April 14, 2020
Important “This and That” Article
I hope everyone had a wonderful, fun, and relaxing weekend with your family and loved ones. We all need relaxation and recuperation time to effectively navigate our personal and professional lives. This is especially true in these challenging times.
Provost Taber announced that the University’s summer session will be all online in Monday’s K-State Today. For those of us that normally work on campus, a decision has not been made regarding when we will be able to return to campus. The article can be viewed here: https://www.k-state.edu/today/announcement/?id=64024.
The Friday Extension Update will actually be on Friday this week and at the usual time slot of 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. We have maxed our 500 site capacity several times during the past few weeks. We have procured a 1000 site platform to avoid this problem in the future. To reduce potential Zoom bombing, we will email the Update’s Zoom address rather than list it in the Tuesday Letter.
It would be nice to stretch that 1000 site Zoom capacity to its limits at our quarterly Partnership Meeting. Remember, the primary goal of our Partnership Meetings is to enhance the communication between Extension Administration and our local unit leadership partners, our Extension Board members. This Partnership Meeting will be held Tuesday, April 21, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. The Zoom connection information will be emailed no later than Monday, April 20. For the previously noted security reasons, the connection information should not be shared via social media or on web pages.
This Partnership Meeting is particularly important. First, we want to celebrate our accomplishments in responding to the COVID-19 challenge. Second, many Extension Board members may have questions or concerns about the temporary changes that have occurred or those that may occur in our system due to our COVID-19 challenge. There is no better chance for them to ask questions or express those concerns and get answers and comments straight from the horse’s (Extension Administration’s) mouth than at this Partnership Meeting. I would like to challenge all local units to have at least three Extension Board members participate in this Partnership Meeting.
I will leave you with this. Thank you for working so diligently at finding new ways to reach out to the people we serve. The additional work you have put in to follow the old Extension motto of “meeting people where they are and when they need it” is even more important in this challenging time than ever before. The people you serve, your colleagues, K-State Research and Extension, and I appreciate your effort and your successes. Keep it up!