SERA-19 Minutes
March 3 - 4, 2004 -- Nashville, Tennessee

Health SERA web: http://srdc.msstate.edu/sera19/

Agenda and Meeting Logistics Information: http://srdc.msstate.edu/sera19/04meeting.htm

Participant list: http://srdc.msstate.edu/sera19/04participants.pdf

Report from Advisors

1. Dr. Gail Cramer, attending his first SERA-19 meeting as Research Advisor, summarized the purposes of SERA's as follows:
   • To exchange information and ideas,
   • To identify areas on which to collaborate and thus avoid duplication of effort,
   • To facilitate communication outside the region and non-research agencies,
   • To identify ideas for extramural proposals,
   • To identify areas of new research and extension activity.
     
   Dr. Cramer indicated that the Southern Region Directors of Research and Extension had approved the SERA-19 Proposal for a one-year extension of the group and anticipated the approval of a four-year extension of the SERA-19. He relayed the following expectations of the Directors:
   • To file annual reports to the Directors (including minutes of meetings, publications, accomplishments and impact on stakeholders, and plan of work),
   • To continue the leadership structure of Chair and Chair-elect and expand the structure to include the position of Secretary, with all officers serving 2 year terms, and to continue to nominate and elect of officers in a timely manner,
   • To report meeting participant information (including institutional affiliation and faculty appointment) via Dr. Cramer,
   • To create multi-state project development objectives,
   • To develop a website maintenance plan.
     
     
2. Dr. Rick Maurer, having served as the SERA-19 Extension advisor for a number of years, provided a summary of the history of SERA-19 activities and accomplishments as follows:
   • The Health Institute was developed by SERA-19 faculty as a one-week, intensive "Health 101" training for agents and offered for 3 years, with about 25 participants each year,
   • Two regional workshops were held to engage partners outside of land-grant universities,
   • A number of joint publications have been authored and published,
   • Annual meetings have been held to share work with members and partners,
   • The Health Institute was put on hold in 2003 while a committee conducted an evaluation of the format and related issues of the Health Institute (eg. web-based, other distance learning format, credentials, competencies, etc.).
   Dr. Maurer reminded the group that the Southern Region consists of 13 states and 29 institutions.

Business Meeting

1. Election of Officers
   Chair and Chair-elect (Co-chairs): Youmasu Siewe of Oklahoma State University and Russ Kennedy of the University of Arkansas
   Secretary: Julia Storm of NC State University
   Secretarial responsibilities include meeting minutes, liaison with SRDC for the SERA-19 web site and for the SERA-19 listserve.
   
   
2. Creation of Organizational Structure
   The group discussed various organizational structures and decided to establish Teams, each having a chair, to assist in annual meeting program planning, in collaboration with the co-chairs, and to develop projects and publications. The Chairs of each of the four teams will work with the co-chairs to plan the annual meeting. Group members may participate in more than one team. Team membership and leadership was determined toward the end of the meeting and is ongoing. SERA-19 participants should continue to communicate their intent to join the various teams through communication on the SERA-19 listserve by posting a message to the group at: .
   The four areas for teams are listed below:
   • Agromedicine
   • Chair: Julia Storm
   • Team members: Jimo Ibrahim
   • Community and Economic Development
   • Chair:
   • Team members:
   • Public Policy and Education
   • Chair:
   • Team members:
   • Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
   • Chair:
   • Team members:
The group agreed to try the organizational structure for a year and reevaluate at the end of the year.


3. Annual Meeting Planning and Organization
   Historically, the annual meeting has moved to various locations within the region. The last two meetings have been held in Nashville. For focus, teams will contribute to a broad health outcome or health service important to the Southern Region to address at the annual meeting. The annual meeting should highlight productive existing relationships (Offices of Rural Health, AHEC's, Schools of Medicine and Public Health), as well as attract new partners. The overall theme of the meeting may attract partners, and partners may vary from year to year. Topic areas for the annual meeting may include research components and evaluation (evidence-based programming, research base for Extension programs). The structure of the two-day meeting will include one half to one day on the broad topic, with the four teams supplying the content for the rest of the program (about 2 hours each), not necessarily related to the broad theme. The chairs of the teams and the Co-chairs of SERA-19 will develop the broad theme together. The meeting should provide time in the agenda for break-out work sessions for teams to develop projects.
   
   
4. Publications
   Bonnie Teater reminded the group that the 21st century series of policy publications still has 4 of 5 slots open for health-related papers.
   
   
5. Health Institute
   Bonnie indicated that the week-long intensive institute requires about 30 participants to break-even financially, if conducted as in the past with the combined expertise of specialists (faculty) from multiple states and with SRDC providing the notebooks and logistics. This format is expensive for participants, especially with state budget constraints. An on-line version could be developed in the same model as the C-CEP project (curriculum project). The directors are estimating that E-Extension will take $6 million/year to develop.
   
   Core competencies have been established for 4 traditional areas of Extension: Family and Consumer Science (FCS), Community and Rural Development (CRD), 4-H and Youth Development (4-H), and Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR). These have been further broken down into specialty areas. Competencies for health have been established. The Health Institute needs to be designed (modified if necessary) to meet the health competencies. Graduate credit (offered by Mississippi State at previous institutes) is important for some agents.
   
   Modules of the Health Institute curriculum could be broken out and delivered as a pre-conference at the Priester Conference, for example, as well as on-line. The existing curriculum notebook could be used to develop an on-line version.
   A Committee was formed to convene a conference call to develop recommendations in 3 months (July-August 2004) for the next iteration of the Health Institute. The group decided that the Health Institute should not be repeated again as an intensive week-long institute. The committee should send a report in 3 months via the listserve. The entire SERA-19 group will follow-up on the recommendations in 3 months (October 2004) following the receipt of the committee recommendations. The committee should look at real-time and train-the-trainer options. The committee consists of Russ Kennedy, Linda Jouridine, Bobbie Clarke, Rick Maurer, Bonnie Teater, and Youmasu Siewe.
   
   
6. Annual Meeting Location and Date
   Gerald Doeksen made the motion that the Fall 2004 meeting be a 2-day meeting spanning 3 days (as has been done in the past: noon, day-1 through noon, day-3) and that, as a trial, the Spring 2005 meeting be a one-day working meeting held immediately prior to the Priester Conference (tentatively planned for Kentucky). Russ Kennedy seconded the motion. The motion passed unopposed.
   
   The Fall 2004 meeting date and location were set for October 27-29 in New Orleans (per e-mail from Bonnie Teater 3-10-04). Dr. Cramer will assist with logistics.
   
   
7. Closing Suggestions
   The group suggested the following:
   • Continue to include the state update on the meeting agenda,
   • Incorporate time for movement and physical activity breaks into the agenda,
   • Bring partners to meeting (Offices of Rural Health, AHEC's, etc.); a letter from the co-chairs will be developed for this purpose,
   • Stay in touch with the Teams by e-mail and conference calls and establish goals; regular communication of groups is critical to success,
   • Consider articles for publication, grants, etc.,
   • Projects do not have to be large.
     
     
8. Julia Storm asked the group to join her in acknowledging Anna Mae Kobbe for attending the meeting and serving as the USDA-CSREES liaison to the SERA-19.
   
   
9. State Reports
   State Reports (electronic files) should be sent to Julia Storm at for inclusion on the web site.