Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Annual Business Meeting (Summary), 13 May 2013: Chair Report Jeanne Pfander (AZ) opened the business meeting; thanked the Alaska team for successful meeting arrangements; acknowledged the University of Alaska-Anchorage Libraries for providing lunch meals and snacks during breaks. Secretary/Treasurer Report  David Kruger (WY) reported that he had compiled and submitted annual meeting minutes and report for WERA, throughout year helped organize and keep notes of conference calls for Executive Committee / Steering Team and sent out email communications to membership through listserv. 2014 annual meeting: California will host the annual meeting in 2014 (exact date to be determined). Incoming Vice- Chair David Kruger (WY) will send the planning document for hosting Rangelands Partnership (RP) meetings to John Harper (CA). Governance / Executive Committee: Jeanne Pfander (AZ) was honored for her service as Chair and rotated to Past-Chair. Rachel Mealor (WY) moved into Chair position and David Kruger (WY) rotated to Vice-Chair. Beth Burritt (UT) was elected by unanimous acclaim and welcomed as 2013/2014 Secretary/Treasurer for RP. Bylaws Revision: A discussion was held regarding the proposed revised RP Bylaws for the partnership (sent out by email to the membership on 12 April 2013). The membership unanimously approved the new bylaws. General Meeting Notes (RP Annual Meeting, March 12-14, 2012, Anchorage/Palmer, AK) An informal reception was held the evening of Sunday, May 12, with a guest lecture provided by Dr. Greg Finstad, Program Manager of UAF Reindeer Research and Associate Professor of Range Ecology. On Monday, 13 May 2013, Jeanne Pfander (AZ), the Chair of the Rangelands West Partnership, opened the 2013 meeting in Anchorage, followed by a welcome from Norm Harris, range professor at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks and Jodee Kuden, librarian at the University of Alaska-Anchorage. The morning agenda included a review of RP activities during the past year (presentations and meetings at the 2013 Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meeting and a Memorandum of Agreement between SRM and Allen Press, updates on grant-funded projects, particularly the Conservation Effects Assessment Project, and a report from the SRM Outreach, Communications and Website Committee). The rest of the morning was occupied by additional project reports for eXtension Rangelands, Range Science Information System (RSIS), Higher Education Challenge Grant (HEC), and a range multimedia site called Wrangle.com. Barb Hutchinson then unveiled the new Global Rangelands / Rangelands West Knowledge System. In the afternoon, international partners John Taylor (Australian Rangelands Society) and Felix Ayala (University of Sonora, Mexico) gave updates for their respective organizations. State updates from RP members (11 on site, 6 virtual) followed. The Business Meeting (see above) closed out the afternoon agenda of the first day of the meeting. The second day of the meeting (Tuesday, 14 May 2013) began with an update on the Partnership Member site, a non-public site with useful information exclusively for RP members. Other updates involved RPs integration of Social Media applications, Multimedia applications, and improvement of Search Rankings, as well as new developments, feedback, and next steps for the Global Rangelands and Rangelands West websites. Attendees then participated in a hands-on workshop involving the new Rangelands West data entry system for adding records to the Global Rangelands and Rangelands West database. That workshop was followed by concurrent working meetings for subgroups involving state websites hosted by Arizona; eXtension; LibGuides; and adding additional records to the database. The meeting was then relocated to the Matanuska Research Farm. Guest speaker Dr. Talis Colberg, former Alaska Attorney General and current Director of UAA MatSu College, provided an interesting talk about the history of agricultural experiment stations in Alaska, as well as the immense agricultural and sociological changes in the Matanuska Valley over the past thirty years. Attendees participated in a facilitated discussion about Hot Topics Sections on the website; Multimedia applications; and State site issues. The facilitated discussion was followed by a brainstorming session on future initiatives for the organization. After the brainstorming session, the final agenda item was a strategic action planning session for the next year, identifying 4 crucial activities and attendees who would support task forces to accomplish them. Assignments from the action planning session were as follows: " Task Force for Digital Repository Harvesting - Jeremy Kenyon  ID (coordinator), Walt Fick  KS, David Kruger  WY, Jeanne Pfander  AZ " Task Force for Hot Topics Development & Maintenance - Nicole Mason - ND (coordinator), Kelly Arizmendi  AZ, Rachel Frost - MT, Amy Ganguli - NM, Rachel Mealor  WY, Lovina Roselle - ID, Barb Hutchinson  AZ (technology mediator) " Task Force for International Partner Recruiting and Content Development - Barb Hutchinson  AZ (coordinator), Amy Ganguli  NM, John Kawula - AK " Task Force for Marketing Rangelands West Partnership Databases - Amy Shannon  NV (coordinator), Rachel Frost  MT, Rachel Mealor - WY, Mark Thorne - HI, Barb Hutchinson  AZ (contributor) Incoming Chair Rachel Mealor (WY) then adjourned the meeting The third day of the meeting (Wednesday, 15 May 2013) incorporated an optional post-conference tour of the Matanuska Valley around Palmer, including tours of the Reindeer Farm, Alaska Plant Materials Center, Musk Ox Farm, Moose Range, and Independence Mine State Historical Park. Dr. Norm Harris (AK) hosted the tour, with assistance from Dr. William Collins.

Short-term Outcomes - Successful meeting among partners and redesign of several websites. Working with a group of educators that received a USDA Higher Education Challenge Grant on "Repositioning Rangeland Education for a Changing World." Outputs - Development and redesign of rangelandswest.org, globalrangelands.org, rangescience.info, and several state rangelands websites. eXtension Rangelands website was publically launched. Activities - Conducted workshop at Society for Range Management annual meeting, participated in a special issue of Rangelands magazine. Presentations: Hutchinson, Barbara. 2013. From Local to Global: Launching the New Rangelands West Portals and Database. Society for Range Management Oklahoma City, OK February 4, 2013. Hutchinson, Barbara. 2013. Building Global Access to Sustainable Rangeland Management Resources for Research, Teaching, & Extension. International Science and Education Program Washington D.C., May 7, 2013. Milestones - 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; 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; Build a global repository of full-text rangeland science and management resources (Global Rangelands) in cooperation with rangeland-related organizations and associations from around the world; Strengthen connections between Rangelands West/Global Rangelands, eXtension Rangelands, and the Range Science Education Councils resources and services, and continue their complementary development; Reestablish connections with AgNIC database as soon as we have a working Global Rangelands/R.W. database that can be harvested; Approve revised bylaws for the organization; Streamlining task forces to ensure productive responses

Tanaka, J., B. Hutchinson, M. Fraker-Marble, R. Frost, K. Launchbaugh, and M. George. 2012. Using rangeland on the web as a teaching resource. Rangelands 34:39-40. Hutchinson, B. and G. Ruyle. 2013. Rangeland Management at Your Finger Tips: Introducing three new websites. The Rimrock Report 6(1):1-3.