Extension Update: July 2004 Archives
Attached are the budget narratives submitted for our Fiscal Year 2006-07 state budget request for Program Appropriation Units (PAUs) 9 (UNH Cooperative Extension) and 11 (Extension Work in the Counties).
UNH Cooperative Extension Inservice offerings for the next year (September 2004-August 2005) are now available for registration by all Extension staff. Register by using the on-line form by August 27th.
Three farmers' markets in New Hampshire now accept the Food Stamp EBT card thanks to a $31,000, three-year grant from the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program(SARE). Grant recipients are Helen Costello, Debbie Luppold and Valerie Long. Two additional markets also participate, supported by the Nutrition Connections Program.
Earlier this month, the first Food Stamp EBT customers used their Food Stamp EBT cards at the Manchester Downtown Farmers' Market. Funding for the project provides a central location at each pilot market staffed and equipped to accept the cards. Food Stamp customers go to the UNH Cooperative Extension booths at each market for card authorization in exchange for market scrip, which they spend on food at the markets. Staff at the booths also share nutrition and program information.
This grant also provides for nutrition and gardening demonstrations by Nutrition Connections educators in collaboration with Master Gardeners. The New Hampshire Farmers' Market Association and the market managers from the five pilot markets, Manchester, Nashua, Sanbornton, Laconia, and Enfield, are all enthusiastic partners in this project.
With a new $47,628 USDA grant, the University of New Hampshire's Cooperative Extension, Space Grant, and Sea Grant Programs and Complex Systems Research Center, along with other agencies, institutions, and private sector supporters, will collaborate to develop a geospatial technology training and resources center. The grant also provides for the development of MapCorps, a volunteer training program with adult and youth components, and an update of natural resources-related GIS exercises from ArcView 3.x to ArcGIS 8 software.
Vanessa Druskat, Associate Professor with the UNH Whittemore School of Business and Economics, and Associate Director Nancy Franz will share their thoughts about “Ensuring Successful Work Teams” at an inservice set for September 13th at the Merrimack County Office.
Those attending will discuss:
* Why work teams are needed
* Elements of successful teams
* Effective team leadership
* Effective team “followership”
* Building the emotional intelligence of teams to enhance success
* What this means for Extension work teams
To learn more, check out Vanessa’s article on “Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups” in the Harvard Business Review (March 2001, Vol. 79 Issue 3, pg. 80) or Nancy ’s article on Work Teams in the Journal of Extension (April 2004). Sign up for this inservice using the on-line registration form.
UNH President Ann Weaver Hart presents her annual State of the University address Friday, August 27th in Richards Auditorium in Murkland Hall. Breakfast will be served, and a question and answer period will follow her address.
The Academic Convocation and University Day Picnic are set for Tuesday, September 14th. The convocation takes place in the Strafford Room of the MUB, from 12:40-2:00 pm.
A long-time friend and supporter of UNH Cooperative, Ruth G. Stimson, died at her home in Hampton on Wednesday, July 14th. While a public memorial service has yet to be scheduled, an obituary highlighting her long career as well as her extensive volunteer efforts appeared in The Hampton Union newspaper on Tuesday, July 20th. Her legacy of achievement for families and youth is impressive.
Dr. Karol A. LaCroix has been named the new president of the College for Lifelong Learning. Dr. LaCroix is currently dean of the University of New Hampshire at Manchester and joins the College August 1st.
Dr. LaCroix served as dean of UNH-Manchester since 1996. Previously, she held a variety of academic and administrative positions at UNH, including interim dean of the Graduate School , associate dean of the School of Health and Human Services , as well as chair and professor of the Department of Medical Laboratory Science. She received her Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Biomedical Science from Northeastern University in Boston and a M.O.E. in Occupational Education and a B.S. in Medical Technology from UNH.
UNH Cooperative Extension’s Community Conservation Assistance Program (UNHCE-CCAP) teamed up with the Center for Land Conservation Assistance (CLCA) and the Society for the Protection of NH Forests (SPNHF) to create a new program that presents economic aspects of open space and developed land uses, and describes funding options for voluntary land conservation efforts.
The new program, The Dollars and Sense of Saving Special Places, will update, combine, repackage and expand information from several sources. These sources include The Dollars and Sense of Open Space slide show created in 1996 by the Society for the Protection of NH Forests (SPNHF) and the NH Wildlife Federation (NHWF), the 2000 NHWF publication, Open Space for New Hampshire, A Toolbook of Techniques for the New Millennium, and Saving Special Places: Community Funding for Land Conservation (CLCA & SPNHF, 2002).
To bring The Dollars and Sense of Saving Special Places to interested audiences around the state, UNHCE-CCAP is recruiting staff for training as well as presenting this program to community leaders, conservation groups and citizens. An inservice set October 20th in Boscawen will allow staff to experience the presentation and how to deliver it. We also will solicit interested staff from other natural resource organizations. In addition to the The Dollars and Sense of Saving Special Places presentation, UNHCE-CCAP and the CLCA will offer follow-up education and technical assistance to communities.
For more information about The Dollars and Sense of Saving Special Places, contact Extension Specialist Frank Mitchell (862-1067, Frank.Mitchell@unh.edu) or CCAP Coordinator Amanda Stone (364-5324, Amanda.Stone@unh.edu).
I want to thank all of you for your hard work and strong impact programming. We recently received a letter from the CSREES Director of Planning and Accountability stating, “The FY 2003 annual report contains excellent examples of impacts. Many of the impacts reported are as a result of collaborations with other agencies and organizations through the involvement of multi-state and joint efforts. UNH CE has a large portfolio of educational programs and external grants support many of their efforts as they seek to demonstrate impact.”
I am especially grateful to all of you who recently shared one page impact reports with the Leadership Team. Even though no merit increases are available to tie to these reports and other performance criteria, we will use your impact reports to prepare the biennial budget request for UNHCE. These reports also provide very valuable baseline data for measuring impact in our Plan of Work and Strategic Plans over the coming years. I also hope you will find these reports helpful in informing our stakeholders about our outstanding work and encourage you to share them with advisory councils. Thanks again for your hard work in helping us achieve our mission.
Dates have been set for interviewing three candidates for the Ag Program Leader (75%)/Small Farms Specialist (25%) position. Juli Brussell from Illinois will be interviewed August 12 and 13. Julie is a farmer and consultant with extensive experience in ag policy development, sustainable food systems development, and grantsmanship. Dick Brzozowski, an Extension Educator from Maine , will be interviewed August 16 and 17, and Joe Tritschler, currently a small ruminant specialist with Virginia Cooperative Extension, will be interviewed August 18 and 19. Each candidate will give an on-campus seminar the first day at 2:30 p.m. followed by an open forum until 4:00 p.m. (August 12 and 16 in Spaulding G70 and August 18 in Pettee 106). On the second day, candidates will again present their seminar at 10:00 a.m. at the Merrimack County Cooperative Extension Office, followed by an open forum and lunch with Ag Staff and invited guests. The candidates will focus on the following topic for their seminar: "Referencing your Past Experience, Create a Vision for Ag Program Leadership in New Hampshire ." Please mark these dates on your calendar and plan to attend each candidate’s seminars.
New Hampshire 4-H Camps have late season openings this summer at Bear Hill Camp. Spaces are available in the following weeks of summer camp: July 25-30, August 1-6th, August 8-13th, and August 15-20. Barry Conservation Camp is full at this time. To sign up a child for camp please call the 4-H state office, at Moiles House, 180 Main Street, UNH, Durham, NH 03824-2536, (603) 862-2180.
Sarah Smith received the National Community-Based Technology Transfer Award at the annual meeting of the Northeast Area Forest Utilization and Marketing Council in Springfield, MA in June. This award is sponsored by the Chief of the USDA Forest Service. Sarah is the first in the nation Extension Utilization and Marketing educator to receive this award. The meeting included a gathering of state forestry individuals from 20 states, along with Extension and USDA Forest Service staff engaged in working with the forest industry, landowners with forest businesses, and communities with forest-based industries. Sarah's work in rural community assistance caught the attention of Forest Service leaders who nominated her for this award. Congratulations, Sarah!
The Journal of Extension (JOE) expands and updates the research and knowledge base for Extension professionals and other adult educators. The June issue features research on “Effecting Land-Use Changes Through Education and Implementation: Assessing the Effectiveness of the Watershed Stewards Program” and “Parents' Perceptions of Life Skills Development in the 4-H Cloverbud Program” to feature articles about “Teaching Complex, In-Depth Programs” to “Gathering Wisdom from 4-H Youth Development Clubs.” JOE serves as a forum for emerging and contemporary issues affecting Extension education.
JOE is written, reviewed and edited by Extension professionals, sharing with their colleagues successful educational applications, original and applied research findings, scholarly opinions, educational resources, and challenges on issues of critical importance to Extension educators.
The Best Plants for New Hampshire Gardens and Landscapes” has won another national award. The most recent recognition was for best extension publication (bulletin category, based on number of pages) from the American Society of Horticultural Science.
Congratulations again to Cathy Neal and Margaret Hagen for recognition of their work!
Over the past 10 years, the USDA/Army Youth Development Project developed 4-H clubs on all United States army bases in the states and overseas. With the recent high level of deployment of National Guard and reserve members, 15 states, including New Hampshire , received grants of $30,000, to implement a program called Operation Military Kids (OMK). OMK is an Army/4-H initiative to support military families in our own backyard. When National Guard, Army Reserve and other military parents living in civilian communities are mobilized, their children’s needs suddenly change. While youth still “look the same” to their teachers, friends and the rest of the community, they are now "military kids" and their lives are turned upside down.
In the next few weeks, the New Hampshire program kicks off its activities in cooperation with the National Guard Counter Drug Day Camp held at the Tracking Station in New Boston. The project will focus on developing communication links between family members in New Hampshire and those deployed. Over 100 young people will participate in UNH Cooperative Extension activities around food and fitness, and use of digital photography, while others are involved in activities coordinated by the guard.
In the next month, an OMK advisory group will be formed with Extension staff, guard and reserve staff, community members and youth to help design and implement the program for the coming year. We will meet with the "family assistance/readiness coordinators" from Concord , Manchester , Somersworth, Hillsboro and Littleton to introduce Cooperative Extension and learn about the needs of families of those deployed from their areas. The focus of the New Hampshire project will include teaching photography and technology transfer to youth as a form of communication, hosting a family camp in the fall, and integrating youth and other members of deployed families into ongoing 4-H and other Extension activities.
New Hampshire will assemble a team of 10 members to attend a national train-the-trainer workshop presented by the Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC) on “Understanding Military Culture.” When they return, they will present trainings to schools, the faith community and others involved as community support members to youth. Commitments to become members of this training team have already come from the NH Dept. of Education, Army and Air National Guard, the faith community and youth of military families.