Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

On Monday, 23 March 2015, David Kruger (WY), the Chair of the Rangelands West Partnership (RWP) opened the 2015 meeting in Las Cruces, NM. The opening was followed by a welcome from Amy Ganguli, Assistant Professor of Range Science at NMSU. The morning agenda included a review of RWP activities during the past year. In particular: attendance and booth/poster participation at SRM and NCBA/Cattle Industry Convention meetings; working on a new MOA between SRM and Elsevier; updates on grant-funded projects (particularly the Higher Education Challenge Grant); and a report form the SRM Outreach, Communications and Website Committee. Additional project reports were about: Range at a Distance, Teaching Clearinghouse, Wrangle, Range Science Information System (RSIS), Renewable Resources Extension Act Grant, and eXtension. Amber Dalke (AZ) reported on the website redesign for Global Rangelands, Rangelands West, and state websites hosted by the Arizona team. These were followed by reports on international partnerships. Barbara Hutchinson reported on partnership activities with South Africa (Grasslands Society of Southern Africa), FAO (Open Access/Open Data Collaboration opportunities) and Mexico (University of Hermosillo). John Taylor, Queensland, Australia, attended virtually to provide updates on our partnership with the Australia Rangelands Society. This was followed by state reports (12 on site and 3 virtual) and the business meeting closed out the afternoon agenda of the first day of the meeting. The second day of the meeting (Tuesday, 24 March 2015) began with a report on RWP social media by Sheila Merrigan (AZ). We are currently active on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Scoop.it. Sheila provided some stats for each account covering a three month period. There were more detailed presentations on ways to evaluate impact of our social media outreach, using Scoop.it newsletters for engagement and communication among RWP members, and the V Bar V Range Rocks program (AZ). The remainder of the morning included a demonstration of adding state resources to the database and concurrent working groups for task forces and other activities. The second half of day two started with a facilitated discussion on sustainability for RWP. We discussed what would happen if the RWP didn’t exist (no Global Rangelands or Rangelands West websites, database, or access to JRM, REM, Rangelands, and Australian Rangelands Journal). We also discussed what we do together that none of us can do alone (accomplishing work with synergy, limit duplication, share ideas, apply for competitive grants, provide subject matter expertise on a variety of rangelands topics, put rangelands on the map, and provide a global central repository). The remainder of the sustainability conversation was about funding needs and opportunities. RWP needs at least $25,000 per year to stay sustainable. The main funding opportunity discussed was member dues. The resulting action item was for members (John Tanaka, Barb Hutchinson, and Nancy Marshall volunteered) to contact their regional association of agricultural experiment station directs to inquire about the possibility of meeting with them to discuss the importance of what we do. Once an avenue of communication has been opened, all members will speak with their deans about the possibility of paying dues. We would be asking for $1,000 from agricultural deans and $1,000 from library deans. The day finished out with reports from the working group session. The Repository Harvesting task force created a list of questions for members to consider during the harvesting process and they will make them available to the group. The International Partner Recruiting and Content Development task force had identified members with international contacts and have defined a process for approaching possible partners. The Members Site group reported on changes to the members’ website and requested that members submit documents and photographs from conference and other RWP events. The Marketing and Public Relations task force (1) announced plans to start an Instagram account for all members to post to, (2) urged members to participate in our social media activity, and (3) suggested some strategies on how to raise awareness. Lastly, the General Topics Summaries group reported that topics have been assigned and the deadline will be sent out with the idea that they will be completed before the redesign goes live. Challenges of the Past Year: • Another redesign project for Global Rangelands, Rangelands West, and state sites. • 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 Council's resources and services, and continue their complimentary development. • Reestablish connections with AgNIC database as soon as we have a working Global Rangelands/Rangelands West database that can be harvest. • Streamlining task forces to ensure productive responses. In Process / Next Step Activities: • HEC grant: finish migrating Wrangle to Drupal; add resources to Teaching Clearinghouse. • Renewable Resources Extension Act (RREA) Grant: create videos present varying perspectives of controversial issues in range and to gather information/local knowledge. • Continue with required tasks for eXtension Rangelands and harvest information already contributed. • Apply redesign to Global Rangelands, Rangelands West, and state sites and market to increase use. • Contact agricultural experiment station directors and library deans for membership dues and look for other funding opportunities for sustainability of RWP. • Harvesting institutional repository records: create a tool kit for members. • International collaboration: members (Amy Ganguli, Chris Bernau, Mark Thorne, and Beth Burritt) will reach out to their contacts in Mongolia, New Zealand, China, Britain, and Israel. • Marketing: members continue to contribute to social media efforts; Move forward with idea to create video for marketing Global Rangelands and Rangelands West websites; and other efforts (international year of range, consistent hashtag). • General Topic Summaries: write summaries by deadline (before redesign goes live).

• Successful annual meeting of the Rangelands West Partnership (March 2015, Las Cruces, NM). Attendees (27 on-site; 6 virtual) representing 15 U.S. states, and Australia. • Redesign of Global Rangelands, Rangelands West, and state websites with mock-ups presented for feedback. • Progress on several grants received by different RWP partners for rangelands information projects. • USDA Higher Education Challenge Grant (HEC) - successful maintenance and updating of Range at a Distance repository of distance accessible courses on range topics; developed Teaching Clearinghouse as a space for sharing tools and resources for range teaching professionals (no resources yet and in Beta mode); additions to Careers & Education section of Rangelands West website, and analytics showing increased use. • NIFA Optimization grant to University of Arizona. Focus groups and social media progress. • NIFA Renewal Resources Extension Act Grant - "Discovering Our National Rangelands" proposal was awarded to the University of Wyoming and the University of Arizona for $200,000. Purpose is to record local knowledge videos, different perspectives on controversial issues videos, introduction videos for eXtension rangelands and Rangelands West websites, and support an episode of Out on the Land, a conservation oriented show on RFD-TV. • Established new MOA with Society for Range Management and Elsevier to incorporate the Journal of Rangeland Management (10 year rolling window) and Rangelands (5 year rolling window, and increase from the previous MOA of 3 years) into the database. • Finished digitizing the Australian Rangeland Society Biennial Conference Proceedings from 1-17. • Made stronger connections between Rangelands West/Global Rangelands, eXtension Rangelands, and the Range Science Education Council's resources and services.