MAEA Messenger

Editor’s note: Phil Durst, the Michigan Annual Meeting Chair for 2007, had submitted the following articles for the December 2002 MAEA Messenger. I inadvertently left these out of the newsletter sent to you last week. I apologize for the error. NMB.

Michigan Agents are among the best in the country. Yes, many of us have to take on additional responsibilities and some of us are faced with uncertainty. Most of us have said goodbye to colleagues and the financial stress is predicted to extend farther into the future.

But this is a great time to plan to host the 2007 NACAA Annual Meeting and Professional Improvement Conference! In times like this, we need a common goal, we need to come together and we need to be reminded of the greatness of Michigan State Extension and our communities that we can showcase to agents from around the country. We have something great to look forward to!

Thank you for electing me to serve as your 2007 Annual Meeting Chair. We have a great team, whom you also elected, serving as the Executive Committee for this meeting.

• Stan Moore, Vice-chair for Fiscal and Logistic Management
• Chuck Pistis, Vice-chair for Special Activities and Transportation
• Tom Kalchik, Vice-chair for Facilities Coordination
• Steve Siegelin, Vice-chair for Banquets and Breaks
• Julie Pioch, Secretary
• Ned Birkey, Treasurer

But remember, this is a job for everyone, for all of our members, other agents and your spouses. It is also a job in which we need many of our retired agents to help us out. We want to identify committee chairs before we head to Green Bay so that you can start watching and planning how we will make the 2007 meeting the best ever! We’re Michigan proud and this is our chance to prove it. Join with us in this great venture!

While I often speak as though it were a done deal that Michigan is the site for the 2007 national meeting, the fact is that there is a bid process at the meeting in Green Bay, July 13-17, 2003. The states in the North Central region have the opportunity to bid in 2003 for the ’07 meeting. We don’t know that anyone else is bidding, but there is still a process to go through. We are using this as an opportunity to create excitement for coming to Michigan in ’07. We want agents, spouses, kids and retirees to plan this year to be in Grand Rapids in four years. It will be a great family affair!

We have a number of things being planned for creating that excitement in Green Bay as a part of the bid process.

Fish boil dinner – This is a real shot to showcase not only Great Lakes fish, but also Michigan Agents working together to pull off a great event. Chuck Pistis is the chair of the fish boil. We need everyone to be involved in this!

Display booth – Steve Siegelin is leading an effort to create an interactive booth that will be a hit. We will pass out fun stuff including a Michigan coloring book and soy crayons for the kids. This will be done in conjunction with the Grand Rapids Convention and Visitors Bureau who are being a great help.

Hospitality Suite – We are out to make this long-standing tradition a fun event and to highlight some of our fine wineries and their products. Tom Kalchik is coordinating the hospitality.

Video presentation – Bill Robb is heading up the work to create a video that will impact people with sights, sounds and script that will create in them a desire to come to Michigan in ’07. We are working with ANR publicity people in this.

In-room gifts – Even as guests get settled in the Regency Suites hotel, the Headquarters hotel at Green Bay, they will find a welcome gift from Michigan to remind them of the beauty of our state and its appeal for families. Tom Dudek and Dean Krauskopf are making the arrangements.

Delegate gifts – Delegates, who do the actual voting on the site location, will be treated to a classy gift from the Grand Rapids CVB that will remind them on a daily basis that Grand Rapids, Michigan is where they will find "Great Lakes, Great Sights, Great Times"!

We want to tell the world that Michigan in 2007 offers super professional improvement opportunities, vacation wonders, first class accommodations and the greatest hosts and hostesses – You! Make your plans to be in Green Bay, July 13-17 to help spread the good word.

This is a special call to all of you who have retired from Extension. We need you! For most of you, Michigan did not host a national meeting during your career. But now is your chance to be involved in this great event. And frankly, you are better positioned to do it than most of our agents.

We need you to start coming to the NACAA national meetings to scout them out and find a better way to do things. We need to you make friends from around the country and invite them to Michigan in 2007. We need your time and we need your financial donations.

Don’t miss out on the fun and the pride in hosting a national meeting. This really is your chance even though you are retired. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

At the MAEA Annual Meeting in October, the members were presented with 24 different annual meeting slogans, or tag lines for 2007. Nine agents and one life-member submitted entries that were all good and which all received votes. But in the final run-off it was Dan Rossman’s tag line that took the honors; "Michigan – Great Lakes, Great Sights, Great Times". Thank you, Dan.

We hope that families of all ages make their plans to come to Michigan for those very reasons; to swim in and enjoy the dunes along the Great Lakes, to explore the state to see the Great Sights, and to join us in 2007 for Great Times!