National eXtension Initiative

As a CoP members you can now participate in a monthly Web conferences that is hosted by the Content team for eXtension. These Web conferences will be informal and you can join when your schedule permits. These are not required conferences but just a mechanism to share information, provide a discussion forum, answer questions, provide training (like maybe the Wiki tip of the month!), share products being developed by CoPs, etc.

The monthly web conferences will be every third Tuesday of the month at 2 PM (Eastern), 1 PM (Central), 12 PM (Mountain), and 11 AM (Pacific) and are scheduled for one hour. The first Web conference will be on May 16th. We will be posting information about the Web conferences on the About eXtension blog (http://about.extension.org) as well.

As a CoP members you can now participate in a monthly Web conferences that is hosted by the Content team for eXtension. These Web conferences will be informal and you can join when your schedule permits. These are not required conferences but just a mechanism to share information, provide a discussion forum, answer questions, provide training (like maybe the Wiki tip of the month!), share products being developed by CoPs, etc.

The monthly web conferences will be every third Tuesday of the month at 2 PM (Eastern), 1 PM (Central), 12 PM (Mountain), and 11 AM (Pacific) and are scheduled for one hour. The first Web conference will be on May 16th. We will be posting information about the Web conferences on the Content blog (http://cop.extension.org/ContenteXchange) as well.

Monthly audio calls with all of the core leadership of the 8 pioneer communities of practice are established starting May 15th. The calls will be an hour in length and will be on the third Monday of every month beginning on May 15th. Time will be 2 PM (Eastern), 1 PM (Central), 12 PM (Mountain), and 11 AM (Pacific).
The number for every audio call is 402.472.6290.

It is not imperative that each member of the core leadership team be on every call, but at least one leadership team member should be present. The calls are to facilitate conversations among the leadership, keep you abreast of activities happening with eXtension, share successes, problems or concerns, keep CoPs moving forward, and other items you feel need to be discussed.

Monthly audio calls with all of the core leadership of the 8 pioneer communities of practice are established starting May 15th. The calls will be an hour in length and will be on the third Monday of every month beginning on May 15th. Time will be 2 PM (Eastern), 1 PM (Central), 12 PM (Mountain), and 11 AM (Pacific).
The number for every audio call is 402.472.6290.

It is not imperative that each member of the core leadership team be on every call, but at least one leadership team member should be present. The calls are to facilitate conversations among the leadership, keep you abreast of activities happening with eXtension, share successes, problems or concerns, keep CoPs moving forward, and other items you feel need to be discussed.

This week the Equine CoP conducted an online chat about Condition Your Horse in the Summer. They found that their clientele are very eager to learn and discuss topics of their interest using online chat methods.

During the chat participants said they found out about the chat by email promotion through the Cooperative Extension System and from just browsing the Internet. The majority of those surveyed indicated a desire to have a chat either monthly or weekly and found the chat system to be easy or extremely easy to use.

These respondents also found the chat to be useful or extremely useful and provided feedback on future topics the Horse Team should cover. Online chats will be a great way a Community of Practice can directly interact with their Community of Interest.

Telling the eXtension story and bringing all who are interested updates on the current status of the initiative will be keeping eXtension staff occupied during the coming weeks:

Dan Cotton will make a presentation on and update about eXtension to those attending the Public Issues Leadership Development conference in Washington, D.C. April 24-27, 2006 in Crystal City, VA. PILD is organized by the Joint Council of Extension Professionals (JCEP).
Dan will also be attending the National Agricultural Library’s AgNIC annual meeting April 27-28, 2006 in Beltsville, MD.

Carla Craycraft will represent eXtension at the annual All American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC) meeting in Washington, D.C. May 3-4, 2006.

The annual National Extension Technology Conference (NETC), May 8-11, 2006 at the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL will offer attendees an entire programming track on eXtension. eXtension staff members Dan Cotton, Kevin Gamble, Carla Craycraft, Craig Wood, Ashley Griffin, Rafe Colburn, James Robinson, Jason Young, and Beth Raney will all be making presentations on various aspects of eXtension. For more information on the NETC conference go to the conference web site.

Terry Meisenbach, Kevin Gamble, and Beth Raney will be conducting a pre-conference workshop and a breakout session as a part of the annual Children, Youth, and Families at Risk (CYFAR) meeting May 16-19, 2006 in Atlanta, GA. For more information on the CYFAR conference go to the conference web site.

Kevin Gamble and Terry Meisenbach will conduct a session on the eXtension Virtual Newsroom at the annual conference of the Association for Communications Excellence (ACE) in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada June 2-6, 2006. More information on the ACE conference can be found at the conference web site.

And, finally, Dan Cotton will brief the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC) Council on Extension, Continuing Education, and Public Service (CECEPS) in early June.

While it’s important to have the content specialists providing information, eXtension can use help from IT and communication professionals to help the content be the best it can be. Please join us on Thursday, April 20 at Noon (Eastern) to learn a little more about what you can do to help eXtension, as well as to share your ideas with us!

What: eXtension: Help Wanted!
When: Thursday, April 20, 2006 Noon Eastern (9am Pacific; 10am Mountain; 11am Central)
Who: Extension IT & Communication Professionals
Where: http://breeze.extension.iastate.edu/learn

Enter as a Guest, then provide your name & institution. Then have the system call your phone number.

Join us to find out more about eXtension! For more information contact:
Beth Raney
Professional Development Leader, eXtension Initiative
814.863.2525
beth.raney@eXtension.org

As noted in an earlier post this week, the Internal Partners Advisory Committee met in Kansas City MO on April 5 & 6 to learn more about the eXtension initiative and to strategize on greater involvement and participation by partner groups in the initiative. Jim King, Professor of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, facilitated the meeting.
Attendees included:
National Extension Association for Family and Consumer Sciences
Kathy Dothage, University of Missouri Extension

Past Chair, Council Extension Continuing Education and Public Service
Theodore J. Settle, V.P.I. and State University

Administrative Heads Section, Board on Agriculture Assembly, NASULGC
Fred A. Cholick, Kansas State University

President, Association of Natural Resources Extension Professionals
Janean H. Creighton, Arkansas Forest Resources Center, University of Arkansas-Monticello

National Agricultural Library, USDA
Peter Young & Melanie Gardner

Epsilon Sigma Phi
Jim Hovland, Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin

Academic Committee on Organization and Policy, Board on Agriculture Assembly, NASULGC
Mike Mullen, University of Kentucky

Experiment Stations Committee on Organization and Policy, Board on Agriculture Assembly, NASULGC
Eric Young, Southern Association of Agricultural Experiment Station Directors

National Association of County Agricultural Agents
John Dorner, IV, North Carolina Cooperative Extension

American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC)
Janet Poley

National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals

Kathy Tweeten, North Dakota State University

National 4-H Council
Sharon D. Anderson

Association for Communications Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Life and Human Sciences
Virginia Morgan, Alabama Cooperative Extension System

Youth Representative, 4-H Youth Development
Jeremy Embalabala

CARET Representative
Marcia Hollandsworth, Brady, MT

CSREES/USDA
Michel Desbois & Dan Kugler

1994 Land-Grant Representative
Al Kuslikis, American Indian Higher Education Consortium

eXtension Staff
Dan Cotton, Director
Carla G. Craycraft, Associate Director
Kevin Gamble, Associate Director
Betty Johnson, Corporate Development Officer
Terry Meisenbach, Communications & Marketing Leader
Beth Raney, Professional Development Leader

eXtension Governing Committee and Director’s Council
Ronald A. Brown, Association of Southern Region Extension Directors
Paul D. Coreil, Louisiana State University
Elbert Dickey, University of Nebraska
Karen Hinton, University of Nevada-Reno
James C. Wade, National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges

For the first time, the Internal Partners Advisory Committee (IPAC) for the national eXtension initiative will come together to learn about the initiative and the opportunities it offers to the various groups represented within the committee. Representatives from the following organizations and entities are meeting in Kansas City, MO April 5 & 6:

1994 Land Grant Universities

Academic Committee on Organization and Policy (ACOP), Board on Agriculture Assembly, National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC)

Administrative Heads Section, Board on Agriculture Assembly, NASULGC

American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC)

Association for Communications Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Life and Human Sciences (ACE)

Association of Natural Resources Extension Professionals (ANREP)

Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, USDA (CSREES)
Council for Agricultural Research, Education, and Teaching (CARET)
Council for Extension, Continuing Education, and Public Service (CECEPS)
Epsilon Sigma Phi

Experiment Stations Committee on Organization and Policy (ESCOP), Board on Agriculture Assembly, NASULGC

National Agricultural Library, USDA

National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals

National Association of County Agricultural Agents

National Association of Extension 4-H Agents

National Extension Association for Family and Consumer Sciences

National 4-H Council

Youth Representative, 4-H Youth Development

Members of the eXtension staff, Governing Committee, and Directors Council will also participate in the meeting.

Members of the eXtension Governing Committee are meeting in Kansas City today, April 4, 2006. The group meets monthly to direct the overall progress of the eXtension initiative and to receive updates on content development, information technology, communications & marketing, development, and professional development as related to eXtension.

The current Governing Committee includes:

• Elbert Dickey, North Central Region, Chair
• Paul Coreil, Southern Region, Vice Chair
• Dalton McAffee, 1890 Region, Secretary
• Karen Hinton, Western Region
• Lavon Bartel, Northeast Region
• Noland Williams, ECOP, ex-officio
• James Wade, NASULGC, ex-officio
• Greg Crosby, CSREES, ex-officio

The Governing Committee meeting is being held prior to the Internal Partners Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting that will be featured in a subsequent blog article this week.