The Arizona Agriculture Extension Association (AAEA) held their annual
meeting in Payson last week. Jim Knight, the new head of Ag Education led
an excellent workshop on "Dealing with Controversial Issues". My thanks to
Chris Jones and Jim Sprinkle (Gila County) for their leadership with the
organization, the tour, the dinner, and the educational experiences. The
officers of AAEA are Chris Jones, President, Kitt Farrell-Poe, Vice
President, Lee Clark, Treasurer, and John Begeman, Secretary.
* The School of Renewable Natural Resources conducted the 21st Annual
Natural Resource Conservation Workshop for Educators at St. Joseph's Youth
Camp near Mormon Lake in Coconino County last week. Twenty-four educators
completed the five day workshop. My thanks to Larry Sullivan and Mal
Zwolinski for providing leadership to this program. Extension presenters
included George Ruyle, Jill Rubio, and Dave Langston.
* Interviews for ANR/4-H Agent for the Colorado River Indian Tribes
Reservation in La Paz County will be held Monday, July 9 on campus. More
details to follow.
* The Search Committee for the Vice-Taylor Specialist position is very
pleased to announce that they have three candidates and have scheduled on
campus interviews. Detailed agendas will be coming out soon, but meanwhile,
please save these dates. Their seminars will be webcast and there will be
times for agents, volunteers, and campus faculty to meet with them. July
20th - Kirk Astroth from Montana; August 23rd - Lisa Lauxman from Arizona;
August 24th - Lynne Borden from Michigan.
* Funding has been provided to conduct a statewide evaluation of the
extension range monitoring program using a combination of methods including
focus groups, a mail survey and case studies of extension monitoring
demonstration projects. Maria Fernandez-Gimenez would like to invite the
Natural Resources Agents and range monitoring folks to participate in this
project. Current funding limits work being conducted to only 3-4 counties.
She would very much appreciate your input on the questions you would like
to see asked, the methods proposed, and how the data gathered can best be
put to use for program development. There is always the possibility of
expanding to include additional counties in the proposed focus groups or
surveys, if local support is available. The proposal is located at:
http://cals.arizona.edu/internal/programs/rangemon.pdf, or you can contact
Maria directly at gimenez@cals.arizona.edu, 621-1105.
* Program funding is available for multi-county or state-wide programs.
Requests may be initiated by Extension working groups. Within program
areas, working groups focus on specific issues, topics, crops or animal
products. Working groups are led by State Coordinators, which may be an
Extension Specialist or Agent with expertise in that area. Requests can be
made at any time; submit all requests to Deborah Young, Associate Director,
Programs. Funding is available for July 1, 2001 - June 30, 2002. To
receive optimal consideration, submit your request by August 30. Requests
for funding should follow the Logic Model for program development and
assessment. By joint agreement, this model has been adopted by Cooperative
Extension in all western states. A power-point presentation of this model,
developed by the University of Wisconsin is available at:
http://cals.arizona.edu/extension/logicmodel/
* Extension Programs supports development and communication of working
groups for statewide programs; up to $1,000 is available. Working groups
focus on specific issues, topics, crops or animal products. This is your
opportunity to provide statewide leadership to a working group. Whether
your title is Extension Specialist or Agent, if you have expertise in a
working group area, you can serve as the state coordinator. The objective
of this funding is to connect Extension programs between campus and county
offices and to enhance communication. If you are interested in taking the
role of State Coordinator, submit a short (not more than one page) proposal
to Deborah Young by July 6, 2001. Details are at:
http://cals.arizona.edu/internal/programs/Coord01.pdf (internal site).
* Be sure to join us on Monday, July 2 as Robert Greenberg and his spouse,
Jiang Ying, return to the UA as guest lecturers through the Office of
Summer Session Distinguished Lecturer/Multicultural Series. Bob's
multimedia presentation titled "The USDA/Army School-Age and Teen Project"
will be in the Marley Auditorium (Room 230) from 2:00-3:30 with a reception
following. The presentation will also be web cast at:
http://cals.arizona.edu/extension/webcasts.