ECOP Monday Minute 7.29.13

ECOP Meets in Manhattan – ECOP Chair Daryl Buchholz, Kansas State University, welcomed ECOP members to Manhattan last week for the Joint COPs meeting. Among key ECOP actions were naming of a work group to review assessments, accepting a report of the eXtension external review, considering renewal of contracts related to work of the Communications and Marketing Committee, and approving a National 4-H Partners Memorandum of Understanding for signature. Watch the ECOP Monday Minute for further details.

ACTION: Comment on AFRI – The National Research Council, which is reviewing the USDA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), is conducting a web-based solicitation to seek input broadly from research, academic and Extension leadership. Go to http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1257840/AFRI-Solicitation-of-Input to participate. The deadline is August 15, 2013. Comments in the letter sent by ECOP for the AFRI listening session in early 2012 may be helpful.

ECOP Comments on AFRI Water Challenge Area – See https://www.aplu.org/document.doc?id=4662 for the ECOP letter sent to USDA-NIFA regarding the proposed new AFRI challenge area on water resources for FY 2014. Others are encouraged to submit written comments which are due July 30, 2013.  For the Federal Register announcement (July 8, 2013, Vol. 78, No. 130, p. 40689), go to http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-07-08/html/2013-16204.htm.

Align and Elevate Project Update – A summary for the Aligning and Elevating University-Based Low-Income Nutrition Education project may be accessed at https://www.aplu.org/document.doc?id=4660. This project is funded by USDA-NIFA in support of land-grant university EFNEP and SNAP-Ed efforts. ECOP members Jimmy Henning, University of Kentucky, and Mary Jane Willis, Rutgers University, attended the meeting in April 2013 in Washington, DC.

4-H Horizons Newsletter – See https://www.aplu.org/document.doc?id=4661 for the Horizons newsletter (summer edition) from USDA-NIFA.