WV Rural Health Education Partnerships

State Advisory Panel

Meeting Minutes

November 17, 2003

Members In Attendance: Elizabeth Degges, Tom Hefner, Gaye Mitchell, Steve Smith, Alison Witte, Jill Cochran, Imogene Foster, Marilyn Fox, Hilda Heady, Richard Meckstroth, Michael Mullen, Sandra Pope, Jo Ann Raines, Carla See, Henry Taylor, April Vestal

Guests In Attendance: Alicia Taylor, Chuck Conner, Lora Adkins, Donna Bush, Ann Reynolds, Shannon Bell, Dan Brody, Parr Thacker, Gaye Mitchell, Malinda Turner, Judy Koehler, Elizabeth Richmond, Gail McClung, Stephanie Schuler, Anna Reno, Debra Riggs, Sonnie Strader, Debbie Curry, Patti Crawford, Derrick Day, Susan Anderson-Borror

Introductions of any new members or guests:

No new members or guests were present. With the absence of Chairman McCutcheon, the meeting was chaired by Co-Chair Steven Smith

Call to Move the Consent Agenda

The consent agenda was approved as presented. (Foster/Mitchell).

Comments from the Chancellor

The Chancellor reported that the Governor asked the college presidents to work to submit recommendations and alternatives for the funding situation. One of the things suggested is to return the pop tax. It is currently one cent, but could go as high as five cents per bottle – the entire amount would be converted for Medicare and Medicaid match. This would be used for education initiatives. This effort needs political support to get the tax increased. There were a variety of other things put forward that the Chancellor reported will be further discussed as the Governor’s budget unfolds. The position taken by the university presidents and supported by the policy commission is that the budget cuts be taken across the board. The Chancellor said he fully expects that our appropriation will have a 9% reduction. Institutions have said we would forego digest requests so money could be restored through the unity agenda. Unity agenda has supplements – additional money for student financial assistance. Undergraduate students – 49% enrolled part-time as compared to 26% in WV. Support goes to the traditional student body. Adult education is one of the areas we must focus on. The HEAPS program is receiving priority – an additional 4 million. 6 million for need-based state programs. It is not likely higher education will be completely exempt from cuts unless there is another revenue identified. The Chancellor commented that voters in Alabama turned down a tax increase for education – there will be some cuts partially offset by tuition increases.

We are currently not seeing anything in the press, but the Chancellor said he has commented to the presidents to prepare for the possibility of a midyear reversion in the current fiscal year in the effect of a 1.5% decrease. As you work with your budgets, anticipate that this may happen. We hope to be able to tell you as early as possible if this is going to happen. This will unfold by January if it is going to happen. Be paying attention to what is happening in PA and Maryland around gambling. 25-28% of funds come from lottery or special fund. Both states in fiscal crisis – neither have a balanced budget. We are dependent upon lottery and games to drive our budget.

For next year, we won’t know until April what we are going to receive. Program review will be one of the most important things in making that determination. We need to be doing damage control in advance of a report, not knowing what they may be focusing on.

Any reductions will apply equally to community and institutional components of RHEP. When we know what money is available, we will come back to the finance committee with recommendations. The Chancellor urged consortia to look at potential consolidation, even to the means of collapsing consortia. Opportunity to reduce administrative costs allows you to maximize student services. We’ve received info about enrollments in participation – rotations going on schedule for this fall.

Review and Vote on Policies

Policy 2003-04 Adjunct faculty appointment for Field Faculty policy – each individual preceptor will have an adjunct appointment at each of the 3 schools. Hilda explained that we have used the policy of reciprocity for the last 10 years and commented that we cannot do this any longer because of accreditation standards. The 3 medical schools decided to advance a policy and the school committee has reviewed it. The policy has received input of all schools and membership of the school committee. The Chancellor suggested insertion of a statement that requires that “All RHEP field faculty are required to have at a minimum an adjunct appointment and …..?????

(Hefner/Mitchell).

Policy 2003-05 Purchase of Capital Assets – This policy deals with suspending the purchase of large capital assets until further notice, essentially referring to automobiles and buildings (Foster/Degges).

Re-write of Policy 1995-04: Minimal Components of IDS/IDE

This re-written policy broadens the IDS experience for students – emphasizing a holistic and ecological model. Allow sites more control and variability to do what is best in order to get students involved. Addresses situations of consortia that do not have a lot of students – these students would have an interdisciplinary experience. Training of faculty providing IDS/IDE and putting together a manual for training. A training date for field faculty has been scheduled for spring – train OSCD’s and SC’s and then these individuals would train others in their consortium. Have site coordinators or preceptors evaluate student on professional demeanor and forward to the preceptor. Rosie will clean up the policy and send to Hilda for signatures. (Hefner/Mitchell).

Committee Reviews

Chuck presented on the Appalachian Adventure – an event they have been having since 1995. This experience takes the students out of the classroom setting to interact with other people in the state. Everyone was given an assignment involving the Appalachian adventure. The assignments depend on where they are going and what they are doing. They do the outdoor thing like hiking, climbing and biking so he advised them to bring snacks. They visited the Kaymoor Mine. To go into these historical places with the students was great. There was one year that it did not rain. They have visited Cass Railroad visited 93 year old Roland Sharp. We went to Seneca Rocks/Spruce Knob and Midland Trail. We started out in the Cabin Creek area and traveled down the Midland Trail. They visited the Methodist Church which is entirely made up of wormy chestnut. This year they did Emergency First Aid with Jan Care Ambulance, National Park Service and started out at the New River Gorge.

Jodie Jackson presented the Outreach Report. The winners of the drawing from the evaluation forms from the students were: Margaret Janner, William Gamble, Maria Debiase and Cheryl Clutter.

Elizabeth Richmond and Judy Koehler presented the consolidation update. As of July 1, 2003, Country Roads Consortium and Rural Mountain Consortium became SEEC, Southeastern Education Consortium. The counties that make up this consortium are Greenbrier, Pocahontas, Summers, Monroe and Mercer. The site coordinators now share an LRC/office space in Lewisburg and a secretary. With the two former consortia sharing Greenbrier County this seemed to be the perfect solution to eliminate confusion for students and campus coordinators. This would also seem to eliminate other logistical problems for IDS and community service projects. The process began in November 2002 with a proposal for 4 sites to consolidate. During the process Country Roads and Rural Mountain Boards decided that they were ready to consolidate while the other two sites’ Boards decided to hold off at that time. The CRC and RMC boards met monthly to work out the details eventually deciding to combine boards and to seek the wisest use of funds to complete the mission of WVRHEP in our areas. The two lead agencies worked very amicably to achieve the best solution to working out which one would eventually be the sole lead agency for the new consolidated consortium. The goal of this consortium is to have one lead agency by January 1, 2004. A few issues are still being addressed but for the most part everything is going well.

Outreach/Curriculum Committee

April informed the advisory panel of the working document that was discussed in the outreach committee meeting. She asked them to give their approval of the process and protocol of what this document does, it is a continued working document. There will be a template that would go to all committees each September. The recommendation is that the advisory panel compile a visions update every November. And that each committee submit a report on how that committee has addressed recommendations of the visions document to the advisory panel every September. (Mitchell/Degges)

Discussion of resolution concerning budget crisis and its impact on program

Hilda commented that the advisory panel has passed resolutions in the past. One of these was the resolution that the Advisory Panel has the authority to designate sites. The current resolution up for consideration by the Advisory Panel encourages better economies of scale given the current fiscal situation, and encourages consolidation and/or merger of consortia where appropriate. The resolution as written was approved by the Advisory Panel (Degges/Foster).

Executive/Associate Director’s Report

Hilda reported on the AHEC grant. Objectives are currently being developed for the grant cycle for the next 3 years. We will be requesting two million for the next cycle. The Northern AHEC is currently in the process of incorporating and are in the process of finalizing a contract with Tri-County for fiscal management and office space. Candidates for the position of Executive Director for the Northern AHEC were interviewed last week.

Hilda commented that numbers for the WVRHEP Annual Report were being wrapped up this week. We are excited to report 145 physicians in our recruitment and retention report. We have been working to wrap up the PERD report and have been supplying information as requested.

The annual WVRHEP/AHEC Legislative Day and Dinner will be held on February 16, 2004 at the Embassy Suites in Charleston, WV. Invitations will be forthcoming. We are also soliciting nominations for our annual awards. Nomination forms will be available on our website and with site coordinators and AHEC Executive Directors. The following day, on February 17, we will be holding a training on the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” at the Embassy Suites. We are hoping field faculty, institutional partners, community members and students will attend this training being conducted by Dean Mike Adelman from WVSOM and his staff.

Hilda wished everyone a happy and safe holiday.

With no further business, the meeting was adjourned.