Newsletter (February 2002)

Greetings from the S. C. Association of County Agricultural Agents. I am sending this to all Extension employees, just for informational purposes.

I have just returned from the JCEP Southern Region Leadership Workshop, and one of the things that I learned is that our membership is DUE to national on January 1st. We have gone under the assumption for years that it is due on March 15. While they will still accept dues until that date, they wanted/want our paid membership list by January 1st.

Our membership for 2002 is lagging behind previous years. Some of this is understandable. Due to shifts in responsibilities, some previous members are no longer eligible for membership. We have also lost some members due to retirements. (We hope that our retirees will become Life Members.) Our membership in 2001 was 127, which qualified us for 4 voting delegates to national, 3 DSAs (Distinguished Service Awards), and 2 AAs (Achievement Awards). As of the end of last week, our paid membership for 2002 was 89, which would qualify us for only 3 voting delegates, 2 DSAs, and 1 AA. We hope that those of you who are eligible for membership and have not yet paid will go ahead and do so before MARCH 1.

We will be sending our membership list for 2002 to national on March 1. We will use our paid membership as of that date to update our E-mail membership list for this year. So get your dues in to William Hair as soon as possible.

Our SCACAA Annual Meeting and Professional Improvement Conference (AM/PIC) will be held at the Riverview Holiday Inn in Charleston on June 12 - 14, 2002. Marion Hiers, our vice-president and annual meeting chair, has put together good meeting arrangements and is finalizing the plans on what promises to be an excellent professional improvement conference. We look forward to seeing you at the annual meeting.

And, speaking of annual meetings, the SCACAA plans to put forth a bid to host the NACAA AM/PIC in 2006. If we are successful in the bid, we are tentatively looking at hosting the meeting in Charleston July 23 - 28, 2006. These plans are not yet set in stone, but John Oxner and his bid committee are working towards this end.

We will be putting forth the bid at this year's AM/PIC, which will be held in Savannah, GA July 28 - August 1, 2002. We will be hosting the Get Acquainted dinner on Sunday evening, as well as hosting a hospitality suite Sunday and Monday evenings to promote our bid. Frank FitzSimons, who is currently serving as national Vice-President, will also be hosting a Sunday evening hospitality suite to promote his candidacy for President-Elect. So we are going to need a lot of help at this year's national meeting. We hope to have as many of our members in attendance at Savannah as possible.

Finally, I encourage all of our members to donate to the national scholarship fund. In order to be eligible for scholarships for various national programs, you must have donated at least $40 to the national scholarship fund. In order to be eligible for scholarships or programs in 2003, you must have made your donation prior to June 1 of this year (2002). Last year there was more money available for scholarships than there were applicants. So I encourage all of you to donate your $40 (if you have not already done so), and to apply for the various programs that are available.

Your association leadership is here for your benefit. Be sure to let us know your ideas and suggestions, and any concerns that you may have.

Don Manley,
President
SCACAA