The Tuesday Letter
Agricultural Experiment Station & Cooperative Extension Service
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
(Vol. 17 No. 41)
IN THIS ISSUE...
WORD FROM THE ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR - EXTENSION AND APPLIED RESEARCH
Congratulations to Richard Fechter and all members of the Kansas Association of County Agricultural Agents who have been diligently planning and working towards hosting the National Association annual meetings and professional improvement conference. The National meetings were a great success!!! My thanks also to all Extension agents, specialists, retirees, spouses and family members who gave of their time and effort to contribute to the success of the meeting. Truly outstanding. For those not aware, these national meetings wrapped up last week in Overland Park, the culmination of at least 3 years of intensive planning and hard work. I only wish I could have been there for the entire week. And, you will see more thanks and accolades from Richard in the next article below to which I would agree wholeheartedly!
We were extremely pleased to have Dr. Cathie Woteki, Chief Scientist and Undersecretary for Research, Education, and Economics in USDA here in Manhattan this past week as well. Among her duties, Dr. Woteki oversees the National Institute for Food and Agriculture. In her visit, Dr. Woteki was briefed on research at Kansas State University around livestock and crop health and security, including site visits to the Bio-security Research Institute (BRI), and the future site of the Department of Homeland Security's National Bio and Agro-defense Facility (NBAF).
Dr. Woteki then spent the afternoon on Thursday at Fort Riley getting a first hand look at how K-State Research and Extension and Fort Riley Garrison Command are working together to provide army families educational programming focused on their key issues. She was joined by Dr. Brent Elrod, USDA-NIFA national program leader for military family programs. They were able to sit in on an educational workshop being presented by Laura Weiss-Cook, Extension Agent - family resource management, and visit the Victory Community Gardens, an initiative of Susan Schoneweis, Extension Agent - nutrition and health, and Ft. Riley Garrison. A stop was also made at the Ft. Riley Extension office on post. Later, Dr. Woteki and Dr. Elrod visited with key individuals in the Garrison Command, along with Dr. Paula Peters, Toni Bryant, and myself. My thanks to Paula, Toni, Laura, Susan, Linda Lamb, and all others in the Extension office at Ft. Riley for organizing such an informative afternoon for Dr. Woteki!
Have a great week! --Daryl Buchholz dbuchhol@ksu.edu
CONNECT WEBINAR TRAINING - AUGUST 17, 24
Training is being offered on Wednesday, August 17 and 24, at 9 a.m.
This session is a
good overview for both new and experienced Connect users. No
registration is necessary. Simply go to http://connect.ksre.ksu.edu/connecttraining/ during the training time.
If you are new to Connect, this free program is a great communication tool. It is used for on-line
webinars, research, educational classes, collaboration, and even KSRE District meetings.
For more information, visit the TechWeb site, www.ksre.ksu.edu/techweb/, or contact Gerry Snyder, gsnyder@ksu.edu, IET, 785-532-6270. --Gerry Snyder
VOLUNTEERS REQUESTED TO HELP IN OUR BOOTHS AT THE KANSAS STATE FAIR
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 9, through Sunday, September 18, 2011.
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 are open are:
Friday, September 9 (We still need help from 7 - 9 p.m.)
Saturday, September 10 (KFMA taking this entire day)
Sunday, September 11 (We still need help from noon - 9 p.m.)
Monday, September 12 - 9 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Tuesday, September 13 – (SG County taking this entire day)
Wednesday, September 14 - 9 a.m. - 9 p.m.
Thursday, September 15 (We still need help 1 - 9 p.m.)
Friday, September 16 (We still need help in the evening)
Saturday, September 17 ( We still need help from 6 - 9 p.m.)
Sunday, September 18 - 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 26.
If you would like to work in the College of Agriculture booth, please contact Sandy Klein, sandy@ksu.edu, by August 26.
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
MARIE'S PICKS . . .
My pick this week is a success story from the 2011 Walk Kansas program submitted by Cindy Evans, Shawnee
County:
**When offered the chance to join a Walk Kansas team,
who would have known it would make such a difference? I am a person who grew up
on meat and potatoes and has since moved on to convenience foods like many
other working mothers. But eating vegetables and fruits can be convenient too,
I found out. Not one to really like many fruits and vegetables, I thought maybe
I should not have joined this program, I do not want to let the team down... but
as I brought stuff to work and really started to focus on what I was eating, it
was easy. I have added a few things to my diet I swore I did not like, and they
are not so bad after all. Exercise has been added to a mostly stagnant couch
potato, and I must say I really do feel better. I try to at least get in
walking time every day and some days I even get in a 20 minutes exercise video
to boot. With all this newly found health and wellness, I shed 20 lbs and best
of all have used my healthier, slimmer self to walk away from the grips of
nicotine. If I get a craving for a cigarette I simply take a walk, or chew on a
carrot, broccoli, or celery. I truly believe being held accountable, for eating
habits and exercise, to a team I did not want to let down was key for me, and
as I felt better I did more. The more I did, the less time to stand around
smoking. All in all, the past 8 weeks have been a turning point for me and I
look forward to Walk Kansas 2012. --Marie Blythe mblythe@ksu.edu
NEW MEMBERS INVITED TO JOIN EPSILON SIGMA PHI
On behalf of the Recruitment and Retention Committee, we would like to invite
K-State Research and Extension faculty to become new annual members of the
Alpha Rho (Kansas) Chapter of Epsilon Sigma Phi, the Extension Professional's
organization. Membership is open to faculty who work in local, county,
district, area or campus offices.
Epsilon Sigma Phi is the National Cooperative Extension Professional's
Organization, dedicated to fostering standards of excellence in the Extension
system, developing the extension profession and the professional.
Local chapter projects and activities include:
* Extension personnel recognition
* Grants for study
* Professional development workshops
* Grants for innovative programming
Find all the details in a "New Membership Letter and Form" that can be found
at:
http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/esp-AlphaRho/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=16.
We need responses from new members by September 10, 2011.
If you have questions, please contact Beth Hinshaw, bhinshaw@ksu.edu. --Beth Hinshaw
LOCAL UNIT DIRECTOR WORKSHOPS
Agents who serve as the director of their county or district office, or those who would like to learn more about the director role, will be interested in these workshops to be held in 2012:
A Local Unit Director Workshop focusing on budgets and other financial topics will be held on the following dates and locations:
March 13, 2012 in Colby
March 14, 2012 in Garden City
March 15, 2012 in Pratt
April 5, 2012 in Manhattan
April 18, 2012 in Iola
A Local Unit Director Workshop focusing on human resource topics, primarily boards and office staff, will be held on the following dates and locations:
October 25, 2012 in Iola
October 30, 2012 in Garden City
October 31, 2012 in Colby
November 1, 2012 in Manhattan
November 6, 2012 in Pratt
Additional details will be available later. --Stacey Warner swarner@ksu.edu and Jim Lindquist jlindqui@ksu.edu
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