Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

In its first year, W2001 members undertook collaborative research and published extensively in line with the committee's goal to advance understanding of three critical issues: the aging of the rural population, economic vulnerability, and the causes and consequences of land-use change. Publications included a book, Rural Retirement Migration, co-authored by David Brown and Nina Glasgow (with contributions from Laszlo Kulcsar) and roughly 50 refereed journal articles. Examples of on-going collaborative research include in-depth analyses of retirement destinations, impacts of baby boom migration on rural areas, the effects of aging on tax revenues, return migration to economically vulnerable communities, poverty in the Texas Borderland and the lower Mississippi Delta, household valuation of open space, social interaction and environmental knowledge in exurban settings, and the implications of demographic change for resource management. During its first annual meeting, the committee addressed the major concern raised during the review process, the need to fully articulate research goals for the proposed work on land-use change. In fact, it became clear that land-use change was emerging as a central theme for developing linkages among the three research areas. The committee discussed a research agenda focused on the demographic forces affecting land use change, and how these effects are mediated by a range of socioeconomic factors (including aging, race/ethnicity, and vulnerability) at different scales. The committee recognized the critical importance of geographic scale (whether questions are posed at the local, state, regional, or national level) in bringing demographic perspectives to bear on land-use research. The group committed to completing an overview article by next year's meeting, coordinated by Peter Nelson and Chris Lepczyk. They will solicit contributions from members and aim to publish results as a conceptual article, beginning with the question: what are the demographic factors connected to land-use change? Results will form the basis of a presentation and discussion at next year's meeting. Also at the annual meeting, plans were solidified for collaborative work on rural aging and the publication of a book to disseminate committee findings. Nina Glasgow and Eddy Berry agreed to serve as co-editors, and a timeline was developed to meet an expected publication date in the fourth year of the project. The book will be organized around two themes: 1) What is different about rural aging, compared with the urban context? 2) How does aging contribute to place-making? Specific research issues to be addressed include: work patterns; retirement pensions; taxation; healthcare; aging of the baby boom; formal and informal caregiving; housing; transportation; land-use patterns; volunteerism; and the changing roles of the eldery in rural communities. During it first year, committee members engaged in a number of significant outreach and research dissemination efforts, including numerous presentations at international conferences and participation in organized sessions at the annual meetings of the Rural Sociological Society, the Population Association of America, the Association of American Geographers, and several other groups. Briefings were made to policymakers and stakeholder groups, including the National Academies of Science; Federal Reserve Bank of Boston; American Bar Association; AARP; International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium; Rotary International; the New York Association of Counties; USDA's Agricultural Outlook Forum; Department of Labor's Annual Equal Opportunity Professional Development Forum; the Missouri House of Representatives; Senator Clair McCaskill; the Child Obesity Summit; New Hampshire Governor's Task Force to Retain Young Adults; New Hampshire Agricultural Extension annual meeting; Washington State Extension County Directors Annual Meeting; the annual Land, Water, and Fire Conference; Nebraska-Kansas Cooperative Extension Retreat; and Wisconsin Water Basin Educators.

See attached file.