Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

A reception was held on Sunday, May 7, at Caine House, a venue at Utah State University, organized by Beth Burritt, meeting organizer.

Monday, May 8

The morning agenda included a review of Rangelands West Partnership (RWP) activities in the past year.  Each state representative gave an update regarding his/her contributions to advancing rangeland information within their region.  In particular, RWP members updated the group on numerous topics, including:

• the advancement of the International Year of Rangelands designation through the United Nations
• changes in coverage and accessibility to the journals Rangeland Ecology and Management and Rangelands through the web portal
• extensive outreach activities, ranging from grazing after fire to irrigated pasture improvements to issues with wolves to sagebrush/sage-grouse education
• new institutional hires in rangeland-related fields
• emerging invasive species challenges
• changes in institutional spending on extension and/or rangeland departments (both positive and negative)
• review of public lands-related litigation in the Great Basin

Partners from Oklahoma, Oregon, and California introduced numerous examples of online education in rangeland topics.  Particularly, Oregon discussed its completely online rangelands degree program including methods of instruction, technology, and classroom management.  This coincided with further updates on the output from the Range Science Education Council and its now complete Higher Education Challenge Grant (NIFA Grant: 2010-01828).  In particular, attendees sought vignettes/videos/testimonials from range specialists regarding their careers for use in these websites.

The afternoon session covered a series of topics relevant to the work of the RWP, including data management, video production, and communication/marketing.  The research data management session featured presentations from colleagues at Montana State University and the University of Arizona and engaged the partnership in discussion of the role of research data curation and accessibility via the RWP’s portal.  The University of Wyoming partners actively engaged attendees in producing short videos using technologies identified as part of their “Discovering Our Nation’s Rangelands” project (NIFA Grant: 2014-46401-2259) which focuses on video stories that capture local knowledge from landowners and rangeland resource professionals.  The session on communications centered on the outreach efforts around Beyond the Mirage, a documentary on water produced by RWP member Cody Sheehy.  He detailed the formal and informal elements of conducting a large publicity campaign around a natural resources issue.  This session deliberately focused on illustrating the challenges of promoting the International Year of Rangeland idea.

The annual business meeting took place just before the close of the first day.  Chair Nicole Juve updated the RWP on the new WERA project and requested individuals sign up on NIMSS if they have not yet done so.  She reported RWP Executive Committee changes and future meeting dates.  The meeting included requests for a plan for spending the reserve funds and an invitation to join the ILRI Global Rangelands Initiative and the International Land Coalition.

TUESDAY, May 9

The morning session consisted primarily of an update on several major activities – the RREA Strategic Plan Project and the Sustatinable Rangelands Roundtable (SSR), followed by a report of the RWP’s various action groups.

Three action groups were formed and reported outcomes of their discussions:

• Marketing and Social Media: Devised an improved marketing strategy with regular shifting responsibilities.  Planned to compile a list of contacts and determine local “influencers” on social media. Will develop a checklist of how and what to post. Members divided responsibilities for posting by month, and for each month, a member will post 1-2 items to the RP Facebook page per week, post something that links back to a state page, Rangelands West, and/or Global Rangelands related page (e.g. YouTube channel), and schedule all posts in one sitting via HootSuite for best use of time. Amber (chair), Tracy, Tip, Sarah, Livia, Retta
• Content Development/Collection Management: Will draft a collection/content policy based on a discussion with the EC regarding audience and mission.  Review of content was also reported as needed.  Nicole (chair), Jeanne, April, Amy, Beth.
• Sustainability: Need to develop a succession plan for key leadership positions.  Also need to develop better mechanisms, e.g. templates, for assisting grant-seekers to incorporate the RWP in their grants.  Need to expand membership to other relevant stakeholders, e.g. agency officials. Members include: Mark, John, Dave, Jeremy, Barb (chair), Rachel, Derek, Brad.

We concluded the day by working through content development problems for the websites and databases we support.  These included creating images and features for state websites, reviewing the “topics” pages, essentially a handbook of rangeland ecology topics, and refreshing the attendees’ memories on how to add records to the database.

The meeting concluded with several decisions.  First, the following annual meeting will try to open the format up a little to invite presentations/activities from attendees.  Second, the Executive Committee will review the mission and vision of the RWP this year, with a by-laws review to happen in the future.  Third, the members present voted in favor of participating in the Global Rangelands Initiative, but not with the International Lands Coalition.  Mark Thorne and Barb Hutchinson will work with their representatives to begin our participation.

Successful annual meeting of the Rangelands West Partnership (May 2017, Logan, UT). Attendees (24 on-site; 4 virtual).  Positive financial return for the RWP.

Progress on several grants received by different RWP partners for rangelands information projects. Most notably, the Discovering Our Nation's Rangelands grant from USDA NIFA Renewable Resources Extension Act National Focus Funds. Videos that highlight different perspectives on controversial issues, videos of interviews with ranchers and public land managers, podcasts with ranchers, and training materials for others to use were completed.

Progress on the International Year of Rangelands initiative.  The Rangelands Partnership is working with multiple organizations to get a United Nations designation highlighting rangelands.

Distributed survey results conducted to learn more about what our stakeholders are interested in results to partners, with a focus on three areas prioritized by the RP Executive Committee and Arizona technical team: Sustainability/Long-Term Funding, Services and Collections, and Marketing and Outreach.

Focused the annual meetings action groups on these three items. Subcommittees were formed to address each issue.

Continued distributing Rangelands Partnership information and updates via social media and the RWP Newsletter.