|
|
|
|
MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF IOWA ASSOCIATION OF COUNTY EXTENSION COUNCILS January 28, 2006
Those members present include: Sue Boettcher, Allen Ricks, Gary Smith, Sybil Soukup, Jayne Lupkes, Steve Abma, Pat Griffin, Brian Waldstein, Ron Fransen, Joe Van Ginkel, Margaret Mordan, and Denise Maier. Also in attendance were Jack Payne, Michael Ouart, Alan Ladd, Chuck Morris, Sherry Glenn, Lois Hunt, Don Nitche, JaneAnn Stout, Mark Settle, and Julie Baumler. Jerry Miller also attended in the afternoon.
President Sue Boettcher called the meeting to order. Introductions were made.
The agenda was amended to include Allen Rick’s resignation and elections to fill Al’s position of president-elect. Jane moved to approve the amended agenda. Brian seconded the motion. The motion carried.
Gary Smith presented the Secretary’s Report. Al moved to approve the minutes. Ron seconded the motion. The motion carried.
In Ralph Lent’s absence, Pat Griffin presented the Treasurer’s Report. He reported expenses of $3,736.22 since July 1, income of $9,050, and a balance of $5,803.10. An additional $10,000 has been invested in a CD. Jayne moved to approve the financial report and expenses since our last meeting. Gary seconded the motion. The motion carried.
Sue reported that 99 counties have joined IACEC this year. This is a record.
Sue presented the ISU Extension Administrative Team Report. She highlighted that Sherry Glenn is back as AEED in Central Area.
Jack Payne, newly appointed Vice Provost for Extension and Outreach discussed his plans for ISU Extension. He was complimentary of ISU Extension and is honored to be selected as the VP for Extension and Outreach. He strongly believes in open communication and having those in administration be accessible at all times. He believes that we all need to understand our challenges and how we can work through them. He said that he has figured out that IACEC is a group to pay attention to.
During his first six weeks, Jack plans to meet with all of administrative staff, understand what they do, how they’re doing it, what they feel the immediate and then long-term needs are. In the next 6 months, he plans to tour out in the state. He is looking forward to working with community colleges, identifying opportunities for continuing education in the field (combine formal learning with non-degree learning), getting out and visiting in each of the areas. He hopes that IACEC can help bring folks into regional forums to speak with him. He wants ISUE to remain on the leading edge of extension nationally.
Jack sees our biggest challenge overall is declining population. He sees extension working to help our local and state governments keep our highly educated youth in Iowa. Jack is also hopeful to connect agriculture with natural resources in the state.
Jack closed by emphasizing the IACEC is a key group. He believes that in extension you can really improve the quality of life and he looks forward to getting to know folks in the counties and working with citizens.
AEEDs, program leaders, and Michael shared their comments with the board. Alan Ladd noted that counties will be dealing with budget realities. The southwest area has some counties dealing with OA staff reductions, CYC reductions, etc. Any help that counties can give to other council members regarding funding, referendum, etc. will be appreciated.
Sue presented the Executive Committee report. We need three people per area for an IACEC board nomination committee. Jayne moved to appoint two remaining board members plus the AEED to identify nominees. Gary seconded the motion. The motion carried.
Brian moved that Jayne and Sybil work with the Northwest AEED to identify a replacement to appoint for Al’s position. Ron seconded the motion. The motion carried.
Pat reported for the Finance & Policy Committee. Al moved to keep IACEC membership dues at $100 for 2006-07. Ron seconded the motion. The motion carried.
Brian moved to identify the registered agent for the association as the secretary of IACEC. Ron seconded the motion. The motion carried.
The board discussed a change in the mileage policy to expand mileage reimbursement and motel costs for IACEC business. It was recommended that the exec and finance committee work on a policy to be presented at the June meeting.
Sybil reported for the Legislative Committee. A Legislative Coffee Report was in the packets. We reached 42% of Representatives and 31% of Senators at the coffees. The sub-committee noted that most of the coffees went well. They liked the idea of keeping them every other year.
IACEC Legislative Day is planned for March 8, 2006 at the Wallace Building in Des Moines. Successes that we would like to continue: encouraging attendees to wear red, develop talking-point sheets by region, provide a suggested letter to send to legislators to let them know you are coming, and e-mail a note to liaisons to remind them to sign up.
We will put Board of Regents Partnership for Excellence proposal ($40 million/year for 4 years) up on the website to allow council members to familiarize themselves with it. We will continue to send regular e-mails about the proposal through the years. We are issuing a challenge of three people per county.
Steve Abma presented the Marketing Committee report. The Network Newsletter will be coming out the end of February. It will feature an interview with Jack Payne. Scholarship applications are due March 15. IACEC Award applications are due by June 15. The committee recommended that if the Outstanding Extension Council Member Service Award recipient is a past IACEC member, then we will select an additional recipient that year.
PSAs were distributed by most of the board members during Extension Week. To avoid confusion with the PSAs sent out by ISUE, it was recommended that IACEC PSAs be sent at a different time next go-around. One suggestion was to have them run near the date of the legislative day. Small media markets appear glad to have them. Larger markets look for 15-second PSAs.
Board members were reminded to use the Council Helps Survey at upcoming area meetings. They are to be sent back to Julie.
The following county concerns and issues were brought before the board members.
Hiring grant-writers. Though no easy answers were identified, IACEC will continue to encourage the sharing of ideas among counties for how they work with grants and revenue generation. AEEDs also noted that they look for staff which can help at area meetings to talk about grants and share information with other staff members. As new CEEDs are hired, this might be something to include in the job description.
The Partnership Agreement. Low-income counties are now experiencing higher shares of their budgets go to ISU this year (and in the following couple of years). This has been done to help those counties in the middle brackets. By the end of FY 08, it should be almost equal, based on population size. Board members were reminded that the Partnership Agree is referendum-neutral.
The Des Moines Art Fair. Some council members have concerns that the expenses were too high for the amount of payback that ISUE receives for their involvement. Brian mentioned that he’s heard good things about our involvement and the exposure. Michael noted that ISUE will not be participating this year due to a shortfall in funding sources for our participation.
Paid holidays for part-time county-paid employees. Holidays are at the discretion of each county extension council. There might be a survey to look at the will help councils know what others are doing. The AEEDs will check into this.
Benefit package for OAs. This continues to be an issue as counties try to hire competent office staff in a competitive job market. IACEC has looked into options in the past a few years ago. The board decided to try to take another look at this.
Paying Partnership Agreement payments quarterly vs. monthly. Administration is looking into seeing if this was an option for counties – this would equate with less paperwork. Some counties think this is helpful…others might not want to do this. Counties could still pay monthly if they want to.
Update on new bookkeeping system pilot. Ten counties piloted the new system. An additional 15 counties were trained. At this point, we will wait for additional training until these 25 counties are doing well. There is no additional fee for the counties to be on this system. The actual cost for the program itself came out of central administration’s budget.
4-H membership fee. Some county extension councils wish that there were a statewide consensus on what counties are charging. One council member requested itemized documentation of what the $20 fee is being used for. Chuck will work on putting something together.
Mark noted that a copy of ISUE’s Accreditation and Planning Report is in the board members’ packets. He requested that board members look at it and let him or Michael know any feedback/concerns they might have about the report.
Sue read Allen Rick’s resignation letter. He is resigning due to his recent hiring as Black Hawk County CEED.
Margaret moved that Gary Smith be nominated for the President-Elect. Jayne seconded the motion and moved that nominations cease. Brian seconded that nominations cease. Both motions carried.
Brian moved that Margaret be nominated for secretary. Joe seconded the motion and moved that nominations cease. Jayne seconded that nominations cease. Both motions carried.
Under Old Business, Sue reviewed progress on the IACEC Strategic Plan Report. We continue to move forward on our goals and celebrate the following achievements thus far: · We have developed council member helps section on our website. · Some board members have helped train new council members this past year in other counties. · Liaisons have been set up in almost all counties. · A survey has been developed to link council members on topics of importance. · We have looked into hiring a lobbyist for the Association. It appears to be cost-prohibitive at this point. We have still made great strides with our legislative efforts this year. Our legislators are getting much more familiar with extension. If we could get 300 in attendance on legislative day, it would help take care of the need of having a lobbyist. · Board members noted that they see more partnering with other agencies going on in counties. · Boosts for Your Budget column has been added to the Network Newsletter. · We are working to get more information out to the councils via liaisons, newsletter, website, area meetings
The board discussed awarding Friend of Extension Awards to supportive legislators. It was decided to wait on this idea for now.
The board voted to approve expenses of $1,882.92 for board member travel, envelopes, note cards, and postage.
The next meeting date (with the newly elected board members) is set for June 10, 2006; 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Jayne moved to adjourn the meeting. Sybil seconded the motion. The motion carried.
Respectfully submitted,
________________________ Margaret Mordan, Secretary
|
|
Contact webmaster.© IACEC 2002 |
