Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The meeting began by discussing the budgetary crisis that has hit the universities and Extension Services across the region and the impact on the conference attendance planned for August 11-13, 2009. Since the call for proposals, only one abstract had been submitted under the stated deadline date. After conversation and agreement with the Holiday Inn Select in Nashville to cancel the contract at no cost, the committee selected to postpone the Fall SERA-19 conference. Alan will place a notice on the SRDC website saying that the conference has been postponed and James Barnes will communicate this decision with Gail Cramer, Jim Trapp, and Shirley Gerrior. Rita and Bobbi will be responsible for canceling speaker engagements already confirmed for the conference. The committee decided to pursue the idea of partnering with the Priester Conference for the spring of 2010. As a follow-up, Alan spoke with Evelyn Crayton (Auburn University) and she seemed very receptive to the notion of the SERA group joining in on the Priester Conference. She was almost sure that Alabama would be hosting the 2010 Priester meeting. The tentative date and location is the week of April 26 in Mobile. She is working on developing a pre-conference session that would be a cruise in the Gulf of Mexico. Alan discussed the SERA needs for the conference and she seemed to like the idea of a rural health track and the fact that we would need a time for a SERA business meeting. There is a possibility for a "working group" session during the conference if needed. Notes from Alan Barefield and Ann Sansing