On May 11th, 2023, the KACAA Animal Science Committee had its first meeting via Zoom. I had stepped up to serve as the KACAA Animal Science Committee Chair and we were tasked with doing more with our committees to better serve the association and the agents. I reached out to Dr. Anthony Pescatore, Department Chair of the Animal Science Department, and asked for a meeting to get the ball rolling. He was thrilled with the idea of forming a committee for agents and specialists to have open discussion. He worked on getting together a few Extension Specialists and I worked on gathering the agents. I sent out an e-mail to the ANR list serve asking for volunteers from those who were interested. I got responses back from 12 individuals and 3 others that were willing to give advice to the group if needed. 

Once the committee was formed, I sent out a DoodlePoll to schedule the date. The date and time were May 11th at 10:00 AM. 

There were 13 individuals on the zoom, 4 specialists and 9 agents. The specialists ran program ideas by the agents and the agents gave them ideas, thoughts, and opinions. Each on the specialists noted that they have been wanting a committee like this for over 10 years. They were so excited for what all this committee has to offer both groups and what all we can accomplish. 

Our first task is working on creating an Animal Science 101 program that gives an in-depth overview of the program and what topics each specialist covers. We talked about formatting, location, days, times, etc. I am going to give an update at the KACAA State Meeting in June and we are planning on meeting again in September.