Water Security on NC-FAR Agenda

Water Security on NC-FAR Agenda – Steve Slack, ESCOP Immediate Past-Chair, Ohio State University, and Robin Shepard, Executive Director, North Central Cooperative Extension Association, will brief members of the National Coalition for Food and Agriculture Research www.ncfar.org on funding needs related to water security at its annual meeting 4.7.15 in Washington, DC. This FY 2017 federal budget request is an effort of the APLU Board on Agriculture Assembly (BAA) with primary leadership by ECOP and ESCOP. Considerable effort and extensive review at all levels of the BAA resulted in the budget request National Initiative on the Improvement of U.S. Water Security. Jimmy Henning, ECOP Immediate Past Chair, University of Kentucky, and Slack co-chaired the work with key support by Shepard and Mike Harrington, Executive Director, Western Association of Agricultural Experiment Station Directors.

Unifying Message Initiative Continues with Focus Group – Wendy Wintersteen, Dean of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State University and President of the Riley Memorial Foundation http://rileymemorial.org/, announces a University Unifying Message Focus Group 4.6.15 in Washington, DC. This is a step in implementing actions related to the paper Pursuing a Unifying Message: Elevating Food, Agricultural and Natural Resources Research as a National Priority. Greg Bohach, chair of the APLU Board on Agriculture Assembly (BAA) Committee on Legislation and Policy, Mississippi State University, will moderate the focus group of about 20 invited participants plus additional observers. Jane Schuchardt, Cooperative Extension/ECOP Executive Director, is a focus group participant. 

Directors/Administrators to Meet at PILD – Join ECOP Budget and Legislative Chair Rick Klemme, University of Wisconsin Extension, and Vice Chair Doug Steele, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, for a session focused on the both-and of competitive and capacity federal funding during the PILD conference www.jcep.org in Washington, DC. The session 4:15-5:30 p.m. Wednesday, 4.14.15, at Crystal City, VA Hyatt will focus the critical need to understanding and participation in advocacy efforts on behalf of Extension at the national level. Find out how the ECOP Budget and Legislative Committee (BLC) engages Extension Directors and Administrators to identify and prioritize funding needs and to strategically target federal resources in support of base capacity funds and expanded program opportunities. Updates will be provided by the BLC and Cornerstone Government Affairs, as well as discussion on current and future funding priorities. 

Jon Boren, New Mexico State University 
ECOP Program Committee Co-chair

National Leadership Spotlight on Jon Boren – ECOP member Jon Boren, New Mexico State University, is completing a two-year term as Cooperative Extension representative on the LEAD-21 www.lead-21.org Board of Directors. Beverly Durgan, University of Minnesota, will assume this role in June 2015 at the next Board meeting. Nick Place, University of Florida, also represents Cooperative Extension on the Board. 

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.