Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

For a full version of the minutes of the annual meeting, go to: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3410612/2010_Feb_Annual_Meeting_%28Long%29_NCERA215.doc For an abbreviated version of the minutes of the annual meeting, go to: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3410612/2010_Feb_Annual_Meeting_%28short%29_NCERA215.doc Decisions Made at the Annual Meeting of NCERA215: February 23-25, 2010 Washington, DC USDA Waterfront Center, Room 1410 C & D Attendance: Dale Blyth, April Barczewski, Matt Calvert, Sharon Kinsey, Suzanne LeMenestrel, NIFA Representative; Joe Colletti, Administrative Advisor; Beverly Spears, Keith Nathaniel, June Mead, Richard Enfield, Project Chair; Mary Emery, Project Co-Chair; Nicole Webster, and Barbara Baker, Secretary (Bonita Williams joined on Wednesday) Several had weather issues both making travel unavailable or had to depart early to avoid the next storm. (14 of 22 attending 65% attendance) General Project Discussion: Research Instruments: After a review of the constructs of Social Capital, there was a discussion about the research instruments necessary for the project. § The survey or questionnaire instrument was discussed and it was decided that Keith, Richard, June, April with Dale making connections to Minnesota researchers would make up the Survey Approach Committee. Keith and Richard will begin the process with a slight revision to the existing survey. § The interview instrument was also discussed and the group focused on the Jarrett interview study, along with additional questions that Matt developed several months ago § Pilot-testing needs to be done with both instruments. § The mapping activity was also fully discussed. Research Questions: The group had an excellent discussion regarding the projects three research questions. It was decided that there would be two research questions instead of three, thereby providing a more focused research agenda. The two research questions are: 1. What 4-H Program experiences contribute to the development of youths' social capital? 2. How does the 4-H Program's community involvement impact the development of social capital within the community? Funding: There was a discussion on AFRI proposals, and comments from Suzanne, Joe and others. A team will be formed to carefully review the AFRI requests for proposals when they are released to see if there is a fit for NCERA215. Richard and Keith will thoroughly review the forthcoming requests for proposals. Dale will talk to William T. Grant about their interest in the project. Nicole will lead the group for a NIH Proposal and Beverly, Mary and Dale and possibly others will work with her. Need to continue work on the projects budget for the various proposals  what is your level of involvement and amount of salary needed for participation (if any)  Richard would work on this. A decision was made to develop a proposal to the NCNCRD small grants program for $20,000 for the mapping activity. If funded, the money will be used to convene on the mapping activity topic in July (8 & 9). " Mary will do the narrative for the proposal. " Dale will you talk with Scott and Ryan (community people) to connect with raw mapping data and the survey data. " Julie from Michigan (Matt will contact Julie) and Matt from WI might be the PIs and Dale willing to be PI if needed. " Maine, California, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Michigan, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, and possibly Washington, Arizona, Texas and other states. A call for involvement will be emailed to all participating states. " The mapping activity and associated piloting of the survey/questionnaire and interviews will allow the project to learn from data collection in order to do further work on NIH, NSF, AFRI, and other proposals. General: " Some of the projects members will meet at CYFAR in San Francisco in May. There will be a workshop on mapping. We could also meet up at CYFAR to discuss our progress. Possibly meet on Tuesday, May 4, 2010 " Nicole will write responsibilities and roles of a graduate student for the project and post it on ANR Collaborative Tools. Nicole would like to offer a three credit class for summer  independent study  to allow a grad student to help manage the information relating to the project. Might not have a concrete idea of what they would do but we could explore it over time. Richard spends a great deal of time managing the project so would appreciate the assistance. Perhaps help manage the submission of one of the grants doing tasks, such as literature review, collection of bios from group, letters of support, etc. " There was a discussion about four fundamental questions that all project participants need to ask themselves as the project moves forward: 1. Wheres your passion around this work? 2. What would you like personally to get out of it? 3. What do you need to optimize your participation? 4. What dont you want to be involved in? § Dale mentioned that we can look at our group in several ways  we can be a community of interest or a ship going in the same direction. Suzanne said the strength of what youre doing is the common core of constructs that youll be looking at. " Anyone who doesnt have IRB certification needs to get it by December 31, 2010, with a 2 hour on-line CITI training. Even if you are already certified, you will probably have to complete the new CITI training. WORK PLAN Literature Reviews: All agreed that it was important for literature reviews to be developed for planned and future funding proposals. Nicole agreed and explained that one of the literature reviews should explore: " Social capital and protective factors/risky behaviors, with four key elements: 1. Caring adults  and positive adult relationships 2. Community connections 3. Positive peer-to-peer relationships 4. Neighborhood safety zones  schools/afterschool settings " Essentially, these same elements would comprise a literature review for social capital and positive youth development. An overall literature review is also needed: " Then individual pieces for NIH and NSF will be tailored for each grant. The literature review could be the basis of the white paper. For the NIH Proposal  Keith can assist Nicole with this review, consisting of: " Social Capital and protective factors " Social Capital and risk factors For a NSF Proposal  the literature review would need information on: " Qualitative methods " Participatory research Logic Models: All AFRI proposals and many others must include a Logic Model. This area is one that project participants can volunteer to work on for the project. Additional Project Tasks: 1) Mapping Activity and Reporting (Matt and Mary)  design process and develop training for mapping activity using Adobe Connect  first week in April. The training will be recorded as well. 2) Survey Instrument and Interview (Lisa Diaz (IL) could help with the interview questions) Keith Nathaniel, Richard Enfield, Lisa Bouillon Diaz 3) NCRCD Proposal  put in by Wisconsin and Minnesota  due March 18  this will fund the July convening of the group. " Plan B: - go forward with piloting process even without money, regional meetings via distance capabilities, such as Ping  has good video quality). Nicole will put information on the Collaborative Tools site about Ping. 4) Send Nicole ideas for what kind of tasks a graduate student could complete to assist with this project  the management of these pieces. She will then compile a list and put on the Collaborative Tools Discussion board. 5) Engaging with Nancy Valentine around the Rural Youth Development Grant Program and Talk with Mary Arnold and Nancy about the mapping activities.  Matt, Barb, and Keith. 6) New Threads on Collaborative Tools: " Richard - authoring articles (wrote article about co-authoring articles  Enfield and Lee) " Nicole  Literature Review REVIEW OF THE STRUCTURE OF THE GROUP: 1) OVERAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT coordinator/co-coordinator (Richard and Mary)  including spending time looking for resources for the project. 2) RESEARCH/PROPOSALS COORDINATING COMMITTEE " Literature review " Instrument design  have a job description for each one " Survey, interview and mapping " Analysis 3) GRANTS/FUNDING COMMITTEE " NCRCRD - more methodological in focus (Matt, Dale, Mary/WIS or MN) " NIH - more outcome-oriented (Nicole/Penn State) " NSF  more methodological in focus (Mary) " AFRI  more outcome-oriented (Richard) " WT Grant 4) OUTREACH/EXTENSION  sharing of best practices, models 5) PUBLICATIONS/SCHOLARLYACTIVITY " Article in JOE about the process of putting a multi-state workgroup together/NIMMS " Article on mapping 6) SUZANNES ROLE IN THE PROJECT " Can work with our group in a capacity-building mode  assist with meeting space, coordination, etc. Suzanne cannot assist with proposal development for AFRI, for example. Meeting minutes report ends here.

Short-term outcomes: We have formed a project group with 17 states involved and are moving forward with our research agenda. We solidified our research questions at the annual meeting. Outputs: As a newly formed group we (assigned the Project Number NC_TEMP1177), we organized ourselves in sub-teams, and, according to suggestions by NIMSS, put together a concept paper that included a synopsis of relevant literature. This paper became a proposal from our Multistate Education/Extension and Research Activity to become authorized by NCERA beginning October 2009 to September 30, 2014. The use of Collaborative Tools on the ANR (University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources) internet website was conducive to greater communication and aided in familiarizing new members to our project milestones. A seminar proposal for Galaxy III Conference was submitted by Richard Enfield in 2009. A Major Grants letter of inquiry to W.T. Grant Foundation was submitted by Mary E. Emery, Mary Elizabeth Arnold, Barbara Baker, Lisa Bouillion Diaz, and Richard P. Enfield in July 2009. Although it was not accepted it provided an exercise in teamwork and became a foundation document to build upon for other proposals. Richard Enfield prepared and posted on ANR Collaborative Tools Website the document NCERA215 Project Synopsis 3-1-10. Future directions: A white paper will be written about the analysis of data results of our pilot studies using mapping methodology of the seven community capitals and how they interrelate with social capital. Activities: Seventeen states have signed on during the first year of being an NCERA project as of March 1 2010. Discussion at four face-to-face meetings, sub-team meetings, and monthly conference calls formulated ideas and further developed concepts of a research objective. Teams designed preliminary research objectives, methodology, protocol specific data, and analysis plans. We reviewed instruments and protocol for pilot studies. The ability to have an annual face to face meeting with guidance from our administrative advisor Joe Colletti and NIFA representative Suzanne LeMenestrel moved our agenda forward and solidified teamwork toward clarified mutual goals. Future directions: During our annual meeting, we decided to apply for an NCRCRD (North Central Regional Center for Rural Development) grant to do pilot mapping studies, youth and adult interviews, and surveys in multiple states; then, gather in Wisconsin to analyze the results for publication and use of preliminary results to strengthen applications to potential funders. Milestones: We convened project and research teams with 75% attendance on monthly calls and 65% attendance at the yearly meeting (despite severe weather related challenges in February in DC). We completed the application and are authorized by NCERA. Our team identified five possible funding sources (NIH - National Institutes of Health, AFRI - Agricultural and Food Research Initiative, NIS  National Institutes of Science, and W.T. Grant). We submitted proposals to two funding sources (W.T. Grant, and the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development). At our annual meeting, we developed selection criteria for research sites and, soon after, secured initial research sites. We began work on research protocol and began the Institutional Review Board application and approval procedure with the University of Wisconsin leading to the approval of the Mapping Study for the initial piloting institutions.

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