The Tuesday Letter
Agricultural Experiment Station & Cooperative Extension Service
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
(Vol. 17 No. 24)
IN THIS ISSUE...
WORD FROM THE ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR - EXTENSION AND APPLIED RESEARCH
Thanks to all our Extension Program Focus Team co-leaders for the preparation and work done towards a successful work session at Spring Action Conference last week! And, very special thanks to Paula Peters and Linda Lamb for coordinating the overall agenda and the local arrangements at the hotel!
The evidence was there of the progress each program focus team has made towards identifying the educational programs for this coming year that warrant need to include evaluation / feedback and aggregation of that feedback. These are appropriate, important steps towards continuous improvement in delivering strong local programs. And, gathering the feedback allows everyone to be more involved in conveying IMPACT of K-State Research and Extension educational programs.
Making persons of influence within your community, county, district, or region aware of the IMPACT of Extension is vitally important. You need to practice and become comfortable telling such stories. When you do that, you will help everyone within Extension, staff, volunteers, program development committee members, governing board members, and any other potential advocates to tell similar stories about the value of Extension within your community.
Thanks for all you do in conveying the brand value of K-State Research and Extension with everything you do. Please don't forget to make persons aware that the educational experience they've had was brought to you by K-State Research and Extension - (local unit). Have a great week! --Daryl Buchholz dbuchhol@ksu.edu
KANSAS SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE DALE RODMAN LECTURE TOMORROW, APRIL 20 AT 2 P.M.
The College of Agriculture and the Department of Grain Science are pleased to announce that Secretary Rodman will present a lecture titled "Challenges and Opportunities of Agriculture in Kansas and Beyond" on April 20 at 2:00 p.m. in the Town Hall Auditorium in the Leadership Studies Building.
Dale A. Rodman was appointed secretary of the Kansas Department of Agriculture by Governor Sam Brownback in January 2011. A native Kansan, Rodman was born in Eureka and grew up on a diversified farm and ranch near Toronto. His family raised cattle, wheat, soybeans, hay, and sorghum. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture in feed milling from Kansas State University in 1963. He later graduated from the Minnesota Management Institute at the University of Minnesota.
Rodman served as an agribusiness executive in national and international agriculture development and management for the majority of his career. He worked for 37 years at Cargill, Inc. and gained experience in a number of agribusiness industries including milling, grain product processing, and meat slaughter and processing. Rodman spent 4 years as president of Tramco, Inc., a manufacturer of heavy duty dry bulk conveying systems located in Wichita. In the 1990s, Rodman worked with then Secretary of Agriculture Sam Brownback to develop the value-added program and served as a board member of the Kansas Agricultural Value-Added Center. --Steven Graham sgraham@k-state.edu
CLASSIFIED EMPLOYEES OF THE YEAR TO BE RECOGNIZED ON APRIL 27TH
On Wednesday, April 27, from 2 - 4 p.m. in the Union Ballroom, the Kansas State University Classified Employee Recognition Ceremony will take place.
Employees will be recognized for: Years of Service; Attaining Retirement; as Departmental/Unit Employees of the Year; plus the K-State Classified Award of Excellence will be announced. Guest Speaker will be Dr. Noel Schulz. Refreshments will be served following the ceremony.
K-State Research and Extension will have many employees being recognized in the various categories. Two employees being recognized in the Departmental/Unit category are:
1) K-State Research and Extension:
Justin Bolte, Senior Agricultural Technician, Agricultural Research Center, Hays, KS.
Justin was nominated by John Jaeger, Assistant Professor, Agricultural Research Center Hays, KS.
2) College of Agriculture:
Michael Larson, Senior Agricultural Technician, Department of Agronomy, North Central Experiment Fields, Belleville/Scandia, KS.
Michael was nominated by Dallas Peterson, Professor, Department of Agronomy.
Please attend the ceremony and help us recognize the great work of Justin, Michael, and all our excellent Classified Employees. --Steven Graham sgraham@k-state.edu
MARIE'S PICKS . . .
My picks this week include medium- and long-term outcomes and success
stories from David Key, Meadowlark
District; and David Coltrain, River Valley District.
*** As a result of
the work of the Kansas Rural Water Association and Extension, two towns
and one rural water district in the Meadowlark Extension District have
completed voluntary water resource protection plans.
The NECK
Business Academy Committee raised more than $10,000.00 in its efforts to hold a week-long camp for high school age youth. The ten youth participants gained knowledge and skills related to the importance of networking, business plan development, financial planning, and marketing. Targeted marketing using social media websites created interest and was affordable. T-shirts, flash drives, thank you cards, and word of mouth by this year's class will hopefully pay off for next year!
As a result
of our Extension leadership and promotion of the Facilities
Conservation Improvement Program, the Nemaha County Commissioners have
agreed to move forward on their energy conservation project and have
approved completing an Investment Grade Audit for improvement of their
facilities.
The Simple Steps To Reduce Your Home Energy Costs
campaign sponsored by the Meadowlark Extension District and the Glacial
Hills RC&D has reached 357 households and/or individuals in northeast
Kansas. The campaign pertained to reducing home energy costs and
securing pledges to replace an additional 2330 traditional light bulbs with
compact fluorescent bulbs reducing home energy costs.
*** The
Clay Center Envisioning program was a success as approximately 30 people
participated in the four-week session. They developed a time line of
good and bad community events from the last fifty years and used this
information and a SWOT analysis to develop a Vision Statement for Clay
Center. --Marie Blythe mblythe@ksu.edu
“I AM MOVING, I AM LEARNING” CHILDCARE TRAINING AVAILABLE TO EXTENSION AGENTS – JUNE 6-8
Childhood obesity is becoming an
alarming trend. Some studies indicate
that as many as 1 in 5 children is overweight.
I Am
Moving, I Am Learning (IMIL), which originated with Head Start, is
a proactive approach for addressing childhood obesity. IMIL seeks to increase moderate to vigorous
physical activity every day, improve the quality of movement activities
intentionally planned and facilitated by adults, and promote healthy food
choices every day. The results of a
national evaluation of IMIL is available at http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/earlychildhood/imil.asp.
The CYTTAP (Child Youth and
Technical Training Assistance Program) military project is
providing 2 to 3 Kansas Extension staff the opportunity to participate in an
IMIL three day train-the-trainer workshop held in Olathe, Kansas at the Johnson
County Extension Office on June 6, 7, and 8. Extension agents who serve in a region with a high concentration of
active and/or reserve component military families will be given preference.
Agents selected for this training would have their IMIL registration paid but would
be responsible for their own travel, lodging, and meals. Complimentary
registration would include the trainers’ fees, their mileage, lodging, etc., as
well as a copy of the curriculum.
IMIL training participants will be expected
to hold at least one childcare provider training for 30 – 40 participants
within 12 months of the Olathe training.
The training is to be primarily for providers who work with children of
military families. Participants of these
follow-up trainings will complete evaluations for the CYTTAP project
coordinator.
For more information and to apply for
the June 6-8 IMIL training, contact Elaine Johannes, ejohanne@ksu.edu, 785-532-7720. --Elaine Johannes
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