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| NACAA - 252 N. Park Street - Decatur, IL 62523 (217) 424-5144 | |
| nacaaemail@aol.com | www.nacaa.com |
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| NACAA - 252 N. Park Street - Decatur, IL 62523 (217) 424-5144 | |
| nacaaemail@aol.com | www.nacaa.com |
Mickey P. Cummings, President, NACAA
NACAA can be compared to a watershed. NACAA has tributaries just as a major river system. Without input of state officers to Region Directors, Committees and Councils the NACAA Watershed would dry up.
The Tennessee River has headwater tributaries in 3 states. The river begins small. But, it is responsible for floating large barges from Knoxville all the way to Paducah, Kentucky. The river is very dependent upon other streams and rivers for input. Without input the river would just dry up.
An important tributary in the NACAA Watershed is the Region Watershed. Your NACAA Board is very dependent upon Region Directors and they are dependent upon input from State Officers in their respective regions. These inputs include your states’ needs of NACAA.
The NACAA Secretary Tributary is very important in the overall watershed. This tributary includes the State Officer Contacts, Voting Delegate Contacts and State Committee Contacts. Sometimes this particular tributary will need to flow upstream. For example, the Secretary will send to states any potential changes in by laws that need voting on by the NACAA Voting Delegates. This tributary also posts all minutes of Board Meetings to the web.
The Professional Improvement and Recognition Tributary is comprised of the NACAA Vice President and the Council Chairs. This tributary starts small at the state levels and flows through the state committee contact through the Region Vice Chair, to the National Committee Chair on through the Council Chairs to the Vice President and National Board. This is a vast tributary system of NACAA. This system is responsible for more that 200 hours of professional improvement opportunities and more than 100 chances to receive award recognition at the AM/PIC. Without state input to this tributary NACAA would be of little consequence to you the NACAA Member.
The Committee Tributary is found within this Professional Improvement and Recognition Tributary. This tributary carries Committee Nominations from the States to the Council Chairs. This tributary is also similar to the Salmon Streams of the Northwest. Much of the future leadership of NACAA is born in the Committee Tributary.
The NACAA Treasurer Tributary is another important system within the NACAA Watershed. Remember, that dues and membership rosters are due to the NACAA Treasurer by January 1st of each year. All good fishing streams have one thing in common. Good fishing streams have the proper amount nutrient input and therefore produce big fish. If a state fails to get the membership roster to the NACAA Treasurer in the accepted time then that state’s DSA recipients and voting delegates are affected. A state can build its membership and increase the total DSA and Voting Delegate numbers at the AM/PIC.
In summary remember that a tributary can begin in a small manner. A stream can begin as snowfall or even cloud vapor. But, with the right input in can turn into a mighty river that can be of benefit to a large number of people.
Go to: http://www.nacaa.com/committees/ to see the current committee list and contact information.
The NACAA Board has identified the NACAA Website as one of the primary tools available to share information with the membership. Working closely with John Dorner, the new Electronic Communications Coordinator, and our NACAA Committees, the Board is currently working to expand the resources available on line. Another goal is the simplification of some of the more common data collection functions such as State Committee contacts and Scholarship contributions. If you haven’t visited the http://www.nacaa.com/ website lately, you are encouraged to do so and provide additional suggestions for improvement.
The Committee Handbook is one of the important documents currently available on-line on the NACAA website. This document states in its introduction that "The mission of the National Association of County Agricultural Agents (NACAA), an organization of professional Extension educators, is to further the professional improvement of its members and communication and cooperation among all Extension educators, and provide for enhancement of the image of Extension and the development of personal growth opportunities for Extension professionals". The Committee structure of NACAA is the primary vehicle utilized to meet these expressed needs of our membership. Unfortunately, many of us don’t fully understand NACAA’s Committee structure and are hesitant to become actively engaged. As NACAA Vice President, I encourage all NACAA members to take the time to review the Committee Handbook and seek to better understand the opportunities for leadership and development available through our Committee structure.
One of the primary duties of the NACAA Vice President is to work with the Council Chairs to ensure that the Committee structure is functional and helping to accomplish the Mission of NACAA. A critical element of this role is the recruitment of high quality individuals willing to provide leadership for these committees. Currently, with the help of the NACAA Regional Directors and State Presidents, we are actively seeking interested individuals willing to apply for NACAA Committee Vice Chair and/or Chair positions. Also the Professional Improvement Council Chair position is open this year. Applications for these positions are available at the above address as are details on the duties of each position. The deadline for receiving applications for the above is March 1, 2006.
Interested individuals are encouraged to contact the current Regional Vice Chair of that Committee, the respective Council Chair, or the NACAA Vice President for more information on what is expected and the time commitment involved. Contact information for the Committee leadership is available at http://www.nacaa.com/members/showcommittees.php
The new NACAA Hall of Fame Award ( HFA) provides state associations and the NACAA an opportunity to recognize members who have shown excellence in providing outstanding education programming and have been active in their association and their community through humanitarian efforts. All current and life members are eligible provided they have previously received the Distinguished Service Award (DSA). Four HFA (one from each NACAA region) recipients will be recognized at the NACAA annual awards banquet and will receive a cash award of up to $1,000.
Each state may forward one nominee via their State Recognition and Awards Chair to their region’s Recognition and Awards Vice-Chair by April 1, 2006. Due to time constraints for including the recipient’s information in the awards booklet late nominations will not be accepted. Please refer to the County Agent awards issue or the NACAA website (http://www.nacaa.com/awards/) for the criteria the essay should address and other rules. The nomination must include a letter of support for the nominee’s state president and two testimonial letters from clientele who have knowledge of the nominee’s education programming.
NACAA, as an organization, is one of the best avenues of professional development that our profession has to offer. The association offers numerous leadership opportunities. Additionally, at the Annual Meeting and Professional Improvement Conference, members are able to take part in seminars either as presenters or participants. At the last AM/PIC in Buffalo over sixty (60) sessions were offered to the membership. This does not include the pre and post conference tours. As you explore the professional development opportunities that NACAA has to offer, you become aware of the reason that our association is the only one that includes Professional Improvement Conference in the title of our meeting.
NACAA is moving forward with the use of electronic technology in the awards area. The Recognition and Awards Committee has an electronic form on the NACAA Committee’s web site, http://www.nacaa.com/awards/ that can be used by applicants for the Distinguished Service Award and the Achievement Award. The form can be filled out right on-line, saved, and sent to the state chair of the committee. State Chairs can send via e-mail the selected nominees for both awards to the Regional Vice-Chair, and they, in turn, send the nominations from each state to the National Chair. For electronic submission, the applicant simply types in his/her name and places an ‘x’ in a box provided to verify their electronic signature. This same process can be used for the Dean and Directors Approval signature on form 2. Many DSA and AA applicants took advantage of this opportunity to submit their forms electronically this year. We anticipate this method of application to continue to grow rapidly in the next couple of years.
The Scholarship Committee has also moved to an electronic application process. Interested applicants should go to http://www.nacaa.com/awards/, scroll down and click “Scholarship Application Form.” Fill in the form and follow the instructions. Type in your name and verify your signature by typing an ‘x’ in the box provided and send electronically via e-mail with attachments. Applications are due to the Scholarship Committee State Chair by June 1.
During the upcoming 2006 AM/PIC in Cincinnati, NACAA Electronic Communications Coordinator, John Dorner, will be brainstorming with committees to determine various ways in which they can move their respective application process to a more electronic system, if it is feasible for the committee to do so.
For more information contact:
Neil Broadwater
Chair, NACAA Program Recognition Council
863 30th Ave SE
Rochester, MN 55904
Phone: 507-536-6300
E-Mail: broad007@umn.edu
The International Master Gardener Coordinators Conference is to be held in Lisle Illinois on June 28-30,2006 and is sponsored by Univ. of IL and Purdue Extensions and is open to all state and local Master Gardener Coordinators and Consumer Horticulturalists in the USA and Canada. For more information – please see the link below.
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/mg/info/img_conference06.html
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension Presents a series of horticultural DVD’s and videos which can be used as training tools for the commercial horticulture industry or as educational tools for interested individuals. For more information and order form go to: http://lancaster.unl.edu/hort/Programs/Videos/Turfvideo.html
NACAA President-Elect Chuck Otte, will be replacing our current representative to the JOE Board of Directors (Gary Gao, OSU) upon his expired term Summer, 2006. For anyone interested in serving in this capacity or for more information, please contact Chuck Otte at cotte@ksu.edu or by phone 785-238-4161.
Pressing Deadlines
Membership Dues should be already paid for association members. If you have not already paid your dues to your State Association – your NACAA membership will become delinquent if received after March 15, 2006. Please contact your state treasurer to coordinate your dues payment for 2006.
National Committee Openings: Application/nominations are available and will be due March 1, 2006. Appointments are for two year terms and will be made at the NACAA Spring Board Meeting. Terms would begin after the 2006 AMPIC . Go to http://www.nacaa.com/committees/2006/committeeopenings.html
Public Issues Leadership Development (PILD) Conference, April 24-27, 2006 Crystal City, VA. Further information concerning these leadership meetings is available at: www.jcep.org
New in 2006 PILD Poster Sessionspan style="color: black"> - Poster Deadline has been extended to March 10th! Poster Session URL: http://www.jcep.org/RFPposters.htm
PILD Program and Registration URL: http://www.jcep.org/2006_PILD_Registration.doc
PILD Online Registration: https://www.themanagementoffice.com/plidregistration/regform.aspx
Contribute through Chuck Schwartau (MN), NACAA Treasurer.
NACAA Contribution to Date: $34,656