National
Conservation District
Employees Association
District Employees Put Conservation on the Land
2006 NCDEA Regional Reports Index
South Central Region Report
Sharon Underwood
Regional Representative
Yell County Conservation District
Danville, Arkansas
645 Number of District Employees in Region
2 Number of Employees on State TLCs
4 Number of State Employee Associations in Region
Officers
Sharon Underwood – South Central Representative
Carolann Corado – President
Vickie Laffollette - Vice President
Ruth Cunningham – Secretary
Sharon Underwood – Treasurer
Legal Status of Regional CD Employees Association
Annual Meeting
Was held in Corpus Christi, TX in July, 2006 – the 2007 meeting will be held in Oklahoma.
Training and Professional Development Programs
Communications
States in the Region
Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas
REPORTS
Arkansas Narrative
This has been another very busy year for Arkansas’s district employees. We hit the ground running in January and haven’t stopped.
We have still maintained our Conservation Education programs with the schools in each of our counties. The 16 counties that participated in a pilot education program through EPA and Sebastian County Conservation District are still holding workshops training educators in new and exciting ways to take conservation into the classroom and still adhere to the standards. This program has been so successful that we are looking into expanding it to all 75 counties in Arkansas.
Arkansas’ conservation districts were given the opportunity by NRCS to earn money to send out information on the CSP. This program has 3 phases and all districts participated in the first phase by building a data base of landowners in their county and mailing out fact sheets on CSP. The second phase involved districts who were in certain watersheds. Letters were mailed to these landowners letting them know that their watershed would be selected in the near future and ways they could be prepared to apply when it is selected. Only districts who had watersheds involved in CSP in 2007 were involved in the 3rd phase.
Three Arkansas conservation district employees took part in the Conservation Partnership Leadership Conference in Nashville. ANRC held workshops and directed all districts to start utilizing Quickbooks as the state-wide system to do bookkeeping. Not only have we been busy with the teacher education program but we also have been busy with other education programs such as the “Progressive Farmer Safety Day”, Soil & Water Stewardship Week Activities, Earth Day Activities, 4-H and FFA Judging events, tree planting programs and last but definitely not least, the Envirothon. We also participate in the AACD Auxiliary Poster Contest each year. Some of our districts have been updating their plat books that they make available for sale out of the district office.
The “Mentoring Program” has proven to be very successful. Several of our older employees have retired and new employees have come aboard. The district boards have been made aware of this program and have utilized it many times this year. AACD helped the program by stepping up and paying the expenses of the mentor.
Our membership this year is 81 members and 62 associate members. We are in the process now of registering our members for the 2007-2008 year.
The AACDE sponsored the social event at the AACD State Meeting again this year. We had 130 attendees take advantage of the opportunity to eat, play bingo, participate in an auction and listen to music or dance. From all reports a great time was had by all.
Louisiana Narrative
Jan Broussard, University of Louisiana at Lafayette provided Excel computer training for employees attending the annual meeting. Most employees have been trained in Project WET, however, a workshop (date not set) will be available for new employees or those who have not yet received training. Grant resources were provided to employees and are sent on a regular basis to each district.
Most districts took 4 percent cut in their current budgets and a much more serious cut is expected at the special legislative session. Employees have written numerous letters and made several phone calls to congressmen, senators, and representatives throughout the state to ask their support. Louisiana must pay FEMA the state’s portion of funds received by individuals and businesses for Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita recovery. A way for districts to earn additional funds, not state funds would be 319 projects, grants, and funds from other sources such as a police jury. Grants must be funneled through the Office of Soil and Water Conservation.
The bingo/dance has proven to be a profitable fundraiser and LACDE will continue this each year as long as it continues to be profitable, however new or additional ideas were discussed for the upcoming year. New officers were elected at the January 2006 annual meeting:
Gayle Roussel, President; Vikkie Lafollette, Vice-President; Anita Manshack, Secretary-Treasurer; and Erika Huber, Historian. One particular goal of the new LACDE officers is to have representation at regional and national meeting if at all possible and will strive to increase our funds so that employees will not have to rely on their districts for travel funds.
Oklahoma Narrative
Oklahoma’s district employees really feel they reached a major accomplishment in 2006. We began the process of obtaining funding from the state legislators to bring district employee salaries equivalent to State Employee salaries. We strengthened our legislative efforts and built a credible presence at the State Capitol.
This was accomplished by a great deal of employees willing to dedicate time to write letters, make telephone calls and attend legislative days at the capitol. We presented “PayDay” candy bars to all legislators with the slogan “Turn our Peanuts into a PayDay” and packets of “Equal” with a slogan EQUAL State Pay for Conservation District Employees.
The results were $2.10 per hour for every district employee in the state beginning July 2006. Then in October 2006 each employee was given a 5% increase which was figured on the new salary, that included the $2.10 per hour. This was a major accomplishment.
This will help us to hire employees and maintain employees after they are trained.
We have been extremely busy with the State Cost-Share Program. This is a program where the legislators appropriate funds to help our cooperators establish conservation practices on their farms.
We have many districts involved in Conservation Education program. We had a team from Ottawa County Conservation District compete in the National Envirothon Contest. OACDE contributed financially to the team to help defray cost for travel, sponsored awards, and several members worked at the state competition.
We also have been busy with education programs such as the Natural Resources Days, Soil & Water Stewardship Week Activities, Oklahoma Banker’s Awards, Earth Day Activities, 4-H and FFA Judging events, tree planting programs, County Fairs, Women in Agriculture Conferences , Wildlife EXPO and the Envirothon. We also participate in the OACD Speech, Poster and Essay Contests each year. We setup booths at the State Capitol for legislators to view and ask questions.
OACDE members also assist in all aspects of the National Land Judging Contest. OACDE also contributes financially to this prestigious national contest. We had 153 teams, representing 34 states, a total of 800 contestants and sponsors.
OACDE members assisted with the Regional Forestry Contest and the RC&D Timber Utilization Conference.
We have also assisted NRCS with implementing Farm Bill Programs.
The OACDE sponsored the social event at the OACD State Meeting again this year. There were 99 in attendance and they took the opportunity to make ice cream sundaes and enjoy networking.
We have 96 members and 17 associate members. Our associate members include many Oklahoma Conservation Commission and Natural Resource Conservation Service employees, including the State Conservationist.
Texas Narrative
The Association has held a silent auction at the state meeting for the last 4 years. We have had very good results with this auction. The proceeds from the auction fund scholarships for graduating seniors (children or grandchildren) of district employees. District employees, district directors, state board field representatives and individuals have contributed items for the auction making it a combined effort across the state.
All employees were given the opportunity to attend bookkeeping workshops at the state meeting held in October.