Urban Conference Proposals Due 9.30.16

ECOP Monday Minute will return on 8.29.16. 

The University of Minnesota Extension and the National Urban Extension Leaders (NUEL) announce a call for proposals for the National Urban Extension Conference on Engaging in Collective Purpose in Bloomington, Minnesota, May 7-11, 2017. For details, see https://t.co/hSXJ4v5wWM. The conference website is https://sites.google.com/a/umn.edu/urbanextensionconference2017/index. Extension professionals from all program areas can share research and innovative educational strategies that address the needs of urban, suburban, and peri-urban populations as well as urban-rural interdependencies. Journey for Diversity and Human Rights, a three-day tour designed for community leaders and educators, will take participants to the places that history has marked as pivot points in the state’s judgements on collective values and their effects on the state’s original peoples, workers, women, and communities. ECOP member Chris Boerboom, North Dakota State University, is the liaison to NUEL. An ECOP 2016 priority is to enhance Extension urban programming while maintaining a strong presence in rural places. 

Growth Plan for eXtension Communities – The eXtension Foundation Board of Directors chaired by Dennis Calvin, Pennsylvania State University, directs your attention to the new eXtension Growth Plan for eXtension Communities of Practice and Learning Networks. The plan supports the new eXtension focus on issues, innovation and impact. Work addresses one or more county, area, state or national levels and is designed to garner program visibility and measurable impact. Existing communities can build upon established resources, keep what is working, retire low impact activity, and experiment with establishing new cohorts as a complete community or segments of an existing community. They will have the opportunity to narrow their focus on a county, state or national issue and leverage i-Three Issues Corps strategies. New communities can begin as an Issue Corps cohort and leverage existing eXtension publishing tools and services. 

4-H Science Day $50,000 Award Letters of Intent Due 9.2.16 – The deadline is fast approaching to express interest in creating the 2017 4-H engineering challenge. 4-H National Headquarters at USDA-NIFA and the National 4-H Council invite Cooperative Extension faculty and staff at all land-grant universities to submit a proposal detailing an innovative engineering design challenge for youth to conduct during the 2017 4-H National Youth Science Day. The winning application will receive a $50,000 award. The 2017 subject area focus is "wearable technology." To apply, go to http://grants.4-h.org/index.do. Letters of intent are due on September 2. Top applicants will be notified on September 12 and asked to submit a full application by October 28. Direct questions to 4HNYSD@4-H.org. 

Food and Agriculture Sciences Nominations Due 10.3.16 – Mid-career Extension professionals are encouraged to review requirements for the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) award provided in partnership with the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Beginning in 2017, the new $100,000 prize will recognize one annual mid-career recipient for an extraordinary contribution to agriculture or to the understanding of the biology of a species fundamentally important to agriculture or food production. The prize is endowed in perpetuity. For details, see Learn More | How to Nominate. 

USDA State Fact Sheets – The USDA Economic Research Service has updated its data sets on population, income, education, employment, federal funds, organic agriculture, farm characteristics, farm financial indicators, top commodities, and exports for each state in the United States. Some county-level data also is available. See http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/state-fact-sheets.aspx.