Morrisville — Cornell Cooperative Extension of Madison County held its annual meeting last week, during which the board of directors welcomed four new members, said goodbye to three members, reviewed the past year and looked ahead to projects they have planned for 2016.
“It’s been a whirlwind of a year,” CCE MC Board President Phil Hofmeyer told the more than 50 people who attended the event at CCE headquarters in Morrisville. “It’s been a pretty challenging year for CCE as a whole. We’ve made good progress and have excellent programs; I’m excited about what the future is going to show for us.”
Financially, Donna Gatto, financial supervisor, said the organization is “right on schedule” with revenue, expenditures and programming, and the fund balance is nearly $1 million. “Things have improved immensely over the years,” she said. She also said the 2014 audit of CCE of Madison County came back with an unqualified opinion, which is the best opinion an organization can receive.
On the administrative side, the recent resignation of Executive Director Ron Bunce was a slight setback, but Associate Director Mary Beth McEwen has stepped in to serve as interim director, Hofmeyer said.
“Now we are interested in moving forward and seeing what the future holds,” Hofmeyer said. “We have a blank slate here on which to build and to me the future looks really exciting.”
McEwen agreed. “We have an opportunity now to shape this extension into something really, really amazing,” she said.
The board of directors then said goodbye to three outgoing members, Vicki Migonis, Brandy Rutkowski and Paul O’Mara, all of whom received a gift clock, certificate of appreciation for their service and a round of applause from the attendees.
The board also unanimously voted in four new board members: Amanda Frink, of Georgetown; Laura Shoemaker, of Hamilton; Nathan Durfee, of Chittenango; and Corey Mosher, of Hamilton. The four new members were selected by the extension’s nominating committee from a “large” pool of potential candidates, McEwen said.
continued — Also at the event, Deb SeGuin, extension issue leader, reviewed the CCE MC 2015-18 Strategic and Action Plan, the overarching theme of which is for the extension to “establish capacities and practices that allow the organization to act as a hub for the delivery of expertise, information and programming.” This approach — in both the agriculture and 4H extension programs — is expected to allow CCE MC to “meet community needs with increasing effectiveness and efficiency,” according to the strategic and action plan summary handed out at the meeting.
Currently, CCE MC officials are finalizing the strategic and action plan and looking for anyone interested in participating in the process, SeGuin said.
For more information about CCE MC or to contact a staff member, visit madisoncountycce.org.
