Monday, June 18, 2018

Doug Steele Named APLU Vice President for Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resources


Peter McPherson, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) President, recently announced that Doug Steele will succeed Ian Maw who is retiring from the position effective December 31, 2018. ECOP Chair Chuck Hibberd commented, “On behalf of the Cooperative Extension Section, I am thrilled that Doug will be the new VP. His rich experience in Cooperative Extension and leadership roles on the Board on Agriculture Assembly and as ECOP Chair will give him the foundation to be a great leader and continued friend of Cooperative Extension.” 


Pioneering the Best Ideas and Methods for Leadership in Portland - The 2018 National Extension Directors and Administrators (NEDA) and Cooperative Extension Section Annual Business Meeting is scheduled for October 1-3 in Portland, Oregon. Cooperative Extension Section Leaders, together with key partners, will convene for deep conversation and collaboration. Participants will:
  • understand engagement in a broad context; 
  • be comfortable with the concept of building on engagement principles in their own sphere of influence; 
  • be motivated to “engage’ in learning more about and practicing engagement; 
  • deepen understanding of best practices for evaluating and reporting engagement; 
  • contribute to the understanding of an innovative, system-interdependent, solution-based approach to Urban Extension Programming, and 
  • collaborate with Director and Administrator colleagues to learn about Urban Extension Programming resources for the System and what leadership resources are needed to develop a system-wide Urban Initiative Implementation Plan.  
Look for the registration materials by email, scheduled for release this week!


Updated NIFA Policy Guide Webinars - Extension Directors and Administrators are invited to webinars to learn about proposed changes to the NIFA Federal Assistance Policy Guide (NIFA Policy Guide or Policy Guide), version dated October 2014. NIFA seeks stakeholder feedback on Draft 2018 NIFA Federal Assistance Policy Guide by 5:00pm ET, Monday, July 30, 2018. The webinars covering the new structure, enhanced navigability features, labeling of sections for audience applicability, and new sections and information (e.g. allowable costs) will be offered to COMPETITIVE grantees (June 26 from 1:30 to 3:00 pm eastern time) and for CAPACITY grantees (June 28 from 1:30 – 3:00 pm eastern time). For complete details go to https://nifa.usda.gov/policy-guide.


Illustration by Jonathan Bartlett
4-H Story Points to Land-grant Approach to Youth Development - Cultivating the Next Gen of 4-H, authored by retired Cooperative Extension/ECOP Executive Director Jane Schuchardt, appeared recently in the Nebraska Quarterly. Through the work of the ECOP 4-H Leadership Committee, the Cooperative Extension Section is committed to increasing participation in 4-H positive youth development through collaboration among Extension Administrators and Directors with USDA-NIFA and National 4-H Council partners. For more information on the 4-H/Cooperative Extension relationship or the Leadership Committee initiatives, contact Sandy Ruble sandyruble@extension.org.