December, 2007

Galaxy III Proposals

Research Reports, Workshops, Posters, & Roundtables

Galaxy III is now accepting proposals to present at the 2008 Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana, September 15-19. Proposals will be accepted until 11:59 P.M. CST on January 15, 2008.

Proposals may be submitted for:

NACAA Membership Dues - January 1, 2008

If you haven't already paid your state/national dues - you have until March 15, 2008 to do so and still be eligible for all of the NACAA Awards Programs listed below. Don't miss out on the opportunities available to you. Dues to NACAA are $50 annually.

Have you moved offices, changed phone numbers, fax, email etc... it's easy to update if you have! As a member of NACAA - you can edit your own personal information with the NACAA database, all you need to do is request a password (which will be sent electronically upon request) and you can make sure your information is up-to-date. By keeping this information current, it assures that magazines and electronic correspondence regarding NACAA will to continue to reach you.

Awards Edition - Coming Soon in the Mail

The January edition of "The County Agent" should be going to press between Christmas and New Years for arrival in early/mid January. The majority of the deadlines for Award submissions are March 15, 2008 - so please make sure to submit your entries in a timely fashion. This edition also has updated contact information for the National Committee Chairs and Vice-Chairs. If you have questions regarding any of the awards, please don't hesitate to contact the listed Chairs.

New Venue for Publishing Papers

Mickey P. Cummings

A survey administered by NACAA a couple of years ago indicated a need of creating a vehicle that would allow NACAA Members to publish papers in a refereed manner. This seems to be very important to the promotion process for most of our state institutions.

Last year I was appointed to a committee with the sole purpose of creating a mechanism that provide opportunities for NACAA Members to publish their demonstration and research work. The committee that I worked with consisted of Glenn Rogers from Vermont, Mike Christian from Kansas, Janet Schmidt from Washington, Allen Hogan from Louisiana, Elmo Collum from Mississippi and myself.

One of our main goals was to develop something that could be initiated quickly. Therefore, in the upcoming issue of the County Agent Magazine you will find a "Call for Papers". The papers collected will be reviewed by at least 3 NACAA Members that have expertise in the subject matter being covered. We will have two separate categories for consideration: Applied Research and County Programs.

Our committee felt it was very important to include NACAA members "on Farm Demonstrations" as a part of this process. Any subject area is open for this "Call for Papers". All NACAA Committees are a part of this process. For example, you may be conducting some on farm variety trials, or you may have some data concerning a local livestock show. Another example might be the need of young extension agents to develop advocates for their extension program. There are all kinds of possibilities for this "Call for Papers".

All reviewed and accepted papers will be published in the NACAA Proceedings. For those authors that participate in the program there will be no plaques or prize money. Our sole purpose for the development of this program was to help NACAA Members to publish their demonstration and research work. The long term benefit to the program will be the member's promotion.