Western Extension Directors Association
Meeting Notes
July 27, 2021
Welcome and Introductions – Cody Stone
Roll Call/Sound Check – Lyla Houglum
Present: Lindsey Shirley, Cody Stone, Mike Gaffney, Jon Boren, Shannon Horrillo, Jeff Goodwin, Wendy Powers, Vicki McCracken, Ivory Lyles, Pete Barcinas, Pete Pinney, Lyla Houglum, Doreen Hauser-Lindstrom.
Quorum established.
Guests: Jackie Tinetti, Jonathan Lennartz, Shipa Patel from CSG-West; Sara Trojan, Jenna Meeks from W-SARE.
Introduction to Council of State Governments – West (CSG–West) – Jacqueline Tinetti, Jonathan Lennartz, Shilpa Patel
Jackie began with an introduction to CSG-West, which is a region-based forum that fosters the exchange of insights and ideas to help state officials shape public policy. Each representative shared their portfolio of programs. This group is located in Sacramento, CA. They cover the 13 Western states, from MT down to the left out to HI up to AK and the territories.
Annual meeting is September 28th – October 1st: https://www.csgwest.org/annualmeeting/default.aspx. Would like Extension to attend.
Jacqueline Tinetti: Portfolio includes natural resources, ag, energy and everything related to water. Jackie staffs the Ag & Water and Energy & Environment Committees. They will be hosting the CO River Forum – and wants to engage Directors of Colorado River Basin states. Also staffs the Legislative Council on River Governance focusing this year on the Columbia River Basin with a meeting later in August to be held in Lewiston, ID. Next year this meeting will be in Oregon. Contact information is jtinetti@csg.org or 916-599-0497.
Jonathan Lennartz: Staffs and coordinates the Education and Workforce Development committees.
Shilpa Patel: Portfolio includes public safety and health. Staffs the Health committee – focused on mental health in the corrections system and health care delivery, this year much of focus on COVID and how to deal with effect on ACA and Medicaid. Aging health care workforce and big pharma next biennium. Contact information is spatel@csg.org and (415) 385-1464.
Each of these representatives is assigned specific states:
- Jonathan assigned MT and WY
- Jackie assigned Alaska
- Shilpa assigned CA and AZ
They noted that they were surprised to learn more about Extension’s work outside of AG/NR.
Comments from Directors:
Ivory shared information about Workforce Development and offered to engage Jonathan in those discussion and learn more about policy makers interests – child care certification / home-based childcare (NV), traditional ag workforce development issues and working with Boards (NV).
Extension’s national priorities around urban ag – indoor grower/small growth containers to massive greenhouse production and climate ag were shared.
Cody added additional Western Region priorities: Alignment around water, wildfire, urban centers and rural initiatives, health/wellness/mental health, workforce and youth development through 4-H.
Extension’s national effort funded through CDC grant for vaccine education was shared. Also mental health work through the newly formed western initiative on the impact of diet on mental health of adolescents, and the western farm stress initiative group working to create a farm and ranch assistance network to manage stress, increase awareness, and reduce the stigma of mental health issues.
Lyla encouraged Directors to attend the CSG-West meetings which offer great accessibility to legislators and provides opportunities to informally discuss ways to collaboratively address issues.
ACTION ITEM: Doreen will follow-up with Jackie, Shilpa and Jonathan to further explore partnerships and opportunities.
W-SARE Request – Kelly Crane, Sara Trojan
WSARE is conducting a needs assessment in the areas of research and outreach, to better understand the issues in the West. The target audience for the needs assessment is NGOs, nonprofits and Extension personnel.
Request: By mid-August, they would like contact information for Extension Agents and Specialists working with Sustainable Ag in our states. It would help the response rate if they could garner and manage the contact list directly. Sustainable ag is defined as anything that focuses on social, economic or resource conservation sustainability.
ACTION ITEM: Lyla will send out an email to the Directors from Sara requesting this information. If Directors can send a list that is ideal. If not, they will work with the State Coordinator for your state. You may receive some follow-up emails from Sara Trojan requesting the information.
WEDA Business Meeting
Approve June 28-July 1 Meeting Minutes – Barbara Petty
Wendy Powers moved to approve the minutes as presented. Vicki McCracken seconded the vote. A voice vote was called for. Yes – 8; No – 0. Motion passed.
Old Business:
FY21 WEDA Work Plan & Accomplishments– Lyla Houglum
Lyla updated the FY21 document to include the accomplishments through June 30 and posted the completed document on the WEDA website.
2021 WEDA Work Plan & Accomplishments
Lyla also revised and updated the 2021 WEDA work plan to be consistent with the recent decision to plan WEDA work on the calendar year (January-December). Doreen will continue to work on the calendar year work plan. Some of the work has been delayed due to time needed to work on Strategic Directions, Rules of Operation, Processes and Procedures, and other WEDA documents. So, as the 2022 work plan is being developed in the Fall, WEDA will need to discuss which item to carry forward into the next year’s plan.
Committee Work Plans
Each of WEDAs major committees have been asked to work on annual calendar year workplan for next calendar year to begin Jan 2022. The committees will need to have this ready by December for discussion and approval that will happen in January.
WEDA Processes & Procedures Document – Cody Stone, Lyla Houglum
This document initially consisted of policies made over the years and procedures/process used. After discussion with Cody, it was decided to pull the policy related items out of this document and put them into the Rules of Operations document (see below). The benefit of this approach is that there is one place to go to for Rules of Operation and one for Processes & Procedures.
Lyla reviewed the document (attached). WEDA determined that no official vote was needed on the processes and procedures document.
ACTION ITEM: Lyla will post the completed document on the WEDA website for future reference. The document will be password protected.
WEDA Rules of Operation: Introduce changes – Cody Stone, Lyla Houglum
Lyla and Cody reviewed with members the tracked changes noting information moved from the Processes & Procedures Document to the Rule of Operation document (attached). There were some revisions made based on group discussion. The updated document will be brought back for a vote at the August Meeting.
ACTION ITEM: WEDA Rules of Operation added to August Meeting agenda for a vote.
Nominations Committee – Jon Boren, Barbara Petty, Wendy Powers
At the last meeting Blake Naughton was suggested for the WEDA Secretary/Chair Elect role. The nominations committee reached out to Blake, and he agreed, so the committee is presenting Blake Naughton as the nominee for WEDA Secretary/Chair Elect beginning in October. Wendy Powers moved to consider Blake as incoming Secretary/Chair Elect. Motion seconded by Pete Pinney. A voice vote was called for. Yes – 8; No – 0. Motion passed. Blake has been elected!
WEDA Website transition update – Lyla Houglum
Lyla and Doreen are In the process of transitioning the WEDA and associated websites to the EXtension Foundation. They are working with Ben MacNeill, User Experience Designer, eXtension, on the transition. Goal is to have the new website up and ready to go by the end of August.
Spring 2022 Western Joint Meeting – Barbara Petty, Lyla Houglum
Lyla shared that Reno, NV is being proposed as the location for the 2022 Joint Spring Meeting. Directors present identified the week of March 21st as the preferred date. We will meet jointly with Experiment Station Directors, WPOLC, the Centers, and 1994’s and maybe FRTEP. Please hold the dates.
ACTION ITEM: Lyla will communicate WEDA’s preferred date to Bret Hess.
Note: The Summer 2022 meeting will be in Concord, CA: June 27th – 29th.
The Future of LGU’s – The Changing Needs of Extension – Blake Naughton,
White paper update – moved to next month’s meeting.
New Business:
ECOP Issues
Executive Committee – Wendy Powers
Working on ECOP operations and how they communicate with Directors. A decision tree has been drafted to show how opportunities that come through ECOP get disseminated. Considering how ECOP communicates out with not just its members but Directors across the US. Goal to increase awareness and the feeling that ECOP is serving the needs better.
Another item is the roles and responsibilities of different groups – Extension Foundation, National 4-H Council, NIFA, ECOP in the areas of resource mobilization and partnership development. Possibly an MOU will be developed to outline how groups interact and function together. Let Ivory, Wendy or Barbara know if you want to serve on that committee to draft the MOU.
Programs Committee – Ivory Lyles
There are 7 national program priorities and opportunities for individuals in your state to be engaged from Director to Specialists or other faculty. Western Region is well represented. NIFA has appointed someone as a liaison to all 7 committees. Plan to develop a long-term plan to inform the RFAs so when proposals comes out we are better positioned for success.
Received $800K from NIFA working through the Extension Foundation and all priority areas received some funding.
Priorities:
- Climate Extension – Jason Henderson, Chris Geith
- Workforce Development – Ivory W Lyles
- Health Extension – Roger Rennekamp
- 4-H Positive Youth Development – Jo Britt-Rankin
- Urban AG and Extension – Marie Ruemenapp, Jason Henderson, Brent Hale
- Broadband/Infrastructure (access and literacy) – Gary Jackson, Ivory W. Lyles
- Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) – Rachel Welborn, Vonda Richard
ACTION ITEM: Each priority committee needs members. Please recruit from you state and contact the lead listed above.
Professional Development Committee – Barbara Petty
Lyla noted that they just finished the National Award selection process, and award winners have been notified.
Budget & Legislative Committee – Jon Boren
Worked to support BAA unified ask for capacity funds. The budget laid out by President was NIFA driven so we have more work to do for capacity funds.
Had a conversation related to the 7 national priorities and the BLC has built an advocacy toolkit around them along with a website.
Jason Henderson brought together group to see what plans are for next farm bill. Need a unified direction.
Next steps with BLC is to explore if there is a place with the Extension Foundation to discuss private funding mobilization.
Some meetings have occurred with OMB to stress need for increased capacity funds.
APLU Andrea Putman – Assistant Vice President, Communications and External Partnerships, Food, Agriculture & Natural Resources (FANR) was recently hired.
4-H Leadership Committee – Jon Boren
DEI Strategic Plan was completed, and they are now in the at the phase of developing 6 implementation committees to move strategic plan forward. Andy Turner, Chair, worked with NIFA on sustainability of the Pathways project to extend it.
There will be a face-to-face meeting in DC in September with the National 4-H Council Board of Trustees and there will be an opportunity at Carrie Castille’s request to have a deep dive about what each of the partners expect of each other as move forward to reach more diverse youth across US. They may relook at MOU with Council, Extension and NIFA.
Questions have been brought up with the Name and Emblem that governs how it the Clover is administered in 2020 Omnibus Bill and the federal mark status. This could have major implications for marketing of 4-H. Carrie Castille is asking OGC with clarity on language and next steps.
Future WEDA Meetings: August 24, 2021
Meeting adjourned at 5:00 pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Shannon Horrillo for Barbara Petty
WEDA Secretary/Chair Elect