COMBINED SESSION NOTES FROM EORGANIC VISIONING
FEBRUARY 26-28, 2007
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26TH
Introduction to eXtension
Powerpoint Presentation by Carla Craycraft, Craig Wood of eXtension. Debra Pankow discussed lessons
learned in the development of the Personal Finance eXtension site.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27TH
eOrganic Overview
Powerpoint presentation by Jim Riddle on behalf of Alex Stone, followed by brief introductions from each
eOrganic Team Leader: Jim Riddle, Certification; Heather Darby, Dairy; Michelle Wander and Mary
Barbercheck, Diversified Vegetable Cropping.
General Comments and Questions
– Audience:

Website audience also includes processors and retailers

Are youth a target audience?
– Delivery methods: everything should also be available in a print version for those
who don’t have access to the internet.
– Content:

Strength of eXtension is that there may be people who have expertise that is
not organic, but relevant to organic that can contribute.

Conservative groups of researchers do not feel farmer anecdotal information
is credible. However, this may be resolved if their content comes in the form
of Case Studies, or are clearly identified as farmer experiences.

Information needs to go through careful review. Bad information can put a
farmer out for 3 years.

Can there be a space for creative writing for people to contribute, such as
Blog?
– Logistics:

Short Term goals are under the timeline with November launch date

Communication between the resource teams: Team leaders are liaisons
between teams and have scheduled times throughout the year for meetings.
CERT (Certification Extension Resource Team):
– Need glossary, search engines, table of contents.
– Could NOSB meeting information be included on the site. Yes, through linking to
their site, and with information.
– People interested in organic products are another audience. Want to know how
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organics become certified.
– Need to know why even certify
– For farms who don’t have to certify, have information specifically for them.
DERT (Dairy Extension Resource Team):
– If goal is the best organic dairy website on the planet, what other countries are
doing should be a consideration. There are cross compliance issues because
standards in Europe are different. Possibilities for content are lists of differences
between standards.
[Facilitator’s note: we did not have any specific comments on VERT’s presentation]
eOrganic Vision Statement Development
Carri Munn and Desiree Rajee, facilitators from Decisions Decisions, asked each participant to write down
three wishes for eOrganics’ future. Cards were collected for review by the Vision Team.
eOrganic Concept Map
Jeff Birkby, ATTRA; Dan Sullivan, Rodale Institute/New Farm; and Jonathan Landeck, OFRF/Organic Ag
Info briefly presented what their organization’s role in online organic information provision. Carri Munn
presented a summary of eOrganic’s audience, content sources, and delivery methods described in the
OREI proposal and facilitated a discussion around the question of what unique services or information
eOrganic will offer that adds value.
Online Resources for Organic Information:
– ATTRA
– New Farm
– Organic Ad Info
– SARE mandated websites: some
states are required to have
websites
– Certifiers
– IFOAM
– NODPA
– MOSES
– Organic Center
– Organic Ecology Site
– OFRF
– State Departments of Agriculture
– USDA: Organic data sheets
– Soil help library: Classic organic
literature
– Natural Resources Conservation
Service
–
State Offices: creating organic
section in website
– Organic E-prints: European
research
– Cyberhelp for organic farmers of
Canada
– NLP: Federal Organic Rule
– Organic Valley
– Ofarm.org
– Organic Seed companies
– Organic Trade Association
(consumer info)
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eOrganic’s Potential Target Audiences (Community of Interest)
* indicates audience not previously identified in the OREI proposal

Farmers
– Conventional and organic
– In all US regions
– Horticultural and agronomic crops
– Livestock
– Other agricultural products
– Beginning Farmers*
– Farmers looking to diversify*
– Immigrant communities*

Agricultural professionals:
– Crop advisors
– Veterinarians
– Researchers
– Federal agencies (such as NRCS employees)
– Processors (livestock and grain)
– Certifying agencies
– Land Grant University personnel
– Extension educators and specialists
– County Extension Agents*
– Farm Managers and Rule Appraisers*
– Intermediaries of Food Supply Chain*

Others:
– Elementary through college students*
– Consumers*
– Tech Schools*
– Lending Community*
– Product developers*
– Urban planners*
– Medical and Public Health professionals*
– Other CoPs in eXtension*
eOrganic Priorities:
– Impact curriculum available for educators
– Increase the supply of organic transition information
– Inform Policy Makers of ecological and economic impacts
Important Content areas to be addressed:
– Organic Standards
– How standards/policy/regulation impact production
– Organic markets of the future
– Information of supply and demand of organic products
– Climate change
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Energy: alternative energy, conservation, use, technologies
Distribution systems
Agriculture equipment
Supply of feed
Land access
Incorporating Agriculture in urban areas
Local infrastructure for processing of organic sources
Methodology, how to do systems research? (long-term)
Efficacy of materials
Efficacy of cultural methods
Funding sources
Notes on Presentation of Content
– Content needs to be easy to find from the Home Page

2-click rule to access what you’re searching
- There will be usability study mid-year as part of evaluation
– Functional access and formatting

Make documents available in print form (mail order or print on demand at
local Kinkos)

Have html and PDF versions available for viewing content

Make sure documents are easy to print (print-friendly layout)

Ensure website meets ADA requirements. User-friendly for disabled people
(need compatible software systems)

Documents in other languages (Spanish)
– Searching for information

Provide users with access to the source of the information (order forms,
contact information).

Identify who has contributed/authored information to maintain credibility

Search summary results--need all relevant links related to that topic on the
same page.

Provide “help” info on how to use search engines in partnership with content
– Explore creation of educational video Games
– Allow users to drive content development
eXtension System & Support
– eOrganic will use eXtension’s graphic format

Style sheet will be standard template up to launch

Design elements (highlights, events) are fixed
– Content Development

One-page instruction/tips sheet on guidelines to write content should be
developed

Professional development offered by eXtension
– FAQ System

Highly developed system that tracks editors and revisions over time
– Ask-the-Expert
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eXtension is currently working with Horticulture CoP to develop the ability to
filter ask-the expert questions by region
Existing content/FAQs will appear to encourage user to read that information
that may address their issue before submitting a question to the “expert”,
2-day response time-frame for questions
A backlog report will be generated when questions have not received a
response in the 2-day time frame
How does eOrganic provide unique value?

Gateway to organic information online: It can be confusing for users when
layouts of sites are so different from one another. As the information hub, eOrganic
can provide a standard content layout and search engine for users to easily access
content in multiple locations (e.g. eOrganic, ATTRA, Organic Ag Info).
– eOrganic needs to be well-developed in the meta-language within the site, (after
performing a web search, meta-language is the brief content description which
appears below a website link). Meta-language is the key tool for bridging content
from multiple sources and websites and helping users find what they are looking
for. Standards for meta-language will result in consistently formatted search
results.
– Allow multiple ways to access documents (e.g. under multiple subject or keyword
headings)
– Multiple access points into the site
– Different types of content will appear to targeted audiences

High-Quality Information
– Credible: there is a system to review and filter information, this system provides
legitimacy to content, and is relevant to target audience
– Useful: Draws from multiple sources and is relevant to many different crosssections
– User-friendly: searchable, easy to navigate, intuitive from end-user perspective,
multiple forms of sharing information
– Depth of information: amount of content
– Breadth of information: links to more content
– Relevant information: region-specific information, current issues
– Accessible: printable, ADA, translations available

Content Development Methods: eOrganic will develop a collaborative model of
content development to make the experiential information of farmers available in a
credible format. By providing an information bridge between farmers with LGU
faculty, eOrganic adds to the legitimacy of current organic practices, identifies
research needs, supports integration of research and practice, and provides a
platform for information sharing.
– Collaborative Model for research and content development
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CoP within itself (Farmers and LGU faculty working together to develop
research, farmer and LGU faculty member perform peer-review together)
CoP with CoI (mentoring, interactive website which draws on user input)
CoI within itself (networking, information sharing between farmers)
Organic Farmer Mentors: supporting a Network of farmers: (future)
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Comments:
Content should include credible Case Studies with experiential information of
Farmers.
A collaborative model will result in the development of information that would not
otherwise be available.
Researchers and farmers are able to fill-in the gaps for each other
Farmers get information from: Extension, neighbors, and Industry. eOrganic can
provide information from their fellow farmers and links to research.
Take information which is not available as on-farm research and systems
research to support collaborative work and make accessible to users
Allow farmers and extension faculty to connect and produce research together
(model in Holland)
Actively solicit farmer observations.
Peer-review process validity depends on target audience.
Bringing forward Farmer experiences should be an invigorating part of the site,
supported by research.
Social networking of CoI can occur within itself, and with CoP
Challenges in Content Development
Powerpoint Presentation by Raj Smith, content manager for Cornell University’s eXtension site Wildlife
Damage Management.
eOrganic Guiding Principles
Facilitators conducted a brief brainstorming session to develop principles to guide eOrganics’s
development process, content, relationships, and management. Notes were given to the Vision Team for
refinement.
eOrganic’s relationship to other organic information providers

Partnership model: eOrganic will develop as one partner in a national, user-driven,
evolving, web-based, organic agriculture information system that strives to:
– Reflect equitable and complementary relationships
– Prevent duplication
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– Maintain the quality of and audience for each entity’s work
– Be cross-searchable

e-Organic’s role: Centralize access information by pulling together and indexing all
other available sources information.
– Database repository in partnership with AOI
– Provide various levels of depth appropriate for different audiences
– Link to external information of partnership entities

Important from time management perspective

Partners maintain control over primary source content and responsibility for
updating
– Establish a threshold of credibility through implementation of peer-review process

4 primary target audiences (Carmen)
1) Extension educators, professionals, researchers, consultants looking for a peer
accepted source to inform and educate themselves when speaking with their
producer clients
2) Farmer or well-experienced organic producer looking to advance their information
on a specific area of work or practice
3) Farmer wishing to transition to organic
4) Non-farmer wanting to learn more about any number of aspects of organic
production.

Content Development Priorities
1) Get information from LGU system
2) Use a peer-review process to validate information received outside of LGU
system
3) Develop a methodology to bridge gap between practice and research
Comments and Issues
– ATTRA vs. eOrganic: There is overlap. A way to pull LGU information out that
has not yet been released.
– eOrganic can provide more credibility to ATTRA through partnership, because of
eOrganic’s LGU network.
– With the FAQ function eOrganic could become very problem focused, an online
organic info hotline
– Within LGU community, there are many resources available. There is
accountability built in.
– eOrganic’s Standards:

Editorial Policy needs to be developed that identifies what is valid.

Peer Review

Replicated, randomized, complete experiments? Does eOrganic establish this
standard or does it present the information without these standards accepting
it as is?
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Be honest about where the information came from.
Embed reviews in the content to track changes
Need consistency. Have separate, CLEARLY IDENTIFIED sections of
content.
– Need an approach to bring the farmer experience in.

This is paramount to the credibility of the content.

Validation is crucial.

Template: Harvard Case Study approach or NAS Alternative Agriculture
Study (potential collaborator)

Case study has risk of outdated information. Anecdotal information timeframe
may be limited to result in firm results

A lot of farmers are turned off by extension

Farmers don’t want a one-stop shop
– Where is the balance between scientific and experiential information?

From POV of evaluation its important to track the I don’t knows.

Extension’s reputation: are they willing to stand behind what is put on the
website?

Research extension system was developed as a risk management tool
Vision Team Work Session 2
The Vision Team discussed and refined the ideas expressed by the full group regarding eOrganic’s
concept, value, and relationship to other information providers.

eOrganic as the search engine that produces results as links to other websites
– Acknowledgment of source site and authors
– What is useful:

Quick links,

Quick access to information

Lots of different access points to content

Producers are looking to see what others have tried
– If it’s not just the link it becomes more complicated

Case-by-case licensing agreement

Once you take it off the home site, it becomes orphan content
– Overlap is helpful because there is wider distribution of the information.

Creating a cultural shift within Extension: We need to change the paradigm to
encourage faculty to utilize the experiential information and push the envelope on
the validity of this information.
– Tell the extension agent stories, the researcher stories, in addition to farmers’
stories.
– Use the Case Study method also with researchers and extension faculty.
– Peer-to-Peer forums “virtural coffee shop” (agent-to-agent, farmer-to-farmer,
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researcher-to-researcher, and cross-sectional).

How much time does it take to moderate interactive content?
– Create a safe environment for discussions to happen.
– Partner with Journal of Extension
– County extension agents tell their stories through video.

Complementary relationships among information providers
eOrganic
Would decide what information to
access from OAI and publish on
eOrganic
CoP would also be responsible to
submit material to OAI with material.
eOrganic provides peer review process
for OAI.
Partner Organization
OAI-provides the grey area information
OAI provides infrastructure for
repository of information
Well categorized archive information.
OAI works with farmers to get their
information submitted
Can link to articles.
Provides more exposure
Provide forums for extension agents
New Farm
Mechanism for reprint permission
Reach a broader audience
More exposure=more
effectiveness=more funding
Journalistic background
Provide forums for farmers
Take farmer research information
SARE has reports that can help with
funding
Videos of american farmer experience
Offers scholarships to eXtension
eOrganic will disseminate information
and validate ATTRA.
Maybe eOrganic could be 4th entity of
USDA funded site
ATTRA
Credentialization of eOrganic. Many
people do not value the information.
Seeking the association with
eXtension.

The Troutdale Manifesto: A Consortium of Organic Information Providers
– Organize community of organic websites more formally.
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Establish an MOU between entities or an umbrella organization

Honor the fact in the culture and visually that this is a collaborative effort

Would make sense to have all sites (OAI and eOrganic newly included) be a
part of the USDA funded sites.
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– Is there a way to fund a consortium?

Collaborate rather than compete for funding, be supportive of each other

We need a clear division of labor

Commodity check off: choose to put them in organic.
– Benefits

Consortium would be able to impact the policy makers in DC.

Working together there is a lot of synergy. Information becomes more robust
because there are broader sources of input.

Ongoing Communication
– Can information gatherers come together regularly? Quarterly?

Discuss who’s asking what questions

Identify where information is coming from
– How do we communicate after this meeting?

Using the wiki tool

Team leaders meeting

Leadership needs to provide clear direction and focus.

USDA websites touch base on a monthly basis. Cross-fertilization.
David G’s proposed tagline: g-Oogling for Organic
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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28TH
Funding: Who can we approach?
Carri Munn and Alex Stone explained the current state of eXtension’s funding model. Carri facilitated a
brainstorming session to identify potential funders and eOrganic CoP members with connections to the
prospects.

Notes on eXtension’s role:
– eXtension’s governing committee is developing policy for sponsorship that should
address use of logos on the website.
– As eOrganic fundraises, need to keep Betty Johnson, eXtension development
director, in the loop. She is coordinating efforts to work with the institutions and
will be soliticing funds for multiple CoPs.
– eXtension receives a 25% share of all funds raised to support site maintenance
and future development.

Who will support eOrganic?
(Short-term and long-term funding. Default ask amount, if not specified, is $10,000)
Prospective Funder
General Mills
Departments of Agriculture Donate time/Partner on Grants
(Minn&Mich)
Stonyfield
Safeway
Hy-Vee
Whole Foods
Amy’s Organic
Organic Trade Association
Tom’s of Maine
Dr. Bronners
National Organic Program
Horizon
Hood
Ben and Jerry’s
Kellogg
Kellogg Foundation
Bullet Foundation (Seattle)
Clarence E. Heller (Partnership
with OFRF)(SF)
Lowe’s
Target
Newman’s Own
Honest Tea
Amount
$10K
Contact for Ask
David G., Jim R.
$10K
Heather
$10K
$10K
$10K
Alex
Jim R.
$5K
$5K
$10K
$10k
$10k
Harriet
Harriet
Jim R.
Heather
Heather
Nancy Creamer
Jim R., Brian?
$10K
eXtension
eXtension
Jim R.
Leslie
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SARE
John Deere
Dow
Certifiers: QAI
Oregon Tilth
Gerber
Silk soy milk
Haine Celestial
Heinz
Mars/Seeds of Change
Walden Family Foundation (may
need to find a K-12 education
hook, DERT Program)
Walmart Corporate Funding
Farm Aid (will probably need to go
to an organization(nonprofit?))
SARE training funds that go to
LGUsRegionalized IPM centers,
(Regional Grants)
EPA (Pesticide Reduction
Program, Regional Grants)
NFIPME Pesticide Environmental
Steward (Grants)
Risk Management Agency
Federal State Marketing
Improvement Program (Grant)
Consumers Union
Sierra Club
Shore Bank
Nature Conservancy
World Wildlife Fund
Working Assets
Co-Op America
Organic Farm Supply Stores
Peaceful Valley
Smith and Hawkin
BEJO
Gaiam
Seed Suppliers
Hollywood Money (e.g. Meryl
Streep, Susan Sarandon)
Gates Foundation
Allen Foundation
Moore Foundation
Deborah
Deborah
eXtension
$50-100(k?)
Alex
eXtension
Alex
Joel
Michelle
Mark
Deborah and Geoff
Geoff (Southern Regional
Center)
$25-30K limit
Deborah
Brian
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Heinz Foundation
Wallace Genetic Fund
Rodale Inc.
Pew Charitable Trust
NW Area Foundation
Lottery Funds
Prince Charles
Branson
Paul McCartney (Michelle)
Lyle Lovett
Dave Matthews
Ford Foundation
Kevin Kline
Frontier Grill
Slow Food International
Dairy Processors (Strauss,
Humboldtz)
Organic Valley (Challenge Grant)

Dan
Alex’s Brother
Jim Pierce
Fundraising Committee
– Jim Riddle
– Jim Pierce
– Alex Stone
– Heather Darby
– Deborah Cavanaugh-Grant
– Harriet Behar
Marketing eOrganic
Alex Stone led a brainstorm on how best to market the site when it goes live.

Have website available at trade association shows and other venues

Have CoP give presentation on eOrganic all around the country
– Propose to conferences as a workshop session
– There is some money budgeted for booths and conferences in OREI
– Professional Society and conference meetings should also be tapped.
– Identify a speaker’s list/bureau among the CoP and find out what the other areas
of expertise are so they can present eOrganic.
– Team approach can help stimulate interest at these events.

Have a public launch celebration to announce it in November (or after)
– Should have an event in each region for launch.
– Start planning this soon
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
Have one extension contact in each state who is interested in technology
– Have an annual meeting.
– If there is a liaison they can help spread the word. (In Florida, this is funded, so it
wouldn’t have to be budgeted.)

Promotional opportunities through extension offices.
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eXtension’s role in Promotion
– There are more marketing people available to help us with this process.
– eXtension will be presented at some conferences--coordinate
Evaluation Plan
Powerpoint presentation of OREI proposal’s evaluation component by Mary Staben, Oregon State
University.
Vision Team Work Session 3
The Vision Team discussed how to prioritize future content development following DERT, VERT, and
CERT.

Goal: Target content development in areas where eOrganic can provide unique
information and add to the conversation

Soils: eOrganic can be the soil info hub for the whole LGU system.
– Soil is unique. Even conventional farmers don’t think LGU has a handle on this.
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Create both new material, and find the links to existing info and material from
LGUs.
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Gather grey publications and convene people.

There is no existing information on nitrogen in organic systems in practitioner
language. Soil data is not there.
– Biology related to function is where there can be a lot of value added.
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Rodale and Lampton have trials related to this.
– There is a lot of information on physical and chemical properties—good place to
start with low hanging fruit
– Soil content area will take several years to develop
– Michelle Wander has expertise in this area
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Transitioning to organic: TERT
– Intro should include paradigm shift and what you have think about.
– VERT is shaping their site on transitions.
– Would be interesting to have information organized by Farm type (fruit, mixed,
dairy).
– Includes basic information on marketing and rotations
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– Include processing?

Could also be embedded in certification and other areas
– Rotations is a priority because it lends itself to regionality.
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Would be nice to show an interested farmer what works.
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Two primary audiences need to be approached differently:

For the landowner respond to philosophical and economic issues

For the operator address how to make organic happen.
– Counterpoint is that transition is market driven. Smart growers will first ask what
the market wants, then grow it.

Marketing: identify organic market information and direct users to sources that will
help them prioritize crop plantings and connect to local food distribution networks
– LGUs are bad at marketing
– information is propriety
– eOrganic will not actively participate in business planning, but make the
information available.
– Need to have a disclaimer that there are brokers that will take advantage of
people.
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How does eOrganic get information for new topics?
– Agenda Item for annual Leadership Team meeting
– eOrganic FAQs: analyze failed searches to determine what information people
need and are not finding
– Talk to Consortium members
– Poll LGU faculty and extension agents for topics and common questions
How to Create an FAQ in the eXtension wiki
Powerpoint presentation by Carla Craycroft, eXtension.
VISION Team Presentation and Meeting Summary
Powerpoint presentation by David Granastein of Washington State University, and Carmen Fernholz of
OFARM, on the work of the Vision Team. Content included mission statement, vision statement, guiding
principles, establishing a consortium of organic information providers, eOrganic’s primary target
audiences, seven content development priorities, and process for defining future content development
priorities.
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Comments on Mission, Vision, Values
– Need to incorporate “tools to meet regulatory compliance” within the visioning
and values documents. eOrganic gives “compliant” information.
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Comments on Consortium
– Gaining legitimacy: “Legitimacy by Association”
– Collaborative funding opportunities:
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Develop a business plan for Consortium and eOrganic.
Sustainability needs to be considered; cost-recovery strategy
eXtension calls for a fundraising strategy.
Determine annual eOrganic maintenance costs

Comments on Target Audiences
– Proposed Change: Bullet 1: “when speaking with their producer clients” to “when
communicating to diverse clients”
– As we develop it will be important to track audience of website through
evaluation.
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Need to understand who they are to meet their needs
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Need to find out if the site is successful in directing people who were
searching for information that we don’t have.
– Driving force behind the Organic market are people interested in the process.

Would be nice for Farmers interested in “learning about” or transitioning and
Organic gardeners to be able to go eOrganic as a resource. What do we do?

Be friendly to Gardeners, but be mindful of our main target audience, and
explain that site is geared to production and agriculture. Even though focus is
not gardening, they can still find relevant information.
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Establish a liaisonship between Horticulture CoP and eOrganic CoP.
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Encourage the development of an Organic Gardening CoP that is not us.

Comments on Content Development Priorities
– Suggested content development priority: identify grey content and translate for
use by eOrganic primary audiences
– Leadership team needs to create a Policy Committee to address urgent needs of
CERT, VERT, DERT teams.

Acknowledgment and contribution

Peer-review for each article

DERT Suggestion: Team of 3 (extension, producer, other; 2/3 will be
available to read document)

Linking to Commercial Entities (suppliers)

How to bring new partners in?
– Joel has non-proprietary research (photos too)
– Need to consider ways in which eOrganic’s information will be used beyond
standard extension model.
– Fundamentals content can initially address soils, pest management, transition
etc.
– Organize content based on how people search

Crop specific, animal specific

By general issues that are relevant to all

eXtension’s role
– There has been talk of an online donation function. A decision will be made by
the governing committee.
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– How does eOrganic work with other CoPs so that the layout meets the users’
needs in a consistent and reliable manner of information delivery?

eXtension will help target information to user groups and assist with
formatting.

Information architect is contracted out from eXtension
– The FAQ systems tracks searches and can generate a report on all searches,
successful and failed.
CERT Presentation
Presented orally by Jim Riddle. Session notes to be posted on Sharepoint.

Top three realistic development priorities for eOrganic’s launch:
– General info about certification process: record keeping, developing cert plan,
proceedures, etc. Kathleen D. is the lead author.
– Standards: NOP for dummies and also info on int’l standards, labeling, and
approved materials info. Brian Baker will be the lead.
– Compliance and Enforcement: Miles McEvoy

Key Roles:
– FAQ manager: Jim Riddle
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Goal: well written and solid before quick publication
– Photo leader: Heather will provide proper source info, etc.

Timeline:
– March 15: base content sent to area leaders (content or links)
– May 1st : first draft of articles
– August 1: final drafts, Copy editor review,
– Sept. 1: things ready for posting

Recruiting additional members:
– Lyn Cody
– Mark Bradley from the National Organic Program

Communication with other teams:
– FAQs: we’re focused only on certification. We do need to coordinate overall.
– Lost CERT team members in DERT and VERT (Nick and Harriet) are liaisons to
help with this process.
DERT Presentation
Presented orally by Heather Darby. Complete session notes to be posted on Sharepoint.

DERT Leadership Team:
– Harriet & Jim Pierce certification and intro to Organic dairy
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–
–
–
–
Heather Darby & Lisa McCrory- dairy cropping systems
Ann Wells - livestock
Geoff Bensen – marketing & economics
Mike Gamroth- other

Responsibilities:
–
Develop & contact COP for each content area
–
Modify, edit content area outline
–
Assingn developers, editors, etc.
–
Write FAQs…

COP Recruitment List (page)
– Need people in grains, soils, or cropping systems or economics in the LGU
system working in these areas as they relate to dairy
– Need farmers to work with in the south
– Contacting CoPs

Develop contact list- Mike

Letter/email to solicit participation requesting level of involvement

Deadlines for mailing and responses

3 Tiered Information Format for Fundamentals of Organic Dairy: for use in all
areas; includes a logo based tagging system (e.g. worms or leaves to identify levels
one, two and three) (page)
– Fundamentals: intro/overview level practical information
– Anecdotal: user-friendly

Farmer testimony (case studies, what works and what didn’t)

How To articles: cert

General info: what is Organic dairy, what is a dairy farming system
– Science Based: complex information and resources

Best Management Practices- preventative, 3 tier approach

Research reports

Learning modules (future)

Immediate content for launch
– Fundamentals:

milk quality

feeding & nutrition

grazing
– Anecdotal

Intro dairy farming systems

What is o dairy

Easy-access certification material
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
Review Policy
– All information reviewed by at least 3 reviewers, considering different types of
reviewers (producers, LGU, other, Cert, Extension)
– Create checklist

Funding Year 1-3: raise money right away
– $32k admin,
– $30k contracting,
– $10k to travel,
– $10k supplies

Timeline
– March 1-15: draft COP letter, send, expect response, fundraising
– March 31st: develop content template and review process
– April: collect content
– May-July: review, edit
– Sept-Nov: work with extension to launch site.
VERT Presentation
Presented electronically by Michelle Wander and Mary Barbercheck. Complete session notes to be
posted on Sharepoint.

Additional Comments
– Let VERT team know if you have contacts for them to add to the community of
practice/content
– VERT would like to have the 3-tiered info model described by DERT

Issues to be worked out across teams
– Work flow
– Meta-data
– Logic about the organization of the site
– Policy on posting of sources into the Sharepoint so people can easily see what
content is there and not duplicate submissions for initial review.
– All teams agreed that policies will be in a policy folder so that groups share
editorial policies and content templates.
Next Steps
Powerpoint presentation by Alex Stone and wiki/sharepoint details by Lane Selman.

Wiki/sharepoint training
– Get accounts for all CoP members now (Lane will submit to Raj)
– Lane will send all participants an info packet
– Leadership team will make a decision about location of listserv functionality

eXtension can support this
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