Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Brief Summary: The Annual Meeting had two major foci. The first was for working groups to report on this past years productivity and plan their work for the coming year. The second focus was to update the team about funding from NRI and the subcontracts from that grant. Work Towards Objectives: Data collection and analyses: Data collection is ongoing for the two states added to the project (IA and SD). A preliminary Wave 3 data set is posted on FTP site, but it is not yet finalized. A discussion about missing data, employment, and income occurred in order to update the group about how these will be approached. For Wave 1 data there are three panels: Panel 1 (15 states), Panel 2 (2 states, OH & WV), Panel 3 (2 states IA & SD). NRI Update: Starting September 1, 2004 there are funds for two years for dissemination and research related to labor force participation, health (including food security), and social support. The NRI grant focuses on these three topics and longitudinal analysis. Each state will get computerized resources for MAXQDA and there are forty bridge calls each year for research teams. There is a subcontract at Oregon State which supports a data manager who will start January 1, 2005. The project manager at University of Minnesota is funded through this grant and has already started. A community database will be constructed via a subcontract with South Dakota. This will contain indicators of community context for the three areas. Working Groups: The Working Groups reported on their activities, publications, and presentations over the past year. A summary of productivity is given at the end of this report. Workshop: Vicki Plano Clark from Nebraska presented a workshop on current mixed-methods methodology, including some information on combining MAXQDA and SPSS. She works with John Creswell, one of the leading researchers in the mixed-methods field. Future Work: Templates for ways of disseminating information about the project were distributed. The Vice Chair for Dissemination & Communications requested feedback on them. Next years meeting will be in Portland, OR. The meeting will be October 5, 6, 7, 2005

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