Minutes of NCR-203

Ames, Iowa

October 4-5, 2002

 

Administrative Adviser:        Chair:                                      Secretary:

Doreen Woodward                  Dr. Robert Birkenholz               Dr. Susan Fritz

Assistant Director                     The Ohio State University         University of Nebraska

 Michigan Agricultural   2120 Fyffe Road                      300 Agriculture Hall

  Experiment Station                  Columbus, OH  43210             Lincoln, NE  68583-0709

109 Ag Hall

East Lansing, MI  48823

 

Members in Attendance:  Robert Birkenholz – Ohio; Kris Boone – Kansas, Susan Fritz – Nebraska, Joe Harper – Illinois, Kirk Heinze – Michigan, Wade Miller – Iowa, Meredith Redlin – South Dakota.

 

Members Absent:  Gene Theodori – Texas, Anissa Wilhelm – North Dakota.

 

The second annual meeting of the NCR-203 was held on the campus of Iowa State University, Ames, IA on October 4-5, 2002.  Because of travel complications experienced by Bob Birkenholz, Wade Miller called the meeting to order.  (Bob Birkenholz joined the meeting at 3:30 p.m. and assumed the chair responsibilities for the remainder of the meeting.)

 

Wade Miller called the meeting to order at 1:00 p.m. and each person introduced himself/herself.  Members welcomed Kris Boone, Kansas State University to the committee.  Two members, Kathleen Kelsey, Oklahoma State University, and Larry Miller, Ohio State University, have withdrawn from the committee (the former due to lack of travel support from her institution for her attendance; and the latter because of duplication of state membership--Bob Birkenholz and he are both at Ohio State University).  Committee members discussed the importance of adding a committee member to represent Missouri.

 

The minutes of the October 12-13, 2001 meeting were approved with a motion from Kirk Heinze, and a second by Wade Miller.

 

Bruce Babcock, Director of the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD), addressed the committee from 1:30-3:15 p.m.  Using issue-driven research, CARD informs policymakers and stakeholder groups on projects that impact policy alternatives for agriculture.  CARD is engaged in interdisciplinary research on the impacts of policy alternatives for trade and agricultural policy, resource and environmental policy, food and nutrition policy, science and technology policy, and agricultural risk management policy. Committee members explored ways in which their work could be informed by CARD research, and discussed potential collaborations with CARD.

 

Cornelia Butler Flora, Director of the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development, met with the committee.  The Center is one of four in the US (Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Utah, Iowa).  The Center is intrastate, and multi-disciplinary and seeks to connect researchers that address community development and civic engagement issues.  Discussion indicated that there are likely collaborative research opportunities for the committee and the Center.  Additionally, the possibility of adding Cornelia Flora as an ex-officio member of the committee was discussed.

 

The agenda was reviewed. 

 

Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD)

North Central Regional Center for Rural Development

                        Human capital

                        Quality of rural life

                        Rural leadership/governance

                        Nonformal and formal education

                        Employment/entrepreneurship

                        Community infrastructure

                        Community in context

                        Collaborative Research Proposals

                        Symposium Plans

                        Related research

                        Institutional update

 

Elections for Chair-elect and Secretary were added to the agenda, and the revised agenda was adopted by consensus.

 

Joe Harper invited the committee to hold their October 3-4, 2003 meeting on the University of Illinois campus.  Joe will invite Burt Swanson, University of Illinois to meet with the committee and discuss his GIS research techniques. 

 

The committee convened at approximately 5:00 p.m. and reconvened Saturday, October 5 at 8:00 a.m.  The first agenda item addressed was the website.  Kirk Heinze has taken the lead on developing an NCR-203 website.  His assistant is pursuing a URL for the website, and in the meantime, has developed an introductory page with links to a list of members, past minutes, the original NCR-203 proposal, and content areas.  The committee discussed the importance of building a website that served as a resource for those interested in human capital, quality of life, community vitality, etc.  It was concluded that one way to make this happen was to develop meta tags and embed them in the web pages.  Additionally, it was suggested that some kind of counter be placed on the site to determine the number of hits the site receives.

 

The committee discussed website design.  It was determined that the website would have an overview that would include a review of “the impact of human capital development on the quality of rural community life.”  The overview would be supported by a comprehensive annotated bibliography, resources and related links.  Besides the overview section, each content area would have its own “button” and would feature its own overview (more detailed than the general overview), annotated bibliography, resources and related links.  Within the content area, themes (e.g. definition, education, employment, gender and ethnicity, health and environment, methodologies and theoretical frameworks) would also have overviews, annotated bibliographies, resources, and related links.  (See Figure 1 below.)  Given the relationship between some of the content areas and themes, it is expected that some crossover of citations will occur.

 

Committee members discussed stakeholder groups that may be interested in accessing the website once it is further developed.  National Extension Educator, County Supervisors, and 1994 school listservs were discussed as ways of publicizing the existence of the website.  It was suggested this topic be raised at next years meeting and the website then be strongly marketed.

 

Doreen Woodward shared the form used by the NCA Committee or Administrative Advisor for the Critical Midterm Review of NCR Committees with the committee.  In order to have a favorable review, it is important to meet committee goals and objectives.  While the committee does not feel it has fallen behind on its plans, committee members expressed determination in staying on schedule and pursuing a favorable midterm review, with hopes for renewal at the end of the five-year meeting period.

 

Timelines for the posting of the annotated bibliographies, collaborative research projects and the symposium were discussed.  A review of content area assignments resulted in the appointment of Kris Boone to head the Employment/Entrepreneurship content area.  Annotated bibliographies should be shared by the lead researcher with his/her sub-committee members by June 1, 2003.  Revised annotated bibliographies should be sent to Kirk Heinze for posting to the website by July 1, 2003.  To date, Kirk Heinze has posted his draft annotated bibliography for Quality of Rural Life.  Anissa Wilhelm has posted a draft bibliography (not yet annotated) for Nonformal and Formal Education. 

 

The committee discussed the importance of developing collaborative research projects.  Members were encouraged to review social science Federal requests for funding proposals with particular attention to the National Science Foundation and the National Research Initiative.  After discussing ways to approach the collaborative research process, it was decided to assign sub-committees to develop one-page concept papers that would be shared with all committee members by November 1st.  These one-page concept papers would be the forerunners to full proposals that could include some or all of the committee members, depending on interest and relevancy.    The following assignments were made:

 

 

The committee reviewed plans for the symposium.  It was unclear if Gene Theodori had contacted Bo Beaulieu, Southern Rural Development Center, regarding a joint symposium.  Bob Birkenholz said he would follow-up with Gene.  The committee also discussed the importance of obtaining funding to support the symposium.  Bob Birkenholz said he would make some contacts at the NRI to determine availability of funds.

 

Elections for Chair-elect and Secretary were held.  Kirk Heinze was elected Chair-elect and Meredith Redlin was elected Secretary.  Both will assume responsibilities of their office following the end of the 2002 meeting, with their official terms running from 2003-2005. Wade Miller will serve as Chair for a two-year term as well.  Both votes were unanimous. 

 

Oral reports were given by each member.  It appears budget challenges are an unfortunate commonality among the institutions represented.  Several institutions are undergoing major reorganization, and policy changes.  (For written reports, see Appendix A.)

 

The meeting was adjourned by Bob Birkenholz at 11:35 a.m.

 

Approved:

 

____________________________________

Susan Fritz                                           Date

NCR-203 Secretary 2002

 

 

____________________________________

Doreen Woodward                              Date

NCR-203 Administrative Advisor

 

 

Abbreviated State

Reports of NCR-203 Committee

Dr. Robert Birkenholz

The Ohio State University

208 Ag. Adm. Bldg.

2120 Fyffe Road

Columbus, OH 43210 E-mail: Birkenholz.1@osu.edu

Telephone: (614) 292-6909

Fax: (614) 292-7007

 

Dr. Kristina Boone

Kansas State University

301 Umberger Hall

Manhattan, KS  66506 E-mail:  kboone@oznet.ksu.edu

Telephone:  (785) 532-1163

FAX:  (785) 532-5633

K-State Research and Extension and the College of Agriculture are in midst of the five-year strategic planning process.  The completed document will be presented in January 2004.  Like many other institutions, our budgets are terrible; not only did we have significant cuts in the past year, we went into the situation in a weak position.  K-State Research and Extension was hit harder than the University. The Department of Communications at Kansas State supports our agricultural communications and journalism program, which has agricultural and environmental communications options for undergraduate students.  The department has no graduate program, but faculty chair committees in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications.  Enrollment in the undergraduate program is growing, although with our current FTE we hope to grow no larger than 65 students.  Department Head Bob Furbee is leaving in December and joins the faculty at Ohio State University to provide leadership for Communications and Technology.  The goal is to have this position filled by the beginning of the fiscal year.  Bob will be missed.  Another teaching faculty member, Tracy Rutherford, also is leaving; we will keep the position and hire within one year. 

 

 

Dr. Susan Fritz

University of Nebraska

300 Agriculture Hall

Lincoln, NE 68583-0709 E-mail: sfritz1@unl.edu

Telephone: (402) 472-9559

Fax: (402) 472-5863

The Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication is preparing for its CSREES review; the review team is scheduled to be on campus in late January, 2003.  Despite several rounds of budget cuts, the Department is experiencing increased enrollments in its graduate programs in Leadership Education (Masters) and Leadership Studies (Doctoral).  The Department is spearheading an effort to convert introductory College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources courses to dual credit (linked to State Standards), distance delivery.  While there are several policy hurdles to cross, it appears that a pilot of one course will occur this spring.  Faculty has also initiated a comprehensive study of Career and Technical Education’s (CTE) contributions to local economies.  A survey of CTE teachers, their superintendents and principals, board presidents, etc. has been conducted.  The second phase of the study will be to survey of teachers (other than CTE teachers) and conduct focus group interviews with business and industry representatives in the local communities previously studied.  Several leadership programming and research initiatives have been launched, one through Environmental Protection Agency grant support and directed at a region of the state, others more statewide (non-profit organizations, county commissioners, etc.). 

 

Dr. Joe Harper

University of Illinois

133 Bevier Hall

905 S. Goodwin Avenue

Urbana, IL 61801 E-mail: jgharper@uiuc.edu

Telephone: (217) 244-5651

Fax: (217) 244-7877

The Laboratory for Community and Economic Development (LCED) supports community and economic development efforts of local people, their governments and representatives. The Laboratory provides information and educational programs, and conducts research on economic and social issues that are relevant to communities and community leaders. http://www.communitydevelopment.uiuc.edu/main.html  University of Illinois Extension can help with Leadership Development Through Community Action, a multifaceted service-learning curriculum designed to address the complex learning goals of: 1) understanding self and one's group; 2) understanding one's community and the issues it faces; 3) researching, designing and implementing a plan to meet a goal; and 4) evaluation of results. http://www.extension.uiuc.edu/leadership/  Strong families and healthy children are fundamentally important human resources in rural communities.  The Illinois Rural Families Program (IRFP) works to advance the sustainable development of these human resources in rural Illinois by conducting practical, applied research that promotes the well-being of rural families. http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/~hcd/rural/welcome.html  The Value Project:  Improving Farm Incomes and Rural Communities through Value-Added Agriculture project explores strategies for improving farm incomes through specialty farm products and value-added processing. Research studies are being carried out on specialty crop marketing, specialty crop technology, including on-farm trials, and pilot projects to assess the economic potential in different parts of the state to produce, market, and/or process different types of specialty farm products.  (This is the project Burt Swanson leads.)

http://web.aces.uiuc.edu/value/Default.htm

 

Dr. Kirk Heinze

ANR Education and Communication Systems

Michigan State University

408 Agriculture Hal

East Lansing, MI 48824-1039 E-mail: heinzek@msu.edu

Telephone: (517) 355-6580 x219

Fax: (517) 353-4981

The Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources Education & Communication Systems is one of three units in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Michigan State charged by the Dean to undertake a "strategic integration" during the current academic year.  The other units are Resource Development and Park, Recreation and Tourism Resources.  Part of the overarching rationale for the charge is to create a department for integrated social science teaching, research and outreach--a department that can bring holistic philosophical, theoretical and practical perspectives to both agriculture and natural resources issues.  Because of the array of social science disciplines that will be embodied in the new department, it appears that the faculty would be very much interested in exploring the research opportunities associated with the agenda outlined by NCR-203. 

 

 

Dr. W. Wade Miller

Agricultural Education

Iowa State University

217 Curtiss Hall

Ames, IA 50011-0001 E-mail: wwmiller@iastate.edu

Telephone: (515) 294-0895

Fax: (515) 294-0530

A survey of literature related to Community Infrastructure was conducted.  Infrastructure included rural electrification, rural roads, banking/finance, and housing.  Several documents were identified.  One of the most informative documents on the subject is a periodical from the Economic Research Service (ERS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  This publication is titled Rural America and can be found at:  http://www.ers.usda.gov/pulications/ruralamerica.  This journal addresses a wide variety of issues in rural America including infrastructure.  Other publications found on the ERS website related to rural infrastructure are briefings.  One briefing paper is titled “Infrastructure” and can be found at:  http://www.ers.usda.gov/Topics along with other papers related to rural life and rural development.  Another interesting paper, "Urban/rural community infrastructure" examines the areas of rural electrification, rural roads, banking, and housing.  This publication is found at: http://www.jbic.go.jp/english/oec/environ/hand/A48/part2k.pdf.

 

Dr. Meredith Redlin

South Dakota State University

Box 504, Scobey 216

Brookings, SD 57006 E-mail: meredith_redlin@sdstate.edu

Telephone: (605) 688-4084

At SDSU, not a lot of further action has gone on.  There has been college support and encouragement for social science attendance at recent USDA grant workshops, particularly given the EPSCOR status for the state of South Dakota.  Past teaching projects dealing with human capital development, such as the Rural Sustainability graduate certificate, are on hold.

 

 

Dr. Gene Theodori

Texas A&M University

2125 TAMU

College Station, TX 77843-2125 E-mail: g-theodori@tamu.edu

Telephone: (979) 862-8561

Fax: (979) 847-8744

 

 

Dr. Anissa Wilhelm

North Dakota State University

155 EML Hall

Fargo, ND 58105-5057 E-mail: Anissa.Wilhelm@ndsu.nodak.edu

Telephone: (701) 231-7439

Fax: (701) 231-9685

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 1.  Diagram of NCR-203 Website.