ECOP Working for You - BAA Policy Board of Directors

Tim Cross, University of Tennessee,
represents Cooperative Extension on the
Policy Board of Directors.
His two-year term will be
completed in November 2015.

ECOP Working for You – Tim Cross, ECOP member and elected Cooperative Extension representative to the APLU Board on Agriculture Assembly Policy Board of Directors (PBD), is at a PBD meeting this week in Napa, CA. His responsibility is to represent the perspectives of Cooperative Extension, which have been vetted through ECOP. Discussions will focus on the AES-CES-AHS Communications and Marketing Project, the Antimicrobial Task Force, and committee actions related to budget and advocacy, legislation and policy, and setting direction for the future. Discussions will continue on the budget priority of water security and the initial efforts related to healthy food systems, healthy people. As PBD vice-chair, Cross is responsible for the BAA program at the APLU Annual Meeting, November 15-17, 2015 in Indianapolis. If you have ideas, he can be reached at tlcross@utk.edu.

ACTION: Award Nominations Due 6.1.15 – ECOP and USDA-NIFA announces the 2015 nomination process for the national Excellence in Extension and Diversity awards. The due date for nominations is June 1st at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time. Regions are subject to announcing earlier deadlines for their purposes. CLICK HERE for contact information by Region. For details and to access the online nomination forms go to: http://www.aplu.org/CESAwards. Questions can be directed to Sandy Ruble sandy.ruble@extension.org, ECOP Staff Associate. 

ACTION: Support 4-H Legacy Awards – Cathann Kress, Iowa State University, and Nick Place, University of Florida, both members of the National 4-H Council Board of Trustees, encourage your donations to the National 4-H Legacy Awards. Last year, Cooperative Extension raised $10,600 for this purpose and efforts are underway to meet or exceed this goal in 2015. Please consider donating to Legacy Awards today. (Just click on the link on the word “today” and it will take you to the online site to make your donation). For any questions, please contact Rachel Mentzer at rmentzer@4-h.org or 301-961-2940. 

Extension Names NEW eXtension Board – The eXtension Governing Committee, chaired by Dennis Calvin, Pennsylvania State University, has been disbanded and replaced by the new eXtension Foundation Board of Directors, reporting to ECOP. Officers and members for the new Board were elected and are as follows: CHAIR: Dennis Calvin (Northeast region/Penn State), VICE CHAIR/TREASURER: Vernon Jones (1890 region/Langston University), SECRETARY: Fred Schlutt (Western region/University of Alaska), Jason Henderson (North central region/Purdue), and Doug Steele (Southern region/Texas Agri-Life). Jane Schuchardt, ECOP Executive Director, and Jane Clary Loveless, USDA-NIFA National Program Leader, have been added as non-voting, ex officio members. Current action by the Board of Directors is to hire a new chief executive officer and refine a handbook for premium and basic members of eXtension. 

USDA-NIFA Seeks Peer Review Panelists – Cooperative Extension often asks how to be more competitive with grants available from USDA-NIFA. One answer is to assure more professionals who understand how Cooperative Extension “extends knowledge, changes lives” are on grants panels. To be placed in the pool of potential panelists for the Children, Youth and Families at Risk funding, please email cyfar@nifa.usda.gov with the subject line “CYFAR 2015 Peer Review Panel.” Volunteering for other panels is encouraged. 

Missouri University Extension Annual Report – Check out http://extension.missouri.edu/about/annual-reports.aspx for outcomes-based programming “extending knowledge, changing lives” under the leadership of ECOP member Michael Ouart, Vice Provost for Extension, University of Missouri.