Next Generation Extension - Learning for Leaders: Collaboration With NRCS

ECOP Chair Chuck Hibberd (L) and 1890s Region Executive Administrator,
Albert Essel (R) presenting during CES/ESS/USDA-NRCS Meeting, Ft. Collins, 8/15/18.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Land-grant University Cooperative Extension and Experiment Station Sections have worked collaboratively for decades on issues important to natural resource conservation, profitability of agricultural and natural resource enterprises and quality of life. Leaders from these three organizations from across the country met in Fort Collins, Colorado on August 14-15 to discuss potential strategies for how future collaboration can be even stronger. Meeting participants identified natural resource issues and functional and organizational initiatives to improve local, state and national partnerships across these three organizations. To learn more, go to the message to the Cooperative Extension Section dated 8/28/18. SAVE THE DATE: A special edition of Next Generation Extension - Learning for Leaders is scheduled for 3-4:00 p.m ET on Friday, September 14 for Directors and Administrators to have a conversation with NRCS. Connection details will be included in the invitation to attend.


Calls to Action In Review - Directors and Administrators are encouraged to view to the recorded conversation from last Friday, September 7 when Members of the Section conversed with ECOP Chair Chuck Hibberd, ECOP Budget & Legislative Committee Chair Jon Boren, CES Representative to Committee on Legislation and Policy, and Cornerstone Government Affairs' Hunt Shipman about how to make calls to action more effective. Please send questions and requests for more information to ecopblog@gmail.com.
     Recording: https://youtu.be/1u84ViHZO-s
     Important links to remember: www.agisamerica.org and www.land-grant.org
     PowerPoint: Calls to Action
     Survey Summary: Results


NEDA Registration Fee Increase - TODAY is the last day to register at the rate of $350 to attend the 2018 NEDA and Cooperative Extension Section Business Meeting, October 1-3. Also, the Embassy Suite Hotel Room Block, $224/night, expires today, at 11:59 p.m. ET. Go to http://www.cvent.com/d/0gqxkw for more information.

2018 EDEN Annual Conference - EDEN's Annual Meeting is taking place October 16th-19th in College Station, Texas. This meeting will celebrate the 24th anniversary of EDEN, a collaborative multistate effort by extension services across the country to improve the delivery of services to citizens affected by disasters. EDEN Annual Meeting Committee and local Texas hosts are preparing to make this meeting the most impactful meeting yet. The meeting is an opportunity for collaboration by providing a forum where important issues and big ideas can be discussed. Breakout sessions, panel discussions and keynote speakers will provide a glimpse into disaster programming throughout Extension. See https://eden.lsu.edu/educate/resources/2018-annual-meeting-college-station-texas/?tab=menu-registration for registration. Hotel information is included in the registration link. 

L-R: Co-facilitators Cathy Howard, Virginia Commonwealth University's Vice Provost,
Eric Barron, Penn State's President, and with panelists Jeff Alexander, RTI International,
Debbie Hughes, Business-Higher Education Forum, and Doug Steele incoming APLU
VP of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources at APLU, September 5, 2018

Cooperative Extension Involved in the CEO-CICEP Policy Briefing - The APLU CEO-CICEP (Council on Engagement and Outreach/Commission on Innovation, Competitiveness and Economic Prosperity) Public Policy Working Group, including Stephan Goetz from the Northeast Regional Rural Development Center, has prepared a set of federal- and university-level policy imperatives in Advancing University-engaged Economic and Societal Prosperity. The imperatives address five key national priorities in advancing economic and social prosperity: 1. Build a thriving rural America. 2. Meet the demands for 21st century talent through workforce development. 3. Secure American leadership in advanced manufacturing. 4. Stimulate and accelerate university-based innovation and entrepreneurship. 5. Foster equitable, inclusive economic opportunity and mobility. On September 5, Doug Steele, incoming APLU Vice President for Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources served as one of three thought leaders on the discussion panel. Directors and Administrators are encouraged to send comment/questions about this paper to Executive Director Rick Klemme rickklemme@extension.org, who will keep the Section informed in follow-up efforts.


NACo’s Creative Counties Placemaking Initiative - The National Association of Counties (NACo) and Americans for the Arts are collaborating on a multi-year project funded by the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to support counties as they work to identify and strengthen ways to integrate arts into solutions to local challenges. This project delivers a mix of in-person workshops, conference calls, webinars, and a monthly Creative Counties newsletter. Learn more about this project and sign-up for the free newsletter at www.naco.org/creativecounties. resources at: www.nado.org/readytodiversify. Questions or ideas? Contact Jenna Moran, NACo Program Manager for Resilience, at jmoran@naco.org.

Extension Opioid Crisis Response Workgroup Being Formed

The Extension Committee on Organization and Policy (ECOP) has entered into an agreement in partnership with US Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) (National Program Leaders, Ahlishia Shipley and Brent Elrod) to help coordinate the Land-grant University system's response to the opioid crisis. Several institutions have already identified evidence-based curriculum for replication nationally in response to the first ever Cooperative Extension Section Next Generation Extension - Learning for Leaders Web Conference. In this new agreement a set of 9 activities will culminate in the writing of a report for ECOP within a six-month period. The formation of the Extension Opioid Crisis Response Workgroup, a group of opioid experts from the Land-grant system will serve as a resource and provide input. Those with expertise and interest in serving on this workgroup are urged to contact Mark Skidmore (mskidmor@msu.edu) Director of the North Central Regional Rural Development Center, the lead coordinator for this effort. Last week, USDA launched a webpage highlighting resources to help rural communities address the opioid crisis: https://www.usda.gov/topics/opioids.

Register for the APLU CEO-CICEP Summer Meeting - Extension Directors and Administrators are cordially invited to join university economic development, community engagement, public service and outreach officers in Richmond, VA from June 25-28 for the 2018 CEO-CICEP Joint Summer Meeting. The theme is Creative Placemaking for Healthy Communities. The meeting will explore creative placemaking in action via university partnerships in the arts, health and innovation. Through presentations, interactive sessions, and field experiences, participants will gain new insights into how public research universities as key “anchor institutions” leverage innovative and interdisciplinary strategies to address complex social and economic challenges facing our communities. The meeting will also feature APLU’s 5th annual Innovation & Economic Prosperity Universities Program workshop. Note that early registration rates end in early March.


There’s Still Time to Respond to the 2017 Census of Agriculture - As of today, the return rate on the 3 million 2017 Census of Agriculture questionnaires mailed last fall is just over 40 percent. Though making progress every day, USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) needs to hear from the rest of the producers. More details of the obligation to complete the census may be found in the February 5th edition of the ECOP Monday Minute. For questions about or assistance filling out the census, producers can call toll-free (888) 424-7828. Please help NASS spread the word that farmers and ranchers still have time to be counted in the 2017 Census of Agriculture.


Climate Change Papers Available For Review - Extension Directors and Administrators are encouraged to review materials shared by Sonny Ramaswamy, Director of USDA-NIFA, last week, Climate Change Papers from NIFA-Funded Colleagues. This is good background for an upcoming Next Generation Extension - Learning for Leaders Web Conference which occurs on the first Friday of the month, 3:00-4:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Please stay tuned for more information and contact Executive Director Rick Klemme rickklemme@extension.org for more information.

2017 NEDA Photo Highlights

Extension administrators, associate administrators, directors, and associate directors, from 47 US States, District of Columbia, and 3 US Territories met in Burlington, Vermont last week for the 2017 National Extension Directors and Administrators (NEDA) and Cooperative Extension Section Meeting. 106 participants in all enjoyed a series of interactive professional development presentations and panels. The Program presentations will soon be available here on the ECOP Monday Minute, NEDA Links and Downloads (right panel of web view). ECOP met as well in conjunction with NEDA; CLICK HERE to view that agenda.

 

 

Hold the Date-New Administrators' Orientation December 12-14 in Alexandria, VA - Lyla Houglum and Robin Shepard (EDA Team) have been working with Wendy Fink (APLU), Eric Young (ESCOP), and Bill Hoffman (USDA-NIFA) on a wonderful opportunity for new Deans, Directors, Administrators or other Land Grant administrators, even those with a few years’ experience. This workshop is intended for individuals who are part of the APLU Board on Agriculture Assembly and their supporting administrators or faculty and U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute for Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) personnel who have entered an administrative position since 2013 and any others who would like to learn more about APLU, the land-grant university system, BAA, and USDA-NIFA. Information presented will be particularly useful to administrative heads, directors, associate/assistant directors, and USDA-NIFA national program leaders and administrators. For more information on the orientation learning objectives or to register for the workshop CLICK HERE.

National Impacts Database Team Report - www.landgrantimpacts.org was established five years ago, and it now contains 2,144 statements from throughout the system. In 2014 and 2015 submissions peaked with approximately 600 impact statements were received each year, while in 2016 saw just 324 statements were added. While there are some outstanding examples of strong, high-impact programs projects in the database, many entries are not well written or lacked demonstrated impact. As a result, a Content Writing team was initiated, composed of 2 communication writers from each region who have experience in writing impact statements. The content team met in 2015, 2016 & 2017, with funding support by ECOP and ESCOP. This team reviews impact statements that have been entered by the states and edits them into high-quality impact statements. These statements are used under the “Areas of Impact” section on the front page of the website. Over the last year, a national team of impact writing experts created an online training that is available through eXtension, and groups of content committee members have presented several regional impact writing trainings upon request. At last count, more than 700 individuals had completed the online training, but only 28 of the 303 editors, who actually input statements into www.landgrantimpacts.org, have completed the training. The Content Team has noted that the quality of impact statements from the 1890 institutions has increased significantly over the past year, attributed in part to a face-to-face training that was held with the 1890 institutions this past year. ECOP Appointee Karla Trautman, South Dakota State University, karla.trautman@sdstate.edu, co-chairs the National Impacts Database Team with Bill Brown, University of Tennessee AgResearch.


Making the Extension + Engagement Connection through APLU, Get Engaged in the 2018 CEO/CICEP Summer Meeting in Richmond, VA - The APLU Council on Engagement and Outreach (CEO) and Commission on Innovation, Competitiveness, and Economic Prosperity (CICEP) will hold a joint summer meeting June 25 – 28 in Richmond, VA, hosted by Virginia Commonwealth University. CEO and CICEP invites Cooperative Extension professionals to attend this meeting, and look forward to enriching the engagement conversation with the Extension perspective. Please save the dates and plan to attend. To receive email notification when meeting registration is available, contact Jim Woodell at APLU (jwoodell@aplu.org). Jim is also accepting ideas for sessions for the Planning Committee to consider that would fit the theme of Creative Placemaking for Healthy Communities, meant to explore the intersection of Extension and broader university engagement. Sessions will focus on collaborations that are tackling cultural, economic and social issues which impact the health and well-being of our communities. Exploration is underway with the Rural Regional Development Centers about a session that might contrast these kinds of partnership development in rural and urban regions. Stay tuned to the ECOP Monday Minute over the next few months to discover ways in which Cooperative Extension and CEO/CICEP might build stronger connections.

Extension Disaster Education Network

Supported by NIFA, Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN) is a collaborative multi-state effort with land-grant universities and Cooperative Extension Services across the country, using research-based education and resources to improve the delivery of services to citizens affected by disasters. EDEN's goal is to improve the nation's ability to mitigate, prepare for, prevent, respond to and recover from disasters. EDEN equips county-based Extension educators to share research-based resources in local disaster management and recovery efforts. The EDEN website offers a searchable database of Extension professionals, resources, member universities and disaster agency websites, education materials to help people handle a wide range of hazards and food and agricultural defense educational resources. Steve Cain, Purdue Extension Disaster Communication Specialist and the Indiana Point of Contact for the Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN) will be presenting at the upcoming NEDA conference.

Jim Woodell, APLU

Exploring Intersections of University Engagement and Extension -  Participants in two of APLU’s member groups—the Council on Engagement and Outreach (CEO) and the Commission on Innovation, Competitiveness, and Economic Prosperity (CICEP)—are focused on developing tools and resources to help universities create and demonstrate economic and societal impact, and both groups are interested in engaging the Cooperative Extension perspective and experience in this work. Please consider contacting APLU Vice President for Economic Development and Community Engagement Jim Woodell jwoodell@aplu.org to express interest in connecting with one or both of these APLU groups. For those attending NEDA in Vermont, please note that Jim will be there.

Ag Census Survey Opportunity is Coming Soon - In just a couple months, farmers and ranchers across the nation will start receiving the 2017 Census of Agriculture. Producers can mail in their completed census form, or respond online via the improved web questionnaire. The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) has extensively revised the online questionnaire this year to make it more convenient than ever. Very user-friendly, it can now be used on any electronic device, and can be saved and revisited as time allows. Responding online saves time and protects data quality, and better data mean informed decisions; that’s why it is so important that every producer be represented! New timesaving features of the online questionnaire include automatically calculating totals, skipping sections that do not pertain to the operation, and providing dropdown menus of frequent responses. Producers still have until October 1 to try the online questionnaire demo on the Census of Agriculture website. For more information about the 2017 Census of Agriculture, visit www.agcensus.usda.gov or call (800) 727-9540. The Census of Agriculture is a producer’s voice, future, and opportunity.

CYFAR’s 25th Anniversary Celebration of Great Collaborative Work with the Land-grant and Cooperative Extension Systems - NIFA acknowledges the CYFAR (Children, Youth and Families at Risk) Program as the 25th year of program funding in the report CYFAR at 25 Years: What Are They Doing Now? During this time period, CYFAR has served over 250,000 children, youth and parents.  The report offers just a few examples of how the Extension educators and other caring adults have impacted the lives of past participants, youth and adult, regarding their career/life choices. The projects are representative of the 1862, 1890 and 1994 Institutions. Though, at this time the 1890 and 1862 Universities are eligible for CYFAR funding, the eligible institutions have forged partnerships with the 1994 Institutions in some cases. Some state accomplishments, scope of project totals, and state highlighted projects are also included in the impact report.

EDEN Looks Ahead

Ed Jones (Virginia Tech), Nick Place (University of Florida),
Fred Schlutt (University of Alaska),
Chris Boerboom (North Dakota State University),
and Larry Katz (Rutgers)

Charting a course for Extension disaster education was the focus of a work session last week in Indianapolis. Joining representatives from the Extension Disaster Education Network’s (EDEN) executive committee were five Cooperative Extension directors, a USDA-NIFA liaison, and the ECOP Executive Director. Carolyn Williams, Prairie View A&M University, was also part of the team. The meeting provided input on how the network will expand its accomplishments from its first 20 years working at the local, state, national, and international levels. Discussion was informed by the results of the recent survey of Extension directors/administrators and EDEN delegates. Thanks is extended to those who completed the survey. The relationship between EDEN leadership, Extension directors/administrations, and ECOP is critical for Extension educators to be ready to serve local communities in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from disasters. For more information on EDEN visit www.EDEN.lsu.edu or contact Mike Yoder, EDEN Chair, mjyoder@ncsu.edu. Nick Place, University of Florida, serves as ECOP Liaison to EDEN.

ECOP Working for YOU at NEDA 2015 –

ECOP Chair Delbert Foster, South Carolina State University, invites you to the annual Cooperative Extension Section business meeting Wednesday morning at the National Extension Directors and Administrators (NEDA) Meeting October 12-14, 2015 in St. Louis. Learn the latest on the proposed 4-H field marketing plan, USDA-NIFA partnership priorities, and the status of SNAP-ED funding, along with a brief overview of ECOP’s major initiatives. NEDA registration is available at a reduced fee until 9.22.15 at www.cvent.com/d/wrq424. 

Dennis Calvin, chair (Pennsylvania State),
Jason Henderson (Purdue University),
Doug Steele (Texas A&M AgriLife Extension),
Fred Schlutt (University of Alaska),
and Vernon Jones (Langston University)

NEW eXtension Highlights Innovation – eXtension Foundation Board of Directors were on hand last week in Indianapolis to learn about new directions for eXtension. Innovation was the theme with eXtension Fellows, Innovation grantees and select user community/learning network leaders showcasing their work. The Board also met to review and approve plans and policies for eXtension. For a complete update, all eXtension members and others attending NEDA 2015 are welcome to the eXtension Foundation Membership Meeting 11:30 – Noon, Wednesday, October 14, 2015 in St. Louis. 

Tourism Conference Set for October – The National Extension Tourism Conference (NET 2015) http://extensiontourism.net is in Galveston, Texas October 27-30, 2015. The theme Coast to Coast, Tourism Matters focuses on the role that tourism plays in many aspects of business, community and agricultural landowner operations. For more information, see http://extensiontourism.net/conference/. 

Economic Engagement Focus of Toolkit – The APLU Commission on Innovation, Competitiveness, and Economic Prosperity (CICEP) has developed an Economic Engagement Framework to help universities plan, implement, assess, and advance economic engagement efforts. See http://www.aplu.org/CICEPFramework.