Tuesday Letter

The Tuesday Letter
Agricultural Experiment Station & Cooperative Extension Service

Vol. 14, No. 30 June 10, 2008

IN THIS ISSUE...

...Word from the Associate Director - Extension and Applied Research
...Department of Communications Welcomes Elaine Edwards to its Ranks
...Looking for an Exceptional Professional Development Opportunity?
...Retirement Party for Morgan Powell, Extension Engineer
...Effective Leadership Needs Coaching
...Marie's Pick of the Week
...Status Report: New 4-H Webpages - Recordkeeping, Recognition, and Awards
...Marketing: The Best of Our Peers
...Master Schedule

...Tuesday Letter Archives

WORD FROM THE ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR - EXTENSION AND APPLIED RESEARCH
I know sometimes it is difficult to want to be critical of one's self, but most leaders will tell you, "if you aren't willing to be a tough judge of your own work, then how can you have a valued opinion of anyone else's work?"

At the heart of claiming excellence in Extension, peer review, critique, and feedback are needed. Standards for evaluating all scholarship / excellence has been offered by Glassick, Huber, and Maeroff (1997). Those standards have the following characteristics:

Goals: Set clear, realistic goals and measurable objectives.

Adequate preparation: Keep up with the issues and work towards having appropriate and adequate resources for the project.

Appropriate methods: Choose appropriate methodology for your project's goals. Study the literature and the work of others in addressing the issue or problem of interest.

Significant results: Excellence should be judged by its results. The project should be meeting its goals and contributing to the field or opening up other areas for further development.

Effective presentation: Communicate the results of your project with your peers, stakeholders, and other practitioners.

Evaluate: Engage in reflective critique. Think about your work and learn from the process. Ask what went wrong and right as a means of improving.

Some will say it takes too much time and resources to effectively evaluate if a program has had any impact. I'd suggest that if the program was important enough to invest time and resources, it should be important enough to know if it mattered in the end.

Have a great week! - Daryl Buchholz dbuchhol@ksu.edu

DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS WELCOMES ELAINE EDWARDS TO ITS RANKS
Elaine is leading our news media services unit, which comprises the formerly separate news, radio and television units. Elaine will be leading our team to produce print, broadcast, and web-based news delivery. She comes from Iowa State University where she led news and marketing teams for Iowa State University Extension. Later in the summer, we plan to have an open house for everyone to meet Elaine and see some of our new media approaches. --Kris Boone kboone@ksu.edu

LOOKING FOR AN EXCEPTIONAL PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY?
Join your Extension colleagues at the Galaxy III conference in Indianapolis, September 15 – 19, 2008. Nationally known speakers, more than 175 concurrent and 350 poster sessions, educational tours, exhibits, community service projects, and the opportunity to honor outstanding Extension professionals are just some of the scheduled activities!

Review the conference schedule as well as registration information on the official Galaxy III website, https://sharepoint.agriculture.purdue.edu/ces/galaxy/default.aspx , and get registered. Early bird registration ends June 15! The registration fee also includes daily meal functions: Opening Event (heavy hors d’oeuvres), Box lunch (Tuesday), Ruby Luncheon and Taste of Indiana Buffet (Wednesday), Breakfast and Award Banquet (Thursday) and Closing Brunch (Friday). --Marie Blythe mblythe@ksu.edu

Retirement Party for Morgan Powell, Extension Engineer
Morgan Powell, Extension Engineer, Water Quality, Biological & Agricultural Engineering, will be retiring on June 28, 2008. Morgan has been with KSU for 31 years.

A picnic dinner will be held at Keats Park, Thursday, June 26, 2008, beginning at 5 p.m. A short program will be at 5:45 p.m. with the picnic dinner served at 6 p.m. Reservations for the meal need to be made by June 15 to Cindy Casper, 785-532-5813, or e-mail ccasper@ksu.edu .

Contributions may be made to the Kansas Well Environment Scholarship Fund for students in the Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department. If you would like to make a contribution to the fund, make checks payable to “KSU Foundation” and send to 147 Seaton Hall, Manhattan, KS 66506, Attention: Cindy.

Cards and letters for a scrapbook for Morgan Powell, can be sent to him at Extension Biological & Ag Engineering, 147 Seaton Hall, Manhattan, KS 66506. --Cindy Casper ccasper@ksu.edu

EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP NEEDS COACHING
Extension Ag Economist Barry Flinchbaugh used to refer to the "Kingmakers" as the people behind the scenes that leaders would consult before making important decisions. A Community Coach plays much the same role: helping leadership consider the audiences, consequences, and possibilities of important community decisions.

Extension professionals who are involved in community and organizational change initiatives or plan to participate in such an initiative will benefit from the upcoming Coaching for Community Change workshop series.

Offered through the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development, this workshop consists of three online sessions and a face-to-face coaching clinic.

Online Sessions (1:30 – 3 p.m. CDT)

Tuesdays—July 22, July 29 and August 19
Wednesdays—July 23, July 30 and August 20

Effective Community Coaches will find these skills invaluable in their work with organizations, boards, committees, and community groups! This is a recommended training by the Community and Economic Development Professional Development Committee. --Dan Kahl dkahl@oznet.ksu.edu

MARIE'S PICK OF THE WEEK
While reviewing the 2007 Project Accomplishments for items that are especially effective at helping us understand how our work can be highlighted to share outcomes, impacts, success stories, and public value, this week my pick is a success story reported by Sandra Wick.

For the past 10 years, Smith County K-State Research and Extension has cooperated with the Smith Center High School Family and Consumer Sciences and Agriculture Education departments in providing an "orientation" program to all classes in the fall. The annual orientation program involves approximately 150 students and provides information to increase their awareness of Extension. For some, this is their only exposure to our mission. One student stopped me at the grocery store and said, "Wow! I didn't know that you guys do so much in Smith County!" It is testimonials like this that help reinforce to us that we are making a difference in our citizens. --Marie Blythe mblythe@ksu.edu

STATUS REPORT: NEW 4-H WEBPAGES - RECORDKEEPING, RECOGNITION, AND AWARDS
I just want to provide an update to everyone working with 4-H youth development who participated in the Kansas 4-H Awards Portfolio Premieres last month. It's been a busy month and we are still working on finalizing edits and formats. Things are progressing and we hope to have these pages posted by the end of June, along with the respective resources.

Thanks for your patience. --Gary W. Gerhard ggerhard@ksu.edu

MARKETING: THE BEST OF OUR PEERS
This week, I will be attending an Association for Communications Excellence conference, where I have the chance to talk with my peers at other land-grant institutions. With that in mind, let me share with you some of the great things going on across the system, nationwide:

-eXtension. Can we really talk about marketing Extension without listing eXtension? If you haven’t already, visit the site, www.extension.org . See what all the fuss is about.

-UNL’s Lancaster County, www.Lancaster.unl.edu/4h . Their Egg Cam drives users to their site from around the world, especially during hatching time. And while the Web visitors are there, they can learn more about the 4-H program in Nebraska.

-Extension en Espanol, http://extensionenespanol.net/ . This site is not only a great resource for existing Spanish materials, it also serves as a quality-control checkpoint for Spanish Extension materials nationwide.

See more of our top picks or add your own at our blog at http://ksremarketingminute.blogspot.com/ , or contact me at lsleicht@ksu.edu . --Linda Sleichter

VIEW THE MASTER SCHEDULE OR ADD NEW ACTIVITIES AND EVENTS

To view the complete Master Schedule online or as a pdf, go to http://129.130.72.154/MasterSchAdd/

Submit corrections to previously submitted items to cthomas@ksu.edu .
DATES TAKEN FROM THE MASTER SCHEDULE FOR JUNE 19 THROUGH JUNE 25, 2008:

Thursday, June 19 through Sunday, June 22, 2008, American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (AAFCS) Annual Conference, Milwaukee, WI, Paula Peters peters@ksu.edu

Friday, June 20 through Monday, June 23, 2008, Association for Communications Excellence (ACE) in Ag, Natural Resources & Life, and Human Science, Traverse City, MI, Larry Jackson ljackson@ksu.edu

Friday, June 20 through Monday, June 23, 2008 starting at 12:00 p.m., 4-H Photo Adventure Camp at Rock Springs 4-H Center, Rod Buchele rbuchele@ksu.edu

Wednesday, June 25 through Sunday, July 6, 2008, Citizenship Washington Focus in Washington, D.C., Justin Wiebers jwiebers@ksu.edu

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