February 2010 Archives

Dear Colleagues

Last week, I held a webinar for Extension's leadership team (associate deans, program leaders, regional directors) on the budget. This column summarizes that webinar and the budget PowerPoint is available on the Employee website.

Extension's current 2009-10 fiscal year budget is $65M, which is $1.3 M less than last year. Extension's funding comes from federal (16%), state (44%) and county (21%) governments, as well as from program fees, grants and gifts (19%).

This year, as the state faces a nearly $2 billion deficit, the amount of decrease to the University has been limited to $36M by the federal stimulus funds. However, in the coming years, as the deficit is expected to balloon to $5 billion, there is no limit to the amount of budget reductions the University could receive. This year, our county partners made minor reductions, and a few increases, in their 2010 Extension budgets, resulting in a net decrease of 4.55 FTE positions. In the next few years, we expect counties will have even greater budget deficits as the state deals with its deficit. There is some good news for Extension in the federal budget as the formula funds are remaining flat rather than decreasing and the competitive grants that Extension can apply for are expected to increase.

Extension, like all University units, is preparing budgets scenarios for a variety of situations outlined by the University, including a 2.75% decrease to all units, possible salary increases, possible furloughs, cost pool increases and fringe rate increases. There have been a lot of questions regarding the possibility of salary increases and furloughs. I continue to work closely with the deans and University administration as these decisions are being made. Once the decisions are final, I assure you that Extension human resources and others will be prepared to work with all Extension employee groups to implement the decisions and address your questions and concerns.

In the meantime, in Extension we will continue to align our budget with organizational priorities, work together to further define the scope of our work, enhance revenues that are aligned with our core programs and increase cost efficiencies. We also must continue to work to ensure that the stakeholders who fund Extension see Extension as vital and necessary for the future.

Bev Durgan

As local leaders grapple with a tough economy, the Center for Community Vitality has issued a series of tip sheets for local leaders on engaging with the public to make better informed, sustainable decisions. Civic engagement is always important, but it's especially so during these difficult times of budget cuts when publicly funded organizations must do more with less.

Written by Leadership & Civic Engagement educators, the tip sheets provide ideas for conducting effective community meetings, resolving differences and improving outcomes. We hope Extension educators and regional directors will pass these tip sheets on to the local leaders they work with, including elected officials. Extension staff should also find these tip sheets useful in their work. View the tip sheets on the Extension website under the U-Connect program in Community Vitality.

Mary Ann Hennen
Area Program Leader, Leadership & Civic Engagement

While climatologists monitor the risks for flooding in western and southern parts of the state, the Minnesota Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN) team is preparing resources in order to quickly respond to community needs.

In the event of major flooding, research-based information and resources will be made available on Extension's Disaster Response website in addition to being shared with the public via the news media. Through state and local partnerships and grassroots efforts, citizens will also be able to pick up Extension materials on damage prevention, flood recovery and coping with stress from the Salvation Army, American Red Cross and at evacuation shelters.

If you haven't visited Extension's website for Flood & Rain recently, check it out to become familiar with the types of helpful information featured. If you are contacted by a member of the EDEN team with a request to review or create materials for this effort, we thank you in advance for making the request a priority.

Bob Byrnes
Minnesota EDEN Director and Regional Director

Patsy Lor Lee, nutrition education assistant, Hennepin County, 2/8/10

Dear Colleagues,

This week Extension launched a new and improved home page and web design that offers better navigation and clear alignment with the University brand. The new home page has a new design that all web pages will soon be using.

This launch is an important step toward our goal of developing one Extension website for the public to have a single source for finding and accessing Extension content, information and resources on the web.

Extension's web team is working with Extension center staff and program teams to review and update all of the content on our website, including the many independent websites created by Extension staff and program teams over the years.  I appreciate all your efforts to work with them to ensure that Extension has the most timely, relevant and research-based information available to our customers on our website.

I also invite you to spend some time on the youth development section of the website to see the results of an extensive center-wide redesign, which served as a pilot project for the web this year. Youth development and Extension IT and communications staff identified the key audiences, and performed an exhaustive review of all content on all youth development websites. They redesigned all of the information based on the needs of the audience as learned through focus groups, surveying and user testing.

Bev Durgan

All University of Minnesota employees are invited to attend the University's Professional Development Fair, which will be held on Tuesday, March 9 from 8:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Coffman Memorial Union. Mary L. Nichols, dean of the College of Continuing Education, will deliver the keynote address, The Art of Sensemaking--Empowering Yourself in Times of Change. Additional agenda items include breakout sessions on a variety of career-enhancing topics and an information expo featuring training and development organizations from across the University.

Registration for this event is required.  Space is limited for the keynote address, so register soon. For more information about the Professional Development Fair, visit the event website.

Leslee Mason
Human Resources Director

University of Minnesota Extension, in partnership with the Minnesota Farmer Assistance Network (MFAN), will host a series of three webinars in February.  MFAN provides business, financial and family guidance to farm families on a variety of topics including:  financial statement preparation; debt restructuring; business reorganization; farm transition; and, farm family issues including family finances and debt, communication and stress.  Attendees will learn more about the resources available through the efforts of Extension and MFAN.

The webinars are scheduled for approximately 45 minutes each with time allowed for questions and discussion via UMConnect.  All Extension faculty and staff are invited to attend. 

• Monday, February 8, 9 a.m.,  https://umconnect.umn.edu/mfanfeb89am/
• Monday, February 8, 12 p.m., https://umconnect.umn.edu/mfanfeb812pm/
• Tuesday, February 9, 1 p.m.,  https://umconnect.umn.edu/mfanfeb91pm/

Ellie McCann
Extension Educator, Family Relations

AFSCME's Annual Day on the Hill will take place on Wednesday, February 17.  This is an event where AFSCME members jointly visit the legislature to lobby for more money or fewer budget cuts for the University of Minnesota.

The University supports AFSCME in this effort of emphasizing the University's importance to the state of Minnesota; therefore, the University has agreed to allow AFSCME union members to participate in the Day on the Hill activities without loss of pay.

Supervisors of AFSCME employees are encouraged to work with their interested AFSCME employees to arrange for maximum participation in this day's events. Participating AFSCME employees shall be allowed time off with pay that is not subtracted from vacation, sick leave or compensatory time balances.  The expectation is that employees interested in attending the event contact their supervisors ahead of time so the appropriate staffing arrangement can be made in the department.

Leslee Mason
Human Resources Director

Extension is offering various technology webinars in February--all available at a distance so you can participate from your office. The sessions can help to build your technology-based skills and create efficiencies in your work.  Sessions range from 30-50 minutes in length to better fit your schedule.

View the technology training calendar on the employee website for workshop topics, descriptions and instructions on how to attend.  For questions, contact Karen Matthes.

Karen Matthes
Organizational Training Director

The University of Minnesota Institute on the Environment is hosting Frontiers in the Environment, a series of weekly seminars that explore the frontiers of knowledge in climate change, renewable energy, land use, food security and many other environmental hot topics. Speakers of each seminar will provide the audience with an understanding of the issue, its global significance and breakthroughs on the horizon.

The seminars will be held on Wednesdays from February 3 through April 28, noon to 1 p.m. at the Vocational Technology Building on the St. Paul Campus.  The lectures also broadcast live on the web. View the event website for details on each seminar and instructions on how to attend.

Stephanie Szurek
Events Coordinator, U of M Institute on the Environment

The University of Minnesota Extension Tourism Center won an award from Explore Minnesota for being an outstanding "Friend of Minnesota Tourism." This award recognizes the Center's broad outreach to support the tourism industry, as well as its depth of research and education that support the field. This award will be presented at the upcoming Minnesota Tourism Conference. Visit the Tourism Center website to read a full press release for this award.

Joyce Hoelting
Assistant Director, Center for Community Vitality

Katherine Waters, program leader in food safety, was elected to the American Veterinary Medical Association Food Safety Advisory Board as the representative from the American Association of Food Hygiene Veterinarians.

Jennifer Schoenfeld joined Extension on January 4. In her new position as 4-H program coordinator, Jennifer will be working to expand the 4-H program in Jackson County. 

Jennifer is a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a B.S. in agricultural education.  Prior to joining Extension, Jennifer was an agricultural education teacher at Southwest Star Concept High School in Okabena. In addition, Jennifer has been serving as assistant FFA advisor at Mountain Lake High School. 

Cynthia Celander
Extension Educator, 4-H Youth Development

Kelly Wubbels, nutrition education assistant, Benton County, 1/25/10