In response to potential challenges during the growing season, the Lake Erie Regional Grape Program (LERGP) Extension Team has been holding weekly small group meetings ("Coffee Pot" and IPM roundtable) for members of the grape industry across the 30,000 acres of the Lake Erie grape belt the past few years. On the electronic front, the LERGP extension team has been making a concerted effort to develop programming that can be delivered via e-mail and the World Wide Web to growers across the large geographical area stretching from the shoreline of Lake Ontario to the north and the Pennsylvania/Ohio state line along the shore of Lake Erie. Combined with the traditional information transfer methods of newsletters, meetings, phone calls and personal consultations, growers in the Lake Erie grape-growing region have access to the information they need to make the management decisions that are best for their vineyard operations.

Demographics of growers in the Lake Erie grape industry makes it difficult to plan educational activities appropriate for this diverse audience of full and part-time growers. Because many newcomers are approaching grape growing as a part-time business venture in the beginning, attending traditional education events during the day or evening is often in direct conflict with their primary off-farm jobs. The type of timely, in-depth information growers need in order to make intelligent decisions during the growing season is not found in the conventional information transfer methods of extension, such as the newsletter, large group meetings, telephone conversations and face-to face meetings. Electronic communication has been shown to provide educational opportunities to a diverse audience and has no time restrictions on information access. However, even when combined with the LERGP extension team's conventional information transfer methods, there was a void in connecting the available information with growers during the growing season.

In response to these challenges, 57 "Coffee Pot" and IPM roundtable meetings and small-group meetings were held across the 30,000 acres of the Lake Erie Grape Belt (approximately 139 miles from east to west along Lake Erie) over the past two years. Growers, processor and farm-supply reps, as well as consultants and extension personnel, comprised the 584 participants. For those who could not attend the small-group meetings or desired more information, a weekly electronic newsletter, The Crop Update, was sent to more than 250 growers, processors, and farm supply dealers to quickly deliver crucial information and problem-solving strategies to growers scattered across the Lake Erie region.

Informal surveys conducted at the end of meetings in July and August found a majority of participants had changed at least one of their vineyard practices based on information obtained in prior meetings.
Some keys to adoption of the Coffee Pot and IPM roundtable meetings identified by participants are: 1) Meetings are typically held at a grower`s location, typically a barn or vineyard, 2) Growers determine the agenda and discussion through their questions and concerns during the meeting, 3) The relaxed atmosphere, 4) Timing (10 AM "Coffee Pot" and 2 PM IPM roundtable) coincides with typical break times and 4) grower-to-grower interaction, allows growers to learn from each other.
A survey of users of The Crop Update found "hey valued"this tool for the time critical information that was delivered. A few user quotes from the survey include: "We are using less sprays and more effective ones" and "I look at timing of sprays, review not only income but profit, I`m making less trips through the vineyard doing only what will improve prof"ts."
In a survey at the 2006 Lake Erie Grape Gr"wers "onference, The Crop Update and "Coffee Pot" meetings were ranked by participants as their first and second choices respectively, for receiving "nformation from extension to help them with their vineyard operation.

• Andy Muza (Penn State Cooperative Extension of Erie County)
• Barry Shaffer (Lake Erie Regional Grape Program)
• Hans Walter Peterson (Lake Erie Regional Grape Program)
• Terry Bates (Horticulture Department NYSAES)