Extension Update: October 2005 Archives
At the recent 2005 National Extension Association of Family & Consumer Sciences annual session held in Philadelphia, two UNH Cooperative Extension staff received awards.
Extension Educator Ann Hamilton was the recipient of the Continued Excellence Award. The award recognizes Ann's strong educational leadership in family financial management and food safety. Also Carroll County's Office Administrator, Ann is a member of the Achieving Financial Security and Family Resource Management Advisory teams, and past member of the food safety team. She was a founding member of NH Jump$tart Coalition. She also provides parenting education and works with early childhood professionals.
Christine Parshall, Extension Program Associate, Food and Nutrition, was a Para-Professional Award, Eastern Region finalist. Christine was recognized for teaching nutrition lessons in individual homes, small community groups and schools. She also addresses nutrition education needs through effective community collaborations such as the In SHAPE program, a nationally recognized wellness effort for individuals with severe mental illnesses.
Congratulations Ann and Christine!
A Farm Viability Task Force, appointed by Gov. John Lynch, meets for the first time November 7. Tom Fairchild, retired Professor of Animal Sciences and former COLSA Dean, will serve as chair of the task force.
The legislation charges the Task Force with studying and making recommendations in five areas:
• Updating the NH Food Policy, first adopted in 1979
• The need and options for funding UNH Cooperative Extension positions
• Establishment of a farm viability program for New Hampshire similar to programs in other New England states
• Identifying regulations that may be unduly burdensome to New Hampshire agriculture, and
• Promoting and expanding agricultural-based tourism, community-supported agriculture, farmers’ markets, farm stands, agricultural fairs, the horticulture industry, and pick-your-own enterprises.
Other Task Force members include Jack Potter, Sanbornton, Jonathan Huntington, Loudon, Courtney Hodge, Hinsdale, Jeanie McIntyre, Lyme, Gary Matteson, Epsom, Elizabeth Corell, Concord, William Lord, Strafford, Courtney Haase, South Sutton, Nancy Hirshberg, Wolfeboro, Robert Wellington, Hooksett, Wayne Mann, Canterbury, Helen Costello, Concord, and David Keith of North Haverhill.
On November 1, Lynn Garland and Matt Tarr become Rockingham County's new office administrators. Matt will oversee office management issues while Lynn will serve as the contact with county government officials and the Advisory Council.
Let me express my appreciation to the outgoing team of Rollie Barnaby, Karen Blass and Nada Haddad, who pioneered the three-person team. They did an excellent job the past three years.
On Tuesday, October 25, Thomas Dorr, USDA Under Secretary for Rural Development, joined state dignitaries on a stage in Manchester’s Radisson Conference Center for a public listening session regarding the upcoming 2007 Farm Bill. What Dorr and others clearly heard from the more than 40 people who testified was good news for UNH Cooperative Extension.
From the state FFA representative to 4-H alumni to New Hampshire farm and forest owners, the message was clear: “We owe a lot to Cooperative Extension – please make sure that funds are there to keep the work of Extension out there for the people.”
Specific concerns ranged from allocating more funding to farm and forest preservation initiatives, increasing funds for 4-H youth efforts, ensuring that farmers have access to innovative marketing information to funding WIC coupon programs for farmers markets.
The unique characteristics of New Hampshire farm and forest owner needs were made clear to the Under Secretary in testimony from Program Leaders Juli Brussell and Bob Edmonds. Anna Boudreau, chair of the State Extension Advisory Council, spoke regarding the need for increased federal formula funding to provide stability for the work of Cooperative Extension.
Many people testifying, farm and forest owners, spoke eloquently of the impact Cooperative Extension has made in their lives, providing the Under Secretary with a clear picture of the important role Cooperative Extension plays in serving the citizens of New Hampshire.
You might be interested in reading the testimony I submitted on our behalf.
If you are interested in the concept of idea generation, intellectual property development, spin out and re-engagement in scholarship as a means to enhance scholarship, "An Evening With UNH Entrepreneurial Faculty Scholars" may be of interest.
Sponsors of the forum, set for Wednesday, Nov. 2, include the UNH Office of the Vice President for Research and Public Service, the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture, the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, the Whittemore School of Business and Economics, and the New Hampshire High Technology and Biotechnology Councils.
The event, starting at 5 pm in the Piscataqua Room at Holloway Commons, includes presentations, panel discussions and questions and answers with guests in the audience. Topics will include the intellectual property development process, venture and angel capital engagement, entrepreneurship program resources and case histories from UNH's first three entrepreneurial faculty scholars. All of these presentations, discussions and exchanges will be followed by opportunities for networking over light fare.
To attend, call Nancy Lindley at 862-1937 or email her at nlindley@cisunix.unh.edu
To coincide with our new programming year, the list of UNH Cooperative Extension teams that provide leadership to programs and organizational operations has been updated on our intranet.
You'll find the updated list under "New Employee Orientation."
The Leadership Team updated our policies and procedures for staff teaching based on feedback from our partnering schools and colleges.
You'll find the polices on our intranet under "Policies and Procedures"
Contact your supervisor if you have any questions on these policies.
Staff are invited to analyze feedback on our draft plan of work at a data party December 19. The event takes place from 10 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and focus on feedback from stakeholders and staff and implications for our programming.
To sign up for this session contact Nancy Franz.
eXtension selected eight pioneering Communities of Practice to build the foundation of the eXtension Initiative. Selection of these Communities of Practice followed an extensive review process after the first eXtension Call for Engagement in June.
According to Dan Cotton, eXtension director, "Participation in this first Call for Engagement involved 49 states and one U.S. territory. A total of 181 authors submitted as either the primary investigator or co-primary investigator, representing 44 states. The Review Panel for the Call for Engagement was comprised of Cooperative Extension Directors and Program Leaders from each of the five Cooperative Extension Regions."
The next Call for Engagement will be issued in early Spring 2006.
We continue to update the front page of our web site with links and other information to help residents hard hit by last weekend's flooding. Make sure to check it on a periodic basis for any new information. We also welcome suggestions from staff on any relevant web sites and links to add to the site. Please send these links to Holly Young.
We're also pleased to discover our web site was number one on Google for the most "hits" related to the New Hampshire floods.
A research team made up of Extension Specialist Charlie French, Sally Ward, Professor/Department Chair, Sociology Department and Kelly Giraud, Associate Professor, Resource Economics Department, plan to evaluate the economic and social performance of resident-owned manufactured housing communities in New Hampshire.
The Ford Foundation, the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund and the Carsey Institute are supporting the research effort.
Currently, 71 resident-owned manufactured housing communities serve 3,300 New Hampshire families. Thanks to the assistance of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, homeowners in each of these cooperatively-owned communities were able to form self-governing corporations that purchased the land beneath their homes, as opposed to renting their land.
In spite of the popularity of resident-owned communities in New Hampshire, one important question remains - do they outperform landowner-owned manufactured housing parks from a social and economic standpoint?
The research team set out to answer this question through a comprehensive study that engaged residents of manufactured housing cooperatives, residents of landowner-owned parks and local officials from seven New Hampshire towns.
The study is testing the following hypotheses:
1. The cost of home ownership is stabilized by resident ownership
2. Homeowners gain access market-rate financing products
3. Homeowners gain long-term security
4. Members of resident owned cooperatives gain legal, managerial, and financial control over their community.
The research findings could have profound implications on how organizations and institutions address affordable housing in an increasingly tight housing market. The findings will be published and released at "The Meredith Institute," a national event to be held in Manchester November 1-3, dedicated to sectoral strategies to address affordable housing.
Information on a variety of topics dealing with flood disasters is now available on the front page of our web site.
Staff may also link to the chapter on Floods and Flash Floods from "Talking About Disaster: Guide for Standard Messages" from the National Disaster Education Coalition in D.C.
We have provided extensive links to help you as you work with clientele affected by these devastating floods. As well, a Crisis Protocol Team is now in place to set an organizational mind set to recognize crises and step in as appropriate (prevention, preparation, response, recovery) and integrate UNHCE into the emergency response system in New Hampshire. Co-chairs are Chris Conlon and Holly Young, and committee members are Kathy Jablonski, Bob Edmonds and Deb Maes.
The UNH Carsey Institute Brown Bag series presents "Changing Values in America" Wednesday, Oct. 12, from noon-1 pm in Room 330 of the Memorial Union Building.
Guess Speaker Michele Dillon, Professor, Sociology, has written extensively on Catholicism in the United States and elsewhere. Dr. Dillon's current research uses longitudinal life course data spanning adolescence and late adulthood to examine the socio-biographical antecedents, life course trajectories, and social implications of religion and spirituality in a sample of American men and women who were born in the 1920s.
Dr. Dillon received her undergraduate education in Ireland and her PhD in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley.