ECOP Monday Minute 5.13.13

REMINDER: Nominate Extension Professionals for Awards – The ECOP Program Subcommittee chair, Mary Jane Willis, Rutgers University, and Personnel Subcommittee co-chair, James Trapp, Oklahoma State University, together with USDA-NIFA, encourage you to submit applications for the 2013 Excellence in Extension and Extension Diversity awards. Awardees will be honored at the November 10-12, 2013 APLU Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. This is an opportunity to celebrate exemplary work of individuals and teams, gain notoriety for your university, and showcase how Cooperative Extension extends knowledge and changes lives. Application deadline is June 1, 2013. Details were sent directly to all directors and administrators and associate directors and administrators in a separate email in order to provide unique access links to the online nomination forms.

National Extension Urban Conference Update – ECOP Chair Daryl Buchholz, Kansas State University, and ECOP member Mary Jane Willis, Rutgers University, were speakers at the National Extension Urban Conference and Pre-conference last week in Overland Park, KS. Many presentations, including one by NACo President Chris Rodgers, Douglas County Nebraska Board of Commissions, called for increased attention by Cooperative Extension to urban programming. Information about presentations will be posted to http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/urban-extension/.

Cooperative Extension and MyPlate – ECOP approved making application on behalf of Cooperative Extension as a MyPlate national partner. This action has been completed. ECOP also encourages state Extension Services to be included as a community partner as part of the "MyPlate Strategic Partner Outreach" agenda. MyPlate is a project of the USDA designed to help Americans eat healthier. For more information, see http://www.choosemyplate.gov/partnering-program/national-partners/become-partner.html.

100 Years Celebration Toolkit – The ECOP Centennial Celebration Committee has created a website portal or gateway for resources on the history of the Smith-Lever Act and the development of Cooperative Extension programs, events, news and a toolkit. The URL for this portal is www.extension100years.net. The toolkit is ready for you to use and includes centennial graphic identity, templates and messaging designed for national, state and county Extension groups to tailor for their needs to promote and celebrate the centennial. Just click on the files you need, then right click on the open file to save to your system. The files are JPEGs, editable PDFs or PowerPoint files. Please check this website often because there will be new tools added and updates. Any ideas and suggestions are welcome by the committee co-chairs, Bill Woodrum woodrumw@wvstateu.edu, West Virginia State University, and Frankie Gould FGould@agcenter.lsu.edu, Louisiana State University AgCenter.

Membership Solicitation for the NAREEE Advisory Board – The U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is soliciting nominations to fill the eight vacancies on the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Economics (NAREEE) Advisory Board http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-05-02/pdf/2013-10392.pdf. Nominations are due June 28, 2013. The NAREEE Advisory Board released a Cooperative Extension report to the Secretary of Agriculture and Congress early this year. See http://nareeeab.ree.usda.gov/reports-and-recommendations/2013.