Citizens Advisory Network
OSU Extension Service District, Polk County
Tuesday, March 15, 2011, 5:00 p.m.
Academy Building, room 108
Present: Jim Clawson, Derek Godwin, Bernie Faber, Tina Andersen, Dean Anderson, Joyce Wahl, Tom
Thompson, Donna Michaelson, Karen Lippsmeyer, Sheri Beehner, Robert Beehner, Mike Ainsworth, Dolores
May, Paul Gehlar, Kathy Hadley
Guests: E. M. Easterly, Judi Peters
Program Updates:
Ag Program Area— Jim and Derek met with Chemeketa Small Business and Ag Business
Management staff along with representatives of the Oregon Department of Agriculture and
Commissioner Craig Pope to begin discussions of working together.
o
Chemeketa is not interested in joining us in a building at the Fairgrounds. They did say they
could use more meeting space and more modern teaching facilities.
o Jim and Derek met with Ag economists, Bruce Sorte and Mallory Rahe to explore ideas to put
together information on Economic Development in the County with an emphasis on agriculture.
o Bernie said it’s important that we meet with the Chemeketa President, Cheryl Roberts, because
she needs more education on agriculture.
 Committees:
o Budget Committee hasn’t met but will try to meet next week to prepare.
o Outreach Committee hasn’t met since the first meeting. Mary Stewart is a temp with Marion
County. She has marketing experience in ag. She will put together a marketing plan with the first
priority the annual report. She will do research and meet with PECAN and other Focus Groups.
She will be a temp for a couple of months.
o Derek to explain about the Budget and Outreach Committees for those not familiar with PECAN and
the Focus Groups.
Derek Godwin Presentation: (see attached Power Point Presentation)
The presentation covers general mission of OSU Extension, Current programs, opportunities and challenges,
program needs, budget numbers, current positions.
Comments and questions:
o With Neil Bell at 1 FTE but choosing to work 75% for family reasons, Kathy asked if we could keep that
money to hire some help? Derek said that OSU is now asking people to fund 25% of their own salaries
and that the College of Agriculture would have to take that money away from some other person or
project.
o Bernie wanted to know about the OFNP curriculum. Derek said that Debra/Diane could present at a
future meeting. They train volunteers to show how to cook food in food boxes in conjunction with
Marion Polk Food Share.
o Put the FCH minutes on the Extension website
o Donna said that Debra needs to have the use of a kitchen to offer training.
o Kathy said we need to interact more with 4-H and FFA and that FFA is always looking for community
service programs.
o Budget is around $375,000, but only $60,000 to $100,000 are not fixed items.
Guidelines for Decision-Making discussion
 Guideline #1- No comments
 Guideline #2 o If faculty are housed at other locations should we provide support for that person? For example
Gene Pirelli is out of the office most of the time covering 7 counties (Tom).
 Guideline #3 –
o
Suggested that we “maximize Extension programs” instead of “support all” in reference to Guideline
#3. (Dean)
o Gene Pirelli trains lots of SWCD and agency people that are not volunteers in reference to Guideline
#3. (Jim)
o We should support the faculty who train volunteers. They are cheaper. He wants to expand this
idea and not hire new staff. The key is we provide more programs at the least cost. Volunteers and
staff provide “bang for the buck.” (Mike)
o The philosophy of Extension has always been to use volunteers and cooperators (Jim)
 Guideline #4 o How would we evaluate Guideline #4? (Karen)
o Faculty is expected to apply for grants now. These could be focused on non-priority areas. (Derek
and Jim)
o Other Extension offices couldn’t do the work they do with Latino groups without grant funds and
that OSU has cost benefit resources we can use (Derek)
 Guideline #5
o Add small farms and organic producers (Jim)
 Guideline #6
o Under Guideline #6, Is it worth it to bring in people at 25% with no benefits? (Kathy)
o Benefits provide stability in staffing and you can get more skilled people and stability with
benefits (Derek)
o We may consider a mix of this (Jim)
General Comments
 We should expect less support from OSU because of cuts. Polk SWCD get lots of grants to do things they
couldn’t do otherwise (Bernie)
 Kathy asked when will we find out what we get from State/Federal? Derek said the state is biennial and
our most recent estimates are that we should expect a 10% cut. We will know more in June.
 Focus Groups should go over the Guidelines and bring their recommendations back to PECAN. This
first year can be an interim approach (Jim)
 It is important to define what we’d like to have happen (Jim)
 Should we prioritize projects? Prioritize and attach money to them? (Paul)
 Each Focus Team elects a spokesperson and that person presents their priorities and then the PECAN
group votes on them using “stars or dots” to rank priorities (Dean)
 The teams should follow the five areas suggested for the program review ( Derek)
 The Steering Committee will help line up the recommendations to be presented at the next PECAN
meeting. (Jim)
 The Ag Program Focus Team will meet to try to catch up (Jim)
Next Meeting: April 19
Respectfully submitted by,
Dolores May
Attachments:
Power Point presentation
Family and Community Health draft report
Current PECAN member list