The Tuesday Letter
Agricultural Experiment Station & Cooperative Extension Service
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
(Vol. 18 No. 25)
IN THIS ISSUE...
WORD FROM THE ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR - EXTENSION AND APPLIED RESEARCH
"When bad becomes normal." I recall from the lecture given at K-State by Dr. Temple Grandin in November 2010, she was speaking on her experiences as an animal behaviorist and a person with autism. Her message to me related to true leadership when she demonstrated animal behavior to the experts (farmers, ranchers, cowboys, and all those in the cattle business) and how changing facility design could better serve the animal and still achieve the outcome desired of those handling the animals. However, her work was not understood and scoffed at first. She was challenging "normal." At one point in her speech, I heard her say we must never accept "when bad becomes normal."
I think we can all identify situations where bad has become normal for someone else. It can be extremely difficult to see normal as bad in our own experiences. A couple examples that might resonate with you.... maybe it's your office that needs cleaning because you lose track of important info, maybe its avoiding people different from you, or maybe its having a turnout of 5 once again at an educational meeting that could have had 50 or more in attendance. You'll be inclined to accept the status quo just because that's normal, the way it has always been. Oftentimes it takes someone from outside the situation to draw attention to accepting "bad" as the way it is. Once recognized, it is then up to you to discover ways to change the norm and make better. That challenge is more than pointing out the problem. It's also working to develop solutions. We call that leadership, which leads me to a couple quotes that I think speak to the challenge.
“Leadership” is a concept we often resist. It seems immodest,
even self-aggrandizing, to think of ourselves as leaders. But if it is
true that we are made for community, then leadership is everyone’s
vocation, and it can be an evasion to insist that it is not. When we
live in the close-knit ecosystem called community, everyone follows and
everyone leads. - Parker Palmer
“Successful leaders manage conflict; they don’t shy away from it or
suppress it but see it as an engine of creativity and innovation. Some
of the most creative ideas come out of people in conflict remaining in
conversation with one another rather than flying into their own corners
or staking out entrenched positions. The challenge for leaders is to
develop structures and processes in which such conflicts can be
orchestrated productively.” - Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky
Identify areas that need improvement, listen to others, seek solutions, and expect resistance to implementing those solutions. When the principles you are working from provide the foundation for change, you will have to be strong in your commitment to leading change, and know that it is worth improving upon what others might call "normal."
Have a great week! --Daryl Buchholz dbuchhol@ksu.edu
CLASSIFED EMPLOYEES OF THE YEAR TO BE RECOGNIZED ON APRIL 25
On
Wednesday, April 25, 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. Athletics
Director John Currie will be the ceremony's guest speaker. 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:
Clayton Seaman, Senior Agricultural Technician, Agricultural Research Center, Hays, KS.
Clayton was nominated by Robert Gillen, Professor and Department Head, Agricultural Research Center, Hays, KS.
2) College of Agriculture:
Judy Maberry, Administrative Officer, Department of Agricultural Economics.
Judy was nominated by Orlen Grunewald, Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics.
And
a special award this year - John Wolf has been selected to receive the
2012 Classified Award of Excellence from Human Resources. This
university-wide award was established to recognize exemplary
performance
and contributions of classified support staff members who
consistently
excel in their positions and demonstrate integrity and a
strong
commitment to the mission and values of Kansas State
University. The three recipients of this special award receive $1000
each.
John Wolf is a Research Technologist who manages the Meat
Lab in the Department of Animal Sciences and Industry. John was
nominated by Randy Phebus, Professor in Animal Sciences.
Please
attend the ceremony and help us recognize the great work of Clayton,
Judy, John, and all our excellent Classified Employees. --Steven Graham sgraham@k-state.edu
BIOMASS TO ENERGY WEBINARS
There is much interest in developing ways to harvest, collect, and transport biomass for use as energy. Once this material is collected, a number of ways to utilize it for energy exist. Two upcoming webinars explore two different ways to utilize collected biomass for energy.
The first is this Friday, April 27, 10 - 11 a.m. CDT. “Biomass for Commercial Heating” will be presented by Doug Cure of Alternative Energy Solutions International – Wichita KS.
The second will be Friday, May 25, 10 - 11 a.m. CDT. “Thermochemical Conversion of Biomass to Fuel” will be presented by Dr. Robert Brown - Iowa State University- Bioeconomy Institute. Dr. Brown has published two textbooks on conversion of biomass to fuel. His expertise in conversion helped form the Bioeconomy Institute at Iowa State University. He will discuss the opportunities and challenges of biomass conversion.
How To Connect:
Start connecting 5 minutes prior to the start time. You need a computer with Internet access and speakers. At the meeting time, copy and paste this URL into your browser to enter the meeting: https://connect.unl.edu/cenusa.
At that URL you will find a login page. “Enter as a Guest” with your name, and business or institution and click “Enter Room.” The audio portion of the meeting will be come through your computer speakers. Any time before the meeting you can visit the following URL to confirm your ability to connect: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/testconnect/. --Ed Brokesh ebrokesh@ksu.edu
2012 AGROFORESTRY WATER & WILDLIFE FIELD DAY
On Thursday, May 10, Kansas Forest Service
is sponsoring an Agroforestry Water & Wildlife Field Day Flat Rock Ranch in Hamilton.
Topics include: An overview of Flat Rock Ranch and West Creek Recreation, proper tree planting methods, limiting cattle's access to ponds, oak savannah management, quail habitat management, quality food plots for deer, and managing transition zones between crop and woodlands.
Registration
is $10, lunch provided. Registration is due May 7, and can be mailed to
Leslye Haller, Kansas Forest Service, 2610 Claflin Rd., Manhattan, KS
66502.
Call 785-532-3300, or email lahaller@ksu.edu if you have questions or need more information. Or you can visit our website to see a copy of the brochure at http://www.kansasforests.org/calendar/Agroforestry%20Brochure%202012.pdf.
Hope to see you all there! --Leslye Haller lahaller@ksu.edu
ASK THE OEIE EVALUATOR: THE EVALUATION REPORTING SYSTEM
At
the 2012 Spring Action Conference this month, we demoed the progress in the
development of the online K-State Research and Extension Evaluation Reporting
System. For those of you who were not there or would like additional
information, in this segment, we discuss the goals and focus of the system and
the development process.
Q:
What is the new KSRE Evaluation Reporting System?
The
overarching purpose of this system is to collect evaluation information about
all Extension programs across the state via one online system used by every
KSRE professional. The goals of the system are three-fold: - Central
repository for program evaluation data. The system will be the one place
you’ll need to enter your program or program series data, contacts and their demographics,
and the data collected through your evaluation instruments.
- Up-to-date
and useful data for reporting impact and program planning. The system will
compile entered data so you can view the data at any time for any date range and
across your county, district, or state; programs; and sessions. It will provide
you with some basic tools, like charts and graphs, that allow you to analyze
and begin to make sense of the data easily.
- User-friendly
interface that provides an intuitive and non-threatening experience.
Aspects of the system include homepage access to activities you will use most
often; ability to save progress at any time; access to compiled data in the
manner you need it, e.g., by custom date ranges, by location, or by program; and
support features you can access at any time, such as video tutorials and FAQs.
Development
of the system began in the winter and will culminate October 1, 2012, in time to
be used for the new programming year. To date, we have developed the
foundational structures to store program series and evaluation impact data, and to provide access
to data that will meet county, state and federal reporting needs. Our next
round of development will be to incorporate the feedback individuals and PFTs
provided at the Spring Action Conference regarding the collection and reporting
aspects that the system needs to provide. The third round of development, piloting
or user-testing the system with KSRE professionals, will begin late this summer.
Please
note that the system that will be launched October 1 will not replace the Action Plan Reporting System.
You will still need to upload your 2012-13 program year action plans and
evaluation instruments to that system, but you will only need to enter the
impact data you collect during that program year into the Evaluation Reporting
System. Also, for the 2012-13 program year, this system will only include the
PFT Action Plan Evaluation Instruments. We will expand the system to include
all evaluation instruments used by KSRE professionals and across program areas
after the initial launch.
We
appreciate the honest and direct feedback we received at the Spring Action
Conference and we look forward to receiving more of your insights and needs of
the system. Your continued participation in the development of this system,
including the pilot testing, is integral to creating a system that provides all
of the necessary aspects that you need for collecting data and reporting impact
in a manner that is useable, useful and efficient.
As
you conduct your evaluations over the next several months, please keep this
system in mind and contact us with any ideas for the Evaluation Reporting
System. If you are interested in participating in the pilot and have not yet
submitted your name, please contact us as well.
Questions
about evaluation or suggestions for the reporting system? Contact Amy
Hilgendorf, aehilgen@k-state.edu, 785-532-5538;
or Mandi Peters, mpeters8@ksu.edu,
785-532-3423; at OEIE. --Amy Hilgendorf
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