stocker cattle program will be held at the Clark County Fairgrounds and on August 19 at the Cattleman’s Livestock Auction in Harrison. Contact Dr. Troxel for additional information.
Tony Windham – Agricultural Economics & Community Development
- Ms. Stacy McCullough started work on July 6. Ms. McCullough will work with Dr. Wayne Miller in our new Public Issues Education effort. Her first assignment will be to assist in developing an educational program related to ballot issues coming this fall.
- The Leadership Program Study Committee has been created to evaluate both Internal and External leadership programs in the State. Our charge is to conduct an assessment of programs being conducted by Extension and outside groups, audiences served (Adult, Youth, Communities, Organizations), areas not being served, coordination of Extension programs, administration of Extension leadership programs, and make recommendations.
- Interviews will be conducted on July 16th to fill a vacant Program Associate position with the Arkansas Procurement Assistance Center.
- Scott Stiles and Tony Windham will be making presentations at Farm Bureau Young Farmer and Ranchers Conference in Hot Springs on July 31st.
- Mark Peterson was a recent keynote speaker at the New Vision Newport Graduation Banquet.
- The Agricultural Economics and Community Development Section presented basic farm management and community development training at the May 11 Core Curriculum In-Service training in Russellville.
- Bobby Coats has revised the Agricultural and Food Policy webpage including the farm government programs section, the conservation section, and the rice outlook section. Also, in an effort to expose a larger number of Arkansas 4-H students to the career pursuit activity of finding and landing a job, Dr. Coats has transitioned this year's 4-H O-Rama Career Pursuit activity from a competition to a seminar titled "Landing That First Job: Advice from the Pros." The seminar is designed to give 4-H members an advantage in a very competitive job marketplace. The seminar will focus on career mapping, the dos and don'ts of resume and cover letter preparation. The seminar will move on to discuss the art of interviewing, and finally address how to negotiate for that desired salary. The seminar will be conducted by Tyson Foods' professional staff.
Dennis Gardisser – Biological & Agricultural Engineering
- Karl VanDevender reports that all the Regulation No. 5 meetings for the year have been completed. The forms certifying which farms attended the meetings have been submitted to ADEQ.
- Karl VanDevender, Mike Daniels, Paul DeLaune from UAF, and Joe Williams from ASWCC, attended the Southern Nutrient Management Conference in Atlanta sponsored by the Southern Region Extension Water Quality project, of which Mike Daniels is our State coordinator. One of the action items from the meeting was to submit and summarize the most pressing research and education needs for nutrient management so that some regional focus groups would emerge in the Southern Region. These actions items will likely be discussed by the UA Environmental Task Force and focus group assignments made.
- March 19: Bio and Ag Engineering Core Curriculum – Gary Huitink taught the Agricultural Safety and Drill/Planter Calibration segments to the new agents.
- On March 23-24 Gary Huitink attended the Health and Safety Summit at Jackson, MS. This was a leadership conference addressing Delta injury and health concerns. Farmers, health delivery agencies, extension, business leaders and others attended conference. He gave a speech on "Experiences from an Expert Witness Standpoint".
- Gary Huitink has been assisting entrepreneurs to develop combination tillage and planting tool for "pulling up beds" and seeding simultaneously. Ongoing work to eliminate weaknesses in components and improve reliability. Initial indications are that corn, grain sorghum and soybeans can be seeded with equal reliability on silt loams and lighter soils compared to more conventional tillage approaches with multiple field operations. Potential for significant diesel fuel saving per acre exists.
- Gary Huitink – April 6, 14, 28 and ongoing: Developing safer walkways for workers while transferring baitfish on trucks. Working with Kevin Quinn, Hugh Thomforde and other aquaculture specialists from UAPB, we have an outline for an educational program to reach the majority of the ownership (truckers and fish farmers) who distribute 90% of the bait fish used for sport fishing in the United States.
- On May 10-12 Gary Huitink participated in USDA (CSREES) / NIOSH Farm Safety and Health Leadership conference in Nashville, TN. The efforts and accomplishments of the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service were summarized. Directions for Extension educational effort and NIOSH research for the 20 southeastern states were discussed and elements of commonality were explored. Additional funds are planned to complete the first stage of the joint institution (1862 and 1890), federal CSREES and NIOSH coordination.
- Gary Huitink responded to clientele requests for tillage, seeding equipment, etc., during a season when a significant segment of producers are shifting planting acreage and modifying equipment to corn and soybeans, primarily away from cotton, due to current crop price structures.
- Search Committee for Extension Associate-Engineering – recommendations were forwarded to administration and Rachel Lipsey was hired.
- May 19 – coordinated and participated in a day-long Staff Training on Safety at Lonoke. Bob Scott, Gary Huitink, Russ Kennedy, Troy Cole and Ples Spradley gave demos or talks on farm equipment hazards, loading and hauling equipment, respirators and other personal protective equipment, mixing and handling pesticides, heat stress and skin cancer protection. Several project leaders and most employees that were hired within the last year attended. Responses to the instruction were encouraging and plans have been made to repeat this next spring.
- Since May 20, Jodie Pennington and Gary Huitink have been contacting speakers and preparing the agenda for a combination ARK-TENN Field Day and Dairy Safety and Legal Responsibility program. Speakers have been confirmed for the program at Center Ridge on August 26, 2004. This program is coordinated with dairy agribusiness and is planned for dairymen in central Arkansas, but is to be publicized to dairymen across the state.
- On May 24, Gary Huitink gave the Executive Committee a brief review of the recommendations of the Risk Management Planning committee. The recommendations were accepted with a challenge to incorporate the basic plans from support units and the 4-H Center. The Committee is assembling the emergency evacuation plans and other measures and will highlight them during the Faculty Conference on September 13, 2004. This committee is composed of Dennis Gardisser, Quinton Hornsby, Gary Huitink, Russ Kennedy, Burnie Kessner, Charlie Parsons, John Payne, Beth Phelps, Donna Rothberg, Eugene Thomas and Charles Whitaker with assistance from Nina Boston and Bernadette Hinkle.
- On June 10 Gary Huitink participated in an IPM meeting at Haynes - St. Francis & Lee Counties combined.
- June 14-17 Gary Huitink, along with 25 others that included engineers from gin manufacturers, USDA and other southern states, was a speaker at the annual Cotton Ginners School at Stoneville, MS. It included comprehensive training, farm safety, gin management, current technology and cotton gin operation basics and was presented to about 100 registrants from all over the US cotton production region. Gary spoke to all four groups on the selection and management of cotton gin waste management systems and various alternatives for the utilization of cotton gin waste.
- Gary Huitink responded to clientele requests for tillage and seeding equipment and two chief engineers of cotton equipment manufacturers regarding needs and ways to reduce energy requirements for cotton, due to current crop price structures.
- Phil Tacker purchased field monitoring equipment for 406 Grant Project in L'Anguille River watershed. This will provide some very important data on irrigation water management and water quality.
- Phil Tacker conducted meeting on May 12 in Wynne of all the PI's and the county agents that will be involved in the 406 Grant.
- Phil Tacker is busy setting up on-farm irrigation demos between the rains.
- Wayne Smith will represent Extension at a meeting in Vidalia, LA concerning Rice Irrigation Water Conservation.
- Phil Tacker will be part of working with Channel 4 on their early morning show along with others in Extension. He did the show on June 17.
- Phil Tacker will be assisting with one of the tour stops for the State Master Gardener Meeting.
- Phil Tacker is putting forth a lot of effort with weather and water monitoring equipment installation in rice fields on two farms involved in the USDA grant.
- MOU with ASWCC completed on EPA 319h grant and starts in July
- Phil Tacker has set up rice irrigation demos with several farms.
- Rachel Lipsey started to work on June 14 and attended Sun Grant Initiative Conference in Oklahoma City, OK June 14-16. The conference focused on biomass utilization for energy and other goods.
- Rachel Lipsey has begun looking at grant opportunities and current research to develop energy and by-product utilization programs.
- The Biological & Agricultural Engineering Department held their annual retreat in early June. One of the primary focus items was strategic planning and how to mesh with this ongoing process.
- Several faculty from Bio & Ag Engineering attended and participated in the Regional Sun Grant Initiative meeting held in Oklahoma City, OK in mid June. This initiative will focus on utilizing renewable resources. Additional details may be found at: http://sdaes.sdstate.edu/sungrant/imple.htm
- Gardisser, Tacker, and Verma will be attending the annual ASAE (American Society of Agricultural Engineers) conference in Ottawa, Canada in early August.
- Bio & Ag engineering and Horticulture have been interviewing secretarial candidates and hope to have a new Secretary II on board shortly.
Donna Rothberg – Human Resources
- Extension Excellence Awards: This was the first year of the program. There are six award categories. Monetary awards totaled $25,000 in program enhancement dollars and bonus checks. 59 individuals received nominations for awards and the faculty and staffs in five counties were nominated for county teamwork awards. The 22 individual winners and the entire Washington County faculty and staff were recognized at the Employee Recognition Luncheon on June 1. Donna expressed special thanks to the Communications faculty and to Tom Riley for their assistance with the luncheon. The ten-member Extension Excellence Awards Committee devoted over a year’s work to the 2004 program and is already at work on the 2005 awards program.
- County Civil Rights Compliance Review instrument has been revised.
- Affirmative Action Plan for the Division of Agriculture is in the process of revision.
- Faculty Leadership Program Advisory Committee under the guidance of Allisen Penn has met to kick off the 2005 process.
Dick Kluender – UAM Forest Resources
- The Forestry Symposium was held at the end of May in the Extension building with 140 in attendance.
- Attended Regional 4-H O-Rama
- Livestock & Forestry Field Day scheduled in October
David Hensley – Horticulture
- Dr. Teddy Morelock was selected as a Fellow for the American Society of Horticultural Science.
- Janet Carson attended the SE Master Gardeners Meeting.
- Horticulture agents and specialists will be participating in the early morning TV show on Thursdays.
Sung Lim – Plant Pathology
- The transitional process is going well. Making very good progress in bringing together plant pathology research and extension programs.
- Late June entire department met in Little Rock and formed a working group to meet the challenge of growing threats of bioterrorism to crops in the state.
Gus Lorenz – Entomology
- Department Head Search: The Entomology Department is currently searching for a new department head. The search committee included two Extension personnel: Jeremy Greene and Gus Lorenz. There were originally ten candidates. The committee recently met and selected what they considered to be the top four candidates. They are: Timothy Dennehy, Arizona; Bart Drees, Texas A&M; Bob McPherson, Georgia; and, John Weidenmann, Illinois. Of the four, Drees is an Extension Entomologist, and Dennehy and McPherson have worked closely with Extension in the past.
- In-Service Training: We recently conducted a one-day cotton in-service training (June 15) with Plant Pathology and CSES personnel. The training was led by Jeremy Greene and went extremely well.
- Currently, we are preparing for core curriculum training to be conducted next week, July 14. Donna Shanklin and Kelly Loftin have leadership for the training along with John Hopkins.
- Other trainings conducted this year included: 1) Urban Pest Management led by John Hopkins with Kelly Loftin participating with 30 CEA’s; 2) “First Responder” training for pest management; 3) Poultry, Livestock, and Pasture Pest Management led by Kelly Loftin – 30 CEA’s attended.
- Soybean pest management training will be conducted August 31 in Lonoke.
- Current grants and programs initiated on Dairy IPM, School IPM, and Tarnished Plant Bug Community Pest Management are underway this year.
- Field work is on the mind of row crop entomologists. Studies on insect control in cotton, rice, soybeans, and corn are underway.
- Fire ant and fly control trials are being conducted by livestock and urban entomologists.
- Personnel: Donna Shanklin, fire ant specialist, has terminated her employment with the UA-CES. Her plans are to further her education.
Bob Reynolds – Communications
- Arkansas Extension media is increasing.
- Specialists and/or county agents are being featured every other Thursday on the Channel 7 morning program.
- Kevin Quinn working on radio programs in Jonesboro and Little Rock.
- The web will be used as a marketing tool for the State 4-H O-Rama pictures. Counties will be able to check postings.
Fred Bourland – Northeast Research & Extension Center
Keiser Field Day will be on August 26. There will be inside research and outside field tours. The Soybean Promotion Board will hold their meeting in conjunction with the Field Day.
Chris Deren – Rice Research & Extension Center
Rice Field Day is scheduled for August 11 at RREC in Stuttgart.
Jim Barrentine – Crop, Soil & Environmental Sciences
- Crops are all looking ok.
- Busy working on the 5th Annual Delta Classic which is the Department’s major scholarship function.
Nina Boston – Information Technology
- Yvonne McCool was appointed as assistant director of IT on June 1. Yvonne will handle technical reviews of software, meet with faculty and staff on new projects, balance the workload of the programmers and implement a help desk in IT.
- In April, the bandwidth for Internet access was doubled to the state office to improve service to faculty and staff using AIMS, GroupWise and other applications that are served from the state office.
- IT worked with the Physical Plant to provide a laptop to Johnny Woodley while he serves in Iraq. Everyone is encouraged to e-mail Johnny at johnny.woodleyjr@us.army.mil or jwoodley@uaex.edu to help him keep in touch and his spirits high.
- Virus threats continue daily. IT is checking for updates several times per day and encourages everyone to update their virus protection at remote offices and at home daily.
- Document imaging implementation is on schedule. Yvonne McCool has trained Financial Services in the use of the system. Purchasing is the first area to go live. Once the other areas of Financial Services are implemented, Human Resources will be the next department to be trained.
- A task force appointed by Dr. Lyles is looking at ways to improve the new electronic calendar. Donna Taylor, Sylvia White, Pat Walters, Reba Hawkins, Venetta Rice, Delores Sowerbrower, Lynne Wooten, Yvonne McCool, Donna Rinke and Steve Hall reviewed the calendar and have identified elements that can improve the navigation and function of the calendar. Steve Hall is making the changes.
- Donna Rinke has recently transferred to the Communications Department. IT and Communications have been working jointly since last summer to identify ways to tie web content more strategically to the other information being distributed by Extension. The process included an external audit that recommended this shift of personnel. IT will continue to work closed with communications and marketing on the management of our web.
Judy Riley – Delta District
- Completed two Regional 4-H O-Ramas
- Hiring new agents in the following counties: Poinsett – Ag; Lee – FCS (offer and acceptance); Phillips – FCS (hired); Clay – FCS (hired); Clay – Ag (hired); Desha – FCS (have made offer)
- District Administrative Conference scheduled for July 23
- Scheduling Civil Rights Reviews for counties on rotation schedule
- Worked with agents on FSNE proposals
Quinton Hornsby – Ouachita District
- District Administrative Conference scheduled for July 20
- Regional 4-H O-Rama completed
- Arkansas Cattle Conference on August 10
- Civil Rights Reviews to begin soon
- Several agents are presenting at the National County Agents meeting in Florida.
- Ouachita County Staff Chair and Ag Agent positions filled
- Recruiting for Union County Staff Chair position
- Vacancies include: Nevada County FCS, Hempstead County Ag, Garland County Ag. Working with County Judges and Dr. Lyles to get these filled down the road.
Tom Riley – Environmental & Natural Resources
- Water Quality – We are working with ASWCC to finalize rules and educational program content for the Nutrient Surplus Area Project. The program will train nutrient management planners and nutrient applicators in a 14 county area of north and west Arkansas. Currently advertising for a coordinator to support that work.
- Working with faculty in Fayetteville and at UALR to prepare for the upcoming election. Ballot Issue fact sheets are being developed on all existing and proposed issues. Plans are also in the works for the Agent training and design of the educational materials needed to support their education efforts locally.
- Master Farmer: We have employed a Master Farmer Program coordinator. Heather Richardson is a native of Arkansas. She grew up on a livestock farm in White County. She has an undergraduate degree in Agriculture from Southern Arkansas University and MS degrees in Animal Science and Agriculture and Extension Education from Texas A&M and the University of Tennessee.
- Rex Roberg and his support team just completed the Youth Range Events Activity this past weekend. Attendance was 350 youth and 150 adults. This activity includes six events and involves participants from over 30 counties. The range events are sponsored by the Arkansas Chapter of the Wild Turkey Federation, Remington Arms Co. and Friends of the NRA. This follows the annual YHEC event that involved teams from over 40 counties and a similar number of participants.
- Becky McPeake and Suzanne Wylie just completed hosting the 7th National Meeting for the Nature Mapping Program. Accompanying that meeting was a training session for educators from across Arkansas. The Arkansas Forestry Association and the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission were partners in supporting both the meeting and training sessions.
- Specialists in the Environmental and Natural Resources and Engineering Sections / Departments are working together with the ASWCC to design the five-year plan for prioritizing 319 program emphasis in Arkansas. That planning process is just beginning and is scheduled to conclude in the summer of 2005.
- Kicking off the Stormwater Education Program in Washington and Benton Counties in Springdale. The program brings together all of the qualified municipalities and units of government that are responsible for urban populations in the two-county area. They are jointly contracting with Extension to provide the educational needs of the program for the next five years.
Announcements:
- Admin Cabinet meeting scheduled for August 9 is canceled.
- We are in the process of updating the technology in the state office conference rooms.
- Development position has been released effective September 7. Will announce vacancy.
- Upcoming annual fall dinner for the Admin Cabinet, probably in September or October. More information to come later.
- Reminder of the four goals Dr. Lyles discussed in the Faculty Conference –
Excellence in Programming
Enhanced Award and Recognition
Funding and Accountability
Communication and Marketing
Reminder: The next Administrative Cabinet Meeting is scheduled for Monday, September 13, 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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