National eXtension Initiative

The Brown Hotel in Louisville, host to the eXtension Workshop scheduled for June 28 – July 1st, has extended our room block reservation deadline to next Friday, June 3rd. This gives all of us making last minute reservations a small extended window to request the “National eXtension CoP Workshop” room rate. Travel and Hotel details

Don’t forget the early registration deadline for the conference is June 1st. Register for the Workshop.

We have a great line-up of guest speakers and workshops. You don’t want to miss it.

Learn how to generate content, build community, increase participation and do it all in a safe manner for youth and adults.

45-minute interactive and instructive tutorials will help you develop strategies that are engaging, interactive, safe and effective. The webinars are designed for those new to social media, as well as advanced users. All the webinars are listed on eXtension’s Learn calendar, http://www.extension.org/learn.

Last week’s webinar, Choosing Your Channels, showed how a quick survey of your audience can help you understand the audience’s interest and investment in social media. It focused on finding your primary audience and how it will affect your engagement online. Finally, the webinar examined how a social media strategy can help meet your organizational goals.

Find links to the PowerPoint presentation, the webinar recording and Q&A at http://www.4-h.org/get-involved/social-media/training.aspx.

This week’s session is Building Your Social Media Channels on Wednesday, May 25 at 2 p.m. Eastern Time, http://www.extension.org/learn/event/210.

June sessions for advanced users:
Content Generation- Wednesday, June 1
Online Safety Best Practices – Wednesday, June 8
Measuring your Impact – Wednesday, June 15

More on social media for 4-H, www.4-H.org/social-media.

Questions? Contact Ashley Lusk at 4Hmarketing@4-H.org

All of eXtension’s organic agriculture webinar recordings on organic farming and research are now available in one location, http://www.extension.org/pages/25242/webinars-by-eorganic.

The list includes more than 35 webinars from 2010 and 2011. There’s even a link to more than 20 sessions from the USDA 2011 Organic Farming Systems Conference in Washington, D.C. on March 16 – 18.

Future webinars will be listed on this page with a link to register.

To receive notices about upcoming webinars and notices when new sessions are archived, sign up for the eOrganic newsletter at http://eorganic.info/. The May newsletter is online at http://www.extension.org/pages/58449/may-2011-eorganic-updates.

eXtension is cancelling the National Web Conferences scheduled for Wednesday, May 11, Wednesday, August 10, 2011 and Wednesday, November 9, 2011. Please remove these web conferences from your calendars.

As a reminder, the National eXtension Virtual Conference is October 17, 18, & 19, 2011. More details on this virtual conference will be available in the near future!

Progress continues to be made toward migrating all content from the CoP Wiki and the FAQs to eXtension’s new Drupal platform at create.extension.org (“Create”). On May 5, the content of the Sustainable Ag Energy and the Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Center CoPs was officially and successfully moved to Create. Those two CoPs are now resuming their content creation and editing at this site. Their valuable feedback is also being used for final tweaking of this new platform as well as for determining the nature of help and training documents that should be available for such future transitions.

Speaking of future transitions, we are pleased to announce that plans are now in place to move all remaining CoP content, as well as all FAQs, to “Create” in the June 16-18 time frame. To help CoPs prepare for this transition, the Drupal Implementation Team is planning to host a set of four Connect sessions both to provide an overview of this new system and to describe steps which CoPs need to take on the CoP wiki prior to this move. Those steps, along with details of the Connect sessions, will be distributed about May 23. The Connect sessions are a single session repeated on four different dates (June 1, 3, 7, and 9) to accommodate various schedules. So mark one of those dates on your calendar and plan to participate.

Finally, those of you attending the National eXtension CoP Workshop in Louisville will have a hands-on training opportunity on Thursday June 30 to gain greater knowledge and confidence in using the new system. The Drupal Implementation Team will also provide some one-on-one assistance at other times during that conference, and will subsequently offer training sessions throughout the summer to reach those not participating in any of these other events.

Just think–come June 16, you no longer have to use a wiki to do your eXtension work! For some, this will be a sad day. Most, however, will likely be very pleased.

For more information on Drupal contact Larry Lippke at larry.lippke@extension.org.

Wednesday, June 1 is the early registration deadline for the 2011 National eXtension Community of Practice Workshop. The workshop will feature two outstanding keynote speakers: Jason Falls & Michele Payn-Knoper.

Jason Falls is one of the most in-demand speakers in the social media, public relations and marketing fields due to a simple truth: He delivers value. Known for his clever insights, sharp wit and the ever-present brutal honesty, Falls tackles audiences, not topics, engaging and sending all away with a sense they’ve learned something. Learn more about Jason at: http://jasonfalls.com/

Michele Payn-Knoper personifies passion. As a professional speaker, consultant and author, Michele serves as a resource for people interested in agriculture and food and founded #AgChat and #FoodChat. Learn more about Michele at: http://www.causematters.com/about/biography/

Check out the full schedule and lineup of speakers. Registration is encouraged by anyone who wants to learn more about how to develop better online content, connecting with clients and colleagues using social networks, using social media effectively as well as becoming more involved with and using eXtension in your daily work.

To register and learn more about the 2011 National eXtension CoP Workshop go to: http://workshop.extension.org/

April news releases on eXtension came from:

14–University of Missouri
11–North Carolina State University
10–Kansas State University
9–University of Illinois
8–Cornell University
6 each–Michigan State University, Oklahoma State University, University of California, University of Georgia
5 each–Colorado State University, Iowa State University, North Dakota State University, Ohio State University, University of Arkansas
4–Washington State University
3 each–Louisiana State University, Mississippi State University, Purdue University, South Dakota State University, University of Florida
2 each–Alabama Cooperative Extension, University of Hawaii, University of Kentucky, University of Minnesota, University of Vermont
1 each–Maryland Cooperative Extension, Montana State University, Penn State University, University of Delaware, University of Idaho, University of Maine, University of Massachusetts, University of Nevada, University of Wisconsin, University of Wyoming, Utah State University
28–Other sources
3–Original releases
172—Total

In April, 172 news releases were posted in 40 resource areas:

16–Personal finance
15–Families, food and fitness
10–Gardens, lawns and landscapes
9–Entrepreneurs and their communities
7–Beef cattle
6 each–Bee health, Corn and soybean production, Organic agriculture, Parenting
5 each–Blueberries; Dairy; Science, engineering, and technology for youth
4 each–Climate, forests and woodlands; Drinking water and human health; Horses; Military families; Pest management in and around structures
3 each–Agricultural disaster preparedness; Animal manure management; Companion animals; Cooperatives; Diversity, equity and inclusion; Farm energy; Food safety; Grapes; Home energy; Wildlife damage management
2–each Childcare; Extension master gardener; Family caregiving; Floods; Plant breeding and genomics; Wildfire
1–each Community planning and zoning; Goats; Hogs, Pigs, and Pork; Imported fire ants; Small meat processors

News releases posted to resource areas not yet live on http://www.eXtension.org:
8–Freshwater aquaculture
1–Rangelands
172 Total news releases

Free webinars for May and June include:
May 6 – Building Code Basics – Introduction to the 2009 International Residential Code and the International Energy Conservation Code, http://www.extension.org/pages/54947/building-code-basics-home-energy-cop-webinar
May 12 – Community Business Matching, http://www.extension.org/pages/17915/monthly-webinar-series-offers-tips-and-strategies
May 20 – Anaerobically Digested Manure, http://www.extension.org/pages/54907/anaerobically-digested-manure
May 27 – Wood Chip and Pellet Supply and Trends in the Market: Thoughts from Vermont, http://www.extension.org/pages/54429/webinar:-wood-chip-and-pellet-supply-and-trends-in-the-market:-thoughts-from-vermont
June 2 — The Business of Meat Processing: Planning and Profitability, http://www.extension.org/pages/55376/the-business-of-meat-processing:-planning-profitability
June 9 – Economic Development by the Numbers: Helping Communities Make Sense of the Data, http://www.extension.org/pages/17915/monthly-webinar-series-offers-tips-and-strategies

A news release has all the details to join the webinars. See http://www.extension.org/pages/55729/free-extension-webinars-in-may-provide-latest-research-and-practical-information .

Please welcome Dr. Sarah Baughman to the eXtension staff. Sarah is the evaluation specialist on the Military Families Initiative and a Research Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech. Sarah brings a set of skills and experiences that make her uniquely qualified to provide leadership for the Military Families evaluation position. She received her Ph.D. from Virginia Tech with an emphasis in evaluation, has experience in conducting Extension program evaluations and has worked in Extension in two states, has worked on evaluation projects with the U.S. Department of Treasury and U.S. Army Operation Military Kids, and is a member of the eXtension Evaluation CoP. She is currently working on scanning the Cooperative Extension System for Military Family programs as well as providing evaluation support to communities of practice associated with the Military Family Initiative. Sarah can be reached at sarah.baughman@extension.org.

eXtension Professional Development offers a variety of sessions this month and ongoing from around the country as part of Extension’s National Learning Network. Please share this announcement with others and encourage them to pick a topic and try it out. All sessions are open to all Cooperative Extension faculty, staff and employees. No pre-registration is necessary, though you may indicate your interest on the page for each PD Event at http://learn.extension.org (log in with your eXtensionID). Give us 30-60 minutes and we’ll teach you something useful!

Any web-based professional development sessions open to Cooperative Extension may be listed at http://learn.extension.org. Look there under Upcoming Events (http://www.extension.org/learn/events/upcoming), browse by recent tags, or search to find professional development in your areas of interest. If you know of professional development events that are open to Cooperative Extension but not yet listed there, please add them by clicking “Create a new PD Event.” Each event then has a URL that may be used to share with colleagues! Each PD event page includes the title, description, presenters, link for participation and recording, as well as a check box to show your interest and/or participation in the event.

RECENT SESSIONS

Find links to the recordings of recent events at
http://www.extension.org/learn/events/recent.

30-60 MINUTE SESSIONS
Upcoming professional development offers 30- to 60-minute sessions on topics provided by Communities of Practice, ACE, and other extension colleagues. In addition this includes monthly Question Wrangler meet-ups and Institutional Team web conferences.

MAY
May 10 at 10:30 a.m., Evaluation of a water conservation program: Is
there a “silver bullet”?
May 17 at 12:00 p.m., For Youth, For Life CoP
May 18 at 2:00 p.m., eXtension Google Apps – The Technical Details
May 24 at 10:00 a.m., Irrigation Efficiency – Pumping Plants
May 24 at 2:00 p.m., Question Wrangler Monthly Meetup – May 2011
May 27 at 11:00 a.m., Michigan Cottage Food Law: Food Safety
May 31 at 2:00 p.m., Ask an Expert: Getting Started and Discussion Double Header

JUNE
June 7 at 10:00 a.m., Irrigation Scheduling
June 7 at 11:00 a.m., Social learning
June 21 at 9:00 a.m., Irrigation Efficiency – Pipeline Distribution Systems
June 21 at 12:00 p.m., For Youth, For Life CoP

More sessions are listed for July and beyond. For complete descriptions and details go to http://learn.extension.org/. See information for each session, an overview of upcoming eXtension Professional Development sessions, links to historical sessions (and recordings once they are available). Log in with your eXtension ID to indicate your interest in and attendance of the offered sessions. Add your professional development events that are open to extension.

Check out http://learn.extension.org/and let us know what you think. Start including your favorite session links in Twitter, Facebook and more! If your extension service or CoP has held professional development and has an open recording available, add it at
learn.extension.org!