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.

January 22, 2015

On Behalf of CJ Mucklow:

• Salary Task Force Update
• Performance Appraisal System Task Force
• Western Region Vacancies
• Director’s Administrative Council (DAC) meeting to be held February 4th
• STEM Kits
• 2015 Emerald Ash Borer Community Update Survey

Salary Task Force Update

The Salary Task Force will have a face-to-face meeting on February 11 in Jefferson County. The task force is being chaired by Eric McPhail. If anyone would like to see the meeting notes from the last meeting please send an email to Kellie Clark (Kellie.Clark@colostate.edu) and she will forward them to you. However, look for more direction from this task force after their face-to-face meeting.

Performance Appraisal System Task Force

This group is being led by Travis Hoesli. They have two main committees; a long term committee looking at other state’s performance appraisal systems, and a short term committee that’s made recommendations to our current system. Those recommendations have been approved by the entire committee. These changes are minor and are just to improve the document. Below is what the committee approved sent previously by Sonja on behalf of Travis.

As a direct result of your input, several improvements have been made to the performance appraisal forms that you will be using for your 2014 review. These improvements include:

• Addition of a narrative page up front that allows you to write about opportunities and challenges that impacted your programming year. This narrative provides you an opportunity to set the stage for your supervisor.
• Addition of a dialogue box to share information about the goals you set for the year. The form now also provides you with an ‘In Progress’ option—in addition to the ‘Yes and ‘No’ options—to describe whether you have met your goal.
• Employee comment dialogue boxes (one for each benchmark) have been increased from 1000 characters to 1600 characters giving you over 50% more space to share information.
• You will also notice a tasteful beige and blue color scheme. Beige boxes are specific to employee inputs, blue boxes are for supervisor comments.

For county/area directors, we heard some of you wanted a document that better aligned with your administrative responsibilities. Two performance appraisal forms are now available for use:

• one containing a ‘Leadership and Resource Management’ core area of performance developed (and used) by Front Range county directors last year. This modified core area may better reflect the administrative aspect of your role.
• the other—the same set of core areas and benchmarks that you have used in the past.

Both of these forms are comprehensive, include the improvements listed above, and can be used standalone. Take a moment to review both and select the version you feel works best for you.

The revised performance appraisal forms will be posted to the CSUE website on January 16. If you have already started filling out the forms, you can choose to transfer information to the new form (more space and additional dialogue boxes) or work with the existing form as it is.

Western Region Vacancies

• Garfield County 4-H Coordinator. Interviews for this position will be held February 9 and 10.
• Tri River Family and Consumer Science Agent. This position is under review and a job announcement is currently being created for approval. Anticipate advertisement to begin in late February or March.

Director’s Administrative Council (DAC) meeting to be held February 4th

This group meets quarterly with Extension directors, Lou Swanson and various appointed agents form across the State. It really is where many organizational issues are discussed. If you have a concern please feel free to contact any of the regional directors or one of the agent representatives on the council. All items brought forth are discussed.

STEM Kits

While it’s taken longer than anticipated, the first STEM kits ordered last summer will be mailed next week. We apologize for the delay, we did our best to send you a great kit at cost. If you ordered a kit at Forum, yours will be coming soon. These are very high quality activity kits developed by our own Regional STEM Specialist, Barb Shaw. Look for a growing inventory of kits of many types over the next year.

2015 Emerald Ash Borer Community Update Survey

The purpose of this survey is to give Colorado community members in both the public and private sectors the opportunity to share their progress, challenges, and best practices related to preparing for or actively responding to emerald ash borer (EAB) in Colorado; interested participants will receive a report summarizing survey results.

Your participation will also help the Colorado Emerald Ash Borer Response Team to prioritize resources for EAB prevention and response. Your participation ensures that the data collected represents Colorado urban forest health stakeholders statewide.

If you are a commercial arborist, waste hauler, property owner, or other member of the private sector, please take the Private Sector Survey (https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/EAB_Survey_Private).

If you are a U.S., city, or state forester, university employee, or other member of the public sector, please take the Public Sector Survey (https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/EAB_Survey_Public).

Responses are due by midnight on Friday, February 6.