Community Leader Meetings, formerly called "Legislative Events", have a fairly long history in South Dakota of being a useful "tool" for Extension and University staff to communicate what is going on in the Cooperative Extension Service and the University. State and local Congressional delegates, Board of Regents Members, local Extension Board Members, and County Commissioners appreciate being informed of the impacts local Extension Educators are making, statewide Extension programs and activities, what is happening in the budget arena, and some of the issues to look for in the future. Following are accounts of how various Community Leader Meetings are set up, promoted, and conducted, what worked well, what didn't, etc.

At the SDCEA annual meeting, October 25, 2002, a request was made to have the SDCEA State Fair 4-H public speaking savings bond recipients be posted on the SDCEA web site. Up to six individuals speaking on "How Youth and Adults Benefit from the Cooperative Extension Service" in the 4-H Public Speaking Contest are awarded a $50.00 savings bond. This award was changed for the 2003 State Fair to a $25 cash award. Recipients in close proximity to planned Community Leader Meetings might be asked to give their presentation at the these events. The recipients were as follows:

Public Speaking Award Recipients - State Fair - 2006

 

Name	County	Day-time phone	Address
Erica Sperry	Brown	Contact the SD State	4-H Office - 605-688-4167
April Lick	Roberts
Elizabeth Dahl	Lincoln
Brooke Zoss	Sanborn
Lawren Miller	Davison
Rachelle Moore	Sanborn

Public Speaking Award Recipients - State Fair - 2004

 

Name	County	Day-time phone	Address
Erica Sperry	Brown
Ryan Stee	Brookings
Chelsea Rops	Turner
Amanda Nolz	Davison
Candy DenOuden	Bon Homme
Linse Christensen	Day

Public Speaking Award Recipients - State Fair - 2003

Public Speaking Award Recipients - State Fair - 2002

If you would like to consider having one of these individuals give their talk at your Community Leader Meeting, contact the SD State 4-H Office - 605-688-4167.

Another resource for activities coming up (community leader mtgs., recognition event, etc.) where you might need someone to give a talk are the 2003 4-H Ambassador Winners or the 2002 4-H Rodeo SR. and JR. Queens. List provided courtesy of Mike Huber, 4-H Rodeo Chairman. As of now (12/1/2004), I do not have the 2004 4-H Rodeo Ambassadors. If you would like to consider inviting them to your Community Leader Meeting, contact Mike Huber for the list.

If your Community Leader Meeting is not listed, contact Bob Fanning to submit your information and be included.

District 2 & 3 (Brown/McPherson Counties) - 2001:
No photos are taken to keep from incriminating the innocent (direct quote from Jerry Mills).

We schedule our CLM for the Tuesday, a week before Christmas. A Tuesday works well so the county commissioners can recess for lunch and join us as part of their work day. Just before Christmas has worked well because the legislators, congressional reps and BOR don't usually have anything on their calendars that close to Christmas.

Invitations are sent out well in advance to District 2 & 3 legislators, congressional delegation, Board of Regent, Extension Board members, Extension District Supervisor, Director of Extension, Director of Ag Experiment Station and Dean of Ag & Bio Sciences. A follow-up phone call (reminder) is made to each just prior to the date. The invitation states we will start at 11:15 (usually get started at 11:30) and finish at 1:00. We get on the county commission agenda for 11:30 so they can recess and join us. We meet across the street from the courthouse (convenient for the commissioners) in an upstairs room at the Flame Restaurant. Commissioners, legislators and congressional reps are provided with free meal which is usually a steak sandwich noon special. Educators and Extension Board members each pay their own meal. The noon steak sandwich special cost was $8 (tax and gratuity included) this year. SDCEA reimburses $6 per legislator/commissioner/BOR. Educators then split the difference out-of-pocket.

We have everyone get seated at 11:30. Try to have Educators, directors, dean, supervisor and Ext Bd members spread themselves among the legislators, congressional reps and BOR. Have our Ext Bd chairman welcome the delegation, and begin introductions all around. Arrangements to have meal served at 11:45. Each Educator then gives a short report on some success/impact in their area of emphasis. Then Dean Cholik gives a college update, Director Kephart gives Exp. Station update, Director Tideman gives state CES update and Dist. Supervisor gives Unit update. Then we open it up for legislator/congressional rep/BOR comment and general Q&A.

The SDSU/CES administrators usually provide a folder full of impact brochures, etc. Brown County Extension Educators print a CES Highlights of the year brochure that is inserted in the folder as well. We try to highlight some additional success/impact in our respective areas of emphasis (other than what we've already reported to the delegation verbally) in the brochure. This year we got crunched for time and lack of secretary support and had to resort to a flat page report on county Extension letterhead. Years past we have done a very professional looking brochure. Will try and send one of each (2000 and 2001) to you. McPherson county has followed our lead and begun to publish a report also.

Our CLM has worked very well. Hope it continues that way. It gives us a chance to tell our story (toot our horn) to those that need to know (and hold our purse strings).

Jerry Mills
Extension Educator - Horticulture
Brown County Extension Service
1019 - 1st Ave. SE
Aberdeen, SD 57401
(605) 626-7120
FAX: (605) 626-4012
email: mills.jerry@ces.sdstate.edu

District 1, 5 & 6? (Codington County) - 2001:

First, Codington County does our own legislative event. We always hold it over noon, preferably on a Tuesday, for the commissioners, but this year it didn't work out that way and our attendance was very good. Our office cooks the noon meal and the commissioners will pay for the meat. The rest of the meal is paid for by the SDCEA. We invite our office staff, the Extension Board, the commissioners, the auditor, state Senators and State Representatives that represent any part of Codington County. This past year we had 5 legislators attend. The agenda is the Chairman of our Extension Board leads the meeting and Deb Sundem and I each give about a 15 minute report on what we have done over the past year. What we give for a report is up to us. We then allow the administration from SDSU to speak. We try to limit them to as close to 5 minutes apiece as possible, but usually will let them go no longer than 7 minutes. We allow any questions at the end of each of Deb and my presentation, and at the end of the administration. This year, we also had the secretaries discuss how they are using the local television station to put our events and our pictures along with the complex on the local cable for publicity.

We have found that anything over a hour and a half is too long. This includes the dinner. It has worked well for us as we had 5 legislators, 5 of 5 commissioners, the auditor, and 6 out of 7 Extension board members. If you have any other questions, please let me know. It has worked very well for us.

Chuck

District 6 (Miner, Kingsbury, Clark, Hamlin & part of Codington counties) - 2001:

 Alice Nickelson and I put the Community Leader Meeting together for the 6th Legislative District this year.  I will try to address the considerations you listed:

· Photos
    - We didn’t take any, but I think it would be a good idea
· Format
    - Administrators were allowed 10-15 minutes to present an SDSU perspective
    - Educators had up to 5 minutes to discuss an impact bullet from their area of emphasis
    - We ended with comments from the legislators in attendance and a noon meal
· Dat
    - December 19, 2001
· Time
    - 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
· Meal
    - Noon specials from the restaurant where we held the meeting
· Attendance
    - 2 of 3 legislators (the other had committed but had car trouble)
    - 6 Extension Board members
    - 7 Commissioners
· Worked?
    - We were satisfied that the format served the purpose: to allow the component services, Legislators, Commissioners, Board Members, Administrators, Educators, to the people of SD and opportunity to recognize the contributions of each of the elements involved in that service.
    - We think it went well.  This was the first time that we used this time frame and it seemed to work great.  We knew we needed to start promptly at 11:00 a.m. and finish by 12:30 p.m. when the meal was served.  During the meal, attendees could continue to visit and we were on our way by about 1:00 or 1:15.

Jim Krantz

District 26 & 27 (east part of Lyman, Jones, Haakon, Jackson, Bennett, Shannon, Mellette, Todd and Tripp Counties) - 2001:

The Counties in Districts 26 & 27 have tried several dates, times of day, and formats for their Community Leader Meetings. For the 2001 meeting, we decided to try a "Come-and-Go" format, running from 2:30 PM - 5:30 PM. Starting at 2:30 PM, Community Leaders were invited to browse around the meeting room, visiting displays that each Area of Emphasis team had prepared, highlighting one or more programs they had selected, and of course, to mingle with others in attendance. The Tripp County Extension crew brought a youth volunteer who presented a power point presentation to those who visited their display in highlighting one of their programs. At 3:30 PM, everyone was gathered together for group presentations and question and answer sessions by SDSU/CES administrators Fred Cholick, Kevin Kephart and Larry Tidemann. Following their presentations, those attending were invited to continue visiting the displays until 5:30 PM, at which time the meeting was adjourned. A committee was appointed to provide snacks and refreshments for those attending.

This format was enjoyed by all as it was very informal, gave educators a chance to highlight programs, and gave those in attendance the opportunity to "check out" the program offerings of their choice.

Photos...
The Livestock Educators exhibited a photo display of their educational programs in 2001
Kevin Kephart fills the group in on pertinent issues from the SDSU Ag Experiment Station
Fred Cholick addresses the group on activities and issues from the College of Ag and Bio-Sciences
Extension Director, Larry Tidemann is not in the photo, but addresses the group on the "Black Box"
Following the group address by the Administrators, Kevin Kephart fills Bob Fanning in on the recreational opportunities available in Russia
Valerie Mitchell and Dola Dreyer (Tripp County EFNEP) share a thought over a snack
Fred Cholick in a deep discussion with Valerie Mitchell and Karen Madsen near the snack layout
Several CES staff, along with the Tripp County Youth Volunteer "packing up" after the District 26 & 27 2001 Community Leader Meeting

John Kangas and I (Bob Fanning) were "in charge" of lining up this years' Community Leader Meeting. I/we will plan on adding to this "account", and possibly add information on the formats we used in some of the previous years.

District 28A (Corson, Dewey and Ziebach Counties) - 2001:

Corson, Dewey and Ziebach Counties got together once again to host 28A Community Leaders on December 5th.  The meeting moves from community to community each year.  This gives local County Commissioners an opportunity to attend with little or no mileage.  We also include the educators from Campbell and Walworth Counties since they are in out Unit.  They traditionally participate in the meeting that is held at Highmore each year since their Legislators are from that area.  We include their activities in our reports.

I am sending you a copy of the brochure Mike and I did to show how Educators in the W-3 are making a difference. Side one, side two. I am not sure where the disc is that it is on or I would attach as an attachment.  I am also sending a copy of one of the placemats we used as a photo journal of some of the activities that happened in the three counties. They loved it and both of them were a hit with those who attended.

Meeting Time 11:00AM to 1:30PM
Format:  Educator Reports (each had 8 minutes to showcase each program area) SDSU Administration did not make it so this year we each had 20 minutes to talk about program efforts and results.  This went over very well.  We usually have administration each talk for about 15 to 20 minutes .  We also take time for a Noon lunch and this allows for informal discussion with those in attendance.  We (Educators) always make sure we split up so we can work the room (visit informally with all in attendance).

Lunch - Soup 2 kinds and Build your own sandwich and dessert.  Drinks are water, milk and coffee.  We have found that a light lunch or a brunch works well.  We used to do the big meal and some were ready for sleep after it. The other types of meals are well received and easier for Educators to prepare as we do all of our own cooking since there are not catering facilities in all locations we use.

Attendance:  1 legislator 4 County Commissioners and other City and Civic Group Leaders are also invited and usually participate.

What Worked and Didn't:  Weather didn't this year! It kept some County Commissioners away and Legislators. It was OK to hold even though SDSU Administration was unable to attend.  I think it allowed more time for questions and comments from those in attendance.  It also gave Extension Educators plenty of time to tell the local story.  We also used displays if we had some put together from programs.  This went over very well.

Good Luck compiling all the info.

Corrine Huber

District 29 & 31 (Harding, Perkins, Butte, Lawrence and Meade Counties) - 2001:

West 2 FEU holds two community leader meetings. For two reasons, first because of the distance to travel and because Butte/Meade/Lawrence share legislators and Perkins/Harding share legislators. It is highly encouraged by SDSU to hold our CLM during the same week, so they can make one swing out here. In 2001 we held ours on December 5 in Sturgis. We rotate between our 3 counties each year. Meal started at 5:30, each of the Educators involved furnish a dish and meat is purchased from the money paid for legislative/commissioner involvement. We usually have 2-3 legislators attend, 10 Extension Board members, and 4-5 County Commissioners. The Extension Educators talk for about 15 minutes each and then the SDSU group gets about 10 minutes each to talk.

Stacy Hadrick

Return to SDCEA