Delegates to Russian summit chart course for future collaboration

Members of ACE from the United States, Moldova and Ukraine met with Russian agricultural communicators in May during a two-day summit to share communication methods and solutions, discuss areas of collaboration and launch the ACE Russian charter affiliate.

The summit took place May 14-15 in Tula oblast (state) in Russia. For a week before and several days after the summit, delegates met with national-level agricultural communicators and toured farms and local extension offices. They also visited the Press Video Center in the Ministry of Agriculture; Moscow State University, site of the Foundation for Agrarian Development Research (FADR) and the Russian Rural Information Network Project; and Timiryazev Academy, site of the National Extension Training Center.

At the summit, American ACE members -- from Kansas, Iowa, Oregon, Washington, D.C., Arizona, Florida, Vermont and Ohio -- made brief presentations on topics ranging from communication strategies for natural disasters and distance education to master gardening and models for sustainable extension systems. Concurrent working sessions were held the following day to discuss the topics in more depth. Many of the Russians presented reports on their local communications activities. Three translators worked throughout the summit to bridge the language barrier.

During the first evening of the summit, a banquet and ceremony officially launched ACE’s first charter membership. Twenty-three Russian agricultural communicators signed the charter document and became affiliate members.

The main outcome of the summit was the creation of an annex to the agreement of cooperation that was first established between the ACE Russia Charter Affiliate, the Press Video Center and ACE in July 2000 at the ACE meeting in Washington, D.C. The annex lists activities to be carried out between July 1, 2001, and June 30, 2002.

ACE and the ACE Russia Charter Affiliate:

1. Agreed to explore ways of organizing and strengthening the charter affiliate in its first year of operation by working to identify the best organizational form for the affiliate, finding innovative ways to create a network for its members, identifying professional development and training opportunities, and promoting the new affiliate.

2. Will work to develop a project in cooperation with 4-H and appropriate Russian partners to provide educational materials and activities for rural youth in orphanages and in special-needs facilities.

3. Will work to develop a project modeled on the U.S. Master Gardener training program that can be used to systematically train key dacha owners, who can then train others, in raising fruits and vegetables.

4. Will explore possible linkages with NIS (Newly Independent States) countries, including ways to distribute and share relevant agricultural and rural development information.

5. Will seek innovative cooperative sharing of techniques for communicating with rural audiences -- and providers of information to rural audiences -- via the Internet and CD-ROM.

6. Will explore methods of providing ACE publications, journals and other materials to Russia so that they become widely accessible by affiliate members and other users of agricultural communication information and increase the flow of information about Russian affiliate activities (and activities of members in other NIS countries) into U.S. ACE publications and the ACE Web site.

7. Will exchange video/TV materials at both the national and regional levels and study how such exchanges might lead to wide distribution and availability of materials.

8. Will explore ways in which distance learning/distance education instructional design and distribution practices can be shared widely.

9. Will explore innovative methods of linking Russia’s extension consulting offices and producers with U.S. businesses seeking to export products.

10. Will seek to stimulate increased exchanges of members between countries by making available detailed information about relevant funding opportunities.

The chief host of the Russian delegation was Tatyana Ukhanova, an ACE member from the Ministry of Agriculture, who arranged many educational and cultural experiences. These included a bus tour of Moscow, activities on Russia’s Victory Day -- a national Russian holiday observed each year on May 9 to commemorate the Great Patriotic War (World War II), evenings at the Bolshoi Theater and the Moscow Circus, a tour of the Kremlin and a farewell dinner cruise on the Moscow River.

Dave McAllister
USDA

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