Monday, August 26, 2019

Joint ESS/CES-NEDA Meeting is Just Around the Corner


The ECOP Monday Minute returns on Monday, September 9, 2019. 
Have a safe Labor Day weekend!


The Joint ESS/CES-NEDA meeting begins 4 weeks from today! Land-grant Extension and Experiment Station Administrators and Directors will convene in Nashville, TN on September 23-26. Joint sessions topics include design thinking, NIFA partnership, personnel management best practices, and value proposition-creating client loyalty. The ECOP and ESCOP Budget and Legislative Committees will meet for a noon luncheon meeting on the 24th. For partners or loved ones traveling with faculty to Nashville, Guest Registration ($175; individual's personal email address and emergency contact required) is available to attend evening events. Click Here to learn what is included and to register. To view the most recent draft agenda, please go to http://www.cvent.com/d/66qy1n. Mark calendars now for next year - 2020 NEDA is September 22-25!


Learning for Leaders Update - Stay tuned to email for more details on next conversation topic, Trust in Food: rebuilding public confidence in the U.S. agri-food value chain, on Friday, September 6, 2019, 3-4:00 p.m. ET.
Connection details:
      https://extension.zoom.us/j/129450710
      Dial by your location
            646-876-9923 (New York)
            669-900-6833 (San Jose)
      Meeting ID: 129 450 710#


eXtension Seeking Partner & Development Specialist - On behalf of the eXtension Board of Directors, the eXtension Foundation is seeking an individual to design and implement strategies for external and internal partnerships and fund-development relationships. Outside of a longstanding and meaningful contact list of their own, the candidate will be able to identify and execute on unique business opportunities that exist in collaboration among Corporations, Foundations, and nonprofit organizations. In partnership with the Chief Executive Officer, this position is responsible for partnership development and the development of additional funding for eXtension and the Cooperative Extension System (CES). Learn more and apply here.


Farm Foundation Catalyst Newsletter - The Farm Foundation's mission is to connect leaders in farming, business, academia, organizations and government through proactive, rigorous debate and objective issue analysis. The Farm Foundation produces a newsletter that highlights forums and conferences on various agricultural topics. Go here for the most recent newsletter and/or to sign up.

Monday, August 19, 2019

Cooperative Extension System/ECOP Seeks Executive Director

The Extension Committee on Organization and Policy (ECOP) is accepting applications for the Cooperative Extension System/ECOP Executive Director. The complete announcement is found at bit.ly/ExtEDinDC. The full-time position will be based in Washington, DC. Applications will be reviewed by the Executive Director Search Advisory Committee when received and continue until the position is filled. Preference will be given to applications received by September 27, 2019.


Opportunity to Host the National Health Outreach Conference - The call for proposals to host the 2020 National Health Outreach Conference (NHOC) is open! The National Health Outreach Conference (formerly Priester Conference) was established after ECOP adopted the Cooperative Extension’s National Framework for Health and Wellness in 2014. The NHOC was first held in 2015 and has been hosted annually since its inception by a land-grant partner. The conference was renamed for the “purpose of greater integration of health stakeholders and current cultural change.” Please contact Ahlishia Shipley for the proposal application and additional information. Applications are due September 9, 2019.


Ask Extension, Applying Artificial Intelligence to Extension - An initial landscape investigation and overview was completed by eXtension's 2019 Artificial Intelligence Fellow, David Warren, Oklahoma State University. This investigation looks at one solution to the problem of information fragmentation and “findability” of research-based answers with local relevance: the creation of a distributed Ask Extension data registry and search interfaces. Learn more and read the full report here. Direct questions regarding the report to David Warren at david.warren10@okstate.edu.


Cooperative Extension and Data Science: A Strategy for Boosting Rural Economic Prosperity - In June 2018, the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation funded a workshop at North Carolina State University in partnership with Research Triangle Institute to explore leveraging Cooperative Extension’s structure to bring Data Science capability to rural areas to enhance economic prosperity. The workshop report identifies concrete next steps, follow-on efforts and recommendations on how to leverage land-grant universities and Cooperative Extension to transfer data science education, activities and literacy to the nation. The report is available at  http://go.ncsu.edu/nsf.sloan.report.

Monday, August 12, 2019

Building Relationships News

Cooperative Extension is a relational system that leverages public investment with a wide range of partnerships. Likewise, on behalf of the entire Cooperative Extension Section (CES), ECOP maintains a number of mutually beneficial relationships with partner organizations including its collective dealings with the APLU. Recent relational assignments include:
Please join ECOP Chair Ed Jones in thanking these people and their respective administrations for stepping up to their voluntary national duties. ECOP in relationship with the five Regional Associations, devotes a total of 3.25 FTE from EDA Team to staff the complexities of these national relationships.


Well Connected Communities Wave 2 Pre-award Request for Applications: Informational Call - As reported earlier here and here, Wave 2 funding of Well Connected Communities, is coming soon! Today ECOP and National 4-H Council (Council), through a competitive grant opportunity from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), announces a special informational call on September 5, 2019 from 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET to learn more about the Well Connected Communities initiative pre-award Request for Applications (RFA) submission process. All Land-Grant Universities (LGUs) and the Cooperative Extension System within the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and U.S. Territories are invited to Click Here to register and become part of the groundbreaking health initiatives of Cooperative Extension and anticipated funding from RWJF; helping to drive transformational change to create the conditions that will foster a Culture of Health in communities across America. Note: The RFA will be posted before the call on September 5. Stay tuned to the ECOP Monday Minute for information on where to access the RFA. Questions can be directed to Shay McNeil at Council; smcneil@fourhcouncil.edu, 301-961-2858.


National eXtension Impact Collaborative Summit - The Cooperative Extension Section is reminded that a national Impact Collaborative Summit, with the benefit of five free registrations for each eXtension membership, is coming on October 15 - 17, 2019 to Atlanta, GA. The registration deadline is September 20, 2019. Additional project or program teams or team members are welcome to join with payment of a registration fee. Summits are designed to catalyze teams in their various stages of either planning or implementation. This includes individualized support to help propel teams through their journey towards launching their project or program. Click here to learn more, and visit here to learn more about team results and success stories.


New Strategy to Reach Stakeholders - Positive, effective outreach to new and existing stakeholders is at the core of any community-based, educational program such as Extension. Projects in Iowa and Nebraska celebrate current owners of unclaimed, mid-1800s land granted by the federal government to states to establish a university. Both have resulted in extensive, positive visibility for Iowa State University (ISU) and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and their respective Extension function. Ray Hansen, Program Manager, ISU Extension and Outreach, coordinated the Iowa Land-Grant Legacy Project which launched in September 2016 at the Clay County Fair. Nebraska followed Iowa’s lead in 2019 under the leadership of Chuck Hibberd, Nebraska Extension Dean and Director. Nebraska Land-Grant Connects maps 135,000 land-grant acres, the sale or lease of which contributed to opening university doors in Lincoln 150 years ago. Current efforts in Nebraska focus on county and state fair recognitions of landowners, some of which have retained the land in one family for more than 150 years. A special emphasis is placed on past and current connections to the university as a student, 4-H member or other means.

Monday, August 5, 2019

Coming Together for Racial Understanding Update

The Coming Together for Racial Understanding project team is launching its second train-the-trainer cohort on October 7-11, 2019, in Bloomington, MN. Teams of three per state are invited to participate, with priority given to states that did not participate in the first event last August. A preview webinar is scheduled for August 13, at 11:00 a.m. ET. Key topics will include ideal team characteristics, participant commitments, travel assistance for 1890/1994 employees, and highlighted learnings from the first cohort. The webinar link is https://msstateextension.zoom.us/j/6623255885 or join by phone: dial: +1 408 638 0968 (US Toll) Meeting ID: 662 325 5885. The project site is: http://srdc.msstate.edu/civildialogue/. For more information, contact Rachel Welborn, Southern Rural Development Center, rachel.welborn@msstate.edu.



APLU Annual Meeting - All CES Members are invited/encouraged to attend the APLU Annual Meeting. There are no formal ECOP meetings planned to take place there at this time. There will be a BAA Awards presentations (including Cooperative Extension) early on Sunday morning, November 9 and a BAA Business Meeting on Monday morning, November 10. Cooperative Extension is co-sponsoring sessions consistent with the theme, In Service, throughout the meeting; details forthcoming! The link to begin registration and reserve a hotel room is found here, noting that the hotel reservations are encouraged ASAP. Dates/locations 2020-2023 for this meeting can be found here.



Cooperative Extension, Public Outreach Unite to Increase Funding for Agricultural Research and Education - The Charles Valentine Riley Memorial Foundation (RMF) partnered with Land-Grant institutions, Non-Land Grant Colleges of Agriculture (NLGCA), and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to showcase how turning research into practical applications advances agricultural enterprises, strengthens the nation’s food security and improves the health of residents in rural and urban communities. The new RMF publication, Cooperative Extension and Public Outreach: Advancing Agriculture and Improving Lives, features 22 success stories that outline the array of programs and services extension and public outreach offer. For more information read the entire report, Cooperative Extension and Public Outreach: Advancing Agriculture and Improving Lives, the Overview Brochure, and the News Release.



Connecting Economic Prosperity and Cooperative Extension – APLU's Commission on Economic and Community Engagement (CECE) invites Extension leaders to become involved in their university’s pursuit of Innovation & Economic Prosperity (IEP) University designation. The program was established by and for CECE members (Directors and Administrators may join for free) to help universities more effectively know, measure, and tell their economic engagement impact while providing due recognition for universities that have demonstrated an institution-wide, sustainable, and substantive commitment to holistic economic and community engagement. Since 2013, 21 land-grant universities of more than 65 institutions, including non-landgrants, large and small, rural and urban, have earned this distinction and strengthened their institution’s economic and community engagement enterprise through the IEP process. Another 7-10 land-grants are in either in a start-up cohort or have expressed interest in applying. To apply, presidents/chancellors must submit a letter of intent (template provided) to APLU President Peter McPherson. Learn more by visiting APLU.org/IEP and contact Shalin Jyotishi sjyotishi@aplu.org for deeper inquiry. Deadline to receive letters of intent is 10/31.