Annual/Termination Reports:

[06/12/2007] [05/15/2008] [05/15/2009] [05/27/2010] [08/04/2011]

Report Information

Participants

Members and other Participants Present

Norm Harris, University of Alaska, Fairbanks

John Kawula, University of Alaska, Fairbanks

Mel George, University of California

Mark Thorne, University of Hawaii at Manoa

Eileen Herring, University of Hawaii at Manoa

Karen Launchbaugh, University of Idaho

Walter Fick, Kansas State University

Mike Haddock, Kansas State University

Tracy Brewer, Montana State University

Jeff Mosley, Montana State University

Brad Schultz, University of Nevada, Reno

Amy Shannon, University of Nevada, Reno

Sherman Swanson, University of Nevada, Reno

Rex Pieper, New Mexico State University

Kathie Richardson, North Dakota State University

John Tanaka, Oregon State University

Nancy Marshall, South Dakota State University

Eric Mousel, South Dakota State University

Jim Dobrowolski, United States Department of Agriculture

Rodger Banner, Utah State University

Mindy Pratt, Utah State University

Tipton Hudson, Extension Washington State University


University of Arizona Workshop Planning Committee
Carla Long Casler, Arid Lands Information Center
Vicki Duraine, Science-Engineering Library
Barbara Hutchinson, University of Arizona Libraries
Doug Jones, Science-Engineering Library
Sheila Merrigan, Cooperative Extension
Jeanne Pfander, Science-Engineering Library
George Ruyle, Rangeland and Forest Resources Program
Anne Thwaits, Arid Lands Information Center
Aaron Valdivia, Science-Engineering Library

Other University of Arizona Participants:
Jennifer Arnold, School of Natural Resources
Julie Conley, Consultant, Rangelands and Forest Resources Program
Wolfgang Grunberg, Web Development Specialist, Arizona Remote Sensing Center
Colin Kaltenbach, Vice-Dean, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Min-Seong Kang, Arizona Remote Sensing Center
Chestalene Pintozzi, Facilitator, University Library
Carla Stoffle, Dean of Libraries
Deborah Young, Associate Director, Cooperative Extension

Special Guest
Tom Sheridan, University of Arizona Southwest Center

Brief Summary of Minutes

The Rangelands West Partnership held their 6th annual meeting on March 11-13, 2007 in Tucson, Arizona. The meeting was organized by the University of Arizona Steering Committee and it was attended by 23 rangeland scientists and agricultural librarians from 14 of the 19 participating Western land-grant universities. During the meeting, newly-elected officers (Dr. Karen Launchbaugh, Chairperson; Carla Casler, Vice-chair; and Dr. Norm Harris, Secretary) gave background information on the organization, verified the groups committee structure with members, and called for nominations for the next secretary. Other activities included a walking tour of the University of Arizona campus arboretum lead by the Director, Dr. Elizabeth Davison, comments from Dr. Deborah Young, Associate Director Arizona Cooperative Extension, and a presentation from Dr. Tom Sheridan on Landscapes of Fraud: Mission Tumacácori, the Baca Float, and the Betrayal of the Oodham.

Dr. Colin Kaltenbach, Vice-Dean and Director of the University of Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station presented information about WERA status and answered questions from the participants. Reporting obligations and the use of travel funds for library participants were discussed. Dr. Karen Launchbaugh gave an overview of the Rangelands West working group and presented ideas for the future. She also discussed the SARE grant, scheduled to end in May, and suggested states pool any remaining funds to pay for maintenance and adding content to regional web site. Members agreed to the pooling of remaining funds. Members also ratified the groups committee structure and signed up for standing and content committees. The executive committee volunteered to finish drafting WERA by-laws. The 2008 meeting has been scheduled to meet in Tucson during spring break. The 2009 meeting will be held in Albuquerque in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Society for Range Management.

Accomplishments

Anne Thwaits showed the new Rangelands West website and discussed the changes in appearance, search capabilities and hierarchal structure based on discussions and group input from last years meeting. Further suggestions on changes were received from the group. The revised web site has been scheduled to debut in May. Members agreed to edit content metadata to reflect hierarchal changes before the May debut. Dr. Jim Dobrowolski, National Program Leader USDA/CSREES/NRE, discussed the eXtension program and suggested that the group form a Community of Practice to add an education component to the groups mission statement. A committee formed to determine the viability of creating a Community of Practice. The content working groups created scope notes, simple descriptions, reviewed metadata entry and began editing metadata to adhere to the new sites hierarchal structure. <br /> <br /> " Progress and results of content working groups:<br /> o Total categories in database: 316 <br /> o Categories still in need of scope notes: 93 <br /> o Scope notes needed, by category... <br /> <br /> Rangelands and How They Work: 13 <br /> Plants and Animals: 4 <br /> Soils and Water: 0 <br /> Climate, Drought, and Fire: 12 (entire category) <br /> Grazing, Recreation, Wildlife: 1 <br /> Vegetation Management and Restoration: 3 <br /> Inventory, Monitoring, and Assessment: 0 <br /> Rural Communities and Ranch Economics: 29 <br /> Planning and Collaboration: 20 (entire category) <br /> Training, Teaching, Education and Careers: 4 (entire category) <br /> Regional categories: 7 (these are merely lists of states in various regions of the U.S.)<br /> <br />

Publications

Impact Statements

1. A total of 223 scope notes were created to define topics on the Rangelands West website thereby making it more usable by the general public.

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Report Information

Participants

Norm Harris, John Kawula, Allison Level, Eileen Herring, Mark Thorne, Karen Launchbaugh, Walter Fick, Mike Haddock, Dana Boden, Brad Schultz, Amy Shannon, Sherman Swanson, Kathie Richardson, John Tanaka, Deva Eswara-Reddy, Roger Banner, David Krueger, Rachel Mealor, Cindy Watkins, Jim Dobrowolski, Jeff Herrick, Kelley Zophy, Gauri Salokhe, Fadzayi Mashiri, Carla Casler, Holly Hartmann, Barb Hutchinson, Sheila Merrigan, Jeanne Pfander, George Ruyle, Anne Thwaits, Doug Tolleson, Julie Conley, Jim Christensen, David Cox, John Hays, Colin Kaltenbach, Barron Orr

Brief Summary of Minutes

"Colin Kaltenbach, Administrative Advisor announced that a request for $1,000 per year to support programming activities of WERA 1008 was sent to all Deans of participating states. Five States have already sent in their contributions (Alaska, Nebraska, Montana , Utah, and Oregon ). There will be a follow up request. He also reminded the committee that official minutes of WERA meetings must be filed with Federal system within 60 days of meeting.

"Business Meeting
o Proposed and accepted that Policy and Standards Committee will now be known as the Steering Committee.
o Read and discussed proposed Charter.
o Steering committee will take members corrections and suggestions and revise Charter.
o Revised Charter to be sent out for electronic vote within 60 days of end of annual meeting.
o It was decided to have the next annual meeting of the Western Rangelands Partnership in Boise, Idaho (March 15-17, 2009)
" Members expressed concern about combining Western Rangelands Partnership meeting with Society for Range Management meeting because Directors might be less inclined to provide travel funding
o Karen Launchbaugh and John Tanaka will lead the committee.
o It was decided to host a symposium at the Society for Range Management meeting (February 8-12, 2009) in Albuquerque, New Mexico
o Karen Launchbaugh rotated to Past-Chair, Carla Casler rotated to Chair and Norm Harris rotated to Vice-Chair for the Western Rangelands Partnership. Amy Shannon will serve as Secretary.

The group participated in a joint reception with Western States Agricultural Experiment Station Directors and Cooperative Extension Directors on the evening of March 17th. Karen Launchbaughs presentation on the Western Rangelands Partnership to this group was well received by the Directors.

Accomplishments

Proceedings of the Workshop, March 17, 2008<br /> <br /> " Welcome and overview by Carla Casler, Vice-Chair<br /> o Do what you can with what you have where you are. (Theodore Roosevelt)<br /> o Build on collaboration and develop easier methods to communicate <br /> " Self-introduction by participants<br /> " Overview and background of partnership by Karen Launchbaugh, Chair<br /> o Happiness is to be dissolved in something complete and great. (Willa Cather)<br /> o Unique cooperative effort involving range specialists and librarians<br /> o Representatives of nineteen states (all State web sites operating) <br /> o Evolved from Arizona-lead working group to official status of WERA  1008<br /> " Rangelands West, Holly Hartmann, Director, Arid Lands Information Center<br /> o Western Rangelands Partnership is a template for other AgNIC groups<br /> o Group is coming out of infancy and maturing as an organization<br /> " Rangelands West Website Status, Anne Thwaits, Arid Lands Information Center <br /> o Memory leak of website proving troublesome to fix<br /> o Search results producing relevant links a problem<br /> o New method for input of metadata ranking needs to be developed<br /> " Content Development Capabilities with Forestandrange.org: Kelly Zophy, Coordinator, National Learning Center for Private Forest and Range Owners<br /> o Web-based learning center  Learning modules<br /> o Local natural resource professionals in searchable database<br /> o Marketing using Google Ad-words<br /> o Evaluation using focus groups, surveys, quizzes, and key informants<br /> " Developing Synergies with ARS with a Focus on Monitoring and Assessment: Jeff Herrick, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) research scientist, USDA  ARS Jornada Experimental Range<br /> o ARS good at conducting research and developing tools (software)<br /> o Hit and miss approach to extension and outreach<br /> " State Reports<br /> o Arizona  Jeanne Pfander<br /> § Metadata issues are troublesome<br /> § UA libraries produces $52,790 to conduct technical infrastructure needs assessment, develop technical requirements, business plan and sources for long-term funding<br /> o Nebraska  Dana Boden<br /> § First time at meetings<br /> § Site went on-line on October 22, 2007 (all State sites on-line)<br /> o Idaho  Karen Launchbaugh<br /> § Ideas for content; aerial videos of State, photos of representative sites around weather stations<br /> " Hot Topic Content Development, Julie Conley, UA Rangelands and Forest Resources Program <br /> o Working on environmental legislation (Conflicts  Resolution, Content  Debate) <br /> o Update hot topic content and check links<br /> o What is legal definition?<br /> o Separate emotional from ecological effects of grazing<br /> " AgNIC Report, Mike Haddock, Incoming Chair of AgNIC Executive Board<br /> o Launched in 1995 with five partner institutions<br /> o Strategic plan<br /> § Enhanced recognition of AgNIC<br /> § Improve content for Ag and Natural Resources<br /> § Develop technologies to deliver content<br /> o Focus grants (Born digital, reborn digital, NDLA)<br /> o AgNIC is people-centric not content-centric<br /> " Lunch  Building International Information Systems Using Common Standards  The Global Forest Information Service (GFIS): Gauri Salokhe, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)<br /> o Areas for collaboration<br /> " Free Web Tools: Google Analytics for statistics, Google Groups: Anne Thwaits<br /> o Tools for generating necessary web page statistics (handout for setting up system, this document is also posted on the Western Rangelands Partnership Google group)<br /> " Regional Groups Breakout and Brainstorming Session<br /> o In a perfect world, sites should be:<br /> § More interactive<br /> § One-stop centers<br /> § More historical images and documents<br /> § More dynamic<br /> " Prioritizing Breakout Session, facilitator Holly Hartmann<br /> o Site users (types; frequent or occasional)<br /> o Problems and needs leading to use of sites<br /> o Information (Delivery/modes)<br /> <br /> March 18th Tucson Room, Student Union, U of A Campus (8  11:30 AM)<br /> <br /> " Daily logistics, Jeanne Pfander<br /> " How do we change, evolve and adapt to the New West and to new technologies? Workshop and Prioritization, Holly Hartmann<br /> o Brainstorming and ranking of<br /> § Information Needs of Users<br /> § Types of Problems by Topic Group<br /> § Customers and Modes of Information Delivery<br /> <br /> UA Libraries Staff Lounge, 5th Floor Main Library (11:30  1 PM)<br /> <br /> " Lunch, Presentation of Trailblazer Award to Doug Jones for dedication and services to The Western Rangelands Partnership: Karen Launchbaugh, Carla Casler, and Norm Harris <br /> " New Web-based Tools for Communication and Mapping: Barron Orr<br /> <br /> Room A313-314, UA Libraries, Main Library (1:15  5 PM)<br /> <br /> " Joseph Hiller, Assistant Dean, Native American Programs, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences<br /> o Important user group  Indian Nations<br /> § 563 groups<br /> § 314 reservations<br /> § 97 million acres under tribal control<br /> § 60 percent of owners under compliance, the rest dont know<br /> " Standing Committees Meet<br /> o Develop definite goals<br /> o Schedule conference call to keep progress moving <br /> " Committee reports<br /> o Technical Committee<br /> § Regional site supports and directs traffic to State sites<br /> § Ask an expert on the regional site and frequently asked questions (FAQ)<br /> § State sites may not contain all hierarchical categories<br /> § Other organizations may host State sites if problems arise with State educational institutions<br /> § Technical needs assessment from Department Heads (range, library and information technology)<br /> o Assessment and Evaluation Committee<br /> § Procedures and process will be developed<br /> § Standards for populating State versus Regional sites<br /> § Hire someone to fix metadata error, remove outdated material, and remove of fix broken links<br /> o Outreach<br /> § See eXtension request for proposal (RFP) to determine if we should write proposal.<br /> § Proposal would be to develop new section or turn over some category such as Hot Topics<br /> o Content Development Committee<br /> " Challenges of involving members in content development between meetings<br /> § Should there be peer-review of sites and content<br /> <br /> <br /> Standing Committees:<br /> <br /> Executive Committee<br /> Chair - Carla Casler<br /> Vice-Chair - Norm Harris<br /> Secretary  (Open, to be filled by vote)<br /> <br /> Annual Meeting (2009)<br /> Karen Launchbaugh<br /> John Tanaka<br /> (Others to be appointed or volunteers)<br /> <br /> Assessment and Evaluation Committee<br /> Barbara Hutchinson, Co-Leader<br /> George Ruyle, Co-Leader<br /> (Others to be appointed or volunteers)<br /> <br /> Outreach<br /> John Tanaka (lead)<br /> Mark Thorne<br /> Barb Hutchinson<br /> Karen Launchbaugh<br /> Jeff Mosley<br /> <br /> <br /> Technical<br /> Karen Launchbaugh (lead) <br /> Mike Haddock<br /> Kathie Richardson<br /> Rex Pieper<br /> Tracy Brewer<br /> Sherm Swanson<br /> <br /> Steering Committee<br /> Executive Committee (3 individuals)<br /> Chairs of Outreach and Technical Committees (2 individuals)<br /> Chair of Topic Working Groups (1 Individual)<br /> <br /> Content Working Groups:<br /> <br /> " Each working group will select a leader who is responsible for organizing necessary updates (like scope notes), period reviews, and discussions on development of the topics<br /> " The leads of the 6 topic working groups will select a chair to serve as a liaison between the Topic Working Groups and the Executive Committee and chairs of other Sanding Committees<br /> <br /> Rangeland Uses & Workings<br /> This will include the Rangelands & How They Work and Grazing, Recreation, Wildlife, & Other Uses sections of the overall Rangelands West Hierarchy<br /> Members thus far:<br /> Mel George (leader)<br /> Rex Pieper<br /> Jeff Mosley<br /> Karen Launchbaugh<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Plants & Animals<br /> Members thus far:<br /> Mark Thorne (leader)<br /> Brad Schultz<br /> Tracy Brewer<br /> Karl Launchbaugh<br /> Mike Haddock<br /> Jennifer Arnold<br /> <br /> Soil & Water and Climate, Drought & Fire<br /> Members thus far:<br /> Carla Casler (leader) <br /> Kathie Richardson<br /> Allison Level<br /> Sheila Merrigan <br /> <br /> <br /> Vegetation Management & Restoration<br /> Members thus far:<br /> Sherm Swanson (leader)<br /> Mindy Pratt<br /> Walt Fick<br /> <br /> <br /> Rural Communities & Ranch Economics and Planning & Collaboration<br /> Members thus far:<br /> John Tanaka (leader)<br /> John Kawula<br /> Jeanne Pfander<br /> Eric Mousel<br /> <br /> Inventory, Monitoring, & Assessment<br /> Member thus far: <br /> Barb Hutchinson (leader)<br /> George Ruyle<br /> Roger Banner<br /> Norm Harris<br />

Publications

Impact Statements

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Report Information

Participants

Participants:
Norman Harris-AK
John Kawula- AK
Carla Casler-AZ
Holly Hartman-AZ
Barbara Hutchinson-AZ
Sheila Merrigan-AZ
Jeanne Pfander-AZ
Mark Thorne-HI
Kelly Crane-HI
Karen Launchbaugh-ID
Lovina Roselle-ID
Walter Fick-KS
Mike Haddock-KS
Rachel Frost-MT
Jeff Mosley-MT
Kathie Richardson-ND
Dana W. R. Boden-NE
Rex Pieper-NM
Cindy Watkins-NM
Brad Schultz-NV
Amy Shannon-NV
Sherman Swanson-NV
Karen Hickman-OK
John Tanaka-OR
Mindy Pratt-UT
David Kruger-WY
Rachel Mealor-WY
Colin Kaltenbach, Administrative Advisor

Brief Summary of Minutes

Discussion of WERA status and expectations
"The R.W. WERA 1008 is in the middle of life-span (Sept. 2011), next year will have to start on renewal
"Impacts desired: Economic, dollar amount; changed behaviors of commodity or other group serving; show utilization of work product. Reports are used to impact Congress.

Business Meeting

oDraft Report to Sustaining Partners distributed and discussed
oWRP symposium at Society for Range Management annual conference described as successful with the Memorandum of Understanding between WRP and SRM signed to facilitate collaboration

oDavid Kruger invited WRP to hold next annual meeting Laramie, Wyoming in 2010: this was enthusiastically and unanimously approved

oCarla Casler rotated to Past-Chair, Norm Harris rotated to Chair, Amy Shannon rotated to Vice-Chair for the Western Rangelands Partnership, Mark Thorne was welcomed as newly elected Secretary

Accomplishments

High points of the past year included:<br /> *successful eXtension proposal for a Rangelands Stewardship and Health Community of Practice<br /> *Successful symposium at the Society for Range Management Annual Meeting<br /> *Memorandum of Understanding signed with the Society for Range Management to facilitate collaboration<br /> *Completed needs assessment online survey<br /> Challenges of the past year included:<br /> *technical issues with the website; rebuild with enhanced security after hacking event<br /> *continuing concerns about sustainable funding<br /> <br /> In process activities:<br /> *Development of a WRP business plan<br /> *Continued needs assessment through focus groups<br /> *Update of metadata in existing RW database<br /> *Content development of RW <br /> *Initial build of Rangelands Stewardship and Health-Community Of Practice<br /> <br /> Jeanne Pfander and Holly Hartman: Report on the Needs Assessment<br /> "Needs Assessment started last summer as per request from UA Libraries was internally funded by the University of Arizona Libraries <br /> o16 question online survey, 13 states participated; 1066 received invitation to participate; 177/196 completed (17%) <br /> oQuestions included respondents, demographics, preferred information gathering strategies, valued information sources and formats, topics of interest, tools for decision-making, etc.<br /> oDiscussion of results included analysis of how users expressed needs and behavior can be used to improve the Rangelands West product.<br /> oPreliminary results were used for eXtension proposal<br /> oFocus groups will be used to help define requirements for next version of Rangelands West. Business Plan Process and Results so far <br /> Students from the Eller School of Business at the University of Arizona provided a report with suggested business plan. WRP members will review and provide feedback. Timeframe for feedback: 2 weeks or so. Barb and Jeanne will coordinate review process and further development.<br /> <br /> <br /> Sheila Merrigan: Inputting Metadata/New Content to Rangelands West.<br /> *Need to be very specific about data for each record (topic tree and geography) subtopics show up in broader topic searches<br /> *AZ Team is renovating topics for items in the existing database; they have scheduled group metadata fixing sessions<br /> *Changing from individual log-in IDs to state log-in IDs (i.e. nevadagroup)<br /> *States that have entered records will assist with updating metadata The Arizona Team will set up Go To Meeting metadata repair sessions where everyone can work together on fixing the remaining records<br /> <br /> Barb Hutchinson: Full text documents and RW as an E-repository <br /> *AgNIC is harvesting content from institutional repositories<br /> *The Journal of Range Management and Rangelands will be moved to Drupal content management system. Goal: new version in June<br /> "Representatives from other journals who heard the talk at SRM are interested in the RW-JRM model (These folks include Rangeland Journal and South African Journal of Range and Forest Science). Barb will pursue.<br /> *A Letter of Intention for collaboration between WRP and FAO is being drafted. A possible goal of this partnership would be to develop something like a Global Rangeland Information System along the lines of the Global Forest Information System (http://GFIS.net) . Metadata could be shared between RW and AGRIS. <br /> Rangelands West Content Development<br /> <br /> Mark Thorne: Content Development and Review Procedures for Rangelands West<br /> *Described an organizational structure for content development/review<br /> *Discussed need to prioritize content areas, form content groups, enlist help of other potential contributors<br /> *Resources to facilitate process: Google Groups/Google Docs/others?; GoToMeeting, etc., others? Process needs to be fully integrated. We need to decide which technology platforms so we can work collaboratively.<br /> *Discussed need to bring people into the process (SRM has 30,000 members; if only 1-2% participated it would be a lot)<br /> *How to create control over the process?<br /> <br /> Proposal: Establish Topic Area Editorial Groups<br /> Assign groups for each of the 10 areas<br /> Have a librarian and range specialist as co-leaders for each group<br /> Topic groups will:<br /> *Be responsible for content development for their topic <br /> *Facilitate submissions, review, editing (as appropriate)<br /> *Schedule regular meetings<br /> *Decide on acceptance and/or rejection of content<br /> *Invite others to participate and submit content<br /> *Report to Content Development and Steering Committees or to Annual Meeting<br /> *Discussion: state site content metadata vs. RW content development for topic areas<br /> <br /> Julie Conley: Hot Topics <br /> *Intent was to provide overviews of controversial issues<br /> *Needs review; only 3 topics have been updated at all: Fire, NEPA, Grazing<br /> *New content is available on NEPA, but needs design<br /> *Julie will finish updating Fire section<br /> <br /> Follow up: Everyone in attendance signed up to either be a leader or a member of content development teams by broad category. Mark will follow-up with those not at the meeting. These groups will review the hot topics to determine which ones should be included in the broader content areas. They will also consider new content to populate those categories and create metadata records for them<br />

Publications

Impact Statements

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Report Information

Participants

Present;
Norman Harris-AK; Barbara Hutchinson-AZ; Sheila Merrigan-AZ; Jeanne Pfander-AZ; Corrie Knapp-CO; Mark Thorne-HI; Lovina Roselle-ID; Walter Fick-KS; Jenny Oleen-KS; Rachel Frost-MT; Dana W. R. Boden-NE; Cindy Watkins-NM; Amy Shannon-NV; Sherman Swanson-NV; David Kruger-WY; Rachel Mealor-WY; John Tanaka- WY; Colin Kaltenbach, Administrative Advisor -AZ;



Online/Virtual Participants;
John Kawula -AK; Allison Level-CO; Karen Launchbaugh-ID; Kathie Richardson-ND; Scott Cotton-NE; Rex Pieper-NM, Brad Shultz-NV; Mike Borman-OR; Roger Gates-SD; Susanne Clement-UT; Patsy Palacios-UT; Mindy Pratt-UT; Jim Dobrowolski-USDA (DC)

Brief Summary of Minutes

Business Meeting:

Discussion of WERA status. Official WERA status expires September 2011. WRP needs to develop new proposal to continue WERA status for first review by September 15 and finalized by December 15. Drafting of new objectives (change in objectives is key for approval). WERA Renewal Writing Committee  Karen Launchbaugh, Rachel Frost, Mark Thorne, Allison Level, Barbara Hutchinson.

WERA 2010 Business Meeting Minutes and Progress Report to be completed within 60 days (May 16, 2010) and submitted to Colin (Task assigned to Mark Thorne and Jeanne Pfander).

Discussion on WRP committees and communications. Virtual meetings increasing. Steering Committee will meet via Go To Meeting arranged by Mark Thorne. Anyone is welcome to participate in the monthly steering committee meetings. Technical Committee will meet at a regularity TBD; Committee will use Go To Meeting or some other method as available - Members: Allison, Amy, Sherm, Norm, Mark, Jeanne, Sheila, Barb.

Discussion on partner commitments  How can we help the state sites meet their commitments. John Tanaka asked whether we were committed to keeping the state sites look the same or is that desirable. Sheila  asked how many states would like a template to help design their site; or the help with a transition to Drupal. Amy  noted that in Nevada they need to see what the options are. Barb  go around the room to determine site needs. Most would like to keep their current sites, however, several want more information about Drupal and how it will help or affect them. Alaska and New Mexico expressed interest in working directly with Arizona to create Drupal sites for their states.

Report on response to WRP letter requesting financial support from Library and Extension Directors/Deans. Positive reply for $1000 in support from: Oregon State Univ. Library; Oregon State Univ. Dept. of Rangeland Ecology and Management; Kansas State Univ. Library; Colorado State Univ. Library; Washington State Univ. Extension; Montana State Univ. College of Agriculture. Discussion about using Deans support for Annual Business Meetings. Colin cautioned about using too much of the funds for meetings. Expectation by Deans is that they are supporting work not meeting attendance; Dave and Rachel noted that it is good to have the funds available to make deposits when planning meeting activities.

Governance/Executive Team: Norm Harris rotated to Past-Chair; Amy Shannon rotated to Chair; Mark Thorne rotated to Vice-Chair. Jeanne Pfander was welcomed as newly elected Secretary. Karen Launchbaugh has agreed to serve as SRM financial liaison re: tracking the meeting funds in the SRM account (reporting to Secretary/Treasurer and Partnership).

Next Meeting: May 2011 Bozeman, Montana (to be confirmed later); David and Rachel to provide assistance and checklist for local arrangements. Steering Committee in charge of setting agenda.

General Meeting Notes:

Presentations:

Update by Jeanne Pfander on Rangelands West Business Plan and Needs Assessment results.

Sheila Merrigan distributed a handout and facilitated discussion on the relationship between Rangelands West, eXtension Rangelands and RW state partner websites.
Technical Infrastructure: Barbara Hutchinson gave a presentation Rangelands West: Bigger and Better. Why we need to change; What are the opportunities. Presented mock-up of proposed new, expanded 3.0 RW web portal: the Global Rangelands Online Knowledge System (GROKS). Discussion on pros & cons of whether to develop Harvest/search first or Basic RW Drupal site first? Decision is to take the time to build the system right  Harvest/search first; use the next year to complete the move to Drupal. Arizona will continue toward Drupal build, leaving RW mostly as is meanwhile due to limitations in logistics and funding for IT work; the RW 3.0 build is expected to take about a year. Technical Committee volunteers: Allison Level, Amy Shannon, and Norm Harris (plus the AZ Technical Team: Sheila, Jeanne, and Barb). Technical Committee to provide report at monthly Steering Committee meetings.
State updates: Alaska; Hawaii; Nevada; Montana; New Mexico; Kansas; Nebraska, South Dakota; Oklahoma, Arizona; Colorado; Washington; Oregon; Idaho; Utah; North Dakota; Texas; Wyoming; California (by Barb Hutchinson). State reports revealed different experiences in maintaining the sites; several states have problems while others have very functional sites.
Related project updates: Grazing Effects Info System Project  Karen Launchbaugh and Rachel Frost; Rangeland  USDA Higher Education Challenge Grant  Karen Launchbaugh; International Science Education Grant Application  Barb Hutchinson.
Presentation on Building Extensions Public Values by Laura Kalambokidis of University of Minnesota  CES. Discussion about writing Public value messages for Rangelands West. Agreed that WRP should develop a set of Public Value Statements; this could be done during a Virtual Meeting mid-year (October-November).

Presentation by Sheila Merrigan on Drupal: What is Drupal; Who can add to site; Set-up options.

eXtension Rangelands update and overview given by John Tanaka. Content Development Updates: OK on pages/content (need 200 plus content pages); Short on Frequently Asked Questions, need at least 150. Review of Content development team membership. Break-out sessions followed for work on content development.

Closing comments by Amy Shannon, incoming WRP Chair.

Accomplishments

High points of the past year: Created new technical support team at AZ to address issues with current portal architecture and to begin to design of the next version. Edited metadata and fixed broken links to improve relevancy of search results. Compiled summary reports on needs assessment and focus group sessions. State sites continued to update and add new content. Developed eXtension Rangelands Community of Practice (CoP) structure and content. Initiated collaborative relationships with partners in the United Nations (the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations specifically), relevant institutes in the CGIAR, and with rangeland associations around the world to move towards development of a global rangelands repository.<br /> <br /> Challenges of the past year: Keeping membership engaged and active; Transitions in WRP members (people leaving project); State budget crises. <br /> In process activities: Grazing Effects Info System Project  Karen Launchbaugh and Rachel Frost; Rangeland  USDA Higher Education Challenge Grant  Karen Launchbaugh; AZ team work on technical infrastructure maintenance and 3.0 development.<br /> Follow up: WERA Writing Committee will begin work on proposal for renewal of WERA status. Executive team will schedule virtual regular Steering Committee meetings and a mid-year WRP virtual meeting. AZ team and Technical Committee will move forward on planning for RW 3.0/GROKS. eXtension Rangelands CoP participants will continue to develop content for eXtension site.<br />

Publications

Impact Statements

1. The Western Rangelands Partnership has been a model of inter-disciplinary and multi-institution collaboration. The Partnership continues to grow and develop deeper levels of cooperation and expanded outreach products. The Rangelands West portal began as a simple website but continues to evolve as new advances in information technologies have become available and make it possible to create enhanced user tools. Usage statistics vary considerably in past years due to changes in the portals technical infrastructure and incomplete data when the system was moved to a new content management system and statistical package. However, in general, site statistics demonstrate consistent usage over time with the average number of visits per year averaging about 100,000.

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Report Information

Participants

On site attendees:

Norman Harris-AK;
Barbara Hutchinson-AZ;
Sheila Merrigan-AZ;
Jeanne Pfander-AZ;
Matt Rahr-AZ;
Mel George-CA;
Mark Thorne-HI;
Karen Launchbaugh-ID;
Lovina Roselle-ID;
Walter Fick-KS;
Livia Olsen-KS;
Glenn Duff-MT;
Rachel Frost-MT;
Jeff Mosley-MT;
Amy Ganguli-ND;
Amy Shannon-NV;
Pat Johnson-SD;
Felix Ayala-TX;
Beth Burritt-UT
David Kruger-WY;
Rachel Mealor-WY;
Merrita Fraker-Marble-WY;
John Tanaka- WY;
John Taylor, University of Queensland  Australia;
Colin Kaltenbach, Administrative Advisor;


Virtual / Online attendees:

John Kawula-AK;
Allison Level-CO;
Dana W. R. Boden-NE;
Tip Hudson, WA

Brief Summary of Minutes

Chair Report - Amy Shannon opened the business meeting; thanked Rachel Frost for successful meeting arrangements; acknowledged generous donations for meeting meals and refreshments from Montana Experiment Station (Dr. Jeff Jacobsen, Dean & Director), Montana State University Extension (Dr. Doug Steele, VP for External Relations and Director of Extension) and Montana State University Libraries (Dr. Tamara Miller, Dean of Libraries).

Secretary Report - Jeanne Pfander reported that she had compiled and submitted annual meeting minutes and report for WERA; throughout year helped organize and keep notes of conference calls for tech committee and for the annual meeting planning; experimented with email newsletter in January; mostly irregular communications to membership go out through listserv messages.

Financial Report - John Tanaka
Approximately $3,000 in account held for RWP at Wyoming; whatever is left after Bozeman mtg will go to next meeting organizers (AZ).


WERA update - Colin Kaltenbach
WERA 1008 terminates September 30, 2011. Renewal was approved in March for 5 years (Oct.1, 2011-Sept.30, 2016). John Tanaka will be administrative advisor, effective Oct.1. If someone is not on Colin's list, they need to sign up with their Experiment Station Director. Report will be sent out via listserv for folks to take to their directors.


Upcoming annual meetings:
Arizona will host for 2012 (March 11-13). Alaska is offering to host in 2013, May or early June. Perhaps California in 2014? Dave Kruger, WY has a planning document for hosting RWP meetings that he will pass on to Arizona team.

Governance / Executive Committee:
Amy Shannon was thanked for her service as Chair and rotated to Past-Chair. Mark Thorne moved into Chair position and Jeanne Pfander rotated to Vice-Chair. Rachel Mealor was welcomed as newly elected Secretary for the Rangelands West Partnership (RWP).


Summary of meeting:
The first day of the meeting included a review of RWP activities including presentations and meetings at the SRM Annual Meeting, grant-funded projects that members are involved in (eXtension Rangelands, RSIS, HEC/Rangelands Education; ISE Global Rangelands, etc.) and state site updates/progress reports. Additionally, a presentation was given by John Taylor, President of the Australian Rangelands Society. Felix Ayala, representing the University of Sonora (Mexico) and Texas A&M-Kingsville, was welcomed. Discussions were held about RW state site maintenance & support options, including Az IT support and/or the LibGuides approach.

The second day of the meeting included the Business Meeting (see above), a discussion on the benefits of the range scientist/librarian collaboration; new grant proposal/project and funding opportunities; a brainstorming session and action planning.

Key actions / next steps include: revise RWP bylaws; develop RWP member website with member directory, etc.; establish regular online newsletter for membership; hold a mid-year virtual/online meeting; work on marketing and assessment/impact tasks.

Accomplishments

"Successful annual meeting of the Rangelands West Partnership (March 2010, Laramie, WY). 31 attendees (18 on-site; 13 virtual attendees) representing 15 states <br /> <br /> "Several grants received by different RWP partners for rangelands information projects <br /> <br /> oUSDA Higher Education Challenge Grant - Repositioning Rangeland Education for a Changing World (University of Idaho, Humboldt State University, New Mexico State University, Oklahoma State University, South Dakota State University, University of California-Davis and Utah State University)<br /> <br /> oSDA-NIFA International Science and Education Global Rangelands Project (AZ, CA, ID, South Africa, Australia, FAO)<br /> <br /> oRange Science Information System Project (ID, MT)<br /> <br /> "Western Extension and Research Administrative (WERA) status renewal documentation submitted<br /> <br /> "RWP members contributing to eXtension Rangelands Community of Practice<br /> <br /> "Significant progress on technical requirements and design for new Global Rangelands site. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Challenges of the past year:<br /> <br /> "Creating the new Global Rangelands site with limited resources and time<br /> <br /> "Existing Rangelands West site has numerous technical problems with database causing user frustration<br /> <br /> "State partners all facing budget constraints, impacts time/resources to devote to RWP activities<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> In process / Next Step activities:<br /> <br /> "Finish redesign of the Rangelands West portal including a new technical architecture to accommodate user-requested functionality and incorporate social media tools to encourage increased user-engagement;<br /> <br /> "Continue to build and expand unique state rangelands websites with locally-specific content - with access provided also through the Global Rangelands repository search function and from the home page of Rangelands-West/Global Rangelands. <br /> <br /> "Build a global repository of full-text rangeland science and management resources (called Global Rangelands) in cooperation with rangeland-related organizations and associations from around the world<br /> <br /> "Strengthen connections between Rangelands West/Global Rangelands, eXtension Rangelands, and the Range Science Education Councils resources and services, and continue their complementary development.<br /> <br /> "Reestablish connections with AgNIC database as soon as we have a working Global Rangelands/R.W. database that can be harvested.<br />

Publications

Impact Statements

1. Increased quality of rangeland information and resources to meet the needs of a broad range of users and audiences from around the world.
2. Improved navigation and accessibility of desired information through the redesigned Rangelands West/Global Rangelands website.
3. Creation of user-oriented services based on direct input from diverse audiences through formal needs assessments.
4. Strengthened relationships among rangeland professionals, librarians, and information specialists in each Western state through improved communications resulting in greater sharing of information and content development.
5. Development of standardized methods for metadata, incorporating input from the Western Rangelands Partners, FAO, and other interested stakeholders. The metadata for significant rangelands resources will then be input into the new portal.
6. Identification of Western Rangeland Partnership university institutional repositories with relevant rangeland resources that could also be made available through Global Rangelands for additional access.
7. Increased use and exposure of the Rangelands West website, and state rangelands websites to the global community.
8. Significant steps taken toward the achievement of the primary vision of Rangelands West/Global Rangelands as the premier website for dissemination of scientifically-based printed information on rangeland ecology and management.

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