The Tuesday Letter
Agricultural Experiment Station & Cooperative Extension Service
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
(Vol. 16 No. 42)
IN THIS ISSUE...
WORD FROM THE ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR - EXTENSION AND APPLIED RESEARCH
Do you have an educational training or message you would like to present to your colleagues through a poster session or educational breakout? K-State Research and Extension Annual Conference provides the opportunity for you to give a poster or oral presentation on the topic of your choosing. Deadline for submitting a poster or oral presentation proposal is September 1! Please take the time to submit a proposed poster or oral presentation session by going to the Annual Conference website. In the upper right corner, you will see links to Registration, Submit a Proposal, Hotels, and Parking. You can even go back and view many of the 2009 presentations!
The odds of hitting your target go up dramatically
when you aim at it.
- Mal Pancoast
And in the end it's not the years in your life that
count. It's the life in your years.
-
Abraham Lincoln
Have a great week, and know that I will as well. Thanks for all you do! --Daryl Buchholz dbuchhol@ksu.edu
AGENT ACTION PLAN WORKSHOPS -- REGISTRATIONS DUE AUGUST 27
Don't forget to register for the upcoming Action Plan Workshops!! We will be there to help you with:
• Understanding how to identify what action plans to develop
• Identifying program action plan outputs and outcomes
• Identifying ways to measure program outcomes
• Developing a strong, focused Extension Action Plan
• Learning to use the on-line action plan system effectively
The dates and locations of the workshops are:
September 1, Garden City, Finney County Fair Grounds Grandstand Meeting Room
September 2, Quinter, Quinter Inn
September 7, Wichita, Sedgwick County Office
September 8, Chanute, SE Area Office
September 9, Manhattan, Pottorf Hall, Cico Park
You are welcome to attend whichever one fits your schedule best, but
check out the workshop registration information on the Employee Resources page
on the website for who to call. --Paula Peters ppeters@ksu.edu
HELP STILL NEEDED FOR OUR STATE FAIR BOOTHS
The College of Agriculture and K-State Research and Extension will once again have booths in the Pride of Kansas building at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson. The Kansas State Fair runs from Friday, September 10, through Sunday, September 19, 2010.
We would appreciate faculty and staff from campus, area offices, counties/districts, Agronomy Fields, and Research-Extension Centers coming to the fair and working a few hours in one or both of the booths. Also, we would really appreciate agents and/or faculty, who are coming to the fair anyway, signing up to work a couple of hours in the booth before or after your activities.
Days and times that our KSRE/COA fair booths need help are:
Friday, September 10 - 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Saturday, September 11 - (KFMA taking this entire day)
Sunday, September 12 - 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Monday, September 13 - 9 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Tuesday, September 14 - (Sedgwick County taking this entire day)
Wednesday, September 15 - 9 a.m., 10 a.m. and 12 Noon - 9 p.m.
Thursday, September 16 - 9 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Friday, September 17 - 9 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Saturday, September 18 - 9 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Sunday, September 19 - 9 a.m. - 7 p.m.
If you would like to work in the K-State Research and Extension booth, please contact Maria Sweet, marswe@ksu.edu, by August 27.
If you would like to work in the College of Agriculture booth, please contact Sandy Klein, sandy@ksu.edu, by August 27.
We will be in touch in late August/early September to finalize days, times, entrance tickets, etc. -- Sandy Klein and Steven Graham sgraham@k-state.edu
DAY-LONG COURSE, SEPTEMBER 2, DESIGNED TO HELP LAND MANAGERS PLAN FOR POLLINATING INVERTEBRATES
The 2008 Farm Bill made pollinators and their habitat a
conservation priority for every land manager and conservationist. On Thursday,
September 2, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation will conduct a
training session from 9
a.m. to 4 p.m., providing an
overview of pollinator-specific language within the Farm Bill and how to
translate that language into on-the-ground conservation. A pollinator is a biotic
agent, usually an insect that moves from plant to plant, aiding in plant
reproduction and growth.
Pollinator biology and the economics of insect pollination
are among topics that will be covered. Classroom and field sessions will be
held at the Manhattan
Plant
Materials
Center,
3800 South 20th Street
in Manhattan,
Kansas.This day-long course will equip conservationists, land
managers, farm educators, and agricultural professionals with the latest
science-based approaches to increasing crop security and reversing the trend of
pollinator decline, especially in heavily-managed agricultural landscapes.
Speakers from the University
of Oklahoma,
U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS),
and the Xerces Society will be on hand. Course topics include the following:
* Awareness of various federal
programs and funding available for pollinator conservation
* Approaches to increase and enhance
pollinator diversity
* Current best management practices
that minimize land-use impacts on pollinators
* How to recognize bees and distinguish
them from other insects
* Economics of insect-pollinated crops
and the effects of pollinator decline
* 2008 Farm Bill pollinator
conservation provisions and how to implement those provisions in programs such
as Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP), Environmental Quality Incentives
Program (EQIP), and Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP)
* How to assess pollinator habitat
* Recommendations to farmers and land
managers who conserve pollinators
* How to design and implement habitat
improvements
The course is free to the first 30 registrants. Additional
seats are available for $25. Participants will receive the Xerces Society’s
Pollinator Conservation Toolkit. To register, contact Ashley Minnerath at 503-232-6639
or ashley@xerces.org.
The course is supported by the Kansas NRCS and the
Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program (www.sare.org).
For more information, go online to www.xerces.org. --Steven Graham sgraham@k-state.edu
JOIN EPSILON SIGMA PHI
What is ESP? We all wish we had it so we would know what our clients were really asking. Well Epsilon Sigma Phi has many advantages……. It gives you the edge.
As a relatively new agent less than three years, I have found ESP offers some unique ways to meet other agents and personnel that I wouldn’t usually get to work with. I have found that the networking, the recognition of others for their dedication to their profession has inspired me to try and be the best extension professional possible.
A letter with details and a membership form can be found at
http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/esp-AlphaRho/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=16.
New member forms need to be returned by September 1. I hope you will take the time to join me along with the many other members of ESP!! --Rhonda Gordon rgordon@ksu.edu
DO YOU NEED A NEW NAME BADGE?
All
participants attending the upcoming Annual Conference, October 18-21,
2010, will be requested to wear their K-State Research and Extension
name badges.
If you have never received a name badge, if you
still have one of the old variety, or if you wish to purchase a new
badge, e-mail Sue Robinson, srobinso@ksu.edu.
Be
sure to specify the kind of backing you want - magnet, clip or pin -
and specify how you want your name on the badge. There is not room for
titles, but department, area, county, district, or research center will
be shown if you desire. The alternative I like is just your name below
the K-State Research and Extension brand.
Each new employee, at
the instructor level or above, receives his/her first name badge free
of charge. Counties, districts, areas and departments are encouraged to
order name badges for other employees and will be invoiced in the
amount of $4.50 for each name badge.
If a new name badge is
needed, please order soon so you can receive them in plenty of time for
Annual Conference. --Daryl Buchholz dbuchhol@ksu.edu
MARIE'S PICKS . . .
My pick this week is an impact report from Mary Higgins, Human Nutrition:
In 2008, for the fourth year, the program, What’s Cookin’ with Diabetes, was offered through a collaboration of KSRE, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas, and Prime Therapeutics of Kansas.
The program was expanded to include twelve sessions, two in the spring and ten in the fall. At three sites, sessions were offered in both English and Spanish. What’s Cookin’ with Diabetes sessions were held this year in Crawford, Ellis, Ford, Harvey, Saline, Seward, Shawnee, and Sedgwick Counties. Residents from 57 Kansas counties attended, and 19 people were from outside the state. Attendance included 33 people in two spring programs and in the fall, 882 people for the English sessions and 60 people for the Spanish sessions.
After the fall sessions, 858 completed participant evaluations were received--a response rate of 91%. The ages of respondents varied, with 21% being ages 40 years or younger, 24% between 50 to 59 years, 27% between 60 to 69 years, and 28% ages 70 years and older. Most were female (76%) and white, non-Hispanic (86.1%). Six out of ten respondents had diabetes, while most of the others had a family member or friend with diabetes.
Respondents were asked about their use of the MyPyramid and Nutrition Facts food labels. For each of these items, they were asked how often they would use them in the future, and how often they had used them in the past. Responses were as follows:
| | Mean Rating | | Intention to Use in the Future | Reported Use in the Past | | MyPyramid Use | 3.89 of 5 | 3.31 of 5 | | Nutrition Facts Use | 4.18 of 5 | 3.52 of 5 |
LEADER GUIDE FOR GARDENING WITH OLDER ADULTS FOR HEALTH AND NUTRITION
The revised version of the Teacher/Leader Guide for Gardening with Older Adults for Health and Nutrition is now available online at http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/humannutrition/GardenManual.2010.07.pdf.
Description: An innovative Family Nutrition Program (FNP) project, this program has been designed for older adults. It emphasizes gardening for physical activity and good nutrition. The program offers education on:
* gardening basics * gardening adaptations to allow anyone of any ability to garden * growing fruits, vegetables and culinary herbs popular with older Kansans * harvesting, storing and preparing fresh fruits, vegetables and culinary herbs
You can teach gardening in 10 (or fewer or more) sessions, if desired. You could use container gardening, so as to have flexibility in the place to teach the gardening sessions. Or you could pull sections of information from the guide and use them in a series of newsletters if you prefer not to conduct the meetings in person.
You could also sponsor inter-generational sessions and enjoy the results of using the new guide with people of all ages! An idea would be for ag/hort/FCS agents, or master gardener/food volunteers, to team teach the lessons.
The guide is very long. It has detailed information for setting up sessions, lots of background information for the leader, links for more resources, and many print-ready participant materials. Pick and choose what you want to use.
I encourage you to at least take a look at the table of contents so you know what it contains.
Candice Shoemaker and I authored the guide, with the help of others. Please let us know how you use the resource. Best wishes! --Mary Meck Higgins mhiggins@ksu.edu
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