ECOP Monday Minute 6.3.13

ECOP Webinar 6.20.13 – ECOP member Chuck Hibberd, University of Nebraska, encourages a broad audience of Extension professionals and partners to the 2-3 pm ET, Thursday, June 20, 2013 webinar on the 21st Century Extension Professionals Project. The flier found here can be used for publicity. To participate, go to https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/ecop.

Expanded Salary Data – The Excellence in Extension Implementation Team, chaired by Joe Zublena, North Carolina State University, announces expanded salary data now at www.excellenceinextension.org under the “personnel tab”. The goal is to replicate the salary survey previously conducted by USDA-NIFA. This data includes low, average, and high salary data points, and other important aspects for various Cooperative Extension positions. The data can be used to benchmark your institution against others similar in size and structure.

eXtension Impacts (by Sarah Baughman, eXtension Evaluation and Research Leader) –  To remain relevant, Cooperative Extension needs to reach and engage with the generation born in the digital age.  Ninety-one percent of those born between 1982 and 2004 are internet users who access information, entertainment and learning resources in vastly different formats than previous generations. eXtension leverages the resources of the CES to reach an online audience and engage with them through social media, Ask an Expert and various mobile applications. In 2012, eXtension and its Communities of Practice reached 25,493 people via online professional development, 378,202 people via Facebook, and 6,938,325 page views. eXtension engaged with users by answering 37,138 questions submitted via Ask an Expert, interacting on social media with 3,574,454 contacts, providing online course completion certificates to 10,958 people, providing 214 webinars for 14,539 participants and hosting 7,000 visitors in Second Life.

ESCOP Responds to PCAST Report – ESCOP Chair Mike Hoffmann, Cornell University, brings to your attention the ESCOP response to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) Report on Agricultural Preparedness and the Agriculture Research Enterprise. The response can be found here.

On Agriculture Research – The US Government Accountability Office GAO Report prepared a report, released April 3013, for the US Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry on Agricultural Research – Two USDA Agencies Can Enhance Safeguards against Project Duplication and Strengthen Collaborative Planning. See http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/653752.pdf.