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Cooperative Extension Service
Departments
Administration
January 10, 2005
Administrative Cabinet Meeting Minutes
| Attendance: |
Ivory Lyles
Mike Hamilton
Darlene Baker
Nina Boston
Judy Riley
Mike Daniels
Donna Rothberg
Joe Waldrum |
Mike French
Quinton Hornsby
Alberta James
Dennis Gardisser
Sharon Reynolds
Bernadette Hinkle
Bob Reynolds |
Lynn Russell
Charles Whitaker
Tom Troxel
Kent Rorie
Tom Riley
Karen Scott
Tony Windham |
| Fayetteville: |
Frank Jones
Dave Hensley |
Jim Barrentine |
Sung Lim |
| Monticello: |
Kelly Bryant |
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The meeting began at 1:30 p.m. in Classroom 3 of the Little Rock State Extension Office.
Dr. Lyles announced that the February 14 th Admin Cabinet Meeting is cancelled. The next meeting will be held on March 14 in Classrooms 1 & 2. CIV will not be available for the March meeting.
Agenda Items
Proposed Personnel Policy: Dr. Troxel provided a handout of a proposed policy as follows – Employees are prohibited from using the name “University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service” or any deviation thereof for personal gain and/or to conduct personal business in any way or fashion. Any employee doing so must cease immediately. Any employee that violates this policy will be terminated and wages withheld until all accounts are in good standing.
There is currently not a policy specifically addressing this issue. The need for a policy came about when it was discovered that an employee had made up a fictitious business name with University of Arkansas as part of the name. It became known when some bills were not paid and vendors contacted Extension in an effort to collect payment. Discussion centered around the consulting policy, use of titles, and employees on emeritus status. Dr. Lyles asked the group to think about this issue and discuss with other faculty. The subject will be put on the March agenda for further discussion.
Management Plan: Dr. Lyles reminded Team Leaders to get their drafts turned in to Rich Poling as soon as possible.
Office Hours for Classified Staff: Dr. Lyles asked supervisors to remind classified staff that the office hours are 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with a 30-minute lunch break from 12:00 to 12:30. Classified employees are expected to be at their assigned work stations ready to begin work at 8:00 a.m.
Temporary Pay Scale: A draft copy of the revised temporary pay scale was handed out. It was revised in an effort to have consistency over the entire organization. One change is the advertisement of temporary positions – all will need to be advertised on our website for five days with the exception of Work Only When Needed (WOWN) positions. WOWN positions will not have to be advertised unless the county needs to increase their pool of available workers. Temporary positions that are advertised and are not listed on the pay scale should use the equivalent classified position minimum rates. Hourly pay rates that exceed those listed on the pay scale and on the classified pay plan will require administrative approval prior to hiring. A new category was added, Seasonal Educator, which is in line with the county agent starting salaries. The pay scale will be finalized and posted to the website.
Blue Letter – Director's Office: Dr. Lyles is bringing back the old Blue Letter starting in February. It appears that about one-half of the organization actually reads the Extension News on-line. Bob Reynolds will go ahead with posting the January issue. Starting in February news items will need to be sent to Donna Taylor. Dr. Lyles will send out an email announcing this change.
Prayer: The University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service does not endorse nor prohibit prayer at Extension activities or events. It is inappropriate for faculty members to verbally announce a prayer or print as a part of the program. Faculty members should not voice a public prayer while serving in an official capacity. This will not be a policy but district directors and section leaders are strongly encouraged to carry this information back to county agents and specialists.
Administrative Intern: We are bringing in an Administrative Intern in the next couple of weeks. The first one will be a county faculty member (Brian Haller from White County) and the next a state specialist. The purpose is to have a ready pool of employees trained for leadership positions. However, there is no guarantee in the future for someone who has completed the internship. The internship will be about six months in length and will involve special assignments, travel, etc.
Upcoming Salary Increases: It appears there will be funds available for non-classified salary increases effective February 1, 2005. This has come about due to conservative measures taken and the flow of money into the B1 category. An announcement will come from Dr. Shult in the near future. We will be working with a total pool of 3%. The increases will be based on merit from FY04 performance appraisals. Spreadsheets will be provided some time after W-2s are completed and sent out. Grant funds are not a part of this increase; however, if funds are available in the grant, increases may be given to employees on soft money. If grant funds are not available, consideration may be given on a case-by-case basis. If the subject comes up, remind classified employees that they have consistently received increases each year and non-classified employees have not.
Reports from Cabinet Members
Kelly Bryant – Southeast Research & Extension Center
- Entire faculty was active in the Beltwide Cotton Conference and the Tri-State Soybean Conference the first week of January.
- Specialists are preparing for the winter county meetings.
- A goat production association is forming in South Arkansas. They met at our facility on January 8. John Gavin in Bradley County made the arrangements.
Frank Jones – Poultry Science
- Plans are underway to renovate the broiler houses at the Applied Broiler Research Farm in Savoy. At the close of renovations houses will be solid sidewall, tunnel ventilated houses close to industry standards.
- The International Poultry Exposition will be on January 26-28 in Atlanta. The Department of Poultry Science is again underwriting the expenses of six agents to attend the exposition.
Jim Barrentine – Crop, Soil & Environmental Sciences
- Most of our efforts now are in county meetings. The Cotton Beltwide Conference was held last week in New Orleans. Attendance was good as numerous Arkansas cotton producers attend and are active in the meeting. Bruce Bond, producer from Lake Village, was the Mid South recipient for the outstanding cotton producer in 2004. We were well represented in all the technical sessions with either posters or by oral presentations. New technology was focused on transgenic cotton with improved technology for control of bollworm/budworm complex.
- Tri-State Soybean Forum was well attended by producers, consultants and industry reps to listen to the status of the soybean rust.
- Arkansas ended up with only 150,000 acres of wheat, the lowest in many years. Dry weather early and wet weather late were the factors in the low acres. This will impact our program from a funding standpoint with the Wheat Board as well as industry.
- Predictions for 2005 indicate a reduction in rice and cotton acres, status quo on corn and grain sorghum, and too early to predict on soybeans.
- Upcoming meetings:
Arkansas Seed Growers, Jan 20, Brinkley Convention Center
Arkansas Crop Management Conference, Jan 31-Feb 3, Holiday Inn, Little Rock
Arkansas Seed Dealers, Feb 4-5, Embassy Suites, Hot Springs
David Hensley – Horticulture
- Arkansas Turfgrass Association met during the first week of January. Attendance was in the hundreds. Extension support provided by John Boyd and Jim Robbins.
- Arkansas Green Industry meeting is scheduled for early February. Dr. Klingaman will be recognized.
- Drs. Clark and Bacon are scheduled to teach a 3-week mini course on plant breeding for the Ag MS, available to county agents.
- Drs. Richardson, Karcher, and Boyd will be teaching a two-day turfgrass class in Little Rock January 11-12. Dr. Boyd is the Extension contact. This would be an excellent learning venue for county agents.
Sung Lim – Plant Pathology
- Arkansas Working Group on Introduced Plant Diseases consists of both Extension and Research faculty who actively participate in state, regional and national meetings related to Soybean Rust. Every one of the group members is very busy in carrying out their task assignments which includes development of educational materials, training of county agents, conferences, workshops, etc., in preparing for the management of Asian soybean rust for the upcoming growing season. Since the group was established last April before the soybean rust was detected in the state last November, they are well prepared and their plans are progressing well by acting on soybean rust situations in the state. This working group has very strong support from the Division administration, Arkansas State Plant Board, APHIS, and other agencies.
Charles Whitaker – Physical Plant
- Lonoke greenhouse project approximately 17% complete. Bad weather has slowed down work.
- The tornado alert system is being installed and all tests and installation should be complete by 1/12/05.
- In the process of upgrading the Mag Lock Door Systems. Some personnel have had problems with their cards. This will take care of the problem.
- Each section leader should caution their personnel about illegal parking and parking in the properly designated areas.
Sharon Reynolds / Mike Hamilton – Ozark District
- Completed all program reviews for Ozark District
- Three new staff members have started to work within the last couple of months:
Van Banks, Washington County, Water Quality
Delanna Taylor, Sebastian County, FCS
Sherry Kaufman, Conway County, Secretary
- Meeting on January 20 to plan field day for the Fruit Substation in Clarksville
- River Valley Stocker Cattle Meeting in Dardanelle on February 24
Donna Rothberg – Human Resources
- Open season is now over and appropriate changes have been made in insurance coverage.
- Will be attending the National HR Conference which is being held in conjunction with Diversity Conference.
Dennis Gardisser – Biological & Agricultural Engineering
- Dennis will be presenting at the Arkansas Ag Aviation Conference. Recently, he presented at the Missouri Ag Aviation Convention. Also will be conducting a portion of the Arkansas State Plant Board Pesticide Stewardship Training. Later this month, he will be presenting pest management and rust information at the 2005 Winter Conference of the Michigan Agri-Business Association.
- Dennis has spent a lot of time addressing issues related to the control of rust with the release of two new fact sheets.
- Phil Tacker, Wayne Smith, and Rachel Lipsey are involved in three different Watershed Demonstration Projects that involve the six counties - Craighead, Poinsett, Cross, Woodruff, St. Francis, and Lee - in the L'Anguille River Watershed.
- Phil is presenting at the AR Soil & Water Education Conf. at ASU, the National Tillage Conf. in Houston and the Missouri Natural Resource Conf. in Jan. and Feb. He is also working with Susan Watkins in planning a Water Quality In-Service-Training for March.
- Karl VanDevender attended the State of the Science for Animal Waste Management Meeting where, among other things, he participated in discussions regarding the continuation of the National Animal Waste Management Center in North Carolina, and participated in a planning meeting for another national conference that will take place in the fall.
Tony Windham – Agricultural Economics & Community Development
- Ron Rainey attended the Deep South Fruit and Vegetable Growers Conference and met with a regional collaboration of agricultural economists/horticulturalists (MALTA Group) to plan group activities. Recently awarded a SARE Enhancement grant Dec. 2004 for $14,840. Presented at the Farm Bureau Annual Meeting in Hot Springs (December 2). "Agricultural Labor Issues" to the Horticulture Section. Presenting at the upcoming Horticulture Industry Show (Jan 14-15) in Fort Smith, AR poster on Economic Impact of Horticulture and a presentation on "Risk Management Strategies."
- Bobby Coats served on the rice industry's national planning committee for their annual USA Rice Outlook Conference, which was held December 4-7, 2004 at New Orleans, Louisiana. Spoke at the USA Rice Outlook Conference on December 7, 2004 on Arkansas' Rice Situation and Outlook. January's Rice Graphics and Commentary and the following rice supply and demand slide shows: U.S. All Rice, U.S. Long Grain, U.S. Medium Grain, and Global Rice will be posted on the
Rice Situation and Outlook
web page Monday January 17, 2005.
- Scott Stiles conducted a financial education seminar for young farmers on January 6 in Forrest City, in conjunction with ASU Ag faculty and Farm Credit Midsouth. Economic and market outlook presentations will be made at Lonoke 1/10, Newport 1/18, Marion 1/20.
- Rob Hogan and Scott Stiles are doing marketing education seminars in Mississippi County on (1/12) and Poinsett County (1/21).
- Sue Coates announces that Mr. Willie Price has joined our staff as a Program Associate with the Arkansas Procurement Assistance Center . Lease negotiations are on-going for a new ADA-accessible office for APAC. Plans are to move in January. APAC faculty held a very successful conference in the CES classrooms on Dec. 7, co-sponsored with Army Corps of Engineers, attended by approximately100 people, half government and half industry. Executives with the Department of Veterans Affairs and Center for Veterans Enterprise came from Washington to speak.
- Sue Coates made outreach presentations at Camden Kiwanis on 10/21, and Cabot Kiwanis on 12/1, and had an outreach meeting with a representative from the Federal Reserve on 11/1. Also sent outreach letter with literature enclosed to all the Chambers of Commerce in Arkansas . Booked a seminar to be cosponsored by Cabot Chamber of Commerce on February 24th, and booked an outreach presentation to Marion Chamber on February 1st. Sent 3-4 press releases through Lamar James, one for the Cabot outreach presentation and the others for the Corps of Engineers conference.
Tom Riley / Mike Daniels – Environmental & Natural Resources
- Just completed the biennial review of the Forest Resources Strategic Plan
- Southwest Water Association Conference was well attended. Good program and good reviews. This is a joint effort with Soil & Water, ADEQ, State Plant Board, UALR, and others.
- Hiring a new forester, received six good applications.
- Lost a secretary in the section, will be looking for a replacement.
- Working on financial agreement with White Hall community in Jefferson County on Stormwater project.
- Melony Wilson has been offered the Nutrient Management Instructor position. She is experienced, has been working in Poultry Science, and has a master's degree from CSES.
- Received water quality grant from CSREES, $75,000 per year for four years.
- Suzanne Hirrel's proposal has been accepted.
Judy Riley / Kent Rorie – Delta District
- Interviewing for stormwater position
- Five new personnel in the district – ag agents in Arkansas, Mississippi, Lawrence, and Drew Counties; intern in White County
Joe Waldrum – Organizational, Staff & Leadership Development
- Staff addition in AIMS: An offer has been made and accepted for the new position of AIMS Development Manager. Heather Richardson has accepted the position. She is transferring from her current position with CES as a Master Farmer Instructor. This is the first full-time position dedicated to the on-going development and management of the AIMS System. Heather's start date will be January 20.
- Mary Poling will be retained this spring to finish working with Program Leaders, Section Leaders & District Directors on all the POW change deadlines and modifications in AIMS, as well as her work for FSNE. Daniel will be employed through March to complete some training guides & provide training to the new AIMS Manager & provide user support during the training period.
- AIMS staff have multiple deadlines this spring for the federal report, POW revisions to meet county planning deadlines (June), a state-wide FSNE Teacher survey, AIMS Advisory Committee coordination for AIMS enhancements, work with the District Directors to refine reports to better meet their needs, as well as new employee training and AIMS support. Heather will be working to improve user interface, and will work with the AIMS User Support staff during this transition.
- The AIMS Advisory Committee met in December. This committee is comprised of representatives from each District, ANR, FCS and 4-H Program areas. The role of the AIMS Advisory Committee is to serve as the voice of the diverse groups for direct user feedback in the on-going development of the AIMS system. The Advisory Group makes:
- recommendations regarding system development issues including enhancements;
- provides end-user testing of proposed enhancements; and
- participates in the overall evaluation of the system
- Timeline for CES Base & Focus Program Planning
HANDOUTS:
Timeline for Review/Editing Base & Focus Program in Jan/Feb
Edit Approval Submission form for Section Leaders & Program Leaders
AIMS Calendar for CES Program Year Planning
- CSREES Federal Report is being finalized:
- Narrative Report Index and all narrative reports on 2 CDs with 2 printed copies were due to Evaluation Specialist on 12/3/04.
- Annual Overview/Executive Summary for each of the 5 Federal Goal Areas due from Program leaders today. Please contact Karen if you cannot meet deadlines and let her know when the reports will be ready.
- Evaluation Specialist working with IT staff to produce financial data & FTE calculations for investment reports by program areas and Federal Goals
- Communications staff will be formatting the edited report for the final layout.
Karen Scott – Financial Services
- Policy on handling cash receipts – sending email soon as a reminder that checks are to be processed within two days and are not to be laying around on desks any longer than that.
- Sheryl Baker will be assuming L'Yana Batts' position contingent upon completing her degree June 1.
Darlene Baker – 4-H Youth Development
- April 23, 4-H will host a Family Trail Walk/Run at the Arkansas 4-H Center, a health fair will also be held with an emphasis on addressing youth obesity. The Kids Walk Across Arkansas program will also be kicked off during the event. T-shirts and prizes will be awarded to participants. Encourage everyone to bring their family to the 4-H Center and participate.
- State 4-H Advisory Council will meet Thursday and will be presenting recommendations regarding our youth protection policy.
- Specialists are preparing for the 2005 4-H Year.
- Mike Klumpp and Connie Phelps are working with the Air Force on a renewal grant for Adventure Camps as well as the National Guard on Operation Purple and the Army (grant submitted for Operation Military Kids).
- 4-H Faculty will be conducting all-day Saturday District Volunteer Leader trainings this spring (one per district).
- Regional O-Rama dates have been set:
Northeast June, 21
Northwest June 22
Southwest June 23
Southeast June 24
Arkansas 4-H O-Rama July 27-29 U of A Fayetteville
Alberta James / Quinton Hornsby – Ouachita District
- Completed all program reviews for Ouachita District
- Now working on evaluations, winter meetings, and Quorum Court appropriations
- Pulaski County received $96,000 grant
- Two new agents – Garland and Polk Counties
Lynn Russell – Family & Consumer Sciences
- Interviews for the position of Assistant Professor – Rural Nutrition have been completed. The screening committee has been asked to send their recommendations for filling the position to Lynn Russell.
- Laura Connerly has agreed to increase her time to 100% and will be assuming expanded responsibilities in the area of Family Resource Management. She is planning to pursue a terminal degree in the area of Public Policy with an emphasis in Family Economics.
- AR, LA and MS will showcase the tri-state initiative Delta HOPE
at the 2005 Agriculture Science and Education Exhibition and Reception on Capitol Hill on March 1, 2005.
- Arkansas will send a team to a regional conference targeting childhood obesity, February 15-17, in Orlando, FL. The team, consisting of both 4-H and FCS faculty, will develop a state plan for continuing educational programs targeting overweight youth.
- Two faculty members have submitted proposals for poster sessions at the 2005 Rural Life Conference scheduled for February 11 th at UAPB.
- The Arkansas Extension Homemakers Council will convene their state meeting planning committee in Little Rock on January 11 th to continue plans for their annual June conference. This will be followed by their Executive Committee meeting on the 12 th .
- FCS is assisting with the planning and implementation of the first annual Women in Agriculture Conference scheduled for March 3 rd and 4 th in Hot Springs.
- The public release of the “Arkansas Marriage Study” and launch of the “Arkansas Healthy Marriage Initiative” will take place on January 20 th in the U of A Cooperative Extension Service auditorium at 10:00 a.m. Dr. Wally Goddard and Dr. Steve Dennis have collaborated with UALR, DHS, and Family Life Today to conduct this statewide survey and initiate marriage education in our state.
Mike French – Agriculture & Natural Resources
- Attended Beltwide Cotton Conference. Jeremy Greene was an invited speaker at the general session with well over 1,000 in attendance at that session.
- Soybean Rust – worked with APHIS and put in request for $700,000. Senator Pryor has launched that effort.
- UAPB Rural Life Conference to be held on February 11.
- ANR Core Curriculum training was held in December and went very well.
Tom Troxel – Animal Science
- Working with Arkansas Livestock & Poultry Commission on Volunteer Premise ID Program. This is an effort to identify all places livestock are held or raised as part of a national program to trace outbreak of diseases within 48 hours. It is voluntary but in time will probably become mandatory. Will be working with the Cattlemen's Association train agents and educate producers.
- Animal Science has two core curriculum trainings this year. Will launch the first one February 1. Remind agents to sign up on the web.
- SAAS meeting will be held in Little Rock January 30-February 2.
Bob Reynolds – Communications
- Wrapping up the Annual Report
- Researched market value of news media stories and found that in the first six months it was over $300,000.
- Partnering with UALR January 17 to find students in tech writing
Bernadette Hinkle – Finance & Administration
- Year-End Audit – FY04 completed. No audit findings for the fourth year in a row. Listed below is a copy of the management letter comment regarding county operations:
- Missing or incorrect accounting of physical inventory is an area that the auditors have noted that should be improved.
- County Operations and Foundations : Cooperative Extension Service (CES) management had knowledge of the existence of certain local foundations and other volunteer groups (support organizations), whose activities were in support of the mission of CES. These entities maintained bank accounts and had other holdings, but were not required to report their activity to CES. As a result, CES management could not determine the amount of CES funds, if any, that were deposited in support organization accounts. CES employees had a significant role in maintaining accounting records and processing transactions for the support organizations, but CES policy did not allow employees to serve as officers in support organizations or have signature authority on their bank accounts.
In response to the activities described above, CES management established policies during the year ended June 30, 2004, which required financial reporting by support organizations and instituted procedures for county extension offices to accept and disburse funds with the establishment of local CES bank accounts. As of June 30, 2004, some county extension offices had not taken steps to establish a deposit account, and for those county extension offices that had deposit accounts, financial reports were not accurate. County 4-H Foundations required financial reporting by support organizations will become effective during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2005.
- Managing County Financial Transaction – change in reporting of County 4-H Foundation donations to Extension
- February 21-25 – Hold for Quicken Training for Administrative Office Supervisors
- Meeting with UALR – Common Issues
Nina Boston – Information Technology
- A total of 159 desktops and 40 laptops were ordered for faculty and staff to replace equipment over 4 years old. All the computers have been delivered and are in the process of been set up. Another 81 computers and printers have been ordered for counties to use with the soil test program. Most of these have been delivered. Some counties and departments will also receive projectors.
- Thirty seats of Centra Symposium web conferencing software have been purchased to facilitate web-based meetings and ad hoc training. The software uses voice-over-Internet Protocol, application sharing and other tools that will save travel within the state and out-of-state. IT is in the process of setting up user accounts and other configuration parameters.
- The Extension calendar program recently got a face lift based on recommendations from the task force created by Dr. Lyles. The task force, made up of the administrative assistants from the district office and administration and representatives from IT and communications, approved the changes. The new calendar went live last week.
- IT recently purchased the full version of Ad-Aware software to protect Extension computers from spyware. The software is being rolled out in the next few months.
- The state has implemented new standards governing passwords, warning banners and other security-related issues. Higher education institutions are required to comply. IT has begun rolling out the warning banner standard and will implement the password standard this spring after employees have been sufficiently informed.
- The use of CDs to distribute material is increasingly popular as an inexpensive alternative. In 2004, Susan James burned approximately 4,500 CDs for Extension.
- The compressed interactive video equipment in meeting room 3 is being replaced. The new equipment will provide both H.320 and H.323 (via Internet) conferencing ability. Other changes include ceiling-mounted microphones, a 65” split screen monitor, touch screen control panel and reorientation of the room furniture to reduce crowding.
- CEDAR, the Extension document imaging system, now automatically loads purchase orders issued from Banner. Yvonne McCool is also working with human resources and other sections in financial services to move paper forms to electronic media.
- Ceiling-mounted projectors, SmartBoards and other technologies will be installed in the main conference rooms 107, 206, 306 and 104B. A ceiling-mounted projector will also be installed in meeting room 1.
- Demand for surveys continues to increase. Becky Bridges created 35 separate web-based surveys for the organization in 2004.
The meeting adjourned at 3:15 p.m.
Reminder: The next Administrative Cabinet Meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 14, in Classroom 1 & 2 at 1:30 p.m. CIV will not be available.
Minutes were taken by Pat Walters.
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