February 2, 2021
Welcoming in a New Month and More!
Cheers to a new month and another chance to get it right.” – Oprah Winfrey
How did your January go? Whether great, so-so, or even abysmal, this first week of February offers us the opportunity to improve over the previous month, and it probably doesn’t take that much effort to make this a better month.
Think back on the previous month. How could you improve your engagement with the people we serve? What would it take for you to be just 10% more effective than last month in these activities?
• Needs analysis, program development, marketing, program implementation, program evaluation, and reporting the impact of the work.
• Your administrative and operations tasks.
• Becoming a better leader, team member, and follower.
• Reaching your professional development goals.
• Introducing new people to the wonderful learning opportunities of Cooperative Extension.
• Helping your Extension Council to become a better Extension Council?
A lot of what it takes to become better as an extension professional is in your control. So take control and work toward being an even better extension professional than you were last month. If you do this, won’t you have a better February than January? If you repeat this process every month, think of what you can accomplish the rest of the year!
I want to thank all who attended the Partnership Meeting last Thursday evening. The Partnership Meetings are a chance for Extension Administration to communicate directly with our local unit Extension Council partners. I believe we had 127 people attend, and, if our cursory analysis is correct, more than 50% were Extension Council members. Under the previous system of having a once-a-year, daylong Partnership Meeting in each region, we were lucky to see 60 Extension Council Members. Let’s keep up the good work. If we can create a better understanding between Extension Administration and our Extension Council partners through the quarterly Partnership Meetings, won’t it make us a better Cooperative Extension system? My Partnership Meeting goals are to continue to increase the participation of Extension Council members in our Partnership Meetings and to eventually have at least one Extension Council member from each local unit engage in the Partnership Meetings. I ask that you help make that happen!
Speaking of last week’s Partnership Meeting, I had to announce that our search for our successor to Dr. Jim Lindquist as our Associate Director for Field Operations hit a little snag. Due to this obstacle, we are extending the application due date to February 9. The position announcement can be found here: https://www.k-state.edu/hcs/tools/employees/internal-jobs.html?job=510183.
Please encourage all those who are able and interested to apply. Do they need some additional encouragement? Please nominate them to Dr. Rick Peterson, our search committee chair. He will contact them and encourage them to apply. Dr. Peterson can be contacted at rlpeterson@ksu.edu.
I already referred to this week being the start of a new month. That means this Friday from 3 to 4 p.m. will be our February Extension Update. The Zoom connection information was sent as a calendar invitation on Monday. This update will include our normal administrative update, The Department of Horticulture and Natural Resources will be in our departmental spotlight, and Meg Drake, our Marketing Specialist with the Department of Communications and Agricultural Education, will present "Communicating Impact to Stakeholders." I hope to see you all there!
Now, go out and make this a great February!