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.

February 19, 2015

On Behalf of the State Extension Administration Office Update

• Advancing the Agriculture Economy Through Innovation
• RD Monthly Webinars – Jan Carroll
• Forum 2015
• CSU Extension Volunteer Background Check – Jean Glowacki
• CPRS is Ready – you can create your Plan to Invest now – Jan Carroll
• Admissions Recruiting Materials – Joanne Littlefield

We’d like to welcome new staff to University Square!

• Kyle Christensen, Extension Program Coordinator, managing Extension’s CYFAR and FLTI grants started on January 26.
• Susie Hutton, Video Intern, will be working on video segments for the new Western Region Nutrition Education Center of Excellence (WRNECE), but will be also working on other video projects. She graduated from CSU in December with a degree in Animal Sciences.
• Sam Lowry, Extension Specialist, 4-H Youth Development, Animal Science & Shooting Sports, started on January 23.
• Mary Small accepted the Colorado State Master Gardener Coordinator half-time position and she will join the office on March 1.

Advancing the Agriculture Economy Through Innovation

The College of Agricultural Sciences and Vice President of Engagement’s Office of Community and Economic Development are co-hosting a summit “Advancing the Agriculture Economy Through Innovation” on the CSU campus on March 18-20. The event will bring together a diverse network of industry leaders, business managers and policymakers who understand Colorado agriculture, as well as a 21st century dedication to using innovation to mobilize human and financial resources. New directions, educational ideas, policy initiatives and creative opportunities will emerge from this meeting. The Ag Innovation Summit will be a great opportunity to generate creative ideas and build collaborative networks. You can find the program here. Agriculture and food innovators can “show their wares” during the Innovation Fair at the summit. Learn more about it here.

You can register for the summit here. CSU Extension personnel can receive 50% off of the $495 registration fee by using a coupon code. Please enter and apply the coupon code CSUExtension on the second screen of the registration page to receive your discount. Contact Lisa Gladstone at (303) 521-2379 with any questions.

Click here for the invite.

RD Monthly Webinars – Jan Carroll

The February RD Webinar has been canceled. The series of webinars, sponsored by your Regional Directors (RDs) specifically for County and Area Directors (C/ADs), will resume in March. Anyone is welcome to attend. Details on the topic and presenters will be sent before each session. The webinars are recorded and archived as “professional development webinars”.

Tentative Dates and Topics for 2015 (all webinars begin at 1:30 pm):

March 26: Fair Treatment hosted by Jean Glowacki

April 23: Expectations for Programming

May 28: Relationships & Legislative Engagement

June 25: Emerging Issues & Evaluate RD Webinars

Forum 2015

Mark your calendar for Forum the week of November 9-13, 2015.

CSU Extension Volunteer Background Check – Jean Glowacki

New Policy Begins April 1, 2015. Resubmission fee of $45.00

Colorado State University (CSU) implemented a background check policy effective October 1, 2008. This policy includes all new faculty, staff, and volunteers working on behalf of the University. All volunteer applicants are required to complete a background check as part of CSU’s risk management strategy The process protects volunteers, Extension staff and the University.

All volunteer applicants are required to have the background check completed prior to starting as a volunteer. The agent, associate or specialist is responsible for ensuring that background checks are completed for volunteer applicants before they are allowed to begin their volunteer opportunity. Support staff may input the background check request but the county agent or associate is the contact person and the responsible party.

CSU has partnered with HireRight, a leading provider of on-demand employment screening solutions, to manage background check verification. CSU has confidence in the security and confidentiality of the HireRight system.

Once the name is submitted for a background check, HireRight sends an email with a hotlink and a password for the volunteer to log into a secure site. Submitting the information takes only minutes to complete. If the applicant does not respond within 7-10 days, CSU Human Resource Services sends the link to them a second time with a message that the request will be cancelled if they do not respond within 7 days. This is a courtesy to the volunteer applicant and the county. When the request is cancelled due to nonresponse, counties frequently request to resubmit the name. Lack of oversight of the background check process in some counties has resulted in an inordinate workload and backlog at the state office and in Human Resource Services. Due to this increasing problem, the regional directors have authorized the assessment of a $45 fee for all background check requests that are resubmitted due to a lack of response, beginning April 1, 2015.

Click here for complete step-by-step instructions and resources for completing the background check process.

All staff responsible for completing background checks are requested to participate in a webinar on March 10, at 11:00. The webinar invitation and link will be sent to you later this week.

CPRS is Ready – you can create your Plan to Invest now – Jan Carroll

All ten Plans of Work (POWs) are now loaded into Colorado Planning & Reporting System (CPRS) and ready for you to use in posting your own Plan to Invest (PTI). This PTI is due by March 1st; supervisors will have until March 15th to approve it. Click here for the program calendar.

Some of you will be able and want to roll over your previous (2014) Plan to Invest; others will be making a new PTI (it depends whether your Planning & Reporting Unit (PRU) submitted a revised plan.)

Please remember, your success and even happiness with reporting during 2015 – 2016 depends on your thinking now very carefully about your work, the local demand(s) you intend to address, the evaluation that you will conduct…and putting this good thinking into your PTI. The secret to successful reporting is in a good plan. Click here for the FAQs. Of course, if your answer isn’t there, please contact your PRU Leader(s), Joy or me.

As soon as your PTI is approved by your supervisor, you can begin reporting. Everyone is expected to be caught up on 2015 reporting by April 10th, and continue to report monthly by the 10th.

Admissions Recruiting Materials – Joanne Littlefield

Colorado State University Admissions has a new recruiting piece. It’s got 16 pages of great information in a 6” x 9” format.

The admissions office will send out supplies to the county offices, but it would be helpful to know how many you’re interested in receiving. 50? 25? More?

Send an email to Joanne.Littlefield@colostate.edu and we’ll get them shipped out via Friday mail.

Here a screen capture of a few pages.