Extension Updates

To assure that all of you are kept up to date on a regular basis, the three regional directors and the state Extension Administration Office provides bi-weekly Extension Updates. This forum is for all Extension announcements, so if you have something to distribute, please forward it to Lori Bates with FOR EXTENSION UPDATE noted.

July 19, 2013

On Behalf of JoAnn Powell and the State Extension Administration Office:


Greetings,

Hope all is going well as we reach the mid-way point of summer; fairs and community celebrations are underway in many counties, with others just around the corner. Hope each of you has planned some time to kick back, relax, and renew.

New Staff

Markley Walsh is the new 4-H — youth development agent in Weld County. Markley started June 1. She recently completed the requirements for her master’s degree in agricultural Extension education from CSU; she has a bachelor’s degree in agricultural leadership and development from Texas A&M University (Gig ‘em”). Markley interned with Larimer County 4-H this last year and worked previously to implemented 4-H summer camp programs for Broomfield Extension. Kim Morrison and Julia Hurdelbrink are her mentors.

Michelle Jebsen will join us as the Extension agent—nutrition programs supervisor—Western Region on September 3. Michelle has a bachelor’s degree in nutrition science from Iowa State (Go Cyclones!) and a master’s degree in public health from the University of Minnesota. She has worked as a health educator for Kanabec County Public Health, served as a Master Gardener with University of Minnesota Extension, and has a healthy interest in local foods and farm to school linkages. Mentors are Michael Lucero and Joel Lindau.

There are currently NO vacancies in the Front Range Region.

Rick Miranda Visits

Last Wednesday, CSU Provost Rick Miranda and Extension Director Swanson visited Extension offices in Weld, Logan, and Adams counties. Following a brief tour of the offices, Extension staff talked with Dr. Miranda about the realities of the budget cuts — and the resulting loss of positions — which Extension has experienced over the last several years. Staff painted a picture that clearly demonstrated agents’ willingness and ability to adapt in such situation while also discussing the tough decisions, lost/reduced programming, and stretch that has been required to serve Extension clients and meet expectations. Rick wrote, “I was very impressed with everything I saw and heard, and have gotten a much better sense of the challenges and opportunities that we have. I'll be working closely with Lou Swanson on our common vision of making CSU Extension a model for the entire country.” Hopefully more to follow… Thanks to our host counties and their staff, as well as staff from the GPA and Denver for participating.

Salaries

Salary adjustments were made for the new fiscal year on July 1. You should be seeing your increase in your July paycheck.

NASA-SoI Mini-Grants - Congratulations!

A number of you called last month to let me know that you knew of more employees who had been with Extension for more years than was identified in the chart. You were right. To clarify, the table below includes ONLY CSU Extension experience. If an individual had experience in another Extension system, it is not included in these tenure numbers nor is other professional experience — just CSU Extension experience. The table indicates that the majority of our agents have been with Extension for 10 years or less. Because the table below does not account for experience outside of CSU Extension, it does not correlate with the salary table.

    0-5 Yrs 6-10 Yrs 11-15 Yrs 16-20 Yrs 21-25 Yrs 26+ Yrs
F FR 18 10 2 4 3 0
  PP 13 2 2 2 3 3
  W 5 5 4 1 0 0
F Total   36 17 8 7 6 3
M FR 3 3 5 2 2 0
  PP 3 2 2 5 1 1
  W 9 5 0 2 0 2
M Total   15 10 7 9 3 3
Grand Total   51 27 15 16 9 6

Conflict of Interest Clarifications

Those of you scheduled to work at the State Fair this fall received a reminder of how time and payments are handled when two state entities are involved. This is just one of several situations in which guidance for Extension employees is very specific. Over the past year, Luann Boyer, Laurel Kubin, and Steve Newman have worked with the Directors Advisory Committee (DAC) to review and update as needed Extension guidance on judging, working at State Fair and National Western, lecturing, teaching on-campus and online courses, and consulting. Click here for the CSU Conflict of Interest Policy. All of these policies are subordinate to the CSU Conflict of Interest Policy.

Upcoming Trainings and Opportunities to Get Involved

From Shauna Woods: I'm delighted to let you all know that we have secured Army contract funding to schedule a Living In The New Normal-Practicum (one day) training in the Ft Carson area for August 30. The curriculum focuses on providing the knowledge, skills, and tools to assist educators and service providers help military connected children develop and sustain strength and resilience in a climate of challenge and stress. Registration for this important and free training is now open through our website www.militarychild.org. Click on Training and scroll down to the Ft Carson LINN-P. There are 50 seats in the class and the more who attend the greater the impact and benefit of the training.

Earlier this week, Jeff Goodwin shared some additional information from the Agent Burnout/Retention Study. While Jeff indicated there were a number of positives that came out of the study, the survey results indicated that there were a number of areas participants felt the organization needed to pay attention to. I encourage you to review the list and get in touch with any of the committee members (Keith Maxey, Julia Hurdelbrink, Travis Taylor, Jennifer Wells, Eric McPhail, Karen Massey, or Darrin Parmenter) if you would like to get involved in improving and moving our organization forward.

If you have an interest in the maker movement or learning more about it, check out this opportunity for youth from Claire Dixon: Do you have youth looking for great educational opportunities to participate in this summer? Look no further than Make Camp. Each day, youth can ‘make’ something, hangout with an accomplished maker and on Fridays have a virtual tour. Check it out! http://makezine.com/maker-camp/schedule/. Sign up for camp at: http://makezine.com/maker-camp/sign-up-for-maker-camp/ and join the Colorado 4-H campsite!

There will also be a NoCo (Northern Colorado) Mini Maker Faire on Saturday October 5 from 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. at the Rocky Mountain Center for Innovation and Technology in Loveland. The Mini-Maker Faire will be a family friendly festival to celebrate arts, engineering, food, music, DIY, science, and technology.

Extension Forum

Save the dates: November 4-8, 2013. The community development program area will not schedule any content updates during the Thursday afternoon/Friday morning Forum time slots; rather they will integrate with other program area content updates. Any other program area wishing to claim these times should check with the other PALs and then share the information with PLT.

Updated