Present: Van Varner, Mark Longstroth, Stan Moore, Jerry Lindquist, Tom Dudek, Bob Briccault, Bruce MacKellar, Mike Staton, Phil Durst, Steve Fouch, Bobbi Lawrence, George Silva, Dean Krauskopf, Julie Pioch, Don Smucker.

President Varner called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m.

Agenda items of academic rank, mentoring document, county agent directory and brochure were added.

Minutes: The item from the last meeting regarding the association purchase of hats for all members was discussed. Lindquist moved, second by Lawrence, that active members only, defined as those who have paid their dues, are eligible for the $6.00 voucher. Motion carried.

Treasurer’s Report: Briccault presented a balance sheet and MAEA budget report through August 23, 2000. He pointed out that there has been designated a liability item of $5,000 for the Wisconsin NACAA meeting as was decided at the last board meeting.

He reported that it is difficult to keep a current mailing list of new employees eligible for association membership and encouraged Regional Directors to help him do this. Also, we need to work on an improved list of life members. Krauskopf moved, second by Durst, that we request Don Juchartz to help us get a current list of life members and maintain that list. Motion carried. Krauskopf to follow up with Juchartz. We need to make sure that our newsletters and other communications are mailed to life members. Moved by Dudek, second Krauskopf, to accept Treasurer’s Report. Motion carried.

Briccault reported that Paul Marks has agreed to audit the treasurer’s books and have a report for the October 10 meeting. It was reported that we have a total of 136 members that were submitted to NACAA and we have nine members since then, for a total of 145. Lindquist moved, seconded by Moore, that we amend the budget to include $1,000 for the purchase of a hat or another piece of Extension clothing. Motion carried. It was clarified that we should issue a $6 voucher to active members and we need to clarify that this is a one-time offer. Varner is to contact Mary Harvey to see what arrangements can be made to accept our vouchers and possibly write one check only for the items purchased. Varner will then report to the Regional Directors what he found out from Mary and what system will need to be used to distribute and collect vouchers. Regional Directors will then contact their members and distribute the vouchers.

Regional Directors Reports:

U.P. – Varner reported that Ray Clark has reported to him that the group will be meeting on September 20.

North – Phil Durst reported that they met on June 16 with eighteen in attendance. That group suggested that we send Board Meeting Agendas to membership for their comments or put them on a web site and send an e-mail message with a hot link to the web site so that they can give their Regional Director’s feedback. Suggested ideas for the Spring Workshop included reports on international trips and nutriceuticales. It was also suggested that MCEA facilitate distribution of association directors/officers lists so that directors and officers of all associations could more easily communicate and network with each other. The question was raised if it is possible to have a members’ dues go to another national association. Questions were also raised on the budget process regarding the role of the president’s office and the feasibility of making contacts with Board of Trustees members. Their next meeting is scheduled for Friday, December 1. New staff includes Sarah Crenshaw, Alpena County Community Development/Land Use responsibilities.

East Central – It was reported that Angie Eichorn is now a 4-H Agent in Wayne County. Eichorn has requested dual membership. It was suggested that we should encourage dual membership where applicable. It was further suggested that we should consider a reduction in dues for people that have dual membership and challenge the other associations to do so also. Durst moved, Lawrence seconded, to offer dual memberships to our association by reducing $15 from our MAEA annual dues providing that the dual memberships are on our other Michigan Agent Associations, excluding Epsilon Sigma Phi. Motion carried. Varner is to report this to MCEA and encourage other associations to follow through with this also. A letter will do this. Then we can encourage follow up with a letter to CED’s, that include dues forms that can be sent back to Treasurer Briccault. Longstroth agreed to put our dues forms up on the web site so it will be accessible for members from there. Longstroth also discussed that we need to develop an e-mail list of MAEA members and he would work with Briccault to help develop this list. Varner suggested that his secretary, Sandy, could help put together this list and also maintain it, if needed. Personnel changes in the East Central Region include Dave Pratt, Extension ANR Agent, Tuscola County.

West Central Region – Jerry Lindquist and Tom Dudek reported that they met on August 17 with 19 members present. The group recommended that we discontinue the MAEA Spring In-Service during ANR Week. They also recommended that MCEA be on the planning committee for the Fall Extension Conference and one-day be allowed for programming for each association. The draft on guidelines for the mentoring program was presented and the agents present suggested some changes. Ira Krupp will serve as Chair of the Professional Improvement Committee. Charles Gould will also serve on the Committee and Coleen Boyer is the third member. Kara Griffith was elected as the new Director. The recommendation was made that our secretary

E-mail notices to members that the newsletter is published with a link to the web site. Minutes should be posted on the web site with a notice also going out by e-mail. The group suggested that a fish boil be considered as our meal that we would do for the Wisconsin 2003 meeting. Becky Mitchell is to review the MSU Extension promotional clothing merchandise and report back to the members. Jim Brienling will be coordinated our Project GREEEN Grant Funds for the year 2000. Need for equine and forestry field positions were mentioned. It was also discussed that we need to improve our CEEnet Directory to include more information about campus staff responsibilities and percent of Extension time. The question was raised as to how a Regional Web Pages would mesh with MSU Extension official web page, that is already established.

Southeast – Dean Krauskopf said the group has not met. They have received grant funds for a regional ANR research report. New staff includes Terry McClain, Genesee Hort Agent and Wendy Lake is leaving Extension from Washtenaw County.

Southwest – Mike Staton had 19 members participate in a Regional Meeting at the Kellogg Biological Station on August 11. Bruce MacKellar was elected as Regional Director. Jane Herbert (Vice Chair), Jeannie Himmelein and Julie Pioch were appointed to the Program Recognition Committee. A report was given on the National Meeting and members were encouraged to become involved in Albuquerque 2001. Some members felt that we should encourage Director Leholm to provide more financial assistance to members who give oral presentations at annual meetings. New positions are Mike Metzger, ANR Agent in Jackson and Hillsdale Counties, Mike Haas GIS Agent in Branch County and Jeanne Himmelein, District Horticulture Agent. Pioch reported that there are four different funds that are available to members who are giving reports at National Meetings and it was suggested that perhaps we should put an item on our web site to link to the web pages where application forms are found. The Hort Agent in Berrien County is still open. Longstroth encouraged regions to send their reports to him so that he can put them on our web site.

Visit with Administration: Gale Arent entered the meeting at 11:30 and fielded questions from the agents on topics of interest. The question was raised regarding multi-state programming and Arent clarified that we have five to six years to phase up to 25 percent of our federal monies committed to multi-state programming. This programming has to appear in the plan of work of both states to be counted. This is fairly straightforward with research projects, but with Extension programming it is more complex to develop and deliver multi-state programming. There are discussions ensuing as to how it is most efficient to do programming to meet this requirement, but certainly one way is to do a better job of reporting what we already doing. We also discussed the changes in demographics that are happening with many positions being staffed by recent graduates or also people who have retired early and coming to Extension. He pointed out the necessity of developing an orientation/mentoring program to help these people develop into effective agents. Gale also mentioned that Scott Lovel would be the new coach of the community development natural resources AoE’s. Efforts are being made to help our self-directed work teams to communicate across teams. Coaches to help this happen include Jim Kells with Plant Teams, Ted Ferris with Animal Teams, Karen Shire and Lynn Borden with Human Development Teams. Both he and Cheri Booth plan to have regular meetings with these people to facilitate better communication among AoE’s. Arent brought to the group a proposal to merge the Michigan Natural Features inventory with MSU Extension and discussed the process that had been gone through to incorporate this group into a unit of Extension. Curt Heinze is heading up the search for the Dean and the position announcement has gone out with a date of September 15. Arent emphasized the importance of Extension Councils, stating that they are a vehicle to help Extension grow and secure additional resources for initiatives and could also be useful in case of reduced resources to prioritize what areas we would do programming.

Nominating Committee: Bob Briccault, Chair, Mike Staton, Tom Dudek and Steve Moore. Slate of officers will be put together with the goal of making this available by mid-September. The plan is to have this up on the web site and notify counties and encourage them to request a written copy if they cannot access the web site.

There was discussion regarding problems with the promotional clothes merchandise and it was recommended that Mike Kovosik be approached to check and see if this is going to be part of the marketing plan as it is finalized.

Standing Committees: Varner reported that Jim Kalishek had circulated a list of national award winners that he forwarded to officers and Regional Directors.

Report on MCEA Retreat: Participants were Varner, Longstroth and Lawrence and they reported on the discussion of details of the Directors’ salary increases. Lawrence reported that some good information was given on tips for helping to secure commitment from members to fulfill jobs of an organization. A discussion followed on academic rank. This was started in 1998 as part of a project of Allen Krizek’s doctoral thesis. Marks, Lawrence and representatives of the agent associations have gotten together and secured personnel packets from many states to see what their policies are. They are going to put together a report and forward it to Jim Artabasy and get his feelings and then report back to MCEA. One of the issues to be decided is if we want a parallel system or a separate system, and the advantages and disadvantages of these were discussed.

MAEA Website/Communication: It was mentioned that several of the regions want us to do a newsletter with an e-mail hot link and we also need to get information to retirees. It was suggested that this be done two times a year and that it also serve as a marketing piece. Smucker volunteered to put together a two-page newsletter and get it out before our October 10 meeting with the cooperation of the officers and Regional Directors. Durst volunteered to make a contribution, also Longstroth will put in a list of committee positions open. Pioch also will help. We should also include any information on the Spring meeting and our upcoming meeting in Albuquerque next year.

National Meeting: It was reported that 9 association members attended. Gale Arent and Larry Olson were also in attendance. Group attending came back with many positive reports.

Code of Ethics: Lawrence suggested that we make sure that Regional Directors get us names of new members so that we can distribute Code of Ethics plaques at our Fall Meeting.

Selection of Awards: Specialist Awards were selected as follows – Jim Hilker, Major Specialist; Alan Jones, Minor Specialist. Support staff selected were Sheila Morgan from the North Region, Chris DeFouw from campus and Jerry Skeltis from the Clarksville Station. Presidential Citations will be awarded to Kara Griffith, Tim Johnson, Julie Pioch, Dave Glenn and Phil Durst.

Plans for Annual Meeting: Varner to work on setting ticket price. Our treasury can pay for invited guests. We need to make good use of the time we have available. The time that has been allotted to us is not adequate for the business we need to conduct. It is strongly suggested that we pursue with MCEA to obtain adequate time to conduct association business as part of our Fall meeting.

Mentoring Document: The document was further discussed. Longstroth will put the document on the web. We will also notify people in the newsletter and we will ask for suggestions that anyone has for changes to the document.

Spring Training Plans: There was considerable discussion as to what to do about Spring Training. West Central Region has voted not to support the meeting. The Board felt that we do need to do a general business meeting and that we should also consider a training session as part of this. One suggestion was to incorporate AoE meetings possibly after the Dean’s Banquet. It was decided that the Vice-President and Ira Krupp and members that helped last year would start the ball rolling on the Spring Meeting. Durst moved that we do an in-service on a Monday and then do a business meeting on the morning of the second day and that we will do a survey of membership to get their suggestions as to what we should do in the future. Supported by Moore, motion carried.

County Agent Directory: Durst suggested that we order a number of these and sell them at a profit. Second by Moore, motion carried.

Transition Meeting: There will be a special board meeting of MAEA on November 2. The purpose of this meeting is to lay plans for the new year and orient old and new committee members.

Brochure: Lawrence showed a copy of the national brochure. Longstroth moved that we get 200 copies to distribute at the banquet. Durst supported, motion carried.

Time-Share: Lawrence suggested that several members have time-shares that they would make available to agents. She will meet with Krauskopf and McKinney to suggest how this could be done.

Committee Structure: It was suggested that the AoE co-chairs be considered as people to represent Michigan on their relevant national committees. Longstroth will e-mail co-chairs and encourage them to consider doing this at their next AoE meeting. Our goal is to try and fill these spots by our Fall meeting.

Wisconsin Meeting: Discussion as to what meal Michigan might volunteer for. It was suggested that we might possibly consider the Sunday night meal. Varner will set up a sub-committee to further pursue this.

Meeting adjourned at 4:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Donald R. Smucker
Secretary