Accessible document

Assembly of Extension Program Leaders Executive Committee

Conference Call (Sept. 8, 2006)

Participants: Ralph Rayburn, Pete Granger, Paula Cullenberg, Jack Thigpen, Kurt Byers, John Woeste, Jim Murray, Steve Stewart, Virginia Lee, Nancy Balcom

Nominations Committee (Ralph)

Formal process underway September 28th
May contact regional reps to try and encourage people to become involved

Beltway Brown Bag Seminars (Pete Granger)

Pete solicited suggestions (top three are the travel lift from Alaska to Louisiana; ocean observing; boating and marina siting)
Nancy to talk with Jon Kramer about whether the travel lift brown bag might coincide with planned Congressional briefing on seafood
Pete will call Jamie Krauk to ask her to start arrangements for next Brown Bag (travel lift)
Jim Murray discussed coastal resiliency context, emergency disaster response and our role in it (broaden the story and shape in a larger context, perhaps include Rex Caffrey – fishery impacts from Katrina); He and Leon meeting with FEMA, sign MOU re: disaster response with Sea Grant as part of it; SG assets & infrastructure can help communities be more resilient and responsive
John Woeste: important to drive home that SG program organically linked with local people to help them solve their problems, relevant resources to bear (e.g., travel lift)

Awards

Plaque for Bill Rickards will be provided by Bill DuPaul and presented by Jack Thigpen at the FEE meeting in Florida
The plaque for Ron Hodson (former SGA liaison to Assembly) will be presented at SG Week 07

Fisheries Extension Enhancement Meeting

Kurt Byers: gathering pictures with Torie Baker from Alaska to include in opening powerpoint. Mug shots of all FEE-funded people set to music. If have FEE staff, please send him pictures. This could be put on Assembly website after the meeting.
Jim Murray – can we make the pictures available to others?
Kathy Castro has done a great job keeping the FEE ball rolling – meeting program looks very applied, very practical; 90-100 people expected.

Network meeting in Puerto Rico

Invoices for share of money from meeting need to be sent to Ralph Rayburn ($3600 Assembly, $3600 Communicators, $745 Educators)
Steve Stewart, Chair-elect of Educators Network needs to get an account set up for the educators
Outreach working group: draft of sustainable seafood one-pager near completion. Will be sent to Jon Kramer, Paul Anderson and Rick DeVoe. Format used suggested by Joel Widder of LBA. Work on resilient communities one-pager has not progressed. Word is that Gordon Grau and the CCD programs (several theme teams) are pulling together a white paper. Could send him the compiled impacts for inclusion or development into a one-pager. Nancy to contact Gordon Grau to determine interest.

National Climate Outreach Workshop

Jack Thigpen attending planning meeting on behalf of Assembly; Dale Baker also heavily involved. NOAA Global Climate Office and SG. Purpose will be to educate our extension agents on climate issues and how we can become more involved in this issue. Weather Service, NSGO, NOAA Global Climate Office, Coastal Services Center
Workshop in early to mid April 2007 (10th to 12th) or tie into CSC in Charleston. Planning is on-going to flesh out the agenda
NS and SC programs are hiring extension climatology specialist, with some funds provided by the NOAA Global Climate Office. Person will be based halfway and will work with regional climate offices to do extension work in climatology. New partnerships in the works.
Dale Baker surveyed the program leaders (and reported in Puerto Rico) – lot of support for being able to access more climate applications and information.
Workshop will be along lines of EPA Smart Growth boot camp, but not as long. Various parts of NOAA, with products and services to aid decision-making process, to make known what they have available. Increasing number of products have application for coastal users.
Virginia Lee: at CSC, Smart Growth training – interesting how much education EPA needs in the use of their tools. Will NOAA need some help in refining coastal applications of their tools and services?
Jim Murray: other part of this is that the NOAA Global Climate Office will learn from SG too. Looking to build personal relationships to learn about coastal applications
Paul Sholtz – storm surge model. Improve model and products. Virginia offered to help them, but later SG was not written into the budget.
Virginia: has done some workshops with local weather service. Need to have some clarity going into the meeting – SG contributes and serves NOAA well, but then NOAA central not willing to support SG back
Jack: shares these feelings, similar to ocean observing system efforts. Not clear what SG “extends” and how we connect. Takes time to figure out how we fit and what our role is.
We’re experts in extension and outreach. It’s our duty to help NOAA figure out what they want to do and how.
Jack and Jim: There has been some support (spotty) – 1 person at a time

Other Business

SG Week: in San Diego first week of October 2007; Jack will oversee planning of Assembly’s business meeting
Ocean Research Strategic Planning mtg – Ralph attended meeting in Louisiana, also Chuck Wilson. Spinrad, head of OAR, spoke – discussed research, education and outreach opportunities but no mention of Sea Grant. Suggested that we look at the plan – SG is not there.

Need to ask Jon Kramer if the SGA is submitting a formal response to the Ocean research Strategy and if the Assembly could contribute to that response.
The fact that SG has regional initiatives didn’t seem to register – Spinrad seems unaware that we do (Jim: Leon Cammen has already briefed Spinrad on Sea Grant)
Programs should try and attend meetings held in their areas.
John Woeste: was the NSGO involved on the internal team in putting together these meetings – when and where? (no) Most directors seemed to hear about the meetings via a public announcement. Would be good to evolve to point where we are more involved than getting a public notice of these meetings. SGA and the Assembly ought to be responding and have the contacts to get foot in door to be heard
Jim Murray – has not yet briefed Spinrad on extension, although he has briefed many AAs

National Research Council report on SG program review process

Ross Heath (chair), Jerry Schubel, Jon Kramer, Paul Anderson, Kola Garber, Jim Murray
One process for response is in place – Assembly would like involvement (sub-groups will be established to deal with specific parts)

Status of Nat Robinson (everything is looking up, but his recuperation is expected to be on order of 6 months or more
Virginia: was at CSC as member of beta test – new program on Smart Growth and Coastal Communities

Is there way to get funding for leadership in Assembly / SGA / NERR – provide actual coaching as opposed to training? How to step into leadership position without burning out? Margaret Davidson is interested, looking to get funding for it.
Coach 1 on 1 – how to do a better job. Typically very expensive.
Jack: could we use this as a perk to lure people into leadership position with Assembly.
Jack and Virginia will work on proposal with Margaret Davidson, Mike Spranger, Pete Granger

Return to:
ASGEPL

Note: This is an accessible version of a document originally produced for the Web in .pdf format. While it contains all significant content of the original print document, it may omit layout and graphic elements which contribute to the look and feel of the original, and make the .pdf version more suitable for printing.