Northwest Regional Council Meeting
February 20,2003
Farm Credit Building, St. Joseph, Mo.

 

Members Attending:  Randy Cole (Andrew), Becky Dalbey (Nodaway), Mary Salmond (Atchison), Kendell Misemer (Gentry), Greg Biermann (Holt), Tom Hare (Holt), John Murphy (DeKalb), Jayla Smith (Daviess) and Robert Stollings (Caldwell). 

Staff Attending:  Karma Metzgar, Bob Kelly, Carol West

Guests: Tony DeLong and Sandy Sands representing Missouri Extension County Council Leadership Conference (MECCLC). 

Meeting called to order at 7:40 by Kendell Misemer, Chair

Karma asked that clerical reviews be added to the agenda.
Motion by John Murphy to accept the minutes as distributed, seconded by Jayla Smith. 
Motion carried 

Regional Council Agendas and Minutes are posted on the web at
http://extension.missouri.edu/nwregion/Councils/council.shtml

 MECCLC Representatives:

Tony DeLong reported on the ITV Meetings held February 6 and 13, 2003.  Attendance increased at the meeting on the 13th.  New Council Orientation Packets will be mailed to each office and each Council Chair. Councils will duplicate locally. 

Some counties are experiencing budget problems due to cuts in allocation monies from the County Commissioners.  Tony said he would be willing to work with any county at their request. 

Tony discussed the Feb. 26 Legislative Day.  If you can get some testimonial letters, or notes saying “thank you” for supporting UOE, send to Tony or hand deliver at Legislative Day.

 Sandy Sands also discussed Legislative Day and upcoming UOE Week the third week of May.  She asked council representatives to be thinking of ways to celebrate this event and to promote UOE in May. 

Regional Director Report:

A Governance Advisory Board for MECCLC is being formulated to assist MECCLC with specific types of governance and political issues. They are looking for one person per region. There were no nominations or volunteers.  Tony shared that team should consist of former council members that could attend meetings and lobby for UOE at their own expense.  We are to take this idea to our own councils and see if anyone is interested or names are suggested.  Suggested that one representative from each region would meet with Dr. Turner, Tony DeLong and various congressmen. 

Karma reported on the formation of a Regional Council Development Team to assist in getting information out to councils.  Dean Larkin, Don Miller and Karma will be a part of this team.  We need three regional council members or officers to serve on this regional team. Karma asked for suggestions of people to serve on this.  Those present suggested waiting until the next meeting when new representatives are present. 

The next Council Development meeting will not be an ITV.  The leadership team is working on developing “train the trainer” possibilities for a few members on the committee that can attend nearby county meetings and provide the necessary training. 

Information about the Advanced Council Leadership program was detailed in the agenda. Share with councils and report to regional council meeting. 

We have 15 core staff positions open.  Staffing maps were distributed to attendees.  Rick Bottoms, Holt County Agronomist, has resigned to accept a position in New Mexico.  Filing an Agronomy position within the region will be a high priority. 

All counties should have their elections completed.  Reminded to have your officers sworn in as required. The new council and officers take effect March 1.  The Council Leadership Development orientation packet should be used to help new members on your council. 

Nothing new on the Revenue Generation Plan to report. 

Understanding County Finance Blackboard On-Line Course is for council members as well as county program directors.  This is eight hours of training in a two-week time span primarily at your own pace. Let your CPD or the Regional Office know if you are interested in this course. 

Legislative Day:  February 26, 2003.  Please attend! 

Communications: Check out the Northwest Region Regional Extension Council Web Site at http://extension.missouri.edu/nwregion/Councils/council.shtml 

Regional Staffing Committee: Has not met but information is being gathered.  Several counties with openings have stated they are willing to discuss position changes to enhance staff coverage in the region. 

By-laws committee to be established at the next meeting. 

Nomination Committee: For 2003 Regional Council Officers is Jayla Smith, John Murphy, Becky Dalbey and Sandy Sands.  Please submit nominees for council officers to one of the committee members. 

Staff proposals:  DeKalb County may close to due a lack of minimum funding.  Karma and DeKalb county council along with citizens from the community are meeting on Monday, February 24, 2003, to work on details. 

Tom Hare asked about filling the vacancies in Holt County.  The council is concerned that the Commissioners may not be willing to fund as much next year due to a lack of staff.  Karma stated that councils need to document programming going on in the county by other staff to share with county officials.  Holt County will be a priority county once the hiring freeze has been lifted. 

The curriculum subgroup of the Council Leadership Development Committee may be interested in piloting some of the materials. Counties interested were Clinton and Mercer (both meet 4th Monday), and Grundy (3rd Monday). 

New Business:  

Schedule of Regional Council Meetings as follows:
APRIL 17, OCTOBER 16, JULY 17, AND JANUARY 15
Third Thursday of each month at 7:30 p.m.  -  Farm Credit Building in St. Joseph.Motion by Jayla Smith, seconded by Greg Biermann to accept these dates. 
Motion carried 

Clerical evaluations:  Some counties have requested information on council clerical evaluations.  There is a sample evaluation form available through the regional office.

If you want this information, let Carol know.  Karma gave some guidelines, such as have a council member present, do close to their anniversary date (when they were hired), documentation, and goal setting if improvement needed. 

Questions were asked about notification of regional council members of the regional council meeting. Procedure used was notifying the local county office to forward information. It was asked if a mailing could be done in the future. Karma said it could be considered.  She and Carol will follow-up on the request. 

Refreshments of peach, apple and pecan pie was furnished by Jayla Smith and her entrepreneurial class at Jamesport High School.  Sandy Sands will be providing refreshments for the next meeting! 

Motion to adjourn, by John Murphy, seconded by Randy Cole.  Motion carried
Meeting adjourned at 9:00 pm. 

Becky Dalbey
Secretary 

Minutes approved April 17, 2003