April 5, 2016
Good Communication is Always Important!
Over the years, we’ve been through good times and challenging times. Now we have entered into a challenging time with the call back of funds, anticipated permanent budget reduction for FY2017, and future tightening of local funds with tax lid legislation. Beyond looking for ways to either cut costs or to identify alternative sources of funding, I propose some other actions on your part, your board members, and other advocates/believers in the importance of Extension programming.
Communicate with county commissioners. Listen and understand the challenges they face. How they are planning to address the tightening of their available funding resources? Seek out what we can learn from the commissioners and their approaches to tightening resources.
Make certain stakeholders, including legislators and commissioners, know about your work and how extension programs are supporting priority needs within the county or district. Ask stakeholders if there are ways that they would suggest for the Extension program to provide even greater support to priority needs within the county or district.
Commissioners will want to know what K-State is doing in light of the potential budget reductions. K-State Research and Extension will focus our resources by continuing to deliver strong, relevant, valued research and education important to the people of Kansas. We will focus on our core knowledge areas and continue finding solutions to the grand challenges. Like the commissioners, we await actions taken by our state legislators as they conclude the legislative session, and final decisions on the state budget.
Extension District directors and boards should be in full communication with all the county commissioners in your district. Talk with your county commissioners about how the district is even more efficient and effective in providing valuable extension programming in their counties and across the district. Make certain county commissioners know and understand how the Extension district board is working within its budget and preparing for the financial challenges ahead.
Communicate, communicate, communicate. And, remember that communication is a two-way dialog, both listening and learning.
I know many of you already meet regularly with your commissioners, and that is great. For everyone, Extension district directors, board members, we should all be communicating with legislators and commissioners. It is critical in these challenging times to remain positive, focused, and open to the thoughts and ideas shared through open, honest communication with all our locally elected officials.
If you have examples of how communication with a local elected official has helped your local unit, I’d love to hear about it!
As K-State Research and Extension professionals, we have much for which to be proud. Providing information to our stakeholders and hearing their challenges and concerns will help us serve Kansas even better.