State Advisory Panel Meeting Minutes
March 21, 2005
Members in Attendance: Tom Hefner, Patti Crawford (proxy for Dean Adelman), Loretta Jones, John M. Callaway, Norman Ferrari, Imogene Foster (proxy for E. Jane Martin), Sharon Hanna, Allison Witte, Ann Reynolds, Gaye Mitchell, Richard Meckstroth, David Hughes, Dennis McCutcheon
Staff: April Vestal, Rhonda Carpenter
Guests in Attendance: Dave Brown, Judy Koehler, Dalena Riggs, Susan Anderson-Borror, Sonnie Strader, Haylee B. Heinsberg, Anna Reno, Carla Campbell, Helen Marr Mitchell, Amanda Fisher, Penny Rose Asbury, Lew Holloway, Elaine Mason, Jody Jackson, Shannon Bell, Kim Robinson, Ralph Utzman, Alicia Tyler, Lora Adkins, Robert Blake, Georgianna Tillis, Kathryn Greenlief, Parr Thacker, Debbie Curry, Margaret Novacich
Call To Order: Dennis McCutcheon, Chair
Introduction of Guests: Susan Anderson-Borror (the new Director of Continuing Education for NWVRHEC)
Move to Consent Agenda: Motion to consent agenda (Hefner/Ferrari).
Policy 2004-03
David Hughes reported that Policy 2004-03 (Preceptor Honorarium Payments) had been presented for the Finance Committee's approval. The committee voted not to pass the policy because there was no linkage shown between the number of student rotations or the ability to recruit preceptors given the fact that each consortium has a budget and can allocate funds for payment of honorariums or not. The committee felt that it was best to leave the decision up to each individual consortium. The policy failed to pass in the Finance Committee by a vote of 3-2.
Action on Tabled Motion: Winding Roads Fund Balance Request
Regarding the request before the Finance Committee from Winding Roads Consortium to use fund balance to support central counties AHEC development: Margaret Novacich reported that the Finance Committee had met via conference call on December 10 but lacked a quorum to take any action. An e-mail was then sent to all voting members regarding Winding Roads request. Vote was as follows: For-5, Against-0, 3 abstentions (D. Hughes, B. Brown, P. Thacker). The merger and carryover request was approved. She presented the request to the Advisory Panel for approval at this time. Motion to approve (Ferrari/I. Foster). Motion passed.
Proposed Collaboration: Eastern RHEP / Eastern AHEC
Gay Mitchell gave a progress report on the collaboration between the Eastern RHEP and the Eastern AHEC. The two will merge as an organization but will retain two separate boards.
Report on Restructuring of SW AHEC Board
Debbie Curry presented a progress report on the restructuring of the Southwest AHEC Board. When the SWAHEC was originally organized they were put under the already existing Southern Counties board. The board had agreed to take on the role of advisory board to the AHEC and remain a governing board for Southern Counties Consortium. They worked for about 18 months within this structure. During this time they were having difficulties meeting the federal requirements for representation on the board because the AHEC covers such a large area. For this reason, the Southwestern AHEC, with amicable consent from the Southern Counties board, has come out from under that board and has been working to put together a new advisory board for the AHEC. They have been working with Marshall University, Hilda Heady and Sandra Pope to develop a new board. At this point they have invited 12 people to be members of that board. The first meeting will be March 31, 2005 in Huntington. Representation has been invited from every county within the AHEC region and, in order to maintain collaboration with RHEP, two members of the Southern Counties board have been invited to sit on the SW AHEC board.
Panel Review and Action of SW AHEC Request to Include Lincoln and Putnam counties
Georgianna Tillis presented the request to include Lincoln and Putnam counties in the SW AHEC. Motion to allow Lincoln and Putnam to be included in the SW AHEC (Ferrari/I. Foster). (Funding for AHEC activities in these two counties will be provided by RHEP dollars.) Motion passed.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Evaluation Committee
Jodie Jackson reported that she will be sending out an e-mail about ways to strengthen the response rate. They are looking at specific areas to be reinforced. A graduate student is currently looking at SERFE data to find correlations between answers on the SERFE and whether or not the student has chosen to go into rural practice (there is enough data on all disciplines except medicine at this time).
OTHER BUSINESS
§ April Vestal gave a Legislative Report. She reported on our status at this point. The Committee Chairman of Government Organizations has spoken with Hilda. He has indicated that he will request an extension of last year's reauthorization. We are hoping for a three year reauthorization. Most likely, this will be in the Omnibus Bill which will be presented at the end of the session. PERD is updating last years report. We met with them on April 16, 2004 and provided them with the additional information that they requested. They are using this as our update. The funding is already in the Governor's Budget under the Higher Education portion in HB-2005 and SB-145. There has been an overall cut of 5.43% across the board in all of higher education.
ADJOURNMENT
Motion for adjournment (Ferrari/Hughes). The meeting was adjourned at 3:25pm.