PAC Committee Information Brenda Hill, Ph.D. FCS Educator Cleveland County 2013

Purposes of Cooperative Extension To enable people to improve their lives through an educational process based on relevant research. Involvement of people in local issues.

Your PAC’s Purpose Critical in making Extension a vital resource in the community. You and your PAC will work together to assess local needs. Together you will determine the best approach to address those needs.

PAC Should Reflect the Community PAC Members should be a diverse group.  Your area: 4-H, Ag, FCS, Horticulture  What other groups can you think of?

Educators Role in PAC Schedule Meetings, one to two per year. Make sure everyone has the opportunity to participate in meeting. Serve as content expert. Serve as connection to OSU. Teacher for educational programming. To keep PAC focused on Extension areas. Make sure PAC is up-to-date on Extension goals and changes. (Sutphin)

You ARE Extension In the community, you are an example of Extension. – Make sure you dress appropriately, especially at PAC meetings and community meetings. – Correct grammar is important. – Writing skills – If you are struggling with this, ask for help!

You are NOT alone!! Becoming a new county educator is stressful! Creating a PAC committee can be overwhelming. Take a deep breath and – Ask your CED for guidance as well as others in your office. – Visit with your presidents of your volunteers.

As Leader of Your PAC Core Competencies Needed: – Ethics: the ability to act in accordance with professional principles. – Organizational Management: the ability to design and implement policies, processes and structures to align volunteer involvement with the mission and vision of extension. – Human Resource Management: the ability to successfully engage, train and support volunteers in a systematic and intentional way.

Accountability: the ability to collect relevant data and to engage in meaningful monitoring, evaluation and reporting to stakeholders. Leadership and Advocacy: the ability to advocate for effective volunteer involvement inside of the organization and in the broader community it serves. (Lockett, Dodd, & Boleman)

The ABC’s of Your PAC Meeting Preparing for the Meeting: – Keep a contact list of interested people – Secure the meeting facility – Mail or folks to give the details of the informational meeting – Encourage current volunteers to attend.

The Meeting Facility Needs to accommodate: – A large crowd – A laptop, projector and screen – A display area for posters and/or publications – A refreshment area (if desired)

Conducting the Meeting Main Focus: attendees learning about the program & interacting with current volunteers. – Ensure a non-threatening atmosphere with no pressure and no immediate commitment. – Educate your members about the issue teams that you are on – Ask them about problems in their community which fit into these issue teams.

Conducting PAC Meeting Write all issues down and then have your committee rank the issues as to importance. Ask members how “they” think extension could possibly help in this area. Ask if anyone if they would be interested in assisting you with programming or if they have resources such as time, money, facilities, networking, etc in which they could give.

Outcomes of PAC Meeting Outcome of meeting will be written up and sent to your CED and district office specialist. Be sure and keep a list of actions so that you can report to your committee at the next meeting what has been accomplished. Do not be afraid to state difficulties which might have happen and ask PAC committee for possible solutions.

The 100 Pound Marshmallow YOU You

Words of Advice Start with the mini marshmallow Ask questions Get to know your ‘inherited’ volunteers The next meeting you can add new members who might better fit your issue teams Do not try to do everything at once Pick one or two issue teams in which you have the most interest Work in those areas

Sources Lockett, Landry, Dodd, Courtney, Boleman, Chris. “Orienting Extension Faculty that are Volunteer Administrators”. AgriLife Extension. Texas A&M: College Station, TX. SEAL Website: Sutphin, Cathy M. “Relationships Surrounding Extension Advisory Leadership Systems". Virginia Cooperative Extension. Virginia Tech: Blacksburg, VA.