KASEP

KASEP General Meeting December 03, 2004

General Announcements: Richard Coffey, president, convened the general membership meeting. Approximately 30 people were in attendance. Dr. Coffey announced that:

The organization is still accepting members for this year.
Nominations for KASEP Awards are due 12/15/04 .
The winter meeting will be just prior to the state Extension conference on 2/8/05 . It will be held in the Patterson Ballroom at the Hyatt-Regency, Lexington .
The KASEP Web site is up to date.

Treasurer's Report: Will Snell, treasurer, said that KASEP began the fiscal year with $1,230.03 in its checking and savings accounts. The overall total in checking and savings as of 12/3/04 is $1,560.79 and includes income from renewed memberships.

Dr. Snell said last year KASEP had more than 100 members and that it has about 30 members right now. He will likely send out a reminder about membership renewal to departmental contacts.

Agent Survey: Jimmy Henning, Assistant Director for Agriculture and Natural Resources, gave an overview of the survey of agents for evaluations of Extension specialists and associates. Dr. Henning said the aim of the survey was to provide an objective measure of specialists and associates. The survey asked agents in Agriculture and Natural Resources to give feedback on seven questions. He said other assistant directors wanted to add all specialists and open up the survey to all agents.

He said individual specialists received anywhere from one to 115 responses. Dr. Henning said 325 agents out of 360 responded, and that 92% of all specialists who were evaluated received a rating of 2 (on a scale of 1 to 3) or better.

Dr. Henning said there is a need to talk about how, in the future, this information will be used and that there needs to be space on the survey form for positive comments.

One issue, Dr. Henning said, is that it could not be determined if negative comments came from one person or several.

KASEP members commented at length about the survey. Issues voiced included:

—The need to make sure everybody is comfortable with the process.

—The permanence of a number that becomes part of one's personnel file.

—The need to make sure the methodology for such a survey is sound.

Regional Issues Programming: The Regional Issues Programming Committee is developing new program thrusts. Specialists and associates need to put information into the mix. Dr. Coffey said if specialists and associates have items they want to be included in the planning, they need to get them on the table and need to get them to regional programming directors.

Charlene Jacobs, CES Regional Program and Development Coordinator for the Central Region, said that specialists and department chairs are on the planning committee, and ideas can be fed through them.

Dr. Coffey reviewed the issue of a missing Article III in the by-laws (see board minutes for 12/3/04 ). He said the missing sections will probably be re-inserted unless it becomes apparent they were taken out deliberately.

Respectfully submitted,

Martha Jackson, KASEP Secretary