Extension Update: November 2005 Archives

New Hampshire’s state dairy and horse teams recently returned from national contests/events in Wisconsin and Kentucky. Four youth competed at the National 4- H Dairy Judging Contest held in conjunction with World Dairy Expo in Madison, WI. Youth get the opportunity to showcase their dairy selection, decision-making, teamwork and communication skills.

Two New Hampshire youth chosen as delegates to the national dairy conference, also held at World Dairy Expo, met other youth involved in dairy, toured state-of-the art farms, and learned more about future dairy industry opportunities.

New Hampshire 4-H sends four horse teams and one dairy team to the Eastern National 4-H Contest, part of the North American International Livestock Exposition in Louisville, KY. Both Horse and Dairy Quiz Bowl team members compete in a college quiz bowl-type of competition that require months of studying and team practices.

The NH 4-H Hippology Team competed in an event designed to test horse knowledge and skills as well as teamwork. Youth take a written quiz, identify equipment and breeds of horses, judge horses and work through a problem-solving question – requiring teamwork, communication skills and creativity.

The Horse Communication’s Team delivers speeches and demonstrations – both as individuals and in teams on a variety of thought-provoking topics related to the equine industry. Youth involved in this contest must have poise, excellent communication skills and confidence to deliver a polished speech or presentation to national judges.

The 4-H Horse Judging Team also competed, practicing horse selection, oral communication and decision-making skills. All these events are culminations of local and state contests. In most cases, youth attending participate in fundraising efforts to help support their trip and the 4-H Foundation of New Hampshire supports travel and lodging.

In keeping with the University holiday closure from December 26 to January 2, the Publications Center will be closed.

Due to the student winter break in January, the Publications Center won't have regular operational hours. If you have a particular publication need from January 3-17, please contact Holly Young directly.

Recent Internal Revenue Service changes give participants in a health care flexible spending account (FSA) an additional two and a half months after the end of the 2005 plan year to incur health care expenses that can be reimbursed using 2005 FSA contributions.

Instead of forfeiting unused contributions as of December 31, 2005, you can incur charges and reimburse yourself for eligible health care expenses until March 15, 2006.

This change applies only to health care FSAs. Dependent care FSA contributions must be used by December 31, 2005.

The next application deadline for the UNH Staff Professional Development Grant is December 1. The maximum award is $750. No more than one grant will be awarded per person during a 12-month period. This is calculated from the date of notification of the previous grant.

The Staff Professional Development Grant Program provides the opportunity for Extension Educator, Operating Staff and Professional, Administrative and Technical staff to attain new skills or knowledge in a manner that will enhance a staff member's performance or eligibility for promotion and be of specific benefit to the department, college, university and/or University System.

Such opportunities might include:
- Conferences, workshops and seminars, both on and off campus
- Academic courses not offered within the University System
- Travel and accommodations for off campus courses, workshops, etc.
- Special projects, including but not limited to research and publication

Thirty-five County Commissioners, other county officials and Extension Educators from across the state gathered at six PicTel sites last week for an interactive workshop and discussion about UNH Cooperative Extension's work with New Hampshire county governments.

The workshop was co-sponsored by the NH Association of Counties and the UNH Cooperative Extension Forestry and Wildlife Program. Titled "Focus on County Forests," the emphasis focused on how Extension has worked with counties with regard to their lands. There also was an open discussion on how Extension can be of further value to counties in the future.

The goal was to create a forum in which county officials could share their experiences regarding work on improving county-owned lands. It afforded the opportunity for county government representatives to quiz Extension about future opportunities.

Following a 12-minute video produced by Rockingham County Extension Educator Matt Tarr, filmed on-site at county farms around New Hampshire, Carroll County Commissioner David Sorensen , Grafton County Commissioner Bill Gabler and Strafford County Extension Educator Don Black, gave examples of innovative projects done with county lands and facilities followed by a lively discussion facilitated by Extension Wildlife Specialist Darrel Covell.

As a result of this workshop, Commissioners expressed their desire for more forums using PicTel. More than one suggested that Commissioners get together a couple of times a year to discuss possible collaborations on county issues. To view a video of the event, contact your County Extension Educator, Forest Resources, Paul Bonaparte-Krogh or Bob Edmonds, Forestry and Wildlife Program Leader.

The statewide UNH Cooperative Extension Conference takes place Thursday, May 25, 2006 at the Memorial Union Building (MUB) on the UNH Durham campus.

This conference is for all Extension staff. It will be similar to the conference held last year, focusing on professional development and recognition of Extension staff. More details will follow as the date nears.

Approximately 75 community members attended the Acworth Community Profile (Sullivan County) held October 21-22. Five action groups were formed:
• Create a historic structures inventory,
• Inform residents about community events, meetings and gatherings through several mediums such as a newsletter, bulletin boards and a business directory,
• Expand involvement in the Master Plan,
• Expand current recreation committee and include youth/diverse membership, and
• Create an emergency response coordinator to design an Emergency Response Plan.

Michele Gagne facilitated the event, while Seth Wilner provided small group facilitator training. Charlie French, Chuck Hersey and Robin Luther also helped with facilitating/recording, along with two UNH students from the Thompson School Community Service and Learning Program, Ashlee Iber and Vicki Hebert. The follow-up meeting, facilitated by UNH Cooperative Extension, took place November 8.

Upcoming Profiles include Greenland (Rockingham County) February 3-4 (snow date February 10-11) and Rumney (Grafton County) March 31-April 1.

The Northeast Extension Directors’ Award of Excellence is dedicated to the recognition of Extension outreach education programming that has achieved outstanding accomplishments, results and impacts in addressing contemporary issues in one or more of the 13 Northeast states.

The deadline for the 2005 applications is Friday, December 16. This is the highest award recognizing Extension program excellence in the region.

The Northeast Extension Directors' Recognition Committee anticipates receiving many high quality applications. As a result, up to three awards may be given, one (or more) of which is designated for a multi-state program, if warranted.

The award recipients will be recognized at the Northeast Extension Directors' winter meeting on February 1, 2006.

There are new revised on-line forms for County Office Administrator evaluations, as well as forms for Self and Peer evaluations. Please review and submit these important evaluations by the end of November.

This information is kept confidential and used by the Assistant Director and Program Leaders to give COAs and other staff more complete and valuable feedback on how their peers see their performance. Efforts have been made to ensure all the forms use the same ratings. For team COAs, you need only rate the individual areas of responsibility.

Logging operations have for decades used Best Management Practices (BMPs) for erosion control. New Hampshire, like other states, has a BMP manual describing acceptable methods and techniques designed to prevent sedimentation of streams, ponds and wetlands during and after logging.

The prescribed methods, according to Sarah Smith, UNH Cooperative Extension’s Forest Industry Specialist, aren’t always effective. Sarah recently wrote a grant to the USDA Forest Service enabling the Extension forestry staff to participate in a USDA, Forest Service, regional study examining the effectiveness of BMP installation.

The process, called the BMP Monitoring Protocol, is a “whole new way of looking at things,” says Smith. “The goal is to begin to identify BMPs that are working well or those that have not been installed or maintained properly. Then, we can focus our educational efforts.”

The sample logging operations were chosen randomly from 2004 state intent-to-cut forms landowners must file with the NH Department of Revenue Administration prior to harvesting. Once permission to enter the property was granted, Extension went to work collecting data. The process should continue until snow flies. Results on individual sites will remain confidential and results reported in summary. It is important that landowners not view this process as regulatory. The focus is educational.

The grant also supported the purchase of pocket personal computers, helping the sample crews to record data electronically, which is downloaded directly to an Excel spreadsheet.

Extension evaluators from all over the United States met recently at the 2005 annual meeting of the American Evaluation Association in Toronto, Ontario (in conjunction with the Canadian Evaluation Society) and several awards were given for excellence in Extension program evaluation.

UNH Cooperative Extension staff were recipients of two national awards:
Associate Director Nancy Franz received the Mary Nell Greenwood Extension Evaluation Award. This award is given annually for administrative or program leadership toward outstanding organizational, policy and resource contributions to Extension evaluation.

Awards Chair Michael Newman from Mississippi State University opened up the presentation to Nancy by saying, “This is an award for someone that doesn't have to be here, but is because they understand the importance of evaluation.”

Lisa Townson, Extension Specialist, 4-H Youth Development, was presented with the Excellence in Evaluation Training Award. This award recognizes evaluation training of outstanding quality by an individual or team. The nominees may be professional evaluator(s) or those whose major responsibility is not program evaluation.

Criteria for excellence in evaluation training include creativity, capacity building for trainees in evaluation practice, and the use of training to further extension evaluation.

Congratulations to Nancy and Lisa!