PILD Session for Directors/Administrators 4.11.16

Rick Klemme, University of Wisconsin; Doug Steele, Texas A&M University; Jim Richards,
Cornerstone Government Affairs; and Stan Moore, Michigan State University

The ECOP Budget and Legislative Committee (BLC), chaired by Rick Klemme, University of Wisconsin, invites Cooperative Extensions Directors and Administrators to a one-hour session, 4:00 p.m. ET, 4.11.16 at the Pubic Issues Leadership Development (PILD) conference, Hyatt Regency, Crystal City, VA. The session titled National Leadership: Advocacy and Action will feature Klemme along with Doug Steele, BLC vice-chair, Texas A&M University; Jim Richards, Cornerstone Government Affairs, and Stan Moore, Joint Council on Extension Professionals (JCEP) representative, Michigan State University. Learn about the current status of federal budget advocacy efforts and discussions about Extension as a national system. 

Virtual Communications Camp Applications Due 4.15.16 – Up to five teams will be selected to participate in the first Virtual Communications Camp, the culmination of an eXtension innovation project awarded in June 2015. Developed and taught by Becky Koch and Bob Bertsch, communications professionals, North Dakota State University, the online camp is based on the successful in-person camp they have been hosting for the last four years. Participants will work on planning their institution's communication strategy (goals, target audiences, key messages, and user scenarios) and applying them to specific tools (web pages, social media posts, news releases, videos) The no-cost, 8-week program begins May 6, 2016. For details, see https://extension.org/2016/04/06/virtual-communication-camp-applications-due-april-15/. 

Chronic Disease Prevention & Management, Health In All Policies Education,
Health Insurance Literacy, Positive Youth Development for Health,
and Health Literacy Action Teams are listed at http://bit.ly/ECOPHealthTeams

One Extension, One Health – All Extension programs ultimately engage and impact human health emerged as a general theme of the pre-conference to the 2016 National Health Outreach Conference last week in Roanoke. The ECOP-ESCOP Health Implementation Team composed of action team leaders for health literacy, health insurance literacy, positive youth development for health, chronic disease prevention and management, and health in all policies education helped engage 75 Extension professionals in a World Café session. Other common themes of the fast-paced informational gathering session focused on motivating changed behavior at the individual and community levels, being guided by the socio-ecological framework, and connecting partners for positive action. Watch the ECOP Monday Minute for periodic reports of news you and your colleagues can use from the health action teams. 

Name JOE Institutional Delegate – Ami Smith, West Virginia State University, ECOP representative to the Extension Journal Inc. Board of Directors, encourages all directors/administrators to name an institutional delegate. During its meeting late March 2016 in Starkville, MS, the Board changed the name from institutional liaison to delegate. They are responsible for maintaining the Journal of Extension’s (JOE) visibility as a professional resource within their institution, engaging in active promotion and marketing of JOE, and informing colleagues about the National Job Bank. Letters were sent to each institution with this request. In other business, the Board considered a special issue on “innovation” and began work on a new strategic plan. 

Extension Leaders Highlight PILD Conference This Week – Doug Steele, Director, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, kicks off the Joint Council of Extension Professionals (JCEP) Public Issues Leadership Development conference today in Crystal City, VA. In a separate session, ECOP updates of interest to Extension professionals will be provided along with comments by Sonny Ramaswamy, USDA-NIFA Director, and Tim Cross, University of Tennessee, Chair of the National Impacts Database Committee. The capstone speaker is Chris Geith, CEO, eXtension Foundation. More information about the conference is available at www.jcep.org. 

LESS THAN 3 WEEKS LEFT: Awards Reminder-Nominate by 5.1.16 – ECOP in partnership with USDA-NIFA offers the 2016 nomination process for the national Excellence in Extension and Diversity awards. The due date for on-line nominations is May 1, 2016 at 5:00p.m. Pacific Time. 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.