Horace and Sara Dunagan
Chair of Excellence in Banking

ACTIVITIES of the CHAIR

(Dr. Payne is involved in many endeavors both to educate students and to support the banking industry.  Please scroll down through the following sections to review his activities, or use links within the Table of Contents to jump to items of specific interest.)

Table of Contents

Fifth Annual Mid-South Agricultural Finance Conference - August 2, 2006
Regional Entrepreneurship & Economic Development (REED) Center Planned
Business and International Education (Title VI) Grant Awarded
Dunagan Chair Assists with TBA's Strategic Technology Conference
Payne Presents at Annual CPA Workshop
UT Martin Students Attend Credit Conference
BancorpSouth-UTM Personal Financial Education Program (PFEP) Proposed
International Involvements Increase for Dunagan Chair
Inaugural Tennessee Governor's Schools for Ag Sciences Praised
UT Martin Setting for Northwest Tennessee Guaranteed Lending Summit
Dr. Payne Teaches Banking Professionals
 

Fifth Annual Mid-South Agricultural Finance Conference

  

                

  Over Two Hundred Conference Attendees!             Featured Speaker Dr. David Kohl                           Farm Bill Panel

The 2006 Mid-South Ag Finance Conference was a huge success.  This year's conference set an attendance record with over 200 attendees.  The conference added a Farm Bill Panel to the program.  Those on the panel were Daryll Ray (Professor of Agriculture Economics at the University of Tennessee), William Gillon (National Cotton Council), and Bob Young (Chief Economist, American Farm Bureau Federation).

 Information about the 2007 Mid-South Ag Finance Conference coming soon.....

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Regional Entrepreneurship and Economic Development (REED) Center Planned

UTM's Dunagan Chair of Excellence in Banking, Hendrix Chair of Excellence in Free Enterprise, and Oldham Center for Entrepreneurship, in partnership with the City of Martin, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Tennessee Small Business Development Centers in Jackson and Dyersburg, several regional financial institutions, and area chambers of commerce and economic development entities, have formulated a plan to establish a much-needed center to support current and would-be small business owners in northwest Tennessee. We are currently awaiting the funding decision from a USDA Rural Business Enterprise Grant proposal before proceeding. Please follow the above link or click here to view this proposal (WARNING: this file is large and may require time to open!), or click here to see a PowerPoint presentation summarizing this vital project.

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Business and International Education (Title VI) Grant Awarded

UTM was recently awarded a grant totaling $371,744 from the United States Department of Education's Business and International Education Program (Title VI). This grant will fund a two-year "Global Business Education through Partnerships Program: Internationalizing UT Martin's Business Program and the West Tennessee Business Community." Dr. Tom Payne played an integral role in formulating the grant proposal, working closely with UTM's Department of Modern Foreign Languages, the Office of International Programs/Admissions, Travel-Study/Study Abroad Programs, the Center for Global Studies, and partners in the community. Dr. Payne will now serve as director of the program as it unfolds. Exciting components of this project include engaging students in international travel study (UTM business students may click here to download an Application for Travel Scholarship funded through the grant); revising the International Business curriculum to incorporate foreign language and global experiences; and initiating the International Business Scholars Program (IBSP), the International Business Lecture Series (IBLS), and an annual Global Trade Symposium. As the name implies, however, the program will target a much broader audience than that of UTM's students. It will provide business leaders and faculty, as well as students, a means to reshape their educational and training priorities by acquiring knowledge about the global economy (global awareness); gain a working knowledge of other cultures, languages, and business environments (global competence); and participate with business leaders from other countries in cross-cultural business training programs (global competition). Please click here to view the Program Narrative.

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Dunagan Chair Assists with TBA's Strategic Technology Conference

A long-time member of the Tennessee Bankers Association, Dr. Tom Payne was pleased to serve on the Planning Committee for TBA's highly-successful Strategic Technology Conference held in Nashville on April 14-15, 2004. (To view an online slideshow from this event, please follow the above link.) Topics included:

       "Information Technology Steering Committee" - by Donald A. VanVoorhis, CISA CBA CFSA, EDP Audit and Control Specialties
       "Preparing for Disaster: Business Continuity Planning" - Kenneth W. Proctor, Director of Risk Management, Brintech, Inc.
       "Your FDIC Information Technology (IT) Electronic Banking (E-Banking) Exam: Risks, Responsibilities, and Mitigation Strategies" - Linda S. Finck, FDIC Dallas Region
       "Deposit Risk in a Changing Technology World" - Ron DeBerry, Executive Vice President, Liability Risk Management, Bank of America
        "What Does It All Mean? The Shifting Sands of E-Payments and E-Banking" - Lee Wetherington, AAP, Senior Vice President, Goldleaf Technologies

Dr. Payne is currently participating on the Planning Committee for the 2005 Conference. Watch here for details!

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  Payne Presents at Annual CPA Workshop

Each year, the Accounting Department of UTM's College of Business and Public Affairs sponsors a workshop to help accountants hone their professional skills. Dr. Tom Payne is a popular speaker at these events. In 2002, he addressed "The Changing Role of the CPA in Investment Services."  Last year, Dr. Payne described "How a Small Business Development Center Can Benefit Both your Clients and your Practice." At the session held in September 2004, Dr. Payne engaged the audience with a timely topic: "Realistic Optimism for the U.S. Economy:  An Update and Consensus Forecast." Please click on the above links to view PowerPoint slides from these presentations.

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UT Martin Students Attend Credit Conference

Thanks to sponsorships from area banks and reduced registration fees from the Tennessee Bankers Association, several UTM students are fortunate enough to attend TBA's Credit Conference each year. Featuring nationally-known speakers, this conference attracts over 400 commercial loan officers, loan support personnel, and senior- and executive-level banking managers annually. Dr. Tom Payne, UTM's coordinator for student participation, commented, "The Tennessee Bankers Credit Conference provided university students with a view of the banking profession not available in the traditional classroom setting. Thanks to the TBA and the sponsoring bankers, the students were able to learn about sound credit practices from nationally recognized experts. In addition, this experience also allowed the students to interact with bankers and left them with a renewed optimism and excitement about their chosen field." An online slideshow from this year's event may be viewed by clicking here . Or articles in "The Tennessee Banker" magazine featuring UTM's contingent are available from both the 2003 (see pages 24, 25, & 27) and 2004 trips.

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BancorpSouth – UTM Personal Financial Education Program (PFEP) Proposed

BancorpSouth, a well-respected regional financial institution, and Dr. Tom Payne, Dunagan Chair of Excellence in Banking, are pleased to serve the community once again by developing a Personal Financial Education Program (PFEP) to provide financial training to high school and college students. Although still in the planning process at this time, the PFEP is expected to utilize classroom instruction, discussions with financial services professionals and UTM's faculty, and internet-based resources to promote the following objectives:

       attainment of basic financial literacy;
      ability to manage a budget;
      responsible use of credit; and
        consistent savings habits.

A flagship offering of the BancorpSouth - UT Martin Personal Financial Education Program will be dual credit courses on personal financial planning. These courses will be presented at participating high schools throughout the region. High school teachers will volunteer, with approval of their respective administrations, to teach the subject matter from a curriculum developed and sponsored by the University of Tennessee at Martin. Designated faculty members from UT Martin will oversee the progress of the courses and provide additional classroom materials and instruction as needed to achieve program objectives. An exciting capstone of the dual-credit courses will be a one-day seminar in personal finance, hosted by the university on campus and led by UTM faculty, BancorpSouth personnel, and other experts in the field. Students who register for the course will be expected to remit a portion of normal tuition costs, with the remainder paid through scholarships underwritten by BancorpSouth. Upon successful completion of the course, students will receive "dual credit" at both the high school level and in the form of three semester hours' credit in electives at UT Martin.

"Stay tuned" here for updates as the PFEP develops!

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International Involvements Increase for Dunagan Chair

Dr. Tom Payne, Horace and Sara Dunagan Chair of Excellence in Banking, believes that "international business" is quickly becoming a redundant term, as all enterprises are more and more affected by the global environment. Dr. Payne himself has undertaken a number of tasks lately that expand his own worldwide perspective:

        As mentioned above, through a Business and International Education grant, Dr. Payne is leading the effort to internationalize UTM's College of Business and Public Affairs.

       In January 2004, Dr. Payne taught a class entitled, "Financial Analysis and Reporting: Practical Tools for Decision-Makers" through the Masters in European Management Program at the Universite d'Orleans in Paris, France. He plans to lead the same course in Paris in January, 2005.

       In conjunction with the Financial Services Volunteer Corps (FSVC), UT Martin, and regional banking partners, in 2002 Dr. Payne taught principles of comprehensive credit analysis and loan portfolio management to representatives from the Savings Bank of Albania. Similarly, Dr. Payne worked with bankers from Russia and the Ukraine during 2001 to help them understand typical training for bankers in the U.S., bank performance analysis, and regulatory compliance. Both programs assist emerging economies in Eastern Europe to build sound financial market infrastructures.

       With UT Martin's Office of International Programs, Dr. Payne is helping to organize a Logistics Training Program for visiting Chinese businessmen to be held in spring of 2005. This two- to three-week offering will include classroom instruction in supply chain management and related topics, seminars on American culture, lessons in the English language, onsite tours and discussions involving local manufacturers, and various entertainment options.

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  Inaugural Tennessee Governor’s School for Ag Sciences Praised

"I loved this program!" "Fun, exciting, entertaining and educational!" "TGSAS has definitely made an impact on what I am going to do with my future. I only wish everyone could see what this class got to see." Such were the comments from 32 scholars attending UT Martin's first Governor's School for the Agricultural Sciences held during June and July, 2004. Dr. Tom Payne contributed to this program's success by offering a lecture entitled, “Personal Finance: The Appropriate Use of Credit and the Fundamentals of Investing" (click here to view PowerPoint slides from this presentation). Dr. Payne also led a three-week Group Study Project (GSP) on "Agricultural Economics." This GSP laid the groundwork for "aggie entrepreneurs" by discussing ranching/farming as a business, i.e. necessary basics of starting a business, the role of government agencies (e.g. USDA), legal issues, risk management, and product marketing. These lessons were rounded out using guest speakers, onsite visits to agricultural going concerns, and hands-on activities involving the stock and futures markets.

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UT Martin Setting for Northwest Tennessee Guaranteed Lending Summit

Area bankers enjoyed the first-ever Northwest Tennessee Guaranteed Lending Summit held in UT Martin's University Center on May 18th, 2004. The event was jointly sponsored by UT Martin (through the Dunagan Chair of Excellence in Banking) and the Tennessee Business & Industrial Development Corporation. An expert panel of specialists from the United States Department of Agriculture, the Tennessee Business & Industrial Development Corporation (the only Small Business Association Preferred Lender in the region), the Tennessee Small Business Development Center in Dyersburg, TN, and the Northwest Tennessee Development District provided attendees with up-to-date information regarding load guarantees, credit enhancement, and their agencies' services. We look forward to seeing this program become an annual event.

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Dr. Payne Teaches Banking Professionals

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