Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The Annual Meeting of the SERA-37 Project group was held August 25-26, 2016 in Nashville, TN. 

An enthusiastic group of 20 participants from 8 states in the Southern Region, Washington D.C and California had a productive meeting (see notes with agenda below).

The SERA‐37 Latinos in the New South Plan of Work for 2016‐2017 was updated at the Nashville meeting through a collaborative process that included all attendees and our administrative advisors. Jorge Atiles (OK) and Cintia Aguilar (NC) facilitated and moderated the meeting.

Work Group leaders reported on accomplishments to date and critical items were selected for inclusion or deletion from the Plan of Work established in 2015 (see agenda below).

• Program, Resources, and Best Practices Work Group: Joe Hunnings, Terence Martin
• Staff Development Work Group: Jorge Atiles
• Youth Development Programs Work Group: Laura Valencia.

Monthly meetings took place all year and changes in leadership were handled through members stepping up to cover certain Tasks. Elver Pardo (FL) took over the role of chair earlier and other vacant positions were elected at the Nashville meeting. 

The Executive Committee is charged with the following key tasks:

• Conducting monthly conference calls to communicate activities and make organizational progress;
• Completing the Annual Report and submitting it to the SERA‐37 Advisors (Dr. Reuben Moore of Mississippi State University and Edwin Jones of Virginia Tech) 60 days following the annual meeting for submission to the NIMSS system;
• Organizing the Annual Meeting of the SERA‐37 members, with logistical support from SRDC;
• Contributing content to the SERA‐37 web page managed by SRDC;
• Communicating with and engaging the larger SERA‐37 membership through the listserv managed by SRDC, webinars, annual meetings, or other means of

Leadership for 2015-2016 was elected and includes:

Chair: Elver Pardo, Florida: pardoe@ufl.edu

Chair‐elect: Luis Saldaña (TX): Luis.Saldana@ag.tamu.edu

Secretary: Joe Hunnings, (VA): hunnings@vt.edu

Staff Development WG: Jorge Atiles, Oklahoma, jorge.atiles@okstate.edu,

Youth Development WG: Laura Valencia, Florida, lauraval@ufl.edu

Program, Resources, Practices WG: Joe Hunnings, Virginia, hunnings@vt.edu and Terence Martin, Alabama,  tzm0018@aces.edu

Liaison: Lupe Landeros, National 4‐H Council, llanderos@fourhcouncil.edu

Advisors: Extension: Ed Jones, Virginia, ejones1@vt.edu ; Research: Rueben Moore, Mississippi, r.moore@msstate.edu

Other activities and learning opportunities during the Annual meeting:

• Presentation of Cristina Allen Caliente Consulting – Presented an update on Latinos/Hispanic population data and impacts in the Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and Mississippi Areas.
• Presentation Raymond Rodriguez – University of California- Davis – Giving a presentation on Building and Sustaining Women and Latinas in STEM field through the CAMPOS initiative.
• New members from southern states attended and were added and integrated to the different work groups.

SERA-37 2016 Annual Meeting Plan Details

AGENDA- THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 2016.

12 noon:                       Lunch (provided). 

12: 30 pm                     Welcome/Bienvenidos.

                                    Opening session by Jorge Atiles and Cintia Aguilar
Strengthening the capacity to respond to the New Hispanic South
- Goals Mobilizing land-grant faculty work collaborative
- Strengthen the research and Extension outreach
- Advance our capacity

12:45 pm:                     Understanding SERA-37.

Dr. Reuben Moore, Associate Director, Operations, Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, Mississippi State University, SERA-37 Research Advisor.

-  Multistate Projects
-  Purpose/Objectives
-  Potential Outputs and Outcomes on Research and Extension Collaborations, joint publications, review articles, websites, experimental protocols, BMP's, research, public/private grants.

- Extension Outcomes Programming, educational material, workshops, staff development, public/private grants

- Reviewing evidence of tangible outcomes, objective been addressed, number of participants in the project, impacts from this project

- Publishing in different resources such as journals, websites, etc. Getting the right statistics and data to target our population. County vs State level.

1 PM:                           Introductions Rápido!

                                    (Name, state, one word describing your connection with our group and what do you think you can contribute to this group)

 1:15PM:                        Keynote presentation: Cristina Allen (Compass Global Strategies, Caliente Consulting).

- Compass Global Strategies
- Multicultural Marketing, Diversity Markets and Research
- Graduated from New Mexico State University

US Hispanic Population –Data and impact

Latinos in the Southeast
Fastest growing destination, from 2000-2010 the region's Hispanic population grew by more than 2 million -a nearly 70% increase. Alabama (Latino population statistics provided), Mississippi and Tennessee (Latino population statistics provided) more than doubled, placing these States among the fastest growing. Meanwhile, Georgia nearly doubled the number of Hispanics more than. Look at the opportunities of the market in your area.

Suggestions: Research your area and your population, are they documented or undocumented, in-state tuition or international students, DACA, Hispanic Cultural Programs, collaborate with other agencies and institutions in your area such as non-profits, school districts, YMCA achievers, programs, faith base, futuro programs. Target Hispanics Events or Community Events which are targeting your group of interest. Remember the five F of Latinos, Family Faith Food Fiesta Football/Soccer. A great resource for information is the Pew Hispanic Research.

2: 15 PM:                      SERA-37 Planning: Where are we now? Plan of work 2016-17?

Activities to date
- Multi-State conferences
- Annual Meetings
- Webinar series
- Individual members and states' research
- Individual members and states' outreach projects
- Community and institutional assessments
- Publications, meeting and conference presentations
- Multi-State "Latino Domestic Immersion Program
- Cooperation with Cambio de Colores program/conference

Bring more energy and bring the group back up. As a group we have accomplish a lot but we want to grow and do more. We need to recruit more research members.

Plan, Report, Working together, share Spanish Fact Sheets and materials we can adapt to our target population.

3:00 pm                        BREAK.

3:30PM:                        Committees Presentations.                    

Best practices work group by Terence Martin, AL
- Employed bilingual staff
- Do's and Don'ts
- Posters/Materials and success stories
Create a template of best practices to reach Latino audiences Terence Martin agreed to distribute same to the group by Labor Day September 5th. Terence will be working with Lupe.

Staff Development work group by Jorge Atiles, OK
- Ruben Saldana and Elaine Fries will be working on the online intercultural competency modules. Inventory collection.
- Cross-Cultural Immersion Using Qualtrics for an inventory survey.
- We are looking for information beyond our region. It will be beneficial to seek for this information in other regions as well.
- Offer Professional development opportunities for those who are not familiar to work with multicultural and diverse population.
- Conference/Training on best intercultural practices opportunity 2018
- Survey asking Latinos from across the region on what they are interested and take the opportunity. Cintia share a tool of a randomly survey conducted in NC area to 584 Latinos from 76 counties with the  purpose to learn more about the population, community, barriers for participation, best places to attend, source where they get information, best time to attend. Total questions in the survey 21.

Youth Programs by Laura Valencia, FL
- Juntos
- Soccer Camp
- Develop new programs and plan of work
- Deliver a pilot program
- Marketing strategies to create awareness
- How to make Latino Youth to participate in different programs and also bring non-traditional programs accessible
- Create five focus group
- Match the need with what the group want
Building trust is part of the program success. Laura still recruiting for the Youth task force.

4:30 PM:                       Small Group session by committees

Committees Presentations
- Letter to Directors to appoint research members.
 - Julia Storm has been removed from the Plan of Work. Cintia stated she might be back in three months. We are updating the plan of work for next period and application.

Some Action Items

- Terence will review literature to identify research basis for best practices for reaching Latino audiences by September 30th. Lupe will assist on this task. Collecting inventory will help to identify what will work best for your area.
- Eva will be collaborating with Lupe in developing 5-10 questions survey Qualtrics to request evidence for best practices by October 1st.
- Joe and Lupe will be work together to Compile and Analyze the survey results.
- Share survey results next year in Texas, dates TBD. Cintia stated we need to have a plan and a working committed team to make information/report accessible to others. Rachel will communicate with Lupe and Terence about the survey used on SRDC.

- Jorge stated the need to decide a site for the Annual Conference 2018.

- Proposal for video materials in Spanish and material translations. Eva, Laura, Johanna, Cintia and Jorge will work on this task. Identify the need and have projects aligned. Draft by October 15th.

5:30 PM:                       Dinner (on your own or informal group)

AGENDA- FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2016

 8 AM:                          Where do we want to go? Large Group Planning: Determine gaps and priorities for integrated activities.                               

Staff Development
- Changes were made to the Plan of Action as they were discussed in the meeting

Youth Programs
- Laura would like to postpone the Youth Programs Action Plan until she attends the 4H National Conference in New Orleans in October. A conference call will be schedule with the youth task force. Opportunities to collaborate.

- Deadline to renew/apply for SERA-37  brief statement must be entered by March 1st, 2017 and Final proposal by June 1st, 2017.

- Next SERA-37 meeting discussion is open to ideas and then the group will make a decision of the destination and agenda. Puerto Rico is one of the destination to consider and was mention.

- Luis Saldaña is nominated to be Chair-Elect. Luis accepted the nomination if the group is committed to continue the work and collaborate as a team. Luis Saldaña has been unanimous elected by the members. 

9:30 AM:                       Raymond Rodriguez, University of California Davis

Building and Sustaining Women and Latinas in STEM Fields through the CAMPOS Initiative

STEM Field through CAMPOS Initiative
- CAMPOS is engaging the African American an Latinos communities
- Minorities can bring multicultural new perspectives to the STEM disciplines
- Society problems are serious they interconnect and are complex
- Solutions using the Earth total brains 3.48 billion Male brains and 3.42 billion Female brains
- Agriculture is rapidly changing and becoming a STEM discipline
- Compare yesterday and today's farming
- Cesar Chavez 1927-1993 Quotes to endure, patience and acceptance
- Precision Farming, apps for the farm of tomorrow, people will be replaced by machinery
- Preparing next generation of young girls through STEM
- Women and other underrepresented minorities will benefit ...implicit bias is a barrier to inclusion of URMs STEM disciplines
- Toxic consequences of Implicit Bias
Immediately presume incompetent, assumes the worst and never gives the benefit of the doubt, demand a higher level of performance as proof of competence, minimize achievements, marginalized, physical, socially, and intellectually.
- Advance UC Davis Program is a NSF Institutional Transformation grant to increase participation and advancement of women in academic science and engineering careers.
- Latinas compose 7% of US population (25-44 years of age)
- Latinas compose less than 3% of STEM Ph.D
- Latinas compose 2.5% of STEM Faculty the majority have an assistant professor rank and difficulty advancing.
- Diverse STEM is important because there are perspectives on science other than scientific perspectives.
- 4-H OakTown Projects, food drove, community gardens, etc.
Q&A Session

10: 30 AM:                    Break

10:45 AM:                     State Presentations – All presentations need to be ready to present individually.

- Cintia Aguilar, NC
- Jorge Atiles, OK
- Guadalupe Castro, TX
- Eva Pabon , FL
- Johanna Ramirez, FL
- Laura Valencia, FL 

11:30                            Large Group Planning: Pulling all together

                                    - Steps to complete/Submit an Appendix E

12:30 PM:                     Adjourn

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SERA-37 RESOURCE INVENTORY
Please visit the Qualtrics survey link and enter information on your most promising and proven Extension programs or research projects for Latino communities:

https://msudafvm.co1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_43hbQVBb9XTSUOV

 The survey takes only 15 minutes per project. Feel free to submit multiple projects; the more we share our great work with each other, the better! This ongoing resource will be compiled and shared soon after the meeting on the SRDC web site and will continue as an ongoing resource.

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Thanks very much to the Southern Rural Development Center for their financial sponsorship of the SERA-37 2015 meeting and to Miranda Tucci and Rachel Welborn for their logistical and organizational support. 

http://srdc.msstate.edu/

Accomplishments (based on Objectives and Procedures/Activities outlined in SERA-37 Project Proposal for 10/01/2012 to 09/30/2017):

Objectives and related Accomplishments for 2016-17

1. Expand information on effective evidence‐based programs/promising practices
2. Expand current research/Extension
3. Identify existing gaps in research/Extension
4. Disseminate information briefs (demographics,).
5. Design/sponsor staff development program(s).

Procedures and Activities and related Accomplishments for 2016-17

1. Hold every‐other‐month conference calls with SERA‐37 leadership team; host annual meetings of SERA
2. Update the current
3. Facilitate joint research across land‐grant
4. Information sharing of research and evidence based
5. Capacity‐