The Tuesday Letter
Agricultural Experiment Station & Cooperative Extension Service

Vol. 14, No. 3  November 20, 2007

IN THIS ISSUE...

...Word from the Associate Director - Extension and Applied Research
...Holiday Party/Open House
...Server Maintenance
...January 1 Deadline for County CMS Sites
...Farewell Reception for Kelly Whitfield, Lyon County
...Intentional Harmony: Managing Work and Life Curriculum Training
...ICDD Facilitation Workshop
...Call for Papers for the 2008 Priester National Extension Health Conference
...Agritourism Questions
...KSRE is Connecting Producers and Buyers of Local Foods in the Kansas River Valley - A "Must Know" for NE Kansas Extension Offices
...Marie's Pick of the Week
...Master Schedule

                                                                                                           ...Tuesday Letter Archives

WORD FROM THE ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR - EXTENSION AND APPLIED RESEARCH
I've formulated a very simple equation to describe extension work:

extension work = technology transfer + outreach + engagement

Where I have defined technology transfer as "the knowledge/new technology from which we work, or it's our subject matter competencies"; outreach as "the act of extending services, education, experiences, etc., to a wider section of the population, as in community work"; and, engagement is "an emotional involvement or commitment." Another way to describe engagement is to "take personal interest in your clientele, getting to know them, listening to them in such a way as to know how they desire to learn and to make change, and investing your commitment and passion towards their successes."

The importance of each element that leads to extension work can be describe by what happens if some element is left out.

If you have technology transfer and outreach, the new knowledge and technology are out there, but no one really cares if it gets translated into something useful and productive for the audience. The audience may be there and hear all about the new knowledge, but won't employ the concepts being taught, in part because change is difficult and nobody is passionate about helping the audience through that change.

If you have technology transfer and engagement, the knowledge and the commitment are both present to create change, but there lacks a well designed plan for delivering it effectively to the target audience. Most likely, the majority of the target audience won't even be reached.

If you have outreach and engagement, but not the technology transfer, you have a great model for delivering something and a passion for seeing change, but lack the validity of subject matter knowledge to keep the audience moving forward. Most likely, the audience will stop by and subsequently lose interest due to a lack of validity in the knowledge being conveyed.

The EFFECTIVENESS of extension work is truly a combination of all three of these ingredients. Great extension work comes out of delivering valid, important knowledge and technology through appropriate, interesting teaching methods, and then seeing to it that your audience is able to utilize that knowledge however appropriate because YOU believe it is what they need for their successes. And, they know their success is ever so important to YOU.

An Extension Worker's personal development is never finished if he/she take all three components of extension work seriously in his/her passion to make a difference.

We all have much for which to be thankful. During this Thanksgiving holiday, I hope each of you will take time to be thankful to the Creator for bounties you enjoy. --Daryl Buchholz dbuchhol@ksu.edu

HOLIDAY PARTY/OPEN HOUSE
The College of Agriculture and K-State Research and Extension are very pleased to invite you to our 2007 Holiday Party/Open House at the K-State Alumni Center on Monday, December 10, 2007 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Come straight from work—no need to go home and dress up!