ECOP Seeks Executive Director

ECOP has launched a search committee chaired by Fred Schlutt, University of Alaska, to name a DC-based executive director. ECOP encourages your assistance in recruiting appropriate applicants. See http://bit.ly/ECOPEDSearch. The current ECOP Executive Director, Jane Schuchardt, who has served since 2011, has resigned to return to the farm in Nebraska. It is expected the transition will occur near the end of 2016. 

Measuring Excellence Database Wraps Up in 2016 – The Cooperative Extension Measuring Excellence in Extension (MEiE) Implementation Team recently completed a study of the status of participation in and use of the MEiE database. In spite of excellent and consistent work of the MEiE Implementation Team and diligent work of the staff associated with the database, participation in and use of the database by Directors and Administrators and others is at such a level that the usefulness of the data is questionable. After considering the options provided from the survey conducted by the MEiE Implementation Team, the ECOP Executive Committee and ECOP approved that funding for the MEiE database be discontinued at the end of 2016. ECOP Chair Michelle Rodgers has expressed appreciation to Scott Cummings, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, and the team for designing and maintaining the tool. Efforts associated with the impacts database www.landgrantimpacts.org, also managed at Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, will continue under the leadership of the ECOP-ESCOP Impacts Database Committee, Tim Cross, chair, University of Tennessee. 

Celvia Stovall, Alabama A&M University, and
Gary Lemme, Auburn University

Alabama Extension Reports Impacts – Check out for the 2015 impact report and short video http://www.aces.edu/impact/# summarizing the return on investment (ROI) for Alabama residents resulting from direct contact with Alabama Cooperative Extension programs. Thanks to ECOP member Celvia Stovall, Extension Associate Director, Alabama A&M University, and Gary Lemme, Extension Director, Auburn University, for sharing this approach. About the report, Lemme says, “We are very conservative in our ROI calculations and only include public funds in the cost structure.” 

Beverly Coberly, University of Missouri

Coberly Named COO for eXtension – Dennis Calvin, Chair, eXtension Foundation Board of Directors, Pennsylvania State University, announces the hiring of Beverly Coberly as eXtension’s part-time chief operative officer (COO) effective 9.12.16. Beverly comes to this role from University of Missouri Extension, where she held a steady progression of administrative leadership roles, most recently Associate Vice-Provost and Associate Director. For more information, see https://extension.org/2016/07/28/beverly-coberly-appointed-new-coo/. 

Journal Article Features Extension Funding and ROI – For a new analysis of funding for U.S. public agricultural research and Extension and new evidence on rates of return to investments in these activities, see W.E. Huffman, “New Insights on the Impacts of Public Agricultural Research and Extension,” Choices 31 (2nd Quarter 2016): 1-6 or online at http://www.choicesmagazine.org/choices-magazine/theme-articles/a-future-informed-by-agricultural-sciences/new-insights-on-the-impacts-of-public-agricultural-research-and-extension.