Minutes
Saline County Fellowship Steering Committee
January 21, 2000
(unapproved)

After the group first viewed Mary Ann's photos of the Rose Parade float that she and other Optimist Club members had helped decorate, Chair Cheryl Zimny called the third meeting of the Saline County Fellowship Steering Committee to order at approximately 9:05 AM on Friday, January 21, 2000 in the Saline County Extension Center.

The minutes of the December 14 meeting were read and approved as read.

The first order of discussion involved enrollment and marketing.  It was agreed that Cynthia will send out a letter as soon as possible to members of the Fellowship Steering Committee and to local Saline County Study members to encourage them to continue to work on recruiting L.I.F.E. fellows.  At the end of next week Cynthia will send a letter to the mentors of the February class to fill them in on last minute details.

Mary Ann is to contact KMMO about getting Saline County L.I.F.E. featured on one or two community spotlights.  Cynthia said that Carol Pardeck will contact Marshall Cable regarding advertising the L.I.F.E. project.  Mark is to contact LeAnn to see if she can check with Galaxy cable in Sweet Springs.

Cynthia reported that Richard Clemens is hopeful that the Pork Producers will sponsor two people per month.  Cynthia also said that the Extension County Council has voted to provide three half scholarships.

We agreed to provide a full scholarship to the Democrat-News to make it easier for them to justify sending a reporter to cover an entire class--preferably one of the early classes. Mark is to contact the newspaper.

Ordering shirts was next discussed.  Cynthia reported that the bill for the first batch of shirts has been delivered to the County Commission.  Mary Ann is to order a new batch of shirts.

Discussion next turned to supplies needed for the fellowship.  It was agreed to assemble our own spiral bound notebook to include executive summaries of the reports as well as some blank lined pages that can be used for notes and reflection.  There might be other printed material that can also be included.  Expandable folders and pens will also be purchased to give to each fellow.  The pens will say 'Saline County L.I.F.E.' on the barrel.  The following six messages will also appear in a special message area of the pen:

• Saline County Study URL (this will of necessity be the CARES URL as the URL for the Study is too large to fit in the message space of the pen)
• University Outreach & Extension URL
• 'Character counts'
• 'Leadership is a journey'
• 'There is no finish line'
• 'Once a fellow always a fellow'

The spiral bound notebook and expandable folder will be distributed early in the first class.  The County Commission will present the pen--along with a certificate or proclamation--on the last day of a class.

The challenge course was discussed briefly.  It's cost is $3000.  Cynthia said that the course is more mental than physical and that it would essentially take a determined effort for anyone to hurt themselves on the course.

It was agreed that when the next brochures are printed that the February class will be left off to make the brochure appear more current.

Outcomes for the L.I.F.E. classes are to be measured daily, but that a more complete measurement will be made at the end of the third day of a class.  Another outcome measurement will be taken at the end of the year.  Cheryl suggested sending the results of the land use public issue forum survey to the Federal Reserve Center for Rural Studies.

Cheryl went over the hands exercise briefly.  The exercise is about building on strengths and involves writing responses to questions on a paper cutout of a hand.  Cheryl said that there are many versions of the exercise--all involving a different set of questions.  She passed out four versions and suggested one of the versions for the L.I.F.E. classes; the group concurred with her choice.  Cheryl also donated a set of about 100 ready-made hands to use for the exercise.

Cheryl informed the group that the Federal Reserve Center for Rural Studies is sponsoring a conference on April 27 and 28 in Kansas City.  The title of the conference is "Beyond Agriculture: New Policies for Rural America".

The next meeting of the Fellowship Steering Committee was set for Tuesday, February 29 at 9:00 AM at the Saline County Extension Center.

The meeting adjourned at approximately 11:00 AM.

Submitted by Mark Belwood