The Tuesday Letter
Agricultural Experiment Station & Cooperative Extension Service

  
Vol. 11, No. 44  September 13, 2005

IN THIS ISSUE...

...Word from the Associate Director - Extension and Applied Research
...4-H Happenings at the State Fair...And More
...Status of Faculty Positions
...FrontPage Web Author Training
...TechBytes Technology Fall Season
...KSU Annual Horticulture Club Mum Sale
...4-H Basic Operations I - September 26 and 27
...Share Your Frequently Asked Questions on eXtension
...Agents -- Accomplishment Reports
...Master Schedule

...Tuesday Letter Archives

WORD FROM THE ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR - EXTENSION AND APPLIED RESEARCH
September 9 - 18, synonymous with the Kansas State Fair, is a time for Kansas agriculture and Kansas youth to celebrate a year of accomplishments, and set the stage for the future. The opening weekend saw thousands of 4-H exhibits being brought to the State Fair. Volunteer judges studied the foods, crops, woodworking, clothing, photography, and numerous other static exhibits to determine the mastery of the 4-Her in the skills it took to create the exhibit. On other parts of the fair grounds, livestock, poultry, and rabbits were being entered to go on display and be judged as evidence of the accomplishments of the 4-Hers in those projects.

Governor Kathleen Sebelius hosted a 4-H Centennial kickoff luncheon with roughly 100 4-H youth, volunteers, leaders, and Extension agents. Her words focused on 4-H being the largest organized youth program in Kansas teaching the ethic of citizenship and the responsibility and confidence of leadership. She saw 4-H setting the stage for a bright future through those youth involved in the program. She suggested among the midst of those youth in attendance was likely a future Governor, or maybe even a President!

Saturday morning saw an estimated 800+ youth and adults marching across the fair grounds and on to the 4-H Exhibit Hall. There they and others gathered for a dedication and ribbon cutting ceremony for the $1.3 M renovation of that building, including its new name 4-H Centennial Hall. Dignitaries spoke of importance of the contributions the leaders of the past had given to the future generations through 4-H. Each shared a special personal story relating to experiences they have had or observed through gaining the 4-H experience. Then, youth representatives from every county across Kansas brought a specially designed candle to commemorate the 100^th year of 4-H youth development in Kansas. These candles are on display around a huge cake in the center of the 4-H Centennial Hall. And, the true essence of the importance of such an event can be seen in the eyes of the parents and volunteer leaders across Kansas who know and believe in the impact of 4-H on the future of young people in Kansas and all across the country. Hope for the future in Kansas lies with these young people and the dreams they have that can be turned to reality through the citizenship, leadership, and life skills they learn in part through the positive experiences of 4-H youth development.

I hope all of you get an opportunity to participate in a Centennial event in the coming year that is planned and lead by youth with the support of adults so that you can see first hand the impact that our programs have on the future leadership of Kansas. --Daryl Buchholz dbuchhol@ksu.edu

4-H HAPPENINGS AT THE STATE FAIR...AND MORE
It was a most exciting and thrilling first-weekend for the Kansas 4-H Program at the Kansas State Fair. Accolades to the many hundreds of helping hands, thousands of smiles, and kajillions of high-spirited voices filled with pride as the new 4-H Centennial Hall filled with exhibits. History was made as we celebrated the launching of the Centennial Celebration, where 4-H members were involved in the roll-out of the Kansas Quarter Program, the Governor's Luncheon, the ribbon-cutting ceremony for 4-H Centennial Hall, and on-stage dialogue with Garrison Keillor at the Prairie Home Companion Show.

On behalf of the Kansas 4-H Youth Development Program, we extend our heartfelt thanks to all those involved in the planning and production of the varied State Fair activities. We look forward to the introduction of the Kansas 4-H Cookbook by the Kansas 4-H Foundation on Tuesday afternoon in the 4-H Centennial Hall as well as the remainder of 4-H activities throughout the rest of the weekend.

Oodles of thanks, once again, for the system-wide support of the 4-H program. --Pat McNally pmcnally@oznet.ksu.edu

STATUS OF FACULTY POSITIONS
To check the status of faculty positions that are currently in the search process, see the K-State Research and Extension Job Opportunities website at http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/main/jobs.asp . Click on "Employment Status of KSRE Faculty Positions." Search committee chairs - contact Dorothy Ireland in the Extension Operations Office at direland@oznet.ksu.edu , or 785-532-5787, to keep the information updated. --Stacey M. Warner swarner@oznet.ksu.edu

FRONTPAGE WEB AUTHOR TRAINING
There are a few open spots for the beginner-intermediate class on Microsoft FrontPage training. This is a good class to learn about creating and maintaining county, department, and project Oznet Websites. Three classes are scheduled for Wednesday, September 14, from 8 a.m. to noon, and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.; and Wednesday, September 21, from 8 a.m. to noon.

Please contact Regina at IET, 785-532-6270, regina@ksu.edu , to reserve a place in the class. For further information, contact Gerry Snyder, gsnyder@ksu.edu . --Gerry Snyder

TECHBYTES TECHNOLOGY FALL SEASON
This educational series highlights nine different technology programs every Friday, beginning September 16, 1:15 p.m., in the K-State Hale Library Hemisphere Room 501. Topics include Effective Web Searching, Blogs, Instant Messaging, Recording Audio for PowerPoint, Teaching with PowerPoint, Free Graphics Tools, Adobe Photoshop Overview, the FireFox Web Browser, and Getting the Most Out Of Your Digital Camera.

All programs are video streamed "Live" from Hale Library using the Windows Media Player on your computer. Programs are also recorded and posted for later viewing including handouts and links to related resources on the TechBytes Website, http://www.k-state.edu/techbytes .

I hope you can join us for this fun and educational program series. For more information, contact Gerry Snyder at gsnyder@ksu.edu . --Gerry Snyder

KSU ANNUAL HORTICULTURE CLUB MUM SALE
September 23 - 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.
September 24 -  9 a.m. - 6 p.m.
September 25 - 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.

The sale is located on the loading docks behind Throckmorton Plant Science Center, Claflin and Denison. --Tracy Ivy tivy@oznet.ksu.edu

4-H BASIC OPERATIONS I - SEPTEMBER 26 AND 27
Several tenured agents have attended 4-H Basic Operations I for a refresher course and have found it very beneficial. We invite you to attend our session which begins at 1 p.m. on Monday, September 26, and  continues through Tuesday, September 27, at 5 p.m. All sessions are in Throckmorton Hall, Room 2002. Cost to attend is $20. A brochure can be found at http://4-h.k-state.edu/Agents/BOpsIbro.pdf .

Please e-mail Diane Mack, dmack@oznet.ksu.edu , by September 15, if you plan to attend. --Diane Mack dmack@oznet.ksu.edu and Beth Hinshaw bhinshaw@oznet.ksu.edu

SHARE YOUR FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ON eXtension
eXtension is beginning an exciting phase in its development by launching a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) initiative.

A major goal of eXtension is to be customer/client driven and complement the work done by local Extension offices nationwide. Another goal is to reduce duplication of efforts across the Extension system. Most people looking for information have questions...that's why they call or walk into the county Extension offices or go on-line to search for information. We, as a system, spend many hours helping our clients find answers to their questions and many of those questions are asked over and over and over... by different people in different counties and states.

Capturing those subject matter questions and answers that we respond to on a continual basis as agents and specialists, tagging their appropriate reach and content area, and sharing this knowledge base nationwide is exactly what this eXtension Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) project is all about.

We are asking your help in contributing to this effort. As it should be, populating the Frequently Asked Questions component of eXtension will fall primarily to the Extension agents and specialists who typically get and respond to those questions.

For guidance on the process, please see the FAQ Guidelines on the eXtension Intranet site-- http://intranet.extension.org . It really is very easy and don’t worry if you don’t have the complete answer to the question…that will be dealt with by teams down the road.

Thank you for your help in making eXtension a success! If you have questions or you would like someone to walk you through the process of entering questions, you may contact either of the co-chairs, Roger Terry, rterry@ksu.edu , or Paula Peters, peters@humec.ksu.edu . --Paula Peters

AGENTS -- ACCOMPLISHMENT REPORTS
Instructions for reporting against your Action Plans have been sent to the Counties listserv and posted with the RETORIC Support documents, http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/prev/ . --Marie Blythe mblythe@ksu.edu

VIEW THE MASTER SCHEDULE OR ADD NEW ACTIVITIES AND EVENTS. 

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