Recently in the News Category

Kudos to Deborah Zak, regional director, northwest, who was instrumental in securing private gifts to support the 2013 White Earth Academy of Math and Science. The White Earth Tribal Council, Northstar AISES Alliance, and an anonymous donor provided $41,000 in support of the summer program. In addition, the Extension Northwest Regional Sustainable Development Partnership provided a $5,000 grant to fund the portion of the summer program that will address the impact of aquatic and terrestrial invasive species that threaten the natural resources of the White Earth Nation. More than 50 kids are already pre-registered for the program which will be offered June 10-28.

The White Earth Academy of Math and Science, now in its 15th year, began when members of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe challenged the University of Minnesota to help engage struggling students in math and science. Extension and its partner colleges initially collaborated with White Earth representatives and the local Circle of Life School to produce a fun, hands-on, outdoor focused summer academy that builds powerful connections among academics, outdoor activities and the Ojibwe culture. The program has now expanded to include students from the Naytahwaush Community Charter School, Pine Point and Mahnomen Public Schools. Reservation elders, natural resource managers and University faculty and graduate students are all involved in teaching students that math, science and engineering are part of their daily lives. To learn more about the White Earth Academy of Math and Science, contact Deb at dzak@umn.edu.

Jane Johnson
Development Director

All Extension staff are invited to attend the upcoming Extension Topic webinar, "Understanding the State We Are Serving," held on June 6, 10-11 a.m. Ryan Allen, Extension assistant professor in leadership and civic engagement, will host this interactive webinar which will be a discussion of Minnesota's demographic shifts and how they impact Extension's work.

Staff can attend via UMConnect. Registration is required. Visit the Human Resources section of the Extension intranet for registration instructions and more information about the webinar, as well as a link to previous session recordings.

For additional questions, please contact Ying Iverson.

Ying Iverson
Director, Professional Development

The Extension Faculty Consultative Committee (EFCC) recently elected new officers for the 2013-14 year to form the executive committee. Congratulations to:

Chairman--Tom Halbach 
Vice-chair--Jill May
Secretary--Denise Trudeau-Poskas
Executive members at-large--Jennifer Skuza, Susanne Hinrichs
Past Chair (ex-officio)--Jerry Tesmer

EFCC's role is to regularly consult with the dean on strategic planning, policy and major structural changes, as well as anticipated changes in allocation of Extension resources. Such consultation provides feedback on issues and/or policy changes early in the development process and before they are implemented. The EFCC is one of the first significant sources of internal advice that the dean seeks during the policy planning and development process. By using this process, Extension administration gets timely, quality advice and greater organization-wide engagement on critical decisions.

Jerry Tesmer
Past Chair, EFCC
Extension Educator, Ag Production Systems

Go to the CrossRef.org website and follow the instructions provided there. If this method doesn't yield a DOI, don't assume that a DOI doesn't exist. Follow up with the next two options.

Can't find the DOI?  You can always contact me at meye0539@umn.edu, and I will try to locate it.

Kristen Mastel
Outreach and Instruction Librarian

The 2014 fiscal year compensation plan for faculty, P&A and civil service employees has been released. Salary increases for employee groups are effective June 17, 2013 and will appear on paychecks received on July 10.

Faculty and P&A

The Extension academic salary increase process will be managed by center associate deans and administrative unit directors who will receive tools and instructions to manage the merit salary decision process. This decision process will occur in time for the final budgeting process. Promotions in the Extension academic rank system will be processed separately.

Civil Service

Extension civil service employees are not currently in a merit system, so the increase for this group is distributed across the board (see related "Civil Service Salary Increases" article in this issue of enews).

Bargaining Unit

AFSCME Clerical Unit 6 and AFSCME Technical Unit 7 salary increase information will be available in these respective contracts as soon as contract negotiations are finalized. Each unit typically negotiates a slightly different salary increase agreement.

For more information, visit the 2014 fiscal year compensation plan website, or contact Leslee Mason with questions, 612-624-4205 or lam@umn.edu

David Werner
Chief Operating Officer
and
Leslee Mason
Human Resources Director

For July 2013

Assuming the University's compensation pool is approved by the legislature and the Board of Regents, the annual pay increase for Extension Civil Service employees beginning July 2013 will be 2.5% across the board. More complete information is available in the Civil Service Rules and the Compensation Plan.

Beginning July 2014: Merit-based Salary Increases for Civil Service* Positions

In Spring 2014, assuming there are salary increases, the current across-the-board salary increase process for Civil Service employees will change to an annual salary increase based on merit (performance). Examples of Extension Civil Service employees include: 4-H program coordinators, community program specialists, accountant IIs, etc.  

The next performance evaluation cycle--based on performance in the calendar year 2013--will include an overall performance evaluation rating. Each unit head will then distribute salary increase dollars to civil service employees based on merit. Instructions about the civil service performance evaluation process will be available later in the fall. Instructions about the civil service salary increase process will be available next spring.  

For questions, contact your supervisor or Extension Human Resources: Leslee Mason, 612-624-4205, lam@umn.edu; or Deb Page, 612-626-8709, brick007@umn.edu.

*This information does not apply to AFSCME represented positions.

Leslee Mason
Human Resources Director

All Extension staff are invited to attend the upcoming "Welcome to Extension" webinar on May 17, 10-11 a.m. This session aims to welcome new employees and support them in their first few months in Extension, and also serves as a refresher to existing employees about organizational and operational processes.

Staff can attend in-person on the Twin Cities campus (401 Coffey Hall) or join online via UMConnect. To register for this session, visit the Human Resources section of the Extension intranet.

For additional questions, please contact Ying Iverson at iversony@umn.edu or 612-626-3565.

Ying Iverson
Director, Professional Development

UMSurvey is an online survey tool centrally managed by the University's Office of Information Technology. UMSurvey will be will be decommissioned on August 2, 2013 and will be replaced by a new survey tool called Qualtrics.

If you have data you wish to retain from UMSurvey, you will need to export the data before August 2. Instructions for how to export your data are available on the UMSurvey "Accessing Your Data" web page under "Exporting Results." A forthcoming transition plan will include how to create a Qualtrics account, access to training, how to migrate some surveys, and how to upload your CSV files. Please see the UMSurvey website for more information about this transition.  

If you need to create a new survey during this transition, you may use Survey Monkey. Contact the Extension IT Service Desk for information on how to access Survey Monkey. You may also contact umsurvey@umn.edu for assistance with your survey planning needs.

Karen Matthes
Organizational Training Unit Director

Lynda.com online training is now available at no cost to University of Minnesota students, faculty, and staff on all campuses.  Lynda.com is a library of online training videos that provides 24/7 access to more than 1,700 courses for all skill levels in more than 140 specialties including 3D + Animation, Audio, Business, Design, Developer, Photography, Video and Web.

University users can login using their University Internet x.500 ID and password in order to access training videos available on lynda.umn.edu.

Karen Matthes
Organizational Training Unit Director

Check out the Spring issue of the Extension retiree newsletter. In addition to news about our retirees, this issue highlights National Agriculture Day, Extension preparation for spring floods and summer drought and how Epsilon Sigma Phi Scholarships benefit recipients. The retiree newsletter is distributed three times a year in summer/fall, winter and spring. If you have ideas for articles of interest to retirees, please send them to Gwen Gmeinder.

Gwen Gmeinder
Government Relations Associate

University of Minnesota Extension Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships (RSDP) in partnership with the Tourism Center is seeking non-metro communities and townships of fewer than 1,500 people for a special project over the next 18 months aimed at boosting a community's long-term destination appeal. Applications can be found on the RSDP website and are due by noon on May 15.

Dan Gilchrist
Assistant Program Director, Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships

Over the past couple weeks, more than 100 photos have been added to the online image gallery, including several photos in the following categories: agriculture and farming; 4-H programs, judging and state fair activities; food preservation; communities; water quality; and livestock.

Photos will continue to be added to the image gallery throughout the year as professional shoots are coordinated. All of the high-quality photos found in the gallery can be used for brochures, flyers or other Extension educational and program marketing templates. The high-quality professional photos, paired with the templates, are an effective way to communicate with our many audiences while strengthening the Extension brand.

Staff photos taken at YOUth and U have also been added to the staff photos section of the image gallery. High resolution versions of all photos are available for download from the gallery. Extension Communications will continue to offer opportunities throughout the year for Extension staff to have their staff photos taken or retaken.

For questions or comments about the image gallery, send an email toepromo@umn.edu.

Sarah Bjorkman
Internal Communications & Brand Manager

On April 4, Extension hosted a topic webinar: "Plan of Work and Performance Evaluation," by Jennifer Skuza, assistant dean, youth development, and Leslee Mason, human resources director. During the webinar, the presenters provided an overview of the Plan of Work (POW) to help participants better understand the purpose, process and impact of the POW. They also discussed the relationship between the POW and performance evaluation and provided information about timeline, process and forms for performance evaluation.

Extension topic webinars will be held every other month and offer Extension faculty and staff a chance to review and discuss priority topics within Extension. To access the recording of the April webinar and to view information about upcoming topic webinars, visit the Extension Orientation Sessions section of the intranet.

Ying Iverson
Director, Professional Development

The Dean's Office is preparing a list of awards received by all Extension faculty and staff from September 2012 through August 2013. If you have received an award within that timeframe, please submit your award through the Extension intranet or send the following award information to the support person in your center/unit to add to the collective database:  

• Type of award (individual or team)
• Award recipient name (individual awards only)
• Team name (team awards only)
• Names of each team member (team award only)
• Center/unit
• Title of award
• Organization awarded by
• Type of award (state, national, etc)
• Date award was received
• Location of award

Shelly Tschida
Executive Assistant to the Dean

We are expecting a wetter-than-normal April and there are several areas of Minnesota at risk of flooding. As communities prepare for possible spring flooding, Extension is ready to share research-based educational resources to assist Minnesotans in preparation and recovery. The most up-to-date information is available at Extension's flood website. In addition, we are preparing education and resources for potential drought conditions later this summer.

Extension's flood and drought response will be coordinated by Minnesota's Extension Disaster Education Network (MN-EDEN) team to ensure consistency across the state. MN-EDEN team members are evaluating our current information and working with program leaders, faculty and educators to develop necessary resources and news releases to keep the public informed. Bob Byrnes, MN-EDEN response director, ensures that our efforts are coordinated within Extension, and with our many partners across the state. Please contact Bob with your program ideas for Extension's flood response.

During times of crisis in our communities, we must remember that Extension's role is education. Extension is not the community disaster coordinator, first-responder or social service agency. However, our relevant information and recommendations about flood preparation and recovery support the work of many partnering agencies. In addition to the website, Extension education is available by calling Extension's toll-free phone services - Flood (aka Farm) Information Line (1-800-232-9077) and AnswerLine (1-800-854-1678).

If you personally choose to participate in community service activities (e.g. sandbagging, patrolling), please be sure to follow normal procedures for requesting personal leave/day(s) from your supervisor.

I appreciate the work of the MN-EDEN team and the many faculty and staff who have worked with them to provide timely and accurate information to Minnesotans.

Bev Durgan
Dean

University Libraries is offering a new technology called BrowZine , a tablet application that allows you to browse, read and monitor some of the library's best journals on your iPad. Items found in BrowZine can easily be synced with Zotero, Dropbox or several other services to help keep all of your information together in one place.

To get started, search for "BrowZine" in the App Store and download the app for free; when initially launching BrowZine, select University of Minnesota from the drop-down list. This service will continue to expand and add new titles and features.

If you have any questions please visit the BrowZine website.

Kristen Mastel
Outreach and Instruction Librarian

New marketing materials are now available for all staff to use when communicating about Extension. These new marketing tools include: a four-page brochure, a one-page fact sheet, and a PowerPoint slide presentation. These items feature Extension key messages, funding information, a Minnesota map indicating Extension's presence across the state, a graphic representation of Extension's educational model, and more. This information is also  featured on the About section of the Extension website. The winter issue of Source magazine, and the email version of Source sent to all staff last week, are additional resources you can use with key stakeholders, partners and program audiences.

As Extension competes for funding, participant registration and donations, there is an important need to represent Extension in consistent ways that help all of our audiences understand our unique strengths and contributions. Using these organizational marketing tools and the customizable educational and program marketing templates when creating marketing materials in your office, will help to strengthen and unite Extension's presence and impact across the state.

We are continuing to develop additional print and web resources and will feature those items in future issues of enews. In the meantime, please contact Aimee Viniard-Weideman with your ideas for additional organizational marketing resources and materials.  

Aimee Viniard-Weideman
Assistant Dean & Director of Communications and Public Relations

How we welcome and orient new employees is a vital first step toward helping them build a successful career in Extension. In December 2012, Extension began offering an orientation program to introduce new employees to Extension and provide them with the information and tools they need to become a part of the Extension community.  

This orientation consists of two offerings: a "Welcome to Extension" webinar, and a "Topics" webinar. The Welcome webinar aims to welcome new employees and support them in their first few months in Extension. The Topics webinar provides an overview of current priority initiatives in Extension. New and current employees are invited to attend both of these sessions.

The next Topics webinar, "Plan of Work and Performance Evaluation," is on April 4, 10-11 a.m. More information about this and future orientation sessions, including instructions on how to attend, is available on the New Employee section of the Extension intranet.

If you have any question, please contact Ying Iverson.

Ying Iverson
Professional Development Director

As part of Extension's recognition of National Agriculture Day on March 19, Dean Bev Durgan highlighted the role Extension's Institute for Agricultural Professionals plays in bringing the newest research and innovations to farmers. Her column, "Reaching more farmers through agricultural professionals," was distributed to news media throughout Minnesota and has appeared in newspapers and industry publications. It was also shared via Facebook and Twitter.

"According to a 2011 survey, agricultural professionals serve an average of 60 clients each, having an impact on some 48,000 acres. Just one of the Institute's educational programs impacts 4.3 million acres across the state and surrounding regions," Durgan observed. Essential partnerships among Extension, farmers and agricultural professionals were featured recently in Source Magazine.

Allison Sandve
News Media & Public Relations Manager

To reduce scheduling conflicts of Extension's organizational and staff events and meetings around the state, Extension has implemented a new and improved Master Calendar. This calendar is used for administration and organization-wide events that involve a significant number of Extension staff and/or events and meetings that influence when other items are scheduled (for example, Extension Program and Staff Conferences, new employee orientation, Extension Center meetings, task force and consultative committee meeting dates, etc.). The Master Calendar does not list Extension programs and workshops; those events should continue to be listed in MyPrograms or another program tracking database.

Visit the Master Calendar section of the Extension intranet to find information on how to view the calendar via Gmail, and instructions about how and what kind of events to add to the calendar.

Shelly Tschida
Executive Assistant to the Dean

Now is the time to begin your preparations for this year's Galaxy IV conference, "Bridging the Centuries - A New Era for Extension," held September 16-20 in Pittsburgh, PA.  

Approximately 2,000 Extension educators are expected to attend the conference, so the earlier travel plans are set, the better rates you will get on registration and travel arrangements. Early bird registration ($450) opens May 1; after July 15, the rates go up.  In the meantime, take some time to research the main Galaxy hotels: Omni William Penn (NAE4-HA headquarters), Marriott City Center (NACAA headquarters), Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel (NEAFCS headquarters), Double Tree (ANREP headquarters), and the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh (NACDEP and ESP headquarters).

Several University of Minnesota Extension staff have been involved in planning this year's Galaxy IV conference including: Chuck Schwartau, Extension educator in livestock; Michael Darger, Extension specialist in community economics; Eleanor Burkett, Extension educator in water resource management and policy; and Kathleen Olson, coordinator for Partnering for School Success.

For more information about this event, visit the Galaxy website.

Kathleen Olson
Program Director, Partnering for School Success
&
Eleanor Burkett
Associate Extension Professor Water Resources

Would you like to encourage co-workers who have done excellent work?  Reward their efforts by nominating them for one of the several awards available at the University for bargaining unit employees. The deadline for many of these awards is fast approaching in April and May. Visit the U Awards & Honors website for descriptions, nomination instructions and deadlines for each award.

The Extension Staff Consultative Committee (ESCC) also invites you to submit nominations for the annual Dean's Awards, which will be awarded at the Extension Staff Conference on April 25 (deadline to submit a nomination is April 1). Categories include: campus-based support staff, field-based support staff, program support staff and community nutrition educators. Visit the Extension intranet for nomination instructions and award information.

Elaine Hardy
ESCC Chair & Regional Support Staff, Brainerd

University Libraries is looking for stories from Extension educators who have had successes or challenges sharing published research articles or books during outreach and educational  activities. Specifically, we want to know if you have made use of research articles that are free to the public in the PubMed Central database, and/or if you have had questions or problems sharing other published research materials. These stories will be compiled to help people understand how increasing access to published research can help people throughout our state.

Please share your stories with Nancy Sims, copyright program librarian, at nasims@umn.edu.

Kristen Mastel
Outreach and Instruction Librarian

The travel reimbursement process no longer requires a separate Statement in Lieu of Receipt form (UM1566) when receipts are missing. Instead, a check box to indicate a required receipt is missing has been added to the Employee Expense Worksheet (UM1612).

Travelers are expected to provide receipts for all expenses; however, in the rare case that a receipt may be missing, the new check box should be utilized for all expenses requiring a receipt, except for hotel and lodging. Receipts are always required for these expenses. There are no changes in Extension's procedures for approvals. Requests and approvals for reimbursements must comply with the travel policy and detailed business justifications are required for all expenses.

For Purchasing Card transactions and other applicable situations, the "In Lieu of Receipt" form (UM1566) still exists and should continue to be used.  

These revised forms are now available on the Extension Finance & Planning forms site. For questions contact Extension Finance & Planning.

Madonna Monette
Finance Director

A new audio and web conferencing service is now available to University faculty and staff. The service, provided by InterCall, replaces Gopher Conferencing--a conference service widely used by faculty and staff on the Twin Cities campus--which will be retired  on February 28.

The new audio conferencing options include Reservationless-Plus (self-serve when you need it) and Operator Assisted (operators manage details). InterCall Unified Meeting is the web conferencing option. There are different costs associated with each service. More information about this change is available on the University website: new conferencing service.  

For additional conferencing options that have been tested and used within Extension, visit the Audio Conference section of the Extension intranet.   

Karen Matthes
Organizational Training Unit Director

Copyright workshops will be available in March and April to take in-person on the Twin Cities campus and online. Nancy Sims, University of Minnesota assistant librarian, will offer the three copyright workshops, two of which satisfy RCR continuing education awareness/discussion requirements.

Visit the University Libraries website for more information and to register. Please register early, especially if attending online, as the sessions fill up quickly.  

Kristen Mastel
Outreach and Instruction Librarian

The Healthy Foods, Healthy Lives (HFHL) Institute invites letters of interest and proposals for three spring funding opportunities: Planning Grant (April 19 submission deadline ), University Research Grant (May 17 submission deadline), and Graduate and Professional Student Research Grant (May 17 submission deadline). Funds for all grant programs will be awarded through a competitive review process.

The Planning Grant Program is designed to fund the development of authentic community-University partnerships or interdisciplinary University faculty research teams related to food, nutrition and health. Those interested in developing a community-University partnership are encouraged to attend an upcoming networking event to connect with potential research partners (tentatively planned for late March).

The University Research Grant Program seeks to fund new, interdisciplinary faculty research teams that include members from at least three distinct disciplines and that produce research in the areas of food protection (safety), prevention of obesity and diet-related disease, and food policy.

To learn more about each specific funding opportunity and for instructions on how to submit letters of interest and proposals, visit the HFHL website.

Dick Senese
Senior Associate Dean

The Extension Center for Family Development is part of a national campaign, called America Saves Week, that encourages people from all income levels to save money and build personal wealth. America Saves Week runs February 25 through March 2 and is a great opportunity for individuals to assess their own saving status.

Facts about saving:

• Fewer than 50% of Americans say they have a savings plan with specific goals.
• Only 66% of Americans spend less than their income and save the difference.
• Only 66% of Americans have sufficient emergency funds for unexpected expenses like car repairs or a doctor's visit.

To participate in America Saves Week, pledge a personal savings goal, and/or follow us on Facebook and Twitter for daily saving tips and resources.

Mary Jo Katras
Extension Educator, Building Healthy and Strong Families

Extension faculty and staff are invited to a special event to raise funds for Minnesota State 4-H Arts-In, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary. Funds raised will support the Minnesota 4-H State Arts-In program and make technology improvements for this program as well as other activities at the 4-H building on the state fairgrounds. The funds will be increased by a matching grant from Dean Durgan.  

Please join us on Saturday, March 2, 7-10 p.m. in the Northstar Ballroom, St. Paul Campus Student Center. Cost is $40 per person; participants must be registered and payments received by Monday, February 25. Contact the Minnesota 4-H Foundation office to register: 612-624-7971 or fdnstaff@umn.edu.

Kathleen Olson
Program Director, Partnering for School Success
and
Cara Miller
Executive Director, Minnesota 4-H Foundation

The seventh annual Extension Legislative Action Day at the Capitol took place on January 23-24. Participants included county Extension committee members, statewide citizen advisory groups, regional sustainable development partners, Extension regional directors, program educators and eight youth members in the 4-H citizenship program.  

Highlights of the event included presentations by: Keynote speaker, Matt Kramer, president/CEO of the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce, who challenged the audience in "Effective Lobbying Requires Effective Citizens - Your Obligation to Make a Difference"; President Eric Kaler, who spoke about the legislative request for the 2013 session; and Dick Senese, Extension senior associate dean, presenting a session about "Why Constituent Visits Matter." The event concluded with participants meeting 58 legislators to tell their Extension story and ask for support for the University and Extension.

If you have the opportunity to meet your legislator in the coming months, keep in mind that Extension Government Relations has an Advocacy Toolkit designed to serve administrators, educators and staff with tools on general advocacy and how to advocate for Extension with your elected representatives. Legislators listen to their constituents, so take the time to refine your message about how Extension benefits your community and the state of Minnesota.

Sarah Greening
Chief of Staff
and
Gwen Gmeinder
Government Relations Associate

Get a healthy start to the new year! Take 20 minutes out of your scheduled work day to complete the University's wellness assessment, an online questionnaire that gauges your current health status. When you complete the assessment by February 28, you can earn 100 wellness points. That's a real jump start on accumulating the number of points you will need to qualify for a $300 or $400 reduction in your 2014 UPlan Medical Program rates.

Have you already taken the assessment? Then learn about other health-promoting activities which enable you to earn additional wellness points. The wellness points you and your spouse/partner earn between now and August 31, 2013, will automatically be recorded and tracked for you by StayWell Health Management, the Twin Cities-based independent, third party administrator for the University's Wellness Points Bank Initiative.

Deb Page
Assistant Director, Human Resources

The Social Security rate
The 2013 Social Security withholding rate increased to 6.2%, up from 4.2% in 2012. The Social Security wage limit in 2013 is $113,700.

Medicare payroll tax 
The health care reform law requires high income earners (those earning more than $200,000 or $250,000 if filing a joint tax return) to pay an additional 0.9% in the Medicare payroll tax plus the 1.45% tax already in place. If this affects you, the adjustment will start with the pay period in which your wages exceed $200,000.

Reflected updates to your Form W-2
In January, when you receive your 2012 Form W-2, you'll see a new dollar amount listed in Box 12 coded DD. This is the dollar amount that the University of Minnesota paid for your health benefit programs during 2012. This is included as information only and doesn't affect your tax rate or your tax deductions in any way. It's there to show the dollar value of your benefits and to comply with the federal health care reform law.

For questions about payroll and tax deductions, please visit the University Office of Human Resources website or call 612-625-2016.

Deb Page
Assistant Director, Human Resources

This is a reminder that the University Travel Policy, requires pre-travel registration of all staff/faculty international travel for University purposes. Staff and faculty are required to register international travel through the University Travel Policy website. Please note that registering your travel does not automatically approve your travel request. Any travel approval requirement is still managed within the departments, units or colleges.

This policy provides travelers with helpful information prior to departure and provides prompt assistance overseas should circumstances demand it. It is the traveler's (employee's) responsibility to be informed on University Travel policy. Visit the International Travel website for answers to commonly asked questions. 

Madonna Monette
Finance Director

The University's Office of Information Technology training group is now offering the following hands-on online workshops (each session is 2.5 to 3.5 hours):

·  GGL131 Working with Google Drive, Documents and Presentations (3/27)

·  GGL141 Working with Google Drive, Spreadsheets and Forms (4/24)

·  MDL101 Creating Basic Course Websites with Moodle (3/26)

Thirty-minute Excel and iPad online sessions are also being offered (not designed as hands-on):

·  XL211 Creating Basic Charts in MS Excel 2010 (3/28)

·  XL221 Choosing a Chart Type to Effectively Interpret Data with MS Excel 2010 (3/28)

·  XL231 Using Conditional Formatting to Effectively Display Data with MS Excel 2010 (5/28)

·  IPD101 Basic iPad Concepts and Setup (2/26 & 2/27)

·  IPD121 Note-taking on the iPad (2/26)

·  IPD131 Sketching and Wireframing on the iPad (2/26)

·  IPD141 Presenting with the iPad  (2/27)

·  IPD151 Video Creation with the iPad  (2/27)

There is a participant limit in these classes so sign up early! You can register for these classes online through ULearn, the University's new non-credit registration system (Tip: enter the course number listed above in the search box on the ULearn website), or visit the OIT training website to learn more about the trainings they offer.

Karen Matthes
Director, IT Training and Support

The IRS announced changes to the standard business mileage rates for calendar year 2013. Beginning January 1, the standard business mileage reimbursement rate for personal vehicle use on approved University business will increase from 55.5 cents to 56.5 cents per mile. The standard mileage rate for moving expenses will increase from 23 cents to 24 cents per mile.

Business mileage incurred in 2012, but reimbursed in 2013, should be reimbursed using the 2012 mileage rates.

Visit the Finance and Planning section of the Extension intranet to download updated employee expense worksheets and for more information about University expense and travel reimbursement.

Madonna Monette
Finance Director

The Extension Technology team is inviting proposals for e-learning projects. Selected projects will receive support including up to 75 hours with an academic technologist, help with instructional design and production, and a fully subsidized Quality Matters workshop.

Proposals will be considered two times this year; deadlines are February 1 and August 1. Visit the Information Technology section of the intranet for more information and to submit a proposal.

Amy Baker
Chief Technology Officer

Each year the Dean's Leadership Council chooses several Extension staff for the chance to participate in Leadership for the 21st Century (Lead21) and National Extension Leadership Development (NELD)--two professional development programs with the goal of enhancing the work of Extension and staff leadership skills.

2013 Lead21 participants include: Laura Kalambokidis, Extension economist, Cathy Jordan, director, Children, Youth & Family Consortium, and Holli Arp, regional director, southwest. The primary purpose of LEAD21 is to develop leaders in land-grant institutions and their strategic partners who link research, academics, and Extension in order to lead more effectively in an increasingly complex environment, either in their current positions or as they aspire to other positions.

2013 NELD participants include: Amy Baker, chief technology officer, Kia Harries, Extension educator in educational design and development, and Susanne Hinirichs, regional director, northeast. The NELD program goals are to provide the opportunity for current and future Extension leaders and administrators to enhance leadership at all levels and provide vision as well as cutting-edge organizational tools.

Bev Durgan
Dean

If you have not already done so, please take a few minutes today to complete the online survey of Extension's educational and program marketing tools and resources. The deadline to complete the survey is Friday, December 21.  

Over the past two years, Extension has created priority templates (reports, PowerPoints, brochures, etc.) that support our educational and program marketing needs.  

All staff are involved in communicating about and/or promoting Extension's education and programs--whether writing content, developing materials or supervising others who do those things--and your feedback is necessary. Our goal is to gather input from these different perspectives to help us refine and continue to develop Extension's educational and marketing tools and resources.    

Aimee Viniard-Weideman
Assistant Dean and Communications Director

The popular perennial calendar, Minnesota Gardening 2013, makes a great gift for gardening enthusiasts and your key program audiences and stakeholders. This award winning calendar is filled with full-color photographs that highlight Minnesota gardening month-by-month, including timely tips on managing pests, maintaining your lawn, and garden and house plant care. The 2013 edition includes a special feature on attracting wildlife to your garden with prairie plants, a vegetable planting guide and the newly updated USDA Minnesota Plant Hardiness Zone Map. With your purchase, you will also receive a free copy of Minnesota Hardy, a plant guide of tested and proven hardy plants.

Extension and University staff can purchase the calendar through the Extension Store (item #: 08635) at the wholesale price of $7.50 plus shipping per copy. When purchasing copies for official University use with an EFS number, login to your existing Extension store account to receive the wholesale price, which includes tax exemption. (If you do not already have an account, contact the Extension Store at Shopext@umn.edu.) To purchase for personal use, enter the coupon code "MGC2013" in the shopping cart.

Karl Foord
Extension Educator, Horticulture

All Extension educators, professional program staff members, county 4-H program coordinators and regional directors must submit their 2013 professional plan of work to their supervisor by January 4. The plan of work submission templates are available on the Extension intranet. Please contact your supervisor with questions.

Leslee Mason
Human Resources Director

If you are a supervisor, now is the time to direct your staff members to complete their self evaluations for calendar year 2012. They should return the completed forms to you by January 25 so you can prepare and schedule annual performance evaluations from late January through February. Completing a performance evaluation for each of your staff members is required by University employment contracts and the Board of Regents.

After conducting the performance evaluation, send the completed form to Extension Human Resources by March 31 for the personnel file. Find the correct performance evaluation form and instructions on the Extension intranet. Contact Leslee Mason with additional questions.

Leslee Mason
Human Resources Director

The University has extended the Medical Premium Relief (MPR) grant program through June 30, 2013. This grant program was established last year to help offset increased medical premiums in 2012.

The deadline for submitting an application for the 2013 MPR program is December 17, 2012. Eligibility and application details are on the Medical Premium Relief web page.

Deb Page
Assistant Director, Human Relations

Applications are now open for the pilot of the Open Access Publishing Fund. For information on how the fund was established, visit the University Libraries website. You can apply for funding online. Works will be reviewed only if they meet the eligibility requirements, and funds will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis until exhausted.

Kristen Mastel
Outreach and Instruction Librarian

Check out the latest issue of the Extension retiree newsletter. In addition to news about our retirees, this issue highlights President Kaler's keynote address at the Extension program conference and 2012 Extension highlights from the Minnesota State Fair. The retiree newsletter is distributed three times a year in summer/fall, winter and spring. If you have ideas for articles of interest to retirees, please send them to Gwen Gmeinder.

Gwen Gmeinder
Government Relations Associate

The Siehl Prize for Excellence in Agriculture is once again seeking nominations to honor outstanding Minnesotans and University of Minnesota graduates who help feed the world.  The deadline to submit nominations is January 15.

Established in the early 1990s by a generous gift from New Ulm-area livestock breeder and businessman Eldon Siehl, the Siehl prize is awarded annually in three categories: knowledge (teaching, research and outreach), production agriculture and agribusiness. Recipients receive a $50,000 award as well as a sculpture and lapel pin designed by Minnesota artist Thomas Rose especially for the Siehl Prize.

More information about the prize and how to submit a nomination may be found on the Siehl Prize website.

Due to system deadlines during the holidays, there are early timesheet submission dates for hourly Extension staff. Supervisors must submit timesheets by the following dates:

• Friday, November 16 (for pay cycle: 11/5/2012 - 11/18/2012)
• Friday, December 14 (for pay cycle:  12/3/2012 - 12/16/2012)
• Friday, December 28 (for pay cycle:  12/17/2012 - 12/30/2012)

The payroll system has a window for processing and corrections each pay cycle. Having timesheets in on the posted deadlines is critical to ensure employees are paid accurately and on time.

If you have any questions about payroll processes and deadlines, please contact Extension payroll specialists Lucy Lu, 612-624-3030, or Nancee Easter, 612-625-3174.

Deb Page
Assistant Director, Human Resources

More than 100 new and updated staff photos have been added to Extension's online image gallery and staff directory. Photos taken at the Health and Nutrition conference in September and at the Extension program conference in October have been added to these sites (retakes have replaced previous photos). High-resolution versions of each photo are available to download from the image gallery for use in communications, marketing and educational templates and materials.

New photos will continue to be added to the image gallery throughout the year. For questions or comments about the image gallery, send an email to epromo@umn.edu.

Sarah Bjorkman
Internal Communications & Brand Manager

As temperatures outside drop, it's important to remember to avoid leaving your laptop outside for too long. If you have concerns about how long is too long for a computer to be left out in the cold, follow this basic rule: if an opened bottle of water in your vehicle has formed ice or has frozen, then your laptop has been out in the cold too long. Once indoors, take the laptop out of the case and let it sit for 20 to 30 minutes to acclimate to room temperature before plugging it in and powering it up. This includes leaving it off the docking station.

Billie Wilson
Information Technology Supervisor

Extension staff involved in work related to natural resources will be interested to know that the Natural Resources Library (NRL) on the St. Paul campus is now open. The library is a consolidation of collections in the former Forestry and Entomology, Fisheries, and Wildlife libraries.  Materials from the new NRL may be requested through the Get It delivery service.  For more information, see Natural Resources Library.

Kristen Mastel
Outreach and Instruction Librarian

Be sure to vote on election day, November 6. If you are not registered to vote or need to update your registration information, you may do so at your local polling location on election day as long as you can provide proof of residence.

Be informed and know what is on your ballot. Visit the Secretary of State website and type in your zip code to see a complete ballot for your precinct. Several of these resources may be helpful, so be sure to check out all of the information to prepare for and engage in this year's voting process.

Sarah Greening
Chief of Staff
and
Gwen Gmeinder
Government Relations Associate

Extension's Finance & Planning and Grant Administration units will undergo office updating from November 12 to November 20. During this time, the two units will move to temporary office space. Due to the move, there may be some delays in workflow; however, we will do our best to make sure services continue as usual. If you have any concerns during this time, please contact Madonna Monette, finance director, m-mone@umn.edu, 612-624-3052.

Also, Deb Drange, Extension's contract specialist, will be on medical leave for hip replacement surgery starting November 14. We anticipate this leave will be about eight weeks, during which time all contract inquiries should be routed to Madonna Monette, finance director, m-mone@umn.edu, 612-624-3052.

Madonna Monette
Finance Director

Regular exercise and eating nutritious foods decrease the risk for diabetes, obesity and other diseases. To help Minnesotans learn more about eating healthy and becoming more active on a budget, Extension's "Simply Good Eating" program collaborated with Emergency, Community, Health, and Outreach (ECHO) Minnesota to produce a 30-minute television program in four languages (Spanish, Hmong, Somali and basic English).  

These videos, in addition to educational materials currently being developed in each language, will help support Extension health and nutrition programming across the state with some of Minnesota's underserved populations.

"Active Living and Healthy Eating on a Budget" will air on tpt's Minnesota Channel and local access stations across Minnesota during the month of November.  Read the news release, or view the videos online and see the tptMN broadcast schedule on Extension's nutrition website.

Ryan Johnson
Extension Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) Liaison

The 2012 United States general election is scheduled for November 6 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and the University of Minnesota encourages students, faculty and staff to vote and participate in the democratic process. See the University's online voter guide to find your polling place and policies regarding voting during work time.  

While all members of the University community are free to express their political opinions and engage in political activities, it is very important that they do so only in their individual capacities and avoid the appearance that they are speaking or acting for the University in political matters. Federal and state laws prohibit the use of University resources to support or oppose a specific candidate, ballot initiative or referendum. View the guidelines for acceptable political and campaign activities for more information.

Minnesota polls are open from early in the morning into the evening to accommodate a variety of work and meeting schedules, and there are no policies currently in place prohibiting meetings or classes on Election Day.

Sarah Greening
Chief of Staff
and
Gwen Gmeinder
Government Relations Associate

The University's Office of Government and Community Relations has developed several useful resources to provide guidance and information to University faculty and staff about voting, polling places and candidate information for the upcoming general election.  

Visit the University's Support the U website--a robust site where you can learn about current federal and state issues and initiatives, find out who represents you in Minnesota and in Washington, D.C., and discover easy ways to support the U. Select "Engage Officials" to find your current legislator by zip code.

Learn about the University's value and economic impact across the state by using the interactive web feature, "The University's Footprint," on the Government and Community Relations website. Click on a county, congressional or state district to see how deeply rooted the University is in local communities and how it adds to the quality of life across Minnesota.

Sarah Greening
Chief of Staff
and
Gwen Gmeinder
Government Relations Associate

The Extension Food Safety program area joined the Extension Center for Family Development on July 1. The program area had previously been in the Extension Center for Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences. By working more closely with family development programs in the health and nutrition program area, we hope to better leverage and build on the team's work in food preservation, consumer food safety and more.

The program area is led by Katherine Waters, Extension program leader in food systems, and currently has four Extension food science educators: Deb Botzek-Linn, Kathy Brandt, Suzanne Driessen and Glenyce Peterson-Vangsness. Connie Schwartau serves as the program coordinator.

Karen Shirer
Associate Dean, Center for Family Development

By the end of October, Microsoft will stop releasing software patches and updates for Office 2007, which will make it vulnerable to threat. Extension employees who are using Windows 7 are being upgraded to Microsoft Office 2010. If you have not yet upgraded to Office 2010, download the software yourself by following the installation instructions on the Extension intranet. The upgrade will require a computer reboot to successfully complete installation.

In Office 2010, you will find the same user features that were in Office 2007, and training is not necessary. Office 2007 documents are fully compatible in Office 2010. Visit the Office 2010 website for detailed information about the product.

For more information about Extension's support and installation of Office 2010, contact the IT helpdesk at 612-624-6700 or submit an online help ticket.

Billie Wilson
Information Technology Supervisor

Extension's next clothing items sale will be October 11-12. Save 20% when you order Extension polos, dress shirts and t-shirts through the online store. These items are available in University of Minnesota colors and are embroidered with the Extension wordmark, allowing you to visually represent Extension at your programs and events. Visit the UMBookstores website to view a photo and description of each item and to place your order.

Sarah Bjorkman
Internal Communications & Brand Manager

National Disaster Preparedness Month, celebrated in September, reminds us of the important educational role Extension and the Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN) play in increasing the ability of Minnesotans to prepare for and recover from natural disasters.

When record breaking amounts of rain fell in the Duluth area in June, causing unprecedented and unexpected flooding, Extension responded by mobilizing staff who provided flood-recovery information to 730 families at local disaster recovery centers. The educators shared Recovery After Disaster: The Family Financial Toolkit, and answered questions on recovering damaged documents, recordkeeping for insurance, food safety, septic systems, mold, and the effect of flood water on lawns and gardens.

The effort did not go unnoticed. The Governor's Disaster Proclamation stated that the state looked to Extension to provide "information on a variety of basic household questions and how to prepare food safely following a flood and guide flood victims through financial decisions related to disaster recovery."

The EDEN team will continue to evaluate and coordinate Extension's disaster response, and will ensure that our efforts are coordinated effectively among Extension program expertise and partner organizations to offer the best support and response to those affected by disasters. If you have ideas for programs, educational resources, community response or communications, please contact Bob Byrnes.  

Katherine Waters
Extension Program Leader, Food Systems

From September 10 through November 30, University of Minnesota Libraries will host an exhibit, "For the Common Good," at the Andersen Atrium Gallery.  

The Land Grant Agricultural College Act--signed by President Lincoln in 1862--set aside public lands, the sale of which were used to fund public colleges to "promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes." The legislation provided much needed financial support for the University of Minnesota, then a fledgling and struggling institution. This exhibit, based on material from the collections of the University of Minnesota Archives, examines the ongoing question of how the University should fulfill its role as a land grant university.

This exhibit is free and open to the public. Visit the Andersen Library website for hours and directions.

Kristen Mastel
Outreach and Instruction Librarian

University of Minnesota Extension and the Jandris Center for Innovative Higher Education will co-host a session, "Extension's Public Purposes and Value in Troubled Times" on Wednesday, September 19, 4-5:30 p.m.

As part of the yearlong UMN Land Grant 150 anniversary celebration of the Morrill Act, Scott J. Peters, professor at Syracuse University and co-director, Imagining America, and Richard Senese, Extension senior associate dean, will address the following fundamental questions:

• What is Extension?
• What are its public purposes and value in troubled times like ours?
• And, what does it offer to the urgent work of renewing and sustaining our economy, our environment and our democracy?

Diana Martenson
Organization and Program Development Specialist

Extension faculty, educators and program staff are encouraged to register for the Extension Program Conference, October 8-10 at the Hilton in Bloomington. The cut-off date for the reduced U of M Extension group rate is September 10, so make your hotel reservation online today!  

A sampling of what's in store at this year's conference (visit the conference website for a full list):

• Keynote sessions: featuring U of M President Eric Kaler and instructional technology expert, Barbara Chamberlin.
• Research roundtables: Interactive discussions about Extension research and how it generates new knowledge and/or innovative practices for Extension work.
• Breakout sessions: The backbone of the conference is concurrent, educational offerings (detailed breakout session descriptions will be available soon).
• Lightning talks: Back by popular demand, the lightning talks session is an informal event on Tuesday evening featuring rapid-fire presentations from colleagues.
• Biometric health screening:  Have your blood pressure, body mass index, and body fat percentage measured by a University RN and earn points toward reducing non-federal health insurance premiums.  Sign-up for a 5-minute health screening.  

Dick Senese
Senior Associate Dean

In the world of social media, your graphic icon follows you everywhere your posts, tweets, re-tweets, etc. go. Using the Extension icon for official Extension social media accounts is vital in helping people find your page and understand that your program/office is part of University of Minnesota Extension, building strength and support for Extension programs across the state.

The Extension social media icon is a professionally designed profile graphic that fits the size requirements for social media icons and includes Extension identifiers and placeholder text for a program, county or office name (as well as the clover for the 4-H version). You can request an icon for new and existing social media accounts through the Extension social media start-up form.

Also, in case you haven't noticed, Facebook is in the process of switching all existing accounts over to its "Timeline" template and requiring all new accounts to use it as well. Visit the Extension intranet to read tips about Facebook Timeline and how your Extension Facebook page can benefit from this new setup.

Sarah Bjorkman
Internal Communications & Brand Manager

Extension Children, Youth & Family Consortium hosts a yearly seminar series called Lessons from the Field. These seminars engage community and University clinicians, community leaders, and researchers in dialogues that close the research-practice gap. The series aims to strengthen children's mental health practice and policy by promoting use of evidence. This year's events will be broadcast live from McNamara's Johnson Hall to sites throughout Minnesota via video stream and interactive television.

Registration is available for October 18 seminar, "Generational and Historical Trauma:  Significance and Response," with a primary focus on trauma from the perspective of American Indians and African Americans.

Judy Myers
Coordinator, Children's Mental Health programming

Bev Durgan
Dean

• The 4-H building includes more than 6,000 4-H exhibits and performing arts shows that showcase the knowledge and skills 4-H'ers have acquired throughout the year. See the 4-H website for daily highlights from the State Fair.
• Social media enthusiasts can join the conversation about 4-H at the Minnesota State Fair on Twitter. Follow Minnesota 4-H on Twitter and use "@MN4H" in tweets commenting on 4-H exhibits, workshops and demonstrations.
• About 2,200 "blue ribbon" kids exhibit livestock in the animal barns. Competition results are delivered on the 4-H State Fair Results website, where visitors can stay informed and connected through their handheld devices.

• Master Gardener volunteers are available in the Agriculture Horticulture building to answer gardening questions every day from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
• Fairgoers can learn about how Master Gardeners contributed to the research on "biochar," a nutrient-rich co-product of a biofuel production process. To help determine biochar's viability as a soil amendment for home gardeners, Master Gardeners are testing its ability to increase productivity in vegetable and flower gardens. Visitors can also watch Master Gardeners present gardening education throughout the day on the Agriculture Horticulture Building stage, The Dirt.

• Gary Wyatt, Extension educator in natural resource management and utilization, will present "Controlling woody invasive plants" at 11 a.m.
• Jeff Hahn, Extension entomologist, will present "Be on the watch for these invasive insects" at 1 p.m.
• John Loegering, Extension educator in environmental science education, will present "Birdwatching basics" at 3 p.m. (John will be available to talk with fairgoers at the U of M building at 5 p.m. on the same day.)

• Gary Reuter, Extension entomologist, will present "Honeybees, beekeeping and research" at 10 a.m.

Catherine Dehdashti
Communications and Public Relations Manager

Quick Bytes are bite-sized introductions to a wide variety of today's technology. Each quick and fun unit provides opportunities to dig into specific technology tools, learn how they can potentially support your programmatic efforts, and know where to get more information. Often there is an activity to allow for hands-on exploration. Comments and discussion for each unit are strongly encouraged.

Quick Bytes are enrichment resources open to all. A new Quick Byte unit is posted about once a week.

Amy Baker
Chief Technology Officer

Kim N. Boyce
Regional Director, Central

Kristen Mastel
Outreach and Instruction Librarian

Wilmar, Crookston and Worthington are all using VOIP systems. Extension IT will continue to monitor office network speeds to determine which offices will accommodate moving to VoIP.  

The main number for Worthington will remain the same and is listed on the Extension website. The only change is that this number is now listed as the contact number for all staff members in the Worthington Regional Office. You will reach an auto attendant and can search by name or four-digit extension.  

Rex Wheeler II
IT Operations Manager

Note that Minneapolis/St. Paul-based staff members who are unable to attend the event will not be mailed a gift and should review the Celebrate U! website after the event for instructions about the gift. Our supply is for non-Minneapolis/St. Paul-based staff only.

Deb Page
Assistant Director, Human Resources

This year's symposium and food summit, features the new director of the National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA), Dr. Sonny Ramaswamy, who will discuss his vision for food, agriculture and health research priorities. The event also includes award-winning research led by renowned University food and health experts who will share their research findings and perspectives on issues along the farm-to-fork continuum and food systems and health.

This event may offer Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for interested professionals. For more information and to register, visit the HFHL website.

In the next couple weeks, Extension will begin its annual cycle for promotion for educators with and without academic rank. Extension's promotion system highlights the high-caliber work of our program teams and educators that contributes to the mission of Extension and the University of Minnesota. All eligible employees will receive information regarding the promotion timeline, guidelines, and resources. You can access promotion policies on the Human Resources page of Extension's Intranet.

Dick Senese
Senior Associate Dean

We have added more than 75 images to Extension's online image gallery. The gallery now contains over 700 professional photos in the categories of agriculture, community, environment, family, food, garden and youth. All of the high-quality photos found in the gallery can be used to for brochures, flyers or other Extension marketing templates. The high-quality professional photos, paired with the templates, are an effective way to communicate with our many audiences while strengthening the Extension brand.

The staff photos section of the image gallery has also been updated with staff photos that were taken in April and May. High resolution versions of all photos are available to download from the gallery. Extension Communications will continue to offer opportunities throughout the year for Extension staff to have their staff photos taken or retaken.

For questions or comments about the image gallery, send an email to epromo@umn.edu.

Sarah Bjorkman
Internal Communications & Brand Manager

Earlier this month, Extension Information Technology (IT) started using a new customer request ticketing system (i.e. "help ticket") called ServiceNow. This University-wide service will improve collaboration and coordination with central OIT and other IT units across campus. Staff will also have access to self-service features, a searchable knowledge base, and more.

The people supporting your IT needs and questions and the way you contact them for support will not change; only the software service will be changing. Continue to enter tickets online or call 612-624-6700. The email you receive will come from "University of Minnesota Service Desk" umn@service-now.com, and the email subject line will start with INC123456.

We welcome any and all feedback on this change. Tell us what you think via our online feedback form.

Karen Matthes
IT Training and Support Director

The Extension Regional Office in Crookston, which includes the Northwest Regional Sustainable Development Partnership, has moved to the Valley Technology Park, just north of the University of Minnesota, Crookston campus. All staff phone numbers and emails remain the same. The new address for the Crookston office can be found on the Extension website. The phone number is 888-241-0781. For more information, see new location.

As the state continues to recover from recent floods, the potential for severe weather will continue through the summer. I want to make sure that all faculty and staff are aware of Extension's role in disaster response and the educational resources available from Extension.

Extension's role during disasters is to respond rapidly with research-based information people can use in making decisions. Extension has a coordinated system of online and phone answer resources available for those with flood-related questions, both during a flood emergency and while recovery efforts are underway. Citizens and staff can access the most up-to-date information on flood response, safety and clean-up issues by visiting Extension's flood impacts website, or calling Extension's toll-free phone services, the Flood (aka Farm) Information Line (1-800-232-9077) and the AnswerLine (1-800-854-1678).

All of Extension's efforts are coordinated by our MN-EDEN disaster response team, lead by Bob Byrnes. If you have ideas for flood-related programs, educational resources, community response or communications, please contact Bob before initiating your flood response effort. Bob will help ensure that our efforts are not only coordinated within Extension, but also with our many partners across the state. During times of crisis in our communities, we must remember that Extension's role is focused on education. While Extension is not the community disaster coordinator, first-responder or social service agency, we do support our many partnering agencies through our information and educational resources.

I appreciate the work of the disaster response team and the many faculty and staff who have worked with them to provide timely and accurate information through our website, publications and phone lines.

Bev Durgan
Dean

I am pleased to announce the new executive leadership team for youth development.

Jennifer Skuza, has accepted the position of assistant dean for Extension Youth Development. Most recently, Jennifer was a state faculty member and youth development program leader in educational program design and development. She holds a Ph.D. in work, community and family education from the University of Minnesota. In her doctoral program, she minored in international education and studied at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. Previously, she led the establishment of the Urban 4-H Youth Development Office and directed the office for eight years.

In this new role, Jennifer will provide leadership and direction for programmatic and scholarly work within Extension Youth Development. She will guide strategic direction for programming and for the two-way link between scholarship and practice. She will also lead program design; development, implementation, coaching and stewardship with staff for their promotion and rank; and strategic positioning of Extension Youth Development in international and intercultural education and outreach.

Tamie Bremseth, has accepted the position of director of youth development operations. Tamie has a master's degree from the University of Minnesota and 22 years of experience with Extension in multiple program and administrative roles. In addition to leading and supervising staff as a program leader for 4-H Youth Development, Tamie has provided statewide leadership for stewardship of the 4-H program as a public organization which included the development of processes for finances, risk management, real estate and equipment. With responsibility for staff development, Tamie worked with Minnesota and North Central Regional Extension Youth Development colleagues to give leadership to the development of a multi-state distance-learning course on partnership development as well as the onboarding process for Extension Youth Development employees.

In this new role, Tamie will provide strategic leadership for Extension Youth Development operations. This includes the design and administration of systems and processes related to finances, risk management, human resources, technology and communications.

I am pleased that Jennifer and Tamie have accepted these vital leadership roles. We will be working with the rest of the current leadership team over the next few months to transition Jennifer and Tamie into these positions and identify the rest of our leadership team. We will also be looking across the current program teams and structures to create greater alignment, integration and focus. Jennifer and Tamie will continue to supervise their current staff during the transition. We expect to have new supervisory roles outlined by early fall.

Dorothy McCargo Freeman
Associate Dean, Youth Development

Major flooding is underway in northeast Minnesota. Itasca, Aitkin, Carlton, southern Lake and southern St. Louis counties have been hard-hit, and many county offices have been closed. Some evacuation of homes has been necessary. The floods are affecting many Extension employees who live in these areas.

Extension has educational resources available for those with flood-related questions. Staff can access the most up-to-date information by visiting Extension's flood website, or by calling Extension's toll-free phone services - Flood (a.k.a. Farm) Information Line (1-800-232-9077; email fil@umn.edu) and AnswerLine (1-800-854-1678).

Extension's flood response is coordinated by Minnesota's Extension Disaster Education Network (MN-EDEN) team to ensure consistency across the state. MN-EDEN will evaluate needs and ensure non-duplication of efforts within Extension or with other agencies. Contact Bob Byrnes with your program ideas and questions about Extension's flood response.

Bob Byrnes
MN-EDEN response coordinator

The percentage of open seats up for grabs in next year's Minnesota Legislature has hit 25 percent. As of now, 47 state legislators have retired or decided to run for other offices since the new redistricting map was released in February. That means at least one-fourth of the 201 seats in the legislature will change hands this fall, marking the largest turnover since the last redistricting year in 2002.

To track who is running where, MinnPost has compiled an interactive map of every candidate who filed to run in the upcoming election. Click on a district to see the candidates, or search with your address in the sidebar on the site.

Sarah Greening
Chief of Staff
and
Gwen Gmeinder
Government Relations Associate

Extension promotional items are available to order from the Extension Store. Imprinted with the Extension wordmark and website address, these items will help make Extension visible at your events and meetings. These items are available at wholesale price to Extension staff.

• Notecards/invitations (pkg of 25), wholesale price $10.00
• Pocket folder (pkg of 25), wholesale price $16.00
• Color-changing pencils (pkg of 50), wholesale price $21.00  

When choosing promotional items that fit your project and budget, it is important to consider your target audience, the purpose of your project or event, and the impression you'd like to make. For a complete listing of Extension promotional items and information on how to produce new promotional items, visit the Promotional Items webpage.

Sarah Bjorkman
Internal Communications & Brand Manager

Supervisors are encouraged to submit articles to Extension enews introducing new employees as well as saying goodbye to employees leaving Extension. Please use the Extension enews article templates on the Extension intranet to guide your writing. And, please consult with the employee and obtain approval before submitting.

Sarah Bjorkman
Internal Communications & Brand Manager

As a reminder, Fiscal Year 2012 deadlines are:

June 13 - Requisitions and PO Vouchers (any invoice that is matched to a PO)
June 20 - Non-PO Vouchers & expense/travel reimbursements (Reminder: University policy states that all expense and travel reimbursements should be submitted within 30 days of the scheduled trip return.)
June 25 - A/R Billing (customer maintenance requests) - establish customers
June 28, noon - A/R Billing (customer profile exists) - create invoices
June 29, noon - Purchasing Card (PCARD) reconciliation & deposits

More information can be found by reading the complete University of Minnesota FY 2012 closing procedures.  For questions regarding these deadlines, contact your accounting representative or Extension Finance and Planning.

Madonna Monette
Finance Director

The University policy on cell phone and PDA augmentation will be changing as of July 1, 2012. Extension follows the University policy and therefore will be implementing the changes. Next week, all faculty and staff who currently receive a cell phone or PDA augmentation will receive an email outlining the specific changes. If you receive an augmentation, please watch for that email. Contact David Werner at werne012@umn.edu  with any questions.

David Werner
Chief Operating Officer

Materials from many sessions that were offered at the 2012 Extension Staff Conference are available online. Slides and/or handouts from seven sessions have been posted. Photos that were taken at the event are also online for viewing. Visit the ESCC staff conference site on the Extension intranet to access the available conference materials.

Shelly Tschida
Executive Assistant to the Dean, and
ESCC Member

From now through June 10, you can save up to 25% on all Extension clothing items.  Choose from three different shirt styles - polos, dress shirts and t-shirts - in University of Minnesota colors.  Embroidered with the Extension wordmark, these items will help make Extension visible at your events and meetings.  

With only a limited time to receive the sale discount, place your order today!  Visit the UMBookstores website to view a photo and description of each item and to place your order.

Sarah Bjorkman
Employee Communications Manager

On Friday, June 8 Extension Information Technology, Extension Store and Extension Registration are moving from Coffey Hall to 130 Learning and Environmental Services (LES).  If you need assistance on June 8, please leave a message at our help desk 612-624-6700 or submit an online help ticket.  Our staff will be monitoring voice mail and web requests throughout the day, and will respond to all requests in a timely manner. Thank you for your patience and understanding during this transition.

Karen Matthes
Director, IT Support and Training

Keep everything, share anything. The Office of Information Technology has announced the introduction of Google Drive to the expanding list of Google Apps available for the University of Minnesota. Drive provides a new way to access and share files and folders, at any time and on any device. It will replace and enhance what is known as Google Documents today. For more information, see Google Drive.

University of Minnesota Brief
June 6, 2012 Issue

Important due dates for submitting financial transactions for Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 must be followed to help minimize last-minute problems. Respecting these deadlines will provide adequate time for appropriate review, approval and processing of transactions, and will reduce the risk of improperly posted documents due to system delays, unavailable approvers, unforeseeable errors or other problems.
In brief, FY 2012 deadlines are:

1. June 13 - Requisitions and PO Vouchers (any invoice that is matched to a PO)
2. June 20 - Non-PO Vouchers & expense/travel reimbursements (Reminder: University policy states that all expense and travel reimbursements should be submitted within 30 days of the scheduled trip return.)
3. June 25 - A/R Billing (customer maintenance requests) - establish customers
4. June 28, noon - A/R Billing (customer profile exists) - create invoices
5. June 29, noon - Purchasing Card (PCARD) reconciliation & deposits

Additional deadlines have been sent to all Extension staff who routinely prepare financial documents for accounting transactions. More information can be found by reading the complete University of Minnesota FY 2012 closing procedures.  For questions regarding these deadlines, contact your accounting representative or Extension Finance and Planning.

Madonna Monette
Finance Director

With an extremely strong pool of candidates to choose from, the search committee for the Community Vitality associate dean position has narrowed it down to four finalists. Each of these finalists will be brought in for interview seminars as noted below.

Dr. Brent Hales received his Ph.D. from Iowa State University in 2000 in rural sociology. He is currently associate professor in the Department of Economic and Workforce Development, University of Southern Mississippi. His seminar is scheduled for Thursday, May 24, 9:15-10 a.m.

Dr. Scott Chazdon received his Doctor of Philosophy in sociology from the University of Denver in 1996. He is currently interim associate dean for the Extension Center for Community Vitality and prior to this interim role was evaluation and research coordinator. His seminar is scheduled for Thursday, May 24, 3:15-4 p.m.

Dr. Maureen Kilkenny received her Ph.D. in applied economics in 1987 from the University of Minnesota. Her most recent role was that of professor, Department of Resource Economics at the University of Nevada. Her seminar will be Friday, May 25, 9:30-10:15 a.m.

Dr. Cindy Wilcox received her Ph.D. in leadership and cultural systems from Unions Institute and University in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2003. Her seminar will be Tuesday, June 19 (seminar time TBD).

Each candidate will be requested to respond to the following seminar topic: "Based on scholarship and your professional experience, what do communities of place need to be vital; and how can applied research and Extension education lead to community level impacts across Minnesota?"

The 30-minute presentation will be followed by a 15-minute Q&A. Extension staff are invited to participate in the seminars by joining us in Room 401 in Coffey Hall, or by participating online via UMConnect live stream.  Recordings will also be available after the interviews and will be announced in enews, in June. 

You may provide feedback for Dr. Hales, Dr. Chazdon and Dr. Kilkenny to the search committee no later than 4:30 p.m. on Friday, June 1. Request a feedback form from Naaz Babvani.

David Werner
Chief Operating Officer

The Spring 2012 issue of Source magazine is hot off the presses and en route to your offices. Source is also available online and many of the stories about Extension's impact across the state will be featured on our home page, shared through social media and sent via email to Extension staff and friends over the next few months.

This issue of Source highlights the many ways Extension keeps the land-grant vision alive and relevant today. Read how Extension's 4-H youth explore the sciences and improve water quality through aquatic robotics. Discover how Extension's Master Gardeners give back to their communities through community gardens. Find out how Extension ensures safe pork and healthy pigs, brings robotic milking to Minnesota dairies, and yields surprising findings on turfgrass

This issue also features Extension's impact to engage Ojibwe youth in science, put locally grown food in school lunchrooms, and raise awareness of food insecurity in Minnesota.

Please feel free to use the printer-friendly versions of the stories available on the Extension website. Copies of these stories are helpful to include in your program marketing materials and discussions with partners and customers.

Julie Christensen
Public Relations and News Media Manager

The following individuals have been elected to the Extension Faculty Consultative Committee (EFCC) by their respective groups. They begin three-year terms in July.    

Denise Trudeau-Poskas, Community Vitality campus faculty representative
Lori Rothstein, Community Vitality regional educator alternate representative
Jennifer Skuza , Youth Development academic faculty representative
Amber Runke, Youth Development academic  faculty alternate representative
Diane DeWitte, local educator representative
Brenda Postels, local educator alternate representative
Susanne Hinrichs, regional director alternate representative
Joel Haskard, Extension partnership representative
Kathryn Draeger, Extension partnerships alternate representative

Cynthia Messer
EFCC Secretary

Extension faculty and staff who hold a joint position with a University college or department and/or who are taking a U of M course(s), may experience difficulty logging on to the homepage of the Extension intranet.  This issue happens because Extension and all other University colleges and departments are using the same myU University software for faculty, staff and student portal views. Most often, when you login to a portal page, you will be automatically routed to your college or student pages instead of the Extension page.  If you do not see the Extension intranet after you log on, click on the "Change Views" link at the top left of the portal page (below the myU logo), and select "EXT (Extension View)."

For questions, contact Extension IT at 612-624-6700.

Sarah Bjorkman
Employee Communications Manager

All University federal employees will soon have the opportunity to elect Roth (after-tax) contributions, in addition to, or in lieu of, traditional (pre-tax or tax deferred) Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) contributions.

The pay period of May 7, 2012, is the first cycle in which employees will have the ability to elect Roth TSP contributions from their paychecks. Extension Human Resources will send an email to federal employees on May 7 with detailed information about how to elect Roth TSP contributions, rules on contributions and deferral limits.

Visit the TSP website to watch a video about Roth contributions and to view a comparison of Roth vs. Tradition Contributions.  For questions, contact Deb Page at brick007@umn.edu.

Deb Page
Assistant Director, Human Resources

A very warm spring, preceded by a dry fall and winter, invited many questions from Minnesota's farmers and gardeners. Extension specialists and educators worked with the media to provide answers, reinforcing our reputation as a source for credible, research-based information.

Julie Weisenhorn gave gardening advice on Minnesota Public Radio and KARE 11; Mark Seeley and Liz Stahl explained weather patterns, soil moisture and fertility in the Farm & Ranch Guide; Lisa Behnken talked ideal corn-planting dates in the Rochester Post-Bulletin; Jochum Wiersma addressed small grains planting in Ag Week; and Jeff Coulter, Jeff Gunsolus and Kent Olson reached farmers with "Five ways growers can plan for spring drought" via Ag News Wire, which is distributed to hundreds of local and ag news sources. Many other specialists and educators communicated research-based recommendations via newspapers, radio stations, websites and social media.

If you have an idea on how you or your program team can address a newsworthy topic to reach audiences via the news media, contact Julie Christensen, public relations and news media manager, or Catherine Dehdashti, public relations coordinator.

Catherine Dehdashti
Public Relations Coordinator

Many Extension-supported computers are currently running Microsoft Office 2007--a software tool that will soon be out of date.  By the end of October, Microsoft will stop releasing software patches and updates for Office 2007, which will make it vulnerable to threat.

To avoid a lapse in fully-supported software, Extension IT is planning to upgrade all Extension supported machines to Office 2010, the newest version currently available.  All machines are scheduled to be updated by the end of October.  

Extension IT will handle the upgrade in multiple ways:

• Regional Office staff: please contact your regional support staff to arrange a time for an upgrade;
• Twin Cities staff: download the software yourself by following the installation instructions on the Extension intranet.  Contact the Extension IT help desk at 612-624-6700 with questions;
• Staff scheduled to get a new computer after June: Office 2010 will already be running on the new machines.

For questions, contact Extension IT at 612-624-6700.

Billie Wilson
Information Technology Supervisor

Tourism is a key sector in Minnesota, the U.S. and the world. The University's Tourism Center is celebrating National Tourism Week with a poster session Tuesday, May 10 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the St. Paul Student Center, Minnesota Commons Room. All Extension staff are welcome to attend and will get a chance to meet University personnel involved with tourism research and education who will present their work and discuss this industry that generates $950 billion in the world and $11 billion annually in Minnesota.

The event is free, but please RSVP to tourism@umn.edu by May 7.

Ingrid Schneider
Tourism Center Director

Have you noticed lately that you must enter your log-in information twice before entering the Extension intranet?  If you have, you are not alone.  For a brief period of time, everyone who enters the Extension intranet through the homepage is required to sign in twice to enter the site. 

The double sign-in is a result of University Office of Information Technology transitioning the University's web authentication services.  Because there are so many websites and systems involved, OIT is handling the transition process in phases.  This has created an overlap of authentication on the Extension intranet, thereby creating a forced double sign-in. 

OIT is expected to transition the Extension intranet to the new system in early to mid summer.  Until then, please continue to sign in twice to enter the site.

Sarah Bjorkman
Employee Communications Manager

The University of Minnesota Office for Public Engagement is hosting a public engagement symposium, "Strengthening the University of Minnesota as an Engaged University: Community Perspectives," on Tuesday, April 24, from 9 a.m. to noon at the McNamara Alumni Center. This symposium will engage participants in a critical conversation on how the University can strengthen its partnership work with communities. For more information and to register for the symposium, please visit the event website.

Diana Martenson
Organization and Program Development Specialist

The 2013 fiscal year compensation plan for faculty, P&A and civil service employees has been released. 

Salary increases for employee groups are effective June 18, 2012 and will appear on paychecks received on July 11.

Faculty and P&A
The Extension academic salary increase process will be managed by Extension associate deans and unit heads who will receive tools and instructions to manage the merit salary decision process.  This decision process will occur in time for the final budgeting process.

Any promotions in the Extension academic rank system will be processed separately.

Civil Service
Extension civil service employees are not currently in a merit system, so the increase for this group is distributed across the board.

Bargaining Unit
AFSCME Clerical Unit 6 and AFSCME Technical Unit 7 salary increase information will be available in these respective contracts once they are available online in the near future.  Each unit negotiated a slightly different salary increase agreement.

For more information, visit the 2013 fiscal year compensation plan website, or contact Leslee Mason with questions, 612-624-4205 or lam@umn.edu

David Werner
Chief Operating Officer
and
Leslee Mason
Human Resources Director

New districts lines were announced in late February to reflect changes in Minnesota population demographics.  Be sure to identify your new representatives so you can get to know who they are and what issues they are endorsing.

To learn more about a legislator's views on a matter, visit the Support the U website. The site also provides several other resources and information about how you can support the U.

As always, if you are invited to testify at a legislative hearing, you need prior approval.   Notify your Center leadership as opportunities come up, and then send the following information to Sarah Greening: committee, agenda topic, date and time of the hearing.

Sarah Greening
Chief of Staff
and
Gwen Gmeinder
Government Relations Associate

April is the national "Month of the Military Child," a time to honor youth impacted by deployment. Extension 4-H and Operation: Military Kids invite you to "Purple Up! For Military Kids!"  As part of this second annual national event, we encourage everyone to wear purple on Friday, April 13 to show support and thank military children across the country and in Minnesota for their strength and sacrifices. Purple is the color that symbolizes all branches of the military, as it is the combination of Army green, Coast Guard blue, Air Force blue, Marine red and Navy blue.

Extension 4-H delivers Operation: Military Kids programs to help youth discover positive ways to cope with their loved one's deployment, and feel connected, active and supported.

Please join Extension in taking this opportunity to appreciate and celebrate these young heroes. Help spread the word to "purple up" on April 13 so that Minnesota's military youth can see the support of their community!

Amber Runke
Extension 4-H Programs Manager, and
Operation: Military Kids Program Specialist

You are invited to attend a screening and discussion of "Farm School Growing Our Future." This 30-minute documentary by Extension, the Minnesota Department of Health and Twin Cities Public Television (TPT) provides an in-depth look at farm to school partnerships in Minnesota and how communities can work together to improve children's health and education and strengthen local economies. After a successful premiere in the Twin Cities last month, Extension is organizing nearly a dozen screenings throughout the state this spring.  Don't miss this opportunity to invite others and come together with community leaders, schools, farmers and parents to build healthy, sustainable communities.

Visit Extension's Farm to School website for details and to RSVP to the regional screenings, or to learn about Extension's farm to school efforts. 

Stephanie Heim
Extension Educator, Farm to School

The Extension Staff Consultative Committee (ESCC) is here to provide leadership on issues of concern to civil service and bargaining unit staff.  The committee works in cooperation with Extension's Dean Durgan.  We are currently looking for new members to be on the committee. 

All Extension employees in the following groups are encouraged to join: campus and regional civil service/bargaining unit, community nutrition educators, 4-H program coordinators, Master Gardener coordinators, community program specialists and assistants, and county support staff.  You may nominate a yourself or someone else.  Voting will be held at our May monthly meeting and new members will start in September.

To find out more about the ESCC committee visit our website or contact us at escc@tc.umn.edu.

Kristina Kainz
Community Nutrition Educator, and
ESCC Committee Member

All University professional and academic staff are required to complete a REPA form annually, whether or not you have any outside consulting to report.  If you have not yet filed a REPA, complete it as soon as possible.

You can complete and submit your form through the REPA website.  Please review the REPA information page on the Extension intranet to determine exactly where to route the form for review and approval within Extension.  If you route the form to the wrong person it will need to be rerouted, causing a delay in processing.

For policy questions or other assistance, please contact Leslee Mason, Extension Human Resources.

Leslee Mason
Human Resources Director

Extension civil service and bargaining unit staff are invited to attend the Extension Staff Conference on Thursday, April 26. The conference will be held in Chaska at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. Visit the Extension Staff Conference section of the intranet to view an outline of the agenda, book a hotel room, register and read about special sessions and activities.  The deadline to register is Friday, March 30.

The Extension Staff Consultative Committee has really raised the bar on this year's event to provide staff the opportunity to immerse in high-quality professional development based on input obtained via the pre-conference survey. Not only does this event bring together Extension staff from across Minnesota, it is a valuable tradition of staff development in our organization.

I am encouraging all civil service and bargaining unit staff to attend and take advantage of the event offerings. We look forward to this annual immersion in learning and teamwork to advance our skills, our programs and our organization.

Bev Durgan
Dean

The main barrier to learning new technologies is having the time. "Quick Bytes," a new online enrichment resource for technology learning, makes it easy to keep up with technology as part of your weekly routine. With only about 30 minutes a week, you can learn about a current digital tool. You can even have the learning units sent right to your email!

Quick Bytes are bite-sized introductions to a wide variety of today's technology.  A new Quick Byte unit will be posted online each Thursday. Quick Bytes is open to all Extension employees and is coordinated by Extension IT.

Find out lots more and start learning with Quick Bytes.

Amy Baker
Chief Technology Officer
and
Karen Matthes
Organizational Training Director

Over the last few weeks, you may have seen examples of the University's Support the U campaign rolling out across the state. The Support the U program invites faculty, staff, students, parents, alumni, community members and others to be advocates for the University and tell others about our positive impact in Minnesota and beyond.

The University recently launched a series of regional ads featuring stories from U advocates. Extension's Connie Schwartau, program coordinator in Food Science & Nutrition, and her husband Ron, are featured in the Southwest regional ad. Read and listen to the Schwartau's Support the U story!

In support of the university's 2012 legislative advocacy efforts, President Kaler submitted customized op-eds to newspapers statewide that highlight the U's impact on and value to the state of Minnesota and its various regions. Examples of the op-eds from across the state:

• Crookston Times: Viewpoint: Many reasons to support your UMC, your U of M
• Fargo Forum: U of M's value is huge
• Mankato Free Press: My View: U of M is excellence in education
• Rochester Post-Bulletin: Eric W. Kaler : University of Minnesota improves life here, everywhere
• St. Cloud Times: Your Turn: U of M's contribution is invaluable
• Winona Daily News: Consider impact of the University of Minnesota
• Worthington Daily Globe: 'U' makes a big impact

Aimee Viniard-Weideman
Assistant Dean and Communications Director

I am pleased to announce that Renee Pardello has accepted a new role in Extension as assistant dean. Renee will be reporting to senior associate dean Dick Senese and will be coordinating Extension's international programs and the Extension promotion systems. She will begin her new position on March 1.

Renee has been involved in international projects for more than ten years, working at the village to the country-wide level.  She has also served in several leadership roles in Extension since 2000, as a program leader and interim associate dean for natural resources and most recently as assistant dean in the Extension Center for Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences.

Promotion has been identified as a priority in the Extension Strategic Plan. In addition, Extension has continued to increase efforts in international programs and Renee will coordinate these activities as well as lead grant-writing efforts to obtain funding for international programming.

Current international activities include:

• Extension is a participant in and is providing funding for the new UM multidisciplinary global partnership program in Morocco.
• Extension is a participant in the UM Foundation-led FAO and the World Food Program.
• Extension is providing leadership for the establishment of extension programs in Tanzania and Kisii, Kenya.

Please join me in welcoming Renee to this new role.

Bev Durgan
Dean

Newly created name badge and tent card Word templates are now available for download.  These templates include Extension's wordmark and fonts and can be printed on office printers in color or B&W using Avery products, or other similar office products.

Use Extension name badges and tent cards to identify speakers or participants and to enhance Extension's presence at events and meetings. 

Sarah Bjorkman
Employee Communications Manager

Extension centrally maintains staff email lists (formerly known as "Addressbooks") that allow Extension staff to communicate with various segments of the Extension community.  A Staff Email List resource page is available on the Extension intranet that provides more information, including a feature to view members on each list.

To access and use these lists, you can click on the individual email addresses on the intranet resource page, or you can upload all of the lists into your University Gmail account.  Instructions to upload the staff email lists are on the IT section of the intranet.

Sarah Bjorkman
Employee Communications Manager

Last week, Extension hosted 65 people representing every area of the state for the sixth annual Extension Legislative Action Day at the capitol. This event included citizen advocates with varied backgrounds such as county Extension committee members, county commissioners, statewide citizen advisory groups and regional sustainable development partners, as well as Extension's regional directors and Extension educators. Participants worked together to prepare for meetings with legislators during a workshop on communicating Extension's public value, presented by Laura Kalambokidis, associate professor and Extension economist, and Aimee Viniard-Weideman, assistant dean and director of communications.

Following the workshop, Extension participants joined the greater University's Legislative Briefing at the McNamara Alumni Center. A record crowd of about 550 attendees packed the Alumni Center (and approximately 100 tuned in via webcast) to hear University President Eric Kaler talk about the University's legislative request. President Kaler also reinforced the critical importance of each person sharing the stories of how the University of Minnesota has shaped his or her life.  Read the president's legislative briefing remarks on the University website.  

The following day the Extension participants went to the capitol to meet with senators from their districts to tell their Extension stories and ask for support for the University and Extension.

Sarah Greening
Chief of Staff

In 2012, there will be many legislative issues to be aware of and one of the first will be the release of the new district map of Minnesota, scheduled for February 21.

As always, if you have been formally invited to testify at a legislative hearing, you need prior approval. Please contact Sarah Greening with the following information: committee, agenda topic, date and time. If you meet with legislators or staffers, please complete the legislative database form. More information and resources are available on the Government Relations section of the Extension intranet, as well as the University's Support the U website.

Sarah Greening
Chief of Staff
and
Gwen Gmeinder
Government Relations Associate

You are invited to nominate outstanding colleagues for the 2011-2012 Extension Dean's distinguished awards for civil service and bargaining unit staff. The award categories are: distinguished campus and field support staff, program staff and community nutrition educator.

The deadline for nominations is Monday, April 2. Guidelines and more information on how to nominate are available on the Dean's section of the Extension intranet. For questions, contact Shelly Tschida.

Bev Durgan
Dean

Many Extension program teams are active in social media networks, whether sharing content with Facebook fans, chatting with Twitter followers or providing news or other updates on Google+. We've all learned that listening and building trust and credibility in online communities is essential. It's also important to ask yourself, "What am I trying to accomplish?" If you haven't done this and you're active in social media, it's a good time to step back and take another look. Are you using a holistic approach, making sure social media efforts are integrated into your overall marketing and communications plan--and not a group of isolated activities?

One way to do this is to create a social media plan. Begin by reviewing the fundamentals: who's your audience, what's your message and what are you trying to accomplish? For example, are you trying to increase workshop participation? Are you driving traffic to your program web pages? Or are you interested in building key relationships? Also be sure to set objectives that are measurable so you can determine where you should continue to focus your efforts.

For more tips on creating a social media plan, review Extension's social media guide or contact your center communications manager.

Julie Christensen
Public Relations and News Media Manager

Library course pages are available in existing Moodle sites and on the University Libraries homepage ("Course Resources" tab). These pages can be designed for credit and noncredit courses, workshops and other educational offerings.  The course page brings together databases for finding articles, 24/7 "Chat with a Librarian," course reserve readings, and more.

A custom page can be created for you by contacting, Kristen Mastel, Extension outreach and instruction librarian.  For more information, see a sample library course page or noncredit course page.

Kristen Mastel
Outreach and Instruction Librarian

AFSCME's Annual "Day on the Hill" will take place on Tuesday, March 27, 2012.  This is an event where AFSCME members jointly visit the legislature in order 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.

For questions contact Extension HR.

Leslee Mason
Human Resources Director

Questions have surfaced about whether it is permissible to hold classes or events on caucus night, February 7.  Consistent with Minnesota State law, at their December 2005 meeting, the Board of Regents approved a resolution authorizing the University of Minnesota to schedule classes and events on caucus night.

Pursuant to this resolution, all classes and events scheduled for caucus night will be held as scheduled with the expectation that instructors will make reasonable accommodations for students/participants who wish to participate in party caucuses.

If a faculty or staff member scheduled to teach on Tuesday night wants to attend their party caucus, or if enough of their students/participants indicate that they will be attending caucus so that holding class becomes impractical, instructors may either cancel class or make reasonable alternative arrangements.

Sarah Greening
Government Relations

University Travel Policy now requires pre-travel registration of all staff/faculty international travel for University purposes. Staff and faculty are required to register international travel as of January 1, 2012.  Please note that there is no travel approval process associated with this policy.  Any travel approval requirement is still managed within your department, college or center.  

The updated policy will make it easier and more efficient to provide travelers with helpful information prior to departure, and to provide travelers with prompt assistance overseas should circumstances demand it. Visit the University's travel website for answers to commonly asked questions.

David Werner
Chief Operating Officer

The North Central Cooperative Extension Association is hosting an online professional development opportunity on "The Challenge of Feeding 9 Billion People: Implications for Cooperative Extension." This two-part workshop and panel discussion will draw on national experts to introduce emerging challenges in the food system and to initiate a discussion of opportunities for Cooperative Extension.

The workshop webinar will take place on Tuesday, April 3, 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. with a panel discussion on Thursday, April 5, 10 to 11:30 a.m.

The agenda will address the challenge of feeding 9 billion people from perspectives in agriculture, natural resources, consumers, and youth and workforce development. Additional details and how to connect will be available closer to the event.

Mike Schmitt
Associate Dean, Center for Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences

More than 100 new photos have been added to Extension's online image gallery. The image gallery now contains more than 500 professional quality photos in the following categories: agriculture, environment, family, food, garden and youth. These high-quality photos can be used with the Extension marketing templates to visually communicate and add interest to Extension communications marketing materials.

The image gallery also hosts Extension's staff photos.  Photos taken at the Extension program conference in October have been added to this site, replacing previous photos. High-resolution versions of each photo are available to download from the gallery.

New photos will continue to be added to the image gallery throughout the year. For questions or comments about the image gallery, send an email to epromo@umn.edu.

Sarah Bjorkman
Employee Communications Manager

As temperatures outside drop, it's important to remember to avoid leaving your laptop outside for too long. If you have concerns about how long is too long for a computer to be left out in the cold, follow this basic rule: if an opened bottle of water in your vehicle has formed ice or has frozen, then your laptop has been out in the cold too long. Once indoors, take the laptop out of the case and let it sit for 20 to 30 minutes to acclimate to room temperature before plugging it in and powering it up. This includes leaving it off the docking station.

Billie Wilson
Information Technology Supervisor

Copyright workshops will be available in February and March to take in-person on the Twin Cities campus and online. Nancy Sims, UM assistant librarian, will offer the three copyright workshops, two of which satisfy RCR continuing education awareness/discussion requirements.

Visit the University Libraries website for more information and to register . Please register early, especially if attending virtually, as the sessions fill up quickly.  

Kristen Mastel
Outreach and Instruction Librarian

Check out the latest issue of the Extension retiree newsletter.  In addition to news about our retirees, this issue highlights a new Facebook group for Extension retirees.  The retiree newsletter is distributed three times a year in summer/fall, winter and spring.  If you have ideas for articles of interest to retirees, please send them to Gwen Gmeinder.

Gwen Gmeinder
Government Relations Associate

Four candidates have been selected to interview for the position of Associate Dean, Center for Youth Development.  The candidate seminars will be presented on the St. Paul campus, Room 401, Coffey Hall. All Extension staff are invited to attend via UMConnect.

During the seminars, each candidate will be requested to respond to the following:  "The Extension Center for Youth Development plays an important role in youth programming, teaching, research, scholarship and partnership building.  As we move further into the second decade of the 21st century, many youth serving organizations are facing unprecedented funding challenges while at the same time being required to show their effectiveness.  What is your vision for the Extension Center for Youth Development for the next five years given the constraints we are facing?"

Seminar candidates, dates and times:

• Jill A. Pinkney Pastrana, current department chair and associate professor, Department of Education Studies, University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire. (Read more: U of WI staff profile)
  Seminar:  Wednesday, January 25, 9:00 a.m.

• Angela M. Eilers, current vice president of Academic Outcomes, Sophia Learning.  (Read more: online bio)
  Seminar:  Wednesday, January 25, 2:45 p.m.

• Willie B. Dean, current president/CEO, YMCA, Arlington, Texas.  (Read more: YMCA staff profile)
  Seminar:  Thursday, January 26, 11:15 a.m.

• Dorothy McCargo Freeman, current state 4-H leader & assistant director, Extension Center for Youth Development.   (Read more: ESP National bio)
  Seminar:  Friday, January 27, 11:15 a.m.

You may provide feedback to the search committee no later than January 27 by requesting a feedback form from Naaz Babvani, babva001@umn.edu, Extension Human Resources. 

Leslee Mason
Human Resources Director

Windows 7 has been making its way onto Extension computers as computers are replaced or reimaged. Below are a few features of Windows 7 that may be helpful to you in your work:

• Pin programs to the taskbar: In previous versions of Windows you could pin programs to the Start menu for easy access, but with Windows 7, you can also pin programs anywhere on the taskbar. By pinning a program to the taskbar, it's right there in front of you so you can open it with a single click. (read more)
• Sticky notes:  Use Sticky Notes to write a to-do list, phone number or anything else you need to remember. Sticky notes appear on your computer Desktop and have many colors to choose from. (read more)
• Jump Lists: Jump Lists are lists of pictures, songs, websites and more, grouped by the program that you use to open them--which means that now you can open files you need from the same taskbar button that you use to open the program. To view the Jump List for a program, right-click the taskbar button, or drag the button toward the desktop. Then, click the item in the Jump List to open it. (read more)

IMPORTANT: If your computer is running Windows 7 and you do not connect to a Twin Cities or coordinate campus network, you will need to connect via VPN once every 180 days to maintain an authentic copy of Windows.

For more information about Extension's support and installation of Windows 7, contact the IT helpdesk at 612-624-6700.

Karen Matthes
Organizational Training Director

University Travel Policy now requires pre-travel registration of all staff/faculty international travel for University purposes. Staff and faculty are required to register international travel as of January 1, 2012.  Please note that there is no travel approval process associated with this policy.  Any travel approval requirement is still managed within your department, college or center.  

The updated policy will make it easier and more efficient to provide travelers with helpful information prior to departure, and to provide travelers with prompt assistance overseas should circumstances demand it. Visit the University's travel website for answers to commonly asked questions.

Madonna Monette
Finance/Cluster Director and RRC Manager

Did you receive an e-reader over the holidays? Explore our e-book collections and download to your device or view from your computer.

Try Google Books to search through the full text of millions of books - this is very different than a MNCAT search which only searches author, title and possibly table of contents. If the book is out of copyright, or the publisher has given permission, you'll be able to see a preview of the book. If you see one you like, click "Get this book in print" "Find in a Library" to see if we have it. Also explore HathiTrust, which brings together the immense collections of 60+ partner institutions in digital form.

WorldWideScience is a global search engine with the aim to spur academic discovery by sharing knowledge.  From a single search form you can search over fifty databases in English and now 22 multilingual sources (with translation to the searcher's native language using Bing translator) and seven multimedia sources.

Kristen Mastel
Outreach & Instruction Librarian

Due to system deadlines during the holidays, there are early timesheet submission dates for hourly staff.  Supervisors must submit timesheets by the following dates:

• Friday, December 16, 2011 (for pay cycle:  12/5/2011 - 12/18/2011)
• Friday, December 30, 2011 (for pay cycle:  12/19/2011 - 1/1/2012)

The payroll system has a window for processing each pay cycle.  Having timesheets in on the posted deadlines is critical to ensure employees are paid accurately and on time.

For questions about payroll processes and deadlines, visit the Human Resources section of the Extension intranet or contact Extension Payroll Specialists Lucy Lu, 612-624-3030, or Nancee Easter, 612-625-3174. 

Deb Page
Assistant Director, Human Resources

The popular perennial calendar, Minnesota Gardening 2012, makes a great holiday gift for Minnesota gardening enthusiasts.  This award winning 12-month calendar is filled with beautiful color photos and timely tips for lawn, garden and houseplant care.  This year's special feature provides information on conserving wild bees.

Extension and University staff can purchase the calendar through the Extension Store at the wholesale price of $7.50 plus shipping per copy.  When purchasing copies for official University use with an EFS number, login to your existing Extension store account to receive the wholesale price, which includes tax exemption.  (If you do not already have an account, contact the Extension Store at Shopext@umn.edu.) To purchase for personal use, enter the coupon code "MGC2012" in the shopping cart.

Julie Weisenhorn
State Master Gardener Director and
Assistant Extension Professor, Horticultural Science

Beginning December 13, all Extension employees will receive a weekly email version of In The News, a sampling of Extension news clips from local, regional, statewide and national sources.  

In The News is distributed every Tuesday and features news stories with significant Extension mention, bringing more visibility to media coverage about Extension programs and people.  (Brief references to Extension, pre-event and calendar items are not included).  If you have an online news article or broadcast to add to In The News, please check the regularly updated online home of In The News to confirm that it has not already been discovered, and then forward the link to extnews@umn.edu.

If there are others outside of the Extension staff community whom you think would like to receive In The News, send them an email with a link to the In The News section of the News website where they can subscribe to the mailing as well as to the various RSS news feeds available.

Catherine Dehdashti
Public Relations Coordinator

Communicating the value of Extension in a consistent, professional manner is vital for all of our work.  For staff who create flyers, fact sheets, PowerPoints, brochures and other print and electronic marketing communications materials, it is especially important to understand how to prepare materials with appropriate Extension branding in order to strengthen and unite Extension's presence across Minnesota.  Staff who are creating Extension materials should now be using the downloads and templates that can be accessed from the Extension intranet.

Templates have been created at the general Extension level as well as for each center.  Center templates incorporate specific visual elements that connect materials across the center.  All templates have been predesigned with Extension's official fonts, colors, required statements and other identity elements.    All the user needs to do is insert text and photos.  Video demos are available on each download page and additional training opportunities will be scheduled in 2012. 

Comprehensive brand guidelines are being developed and are scheduled to be released early in 2012.  These guidelines will be helpful for programs or events when it is necessary to work with a professional design vendor. 

Please send questions and comments about Extension marketing and communications materials to your center communications manager or to Sarah Bjorkman.

Sarah Bjorkman
Employee Communications Manager

As temperatures outside drop, it's important to remember to avoid leaving your laptop outside for too long. If you have concerns about how long is too long for a computer to be left out in the cold, follow this basic rule: if an opened bottle of water in your vehicle has formed ice or has frozen, then your laptop has been out in the cold too long. Once indoors, take the laptop out of the case and let it sit for 20 to 30 minutes to acclimate to room temperature before plugging it in and powering it up. This includes leaving it off the docking station.

Billie Wilson
Information Technology Supervisor

The University goes to great lengths to prevent unauthorized access to information such as your email and personal records. For that reason, internet passwords (i.e., x.500 passwords) are set to expire once per year. Every year you receive an email notification from the University requiring you to change your University Internet password.

As a reminder, the University will never ask for your user ID or password, and you should never reply to ANY email request asking for that information. Always go to the University account website to change your University password. For questions, contact the Extension helpline at 612-624-6700.

Billie Wilson
Information Technology Supervisor

Due to system deadlines during the holidays, there are early timesheet submission dates for hourly Extension staff.  Supervisors must submit timesheets by the following dates:

• Friday, November 18, 2011 (for pay cycle: 11/7/2011 - 11/20/2011)
• Friday, December 16, 2011 (for pay cycle:  12/5/2011 - 12/18/2011)
• Friday, December 30, 2011 (for pay cycle:  12/19/2011 - 1/1/2012)

The payroll system has a window for processing and corrections each pay cycle. Having timesheets in on the posted deadlines is critical to ensure employees are paid accurately and on time.

If you have any questions about payroll processes and deadlines please contact Extension Payroll Specialists Lucy Lu, 612-624-3030, or Nancee Easter, 612-625-3174.

Deb Page
Assistant Director, Human Resources

All Extension educators, professional program staff members, county 4-H program coordinators and regional directors must submit their 2011 professional plan of work to their supervisor by January 3. The plan of work submission templates are available on the Extension intranet. Please contact your supervisor with questions.

Leslee Mason
Human Resources Director

A personal holiday has been added for academic employees on the Twin Cities and Rochester campuses (including all Extension regional offices except Morris and Crookston, where those campus schedules should be followed) to bring their total up to 11 holidays, consistent with other employee groups and other campuses. This personal holiday must be taken between December 23 and January13. If not used during that time period, it is lost. Approval and tracking of this holiday is the responsibility of the local unit.

Extension academic staff members situated in Extension county offices should work with their supervisor and generally follow the county holiday schedule and take no more than 11 holidays. For more information visit the University's Personal Holiday website.

Leslee Mason
Human Resources Director

The University Office of Public Engagement has announced the 2012-13 Engaged Department Grant Program.  Grants of up to $7,500 will be awarded to 6 - 8 departments to plan, establish, implement, and evaluate strategic initiatives that advance the integration of public engagement into the departments' research and teaching activities.

The application deadline is December 9. Please notify Extension's Grant Manager, Dianne Sivald, no later than December 1 if you intend to submit an application.

Dianne Sivald
Grants Manager

The Siehl Prize for Excellence in Agriculture is once again seeking nominations to honor outstanding Minnesotans and University of Minnesota graduates who help feed the world.  The deadline to submit nominations is January 15.

Established in the early 1990s by a generous gift from New Ulm-area livestock breeder and businessman Eldon Siehl, the Siehl prize is awarded annually in three categories: knowledge (teaching, research and outreach), production agriculture and agribusiness. Recipients receive a $50,000 award as well as a sculpture and lapel pin designed by Minnesota artist Thomas Rose especially for the Siehl Prize.

More information about the prize and how to submit a nomination may be found on the Siehl Prize website.

John Byrnes
Program Director, Agricultural Stakeholder Outreach

The University's travel policy was recently updated and changes will take effect on November 1. As good stewards of our funding, I ask that each of you please take the time to review the policy and adhere to its requirements. It is especially important to note the new 30-day requirement for travel reimbursement submissions. I have asked all Extension accounting staff to support this new requirement, so please work with your accounting staff to ensure that your travel reimbursement requests are submitted within 30 days of the travel.

You can access the revised employee expense worksheet and view other changes to the travel policy on the Finance and Planning section of the Extension intranet.

Bev Durgan
Dean

Extension staff with federal benefits
Detailed information about the upcoming 2012 Federal Benefits Open Season (November 14-December 12) will be sent via email. While you may not be planning to make any changes, we strongly encourage you to review your plan's 2012 brochure to learn of any changes in coverage.
If you wish to enroll in the University dental and/or flexible spending accounts benefits for 2012, you must complete the online form through University benefits enrollment by November 30.

Extension staff with University benefits
Open enrollment for University benefits is November 1-November 30. This is the one time each year when you can make changes to your University health plan coverage.
The University is implementing significant changes that will impact benefits in 2012, including increasing employee premiums and copays, and selecting Medica as our sole medical plan administrator.  These details are not yet final, but will impact your 2012 benefits.  We urge you and your family members to review benefits options for 2012 during the open enrollment period.  The University Employee Benefits department will be communicating with you about changes.

For more information on coverage and rate changes, please view the Open Enrollment web page and stay tuned to Extension enews.

Leslee Mason
Human Resources Director

The University's Office of Information Technology (OIT) recently announced that starting January 2012, Adobe Presenter will no longer be bundled with Adobe Acrobat Pro, and University support for Presenter may be discontinued. OIT is collecting information about Adobe Presenter usage from University employees to help determine the University's renewal strategy with Adobe.

Extension has many individuals and program teams who use Adobe Presenter and it is important for the University to hear from everyone who is using this software. They even encourage people who do not use Presenter to answer the survey. We urge everyone who uses, or thinks they might use, Presenter to respond to the Adobe Presenter survey so that OIT has an accurate representation of user needs.

UMConnect is not affected by this change and will continue to be supported by Extension and the University.

If you have any questions about Adobe Presenter, UMConnect or this survey, contact Karen Matthes.

Karen Matthes
Organizational Training Director

Extension has started a new monthly faculty and staff Q-&-A-style feature, intended to help our audiences get to know Extension better. The first installment, featuring Farm to School Coordinator Stephanie Heim, was shared on Extension's Facebook Page and can also be found on the News website.

In addition to helping our external audiences learn more about Extension through our people and programs, we hope employees find it interesting and beneficial as well.

We encourage you to share these monthly Q&A's, typically posted during the last week of each month, in your social networks. If you have an idea for a future Q&A feature, contact Catherine Dehdashti.

Catherine Dehdashti
Public Relations Writer/Coordinator

The Extension Regional Office in Worthington will be moving to a new office location October 20-24. The new address is 1527 Prairie Drive, Worthington, MN 56187. Due to limited phone service during this time, you can contact Holli Arp directly at 507-360-1004 for immediate assistance, or leave a message on the main phone line, 507-372-3900.

Holli Arp
Regional Director, Worthington

Did you miss the Moodle Basics session at Program Conference, but would still like to learn more about it? All of the Moodle course materials are available for self-study on the University's technology training center (UTTC) website.  On the site you have access to resource materials for creating basic Moodle 2.0 course websites, including information on grading, course collaboration, assignments and quizzes. Several of the resources are available to download and you can also view demo courses.

In addition, we will also be working to design Extension-specific templates for the new Moodle 2.0 platform. Stay tuned to Extension enews for more information.

Contact the business applications team at extapps@umn.edu if you have any questions about Moodle.

Allison Jacobsen
Business Applications Manager

There will be a planned interruption to IT services at the University of Minnesota beginning on Saturday, October 1 at 6 p.m., with all services restored by Sunday, October 2 at 6 a.m. During this time you will not have access to several University services including:

• Extension website (limited availability)
• Extension intranet
• network shares (H: and S: drives)
• Moodle
• Netfiles
• Listservs
• PeopleSoft Financials
• Data Warehouse

View the University's IT website for additional information and a complete list of affected applications.  If you need to work on or access files from shared drives during the outage period, we suggest that you save them to your hard drive before the outage begins.

Rex Wheeler
IT Operations Manager

The University of Minnesota is celebrating the inauguration of Eric W. Kaler during the week of September 19 and Extension will be featured in two of the week's events: the St. Paul campus tour on Monday, and the Urban Research and Outreach Center open house (see UROC article below) on Tuesday.

During the tour of the St. Paul campus, Extension will feature our work in turfgrass as an example of Extension research and education that impacts the economy and the environment through industry and consumer audiences. Brian Horgan, associate professor, Extension turfgrass specialist  and horticulture program leader, and Bob Mugaas, Extension professor in horticulture, will lead President Kaler and Dean Bev Durgan through a tour of the Turfgrass Research, Outreach and Education (TROE) Center. TROE is a living laboratory on the St. Paul campus where researchers discover how to grow better grasses in our harsh climate, manage water use, and reduce the runoff of pesticides and herbicides.

Also during the St. Paul campus tour, President Kaler will see another example of Extension research and education as the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS) features the Bee Lab. Marla Spivak, Extension entomologist, CFANS professor and 2011 MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant" winner, will give a tour of the only bee research, outreach, and teaching program in the Upper Midwest.

Watch Extension's Facebook page for photos of the events.

Aimee Viniard-Weideman
Assistant Dean and Communications Director

In addition to the many marketing and communications templates available to Extension staff on the Extension intranet, we've recently created basic Word templates and several poster templates to support your marketing communications efforts. 

The basic Word templates are 8 ½" x 11", black-and-white documents intended for simple, primarily internal documents such as project reports, meeting agendas, planning documents and other informal correspondence.

The large-format poster templates are available as PPT and Publisher documents and can be customized with your content and photos. On the download page you will find tips for creating great posters, print and production specifications, and video demonstrations on how to use the templates. The page also provides a link to the Extension image gallery where you can download photos for your poster that can be scaled to a larger size without compromising the quality of the photo.

As we continue to create and roll out tools and resources that support Extension marketing and communications, we encourage and welcome your feedback.  Please share your questions and comments with your center communications manager or send to epromo@umn.edu.

Sarah Bjorkman
Employee Communications Manager

Have you seen the photos from Maroon and Gold Day at the State Fair--including new University President Eric Kaler discovering the wonders of Minnesota 4-H? You can take a look by connecting with Extension when you "Like" us on Facebook!

Social networks like Facebook and Twitter allow Extension to communicate and share updates and timely content with our most important stakeholders. And first and foremost, that means you--Extension's faculty and staff.

When you connect with Extension on Facebook, you can keep track of select news, read interesting stories, and join in conversations about issues that matter to Minnesotans. We also encourage you to share Extension's content within your social networks, and post photos, videos or comments on Extension's Facebook wall.

Julie Christensen
Public Relations and News Media Manager

Extension's line of clothing items has been updated to include the new Extension wordmark and new clothing options.  Extension partners with University Bookstores to offer nine basic clothing items year-round, including short-sleeve polos, long-sleeve dress shirts and a t-shirt. All items are available in women's and men's sizes for a better fit, and the Bookstores provide a convenient exchange system to be sure you get the right size.

Embroidered with the Extension wordmark, these items will help make Extension visible at your events and meetings.  We encourage you to wear the clothing items anywhere you are representing Extension.

Visit the clothing section of the Extension intranet to view a photo and description of each item and to place your order.

Sarah Bjorkman
Employee Communications Manager

We are more than halfway through the Minnesota State Fair and fairgoers have once again had many opportunities to experience the University and Extension.  Extension's presence at the State Fair represents the many ways we connect with our audiences, from the traditional face-to-face demonstrations to the use of technology to reach people from a distance.

A few Extension highlights of the fair include:

4-H

• The 4-H building includes more than 6,000 4-H exhibits and performing arts shows that showcase the knowledge and skills 4-H'ers have acquired throughout the year.  See the 4-H website for daily highlights from the State Fair.
• Social media enthusiasts can join the conversation about 4-H at the Minnesota State Fair on Twitter. Follow Minnesota 4-H on Twitter and use "@MN4H" in tweets commenting on 4-H exhibits, workshops and demonstrations (large Twitter wall screens are on display in the 4-H building and the cattle barn).
• About 2,200 "blue ribbon" kids exhibit livestock in the animal barns. Competition results are delivered on the 4-H State Fair Results website, where visitors can stay informed and connected through their handheld devices.

Master Gardeners

• Master Gardener volunteers are available in the Agriculture Horticulture building to answer gardening questions every day from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
• Visitors can also watch Master Gardeners present gardening education throughout the day on the Agriculture Horticulture Building stage, The Dirt.

Aimee Viniard-Weideman
Assistant Dean, Communications

As part of the Celebrate U! employee appreciation event that took place on the Twin Cities campus on August 24, University faculty and staff were offered an insulated lunch bag as an appreciation gift.  Extension Human Resources will be mailing the Celebrate U! gift to all of our off-campus employees who were unable to attend within the next few weeks. Note that Twin Cities-based staff members who were unable to attend the event should review the Celebrate U! website for instructions about the gift.  Our supply is for non-Twin Cities-based staff.

Leslee Mason
Human Resources Director

The following Extension faculty and staff have announced their retirement through the University's retirement incentive option (RIO.) Based on the requirement of accepting RIO, all staff must retire by January 2012. Individual retirement announcements and celebrations are being planned by work teams and supervisors and will be announced in Extension enews and email. Please join me in thanking these employees for the many contributions they have made to Extension and Minnesota.

Rose Allen, Educator, Family Development
Shirley Anderson-Porisch, Educator, Family Development
Melvin Baughman, Program Leader, EFANS     
Ray Bisek, Educator, EFANS
Cindy Bigger, Educator, Community Vitality
Neil Broadwater, Educator, EFANS
James Carlson, Regional Director, Brainerd
Rita Colchin, Community Nutrition Educator
Shirley Doering, Educator, 4-H Youth Development
Tim Dolan, Educator, Community Vitality and EFANS
Mary Duncomb, Educator, 4-H Youth Development
Kendall Dykhuis, Educator, EFANS
Nancy Frosaker-Johnson, Regional Director, Moorhead
Donna Geiser, Educator, 4-H Youth Development
Colleen Gengler, Educator, Family Development
Jan Gilman, Educator, Family Development
Elaine Greenfield, Administrative Assistant, IT
Kent Gustafson, Educator, Community Vitality
Jayne Hager Dee, Regional Director, Farmington
Cheryl Hays, Organizational Training Unit Coordinator
Susan Hooper, Educator, Family Development
Robert Hursch, Information Technology Specialist
James Kurtz, Educator, EFANS
Karen Lilley, Web Manager
Jim Linn, Extension Specialist, Animal Science
Pat Morreim, Regional Director, Andover
Robert Mugaas, Educator, EFANS
David Nelson, Educator, Community Vitality
Bob Olen, Educator, EFANS
Kathleen Olson, Educator, Family Development
Phyllis Onstad, Educator, Family Development
Barbara Piehl, Educator, 4-H Youth Development
Lee Raeth, Director of Field Operations
Willa Reed, Administrative Specialist, Dean's Office
June Rhoads, Administrative Specialist, RDU
Bobbie Roberts, Administrative Assistant, Human Resources
Dorothy Rosemeier, Exec Director, WC Sustainable Dev Partnership
Harlan Rosenthal, Educator, 4-H Youth Development
Byron Schneider, Associate Professor, Youth Development
Wayne Seidel, Educator, EFANS
Russell Severson, Educator, EFANS
Carol Skelly, Community Program Associate, 4-H Youth Development
Joan Sigmundik, Administrative Specialist, Community Vitality
Jaclyn Smith, Master Gardener Coordinator
Toni Smith, Outreach Director, Field Operations
Barbara Sorenson, Educator, Community Vitality
Minnell Tralle, Educator, Family Development
Joyce Walker, Assistant Director, Youth Development

Bev Durgan
Dean

The search for the new Extension associate dean for youth development is underway. Earlier this summer, I appointed a search committee: Jon Brekke, 4-H Foundation Board; Tamie Bremseth, 4-H program leader; Pat Morreim, regional director; Deb Moore, associate director Youth Work Institute;  Pat Jirik, 4-H educator; Ann Nordby, web manager; Eli Sagor, natural resources educator; and chair, Karen Shirer, associate dean for family development.

The search committee has completed work on the position description which is now posted online. Please take a minute to read the description and encourage qualified applicants to apply online. The committee will begin reviewing applications this fall and our plan is to have a new associate dean in place by January 2012. In the meantime, I will continue to meet with the Extension Youth Development leadership team to ensure a smooth transition during this time of change.

Bev Durgan
Dean

Did you know you could make a free phone call from Gmail?  There are a couple of ways to do this:

1. In Gmail under the Chat area, click on the Call Phone link to open the dialer to enter a phone number.
2. Click on any phone number link in an email message to dial the number.

If you connect to a public or private Internet that may block this traffic; you can first connect to the University's VPN to get around those settings.  Please use common courtesy for people around you when placing these calls, because without a headset it will be like speaking into a speakerphone.

Currently these calls are offered for free through Google Chat, but we will send out a notification if this policy changes.  Google often makes changes before we are notified so be attentive if they try to sell you a service or charge you a fee.

Karen Matthes
Organizational Training Director

NetFiles will not be available from 8 a.m. on Saturday, August 27 through 3 p.m. Sunday, August 28 in order to complete a scheduled upgrade. This upgrade will include new features to allow for easier file sharing, easier upload process and the ability to upload multiple files or entire folders.

Some users create a "ticket" in order to share documents in NetFiles. This ticket creates a URL/link providing people access to a file or folder stored in NetFiles. Password-protected tickets will not work after the upgrade and will need to be recreated (which is easier with the new share feature).

Visit the NetFiles website for more information, or view an introductory video.  Questions or comments should be directed to University Technology Help at (612) 301-4357 (1-HELP on campus), or netfiles@umn.edu.

Billie Wilson
Information Technology Supervisor

Whether you're a hardcore gardening enthusiast or curious about the latest challenges facing Minnesota gardeners this summer, you'll want to check out Minnesota Public Radio's Midmorning show on Friday, August 12. During the 10 a.m. segment, Julie Weisenhorn, state director for the Extension Master Gardener program, and host Marianne Combs will talk about the latest in Minnesota gardening news, seasonal trends, and resources and take caller questions. MPR reaches 900,000 listeners each week, and many of its audio archives, such as Julie's Midmorning segment from April 15, 2011, remain available online and via podcast subscription.

If you have an idea on how you or your program team can address a newsworthy topic to reach the public via the news media, contact Julie Christensen or Catherine Dehdashti.

Julie Christensen
Public Relations and News Media Manager

Check out the summer issue of the Extension retiree newsletter.  In addition to news about our retirees, this issue highlights a survey of Extension retirees and media moments such as Extension's efforts to help Minnesotans make informed decisions about the late spring planting situation. The retiree newsletter is distributed three times a year in summer/fall, winter and spring.  If you have ideas for articles of interest to retirees, please send them to Gwen Gmeinder.

Gwen Gmeinder
Government Relations Associate

Nominations for the Minnesota Association of Extension Educators (MAEE) awards are due August 12.  All Extension employees are eligible to nominate a colleague for an award in the areas of innovation and technology, effective leadership, scholarship, and teamwork; self-nomination is also encouraged.

Award winners will be honored at the MAEE awards banquet at Extension's Program Conference in October.  Details and nomination forms are available on the MAEE awards website.  For questions and additional information contact Carrie Olson, 320-589-1711 or olson166@umn.edu.

Cindy M. Petersen
MAEE Awards/Public Relations Committee

In the next couple weeks, Extension will begin its annual cycle for academic promotion.  This year, in addition to the promotion process for campus and regionally-based educators with academic rank, we are pleased to introduce a promotion process for educators without academic rank. All eligible employees will be receiving a communication from Extension Human Resources with information and links to timelines, guidelines and resources. 

As an organization, promotion processes are indicative of the academic nature of our work and provide a reflection of our professional credibility.  Extension is proud to offer its educators these promotion opportunities. 

Mike Schmitt
Senior Associate Dean

For program teams interested in adding a blog to their online presence, a new blog resource section has been created on the Extension intranet. Blogs are a great way to provide news and commentary to a website in an interactive way.  Extension's blog resources feature blog basics, guidelines, policies and a blog request form. A set of blog templates have also been created that align with Extension's identity and are consistent with the Extension website look and feel, seamlessly integrating blogs with web content.

To discuss more about blogging, or to find out if creating a blog is right for your program, contact your center communications manager (Joyce Hoelting, Community Vitality; Heather Lee, Family Development; Rebecca Noran, Food, Agriculture and Natural Resource Sciences; Wendy Huckaby, Youth Development).

Danny Sussman
Extension Webmaster

Extension has honored 75 families, one from each participating county, with the 2011 University of Minnesota Farm Family of the Year Award. The award recognizes the families' contributions to agriculture and their local communities.  The awards will be presented at the annual Farmfest at the Gilfillan Estate near Redwood Falls on August 4. An Extension news release provides the names of all, and highlights the businesses of some, recognized families. Profiles of all the families can be found at on the University's farm family website.

Julie Christensen
News Media and Public Relations Manager

Last year, Microsoft Office 2010 was released and includes improved security and new collaboration and graphic editing features. Extension IT will gradually upgrade Extension software to Office 2010 by installing it on all new computers as the Office product.  If you are currently using Office 2007, you will find the same user features in Office 2010 and training is not necessary. Office 2007 documents are fully compatible in Office 2010.

For staff who are not scheduled to get a new computer anytime soon but would like to have Office 2010 installed, call the help desk at (612)624-6700 to schedule an installation. Visit the Office 2010 website for detailed information about the product.

Billie Wilson
Information Technology Supervisor

With more people working outside office walls or from a distance, there is an increased need to share documents between multiple sites.  The University offers Netfiles, an online file storage tool, as a secure way to share files with staff and colleagues.  Other file sharing services such as Dropbox.com and similar services are also free and easy to use; however, some of these tools are not secure and do not have approval from the University's Office of the General Counsel for files created for University business. 

Visit the Extension intranet for more information about how to access and use Netfiles. For more information about file sharing, call the IT help desk (612)624-6700.

Billie Wilson
Information Technology Supervisor

The IRS announced changes in the standard business mileage rates for the remaining 2011 calendar year.  Beginning July 1, the standard business mileage reimbursement rate for personal vehicle use on approved University business increased from 51 to 55.5 cents per mile. The standard mileage rate for moving expenses increased from 19 to 23.5 cents per mile. Business mileage incurred from January 1 to June 30, 2011, but reimbursed after July 1, will be reimbursed using the rates for that time period. The Employee Expense Worksheet (UM 1612) & travel policy have been updated to reflect these rate changes.        

Visit the Finance and Planning section of the Extension intranet for more information about University expense and travel reimbursement.      

Madonna Monette
Finance Director

Extension now has a mobile view of the Extension website for people accessing the website with an Android or iOS mobile device.  Viewers will automatically view a mobile friendly version that fits in the smaller dimensions of the mobile device screen.  The mobile view simplifies the user browsing experience and eliminates the hassle of horizontal scrolling or zooming. 

Check out some of the Extension website pages and sections that are currently mobile including the Extension homepage,  news site, extreme weather site and Master Gardener section of the website.

This is one more step toward our goal of ensuring that regardless of how they access the web, all Extension audiences find one comprehensive, easy-to-use Extension website when they are searching for education, information and resources.  

Tom Stanoch
Web Designer

A new book entitled, "Voyageur Skies: Weather and Wilderness in Minnesota's National Park," chronicles the seasons in Voyageurs National Park through University of Minnesota Extension climatologist Mark Seeley's account of how weather and climate has shaped the park's pristine landscape. Retired Extension photographer Don Breneman shows the many stunning facets of the park as they appear through his own lens.

How has the climate in Voyageurs National Park changed in recent years and what does this mean going forward? Climate change is already impacting Minnesota's water resources. While celebrating the spectacular beauty to be found in Minnesota's only national park, VOYAGEUR SKIES facilitates wider discussion and understanding of implications for the future if the quality of the state's resources is to be preserved.

As an introductory offer, Extension staff will be able to purchase signed copies (by both author and photographer) of "Voyageur Skies" for $29.99 each plus S/H and tax through the Extension Store.

Catherine Dehdashti
Public Relations Coordinator

The North Central Cooperative Extension Association (NCCEA) is hosting a series of webinars that are offered as a way to explore Cooperative Extension's role and program priorities for its work on metropolitan food system issues.  This webinar series is an expansion of a NCCEA symposium on metropolitan food systems that was held in May in Kansas City, MO.

The purpose of each webinar is to share key discussion points from the Kansas City meeting, and to engage participants in dialog that will develop a broad roadmap of critical priorities for Cooperative Extension programming associated with metropolitan food systems. For more information, view the NCR webinar series webpage.

Recognize and celebrate the achievements of your colleagues (or yourself) by nominating them for an award from the Minnesota Association of Extension Educators (MAEE).  Apply for one of the following awards: Innovation and Technology, Effective Leadership, Scholarship or MAEE & ESP Teamwork.  MAEE is a professional organization of Educators working in county, regional and state positions within Extension representing professional development, personnel policy and public awareness interests of its members.  Any current Extension employee can nominate a colleague but must fulfill eligibility requirements to receive an award.

Completed nomination forms are due August 12.  For a description of each award, eligibility details and information about how to submit a nomination, please visit the MAEE awards website.  Award winners will be honored at the MAEE awards banquet at the Extension program conference in October.  For questions or additional information contact Carrie Olson, 320-589-1711 or olson166@umn.edu. 

Cindy M. Petersen
MAEE Awards/Public Relations Committee

Are you looking for new, efficient ways to communicate with staff in your office, other offices or while you are travelling?  If you haven't already, give Google Chat a try.  Google Chat is an instant messaging tool that is available to all University staff through the Google Apps software suite. It enables you to collaborate and chat via text, audio and video in real-time with one or more University employees at a time on your computer. It is an excellent tool for short, relatively simple communications. In addition, Google Chat uses voice over internet protocol (VoIP), which allows users to call, video or text chat from anywhere in the world for free.  All you need is an internet connection.

Visit the Google Chat section of the Extension intranet for more information or call the IT Help Desk 612-624-6700.

Sarah Bjorkman
Employee Communications Manager

The University's Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships (RSDP) program is seeking faculty and staff within University of Minnesota to provide expertise for a federally-funded regional development plan for central Minnesota. The Central Minnesota Sustainable Development Plan (CMSDP) is a two-year project designed to kick-start central Minnesota's economy and sustainable housing and transportation. 

In partnership with Staples-based Region Five Development Commission, RSDP will tap experts from throughout the University in such areas of transportation, housing and land use, while relying on the guidance and input of residents of Cass, Crow Wing, Morrison, Todd and Wadena counties. For details on faculty and staff opportunities, contact project coordinator Jean Coleman at colem470@umn.edu or (612) 588-4904.

Kathryn Draeger
Statewide Director, University Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships program

Important due dates for submitting financial transactions for Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 must be followed to help minimize last-minute problems. Respecting these deadlines will provide adequate time for appropriate review, approval and processing of transactions, and will reduce the risk of improperly posted documents due to system delays, unavailable approvers, unforeseeable errors or other problems.

FY2011 deadlines:

• June 15 - Requisitions and PO Vouchers (any invoice that is matched to a PO)
• June 22 - Non-PO Vouchers (Single payment requests including expense/travel reimbursement. Reminder: University policy states that all expense and travel reimbursements should be submitted within 15 days of the scheduled trip return.)
• June 24 - A/R Billing (customer maintenance requests) - establish customers
• June 29, noon - A/R Billing (customer profile exists) - create invoices
• June 30, noon - Purchasing Card (PCARD) reconciliation & deposits

Additional deadlines have been sent to all Extension staff who routinely prepare financial documents for accounting transactions. For questions regarding these deadlines, contact your accounting representative or Extension Finance and Planning.

Madonna Monette
Finance Director

In June and July, Extension IT is offering half-day Google Apps training workshops in several locations throughout the state. The workshop will focus on Google Docs and Google Sites and is designed for people who prefer a hands-on lab learning experience. For a complete description, dates, locations and registration information, visit the Information Technology Training Calendar on the Extension intranet. For additional information, contact Karen Matthes or your Regional Office support staff.

Karen Matthes
Organizational Training Director

Recovery after Disaster: the Family Financial Toolkit is a comprehensive online resource that will help families that have been affected by a disaster answer questions like: "Where do I start?"  "How am I doing financially?" "Where will I live?" Developed by University of Minnesota Extension in partnership with North Dakota State University Extension Service and Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota, the toolkit is based on methods that worked for families who experienced floods in Rushford (2007) and the Red River Valley (2009). The toolkit discusses strategies and provides tools that can help families move along the road to financial recovery.

A national webinar is taking place for Extension staff on June 7, 1-2:30 p.m., to review the toolkit and other resources available through national Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN).  For more information and to join the webinar, visit the Family Financial Toolkit website.

Karen Shirer
Associate Dean, Center for Family Development

Several new Extension center-specific marketing resources have been added to the print and electronic  downloads and templates available on the Extension intranet. The new templates and resources include: flyers, brochures, postcards, multi-page Word documents, bookmarks and more. 

All the materials were developed in Word or PowerPoint and incorporate Extension's visual identity, wordmark and required statements, so they are easy to use while offering consistent, professionally designed materials across all Extension centers and programs. New materials include several items specific to 4-H and the Center for Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences. Additional templates will continue to be added as we work with each of the centers to address their program marketing needs.   Extension staff should use these templates whenever producing marketing materials in-house.  Instructional resources are available on the intranet to assist you in using these Word and PowerPoint templates.   Live and online training sessions are also being scheduled to provide staff more in-depth learning opportunities. 

Because photos are such an important part of our communications and marketing materials, we have also created an online image gallery of professional photographs that all staff can use when creating marketing materials for Extension.  In addition to photos representing the work of Extension, you can also find individual staff photos on the photo image gallery. 

As we continue to create and roll out tools and resources that support Extension marketing and communications, we encourage and welcome your feedback.  Please share your questions and comments with Aimee Viniard-Weideman or  Sarah Bjorkman.

Aimee Viniard-Weideman
Assistant Dean, Communications and Public Relations

The National Urban Extension Conference was held in Des Moines earlier this month.  More than 300 attendees, including 15 from Minnesota, experienced an excellent staff and professional development program.  While the conference was labeled as "Urban Extension" in its marketing, it was more of a blueprint for "Extension of the Future." 

Sessions focused on issues such as food systems, human health, financial literacy, and the environment.  Other sessions centered on the role of technology in teaching and learning, public engagement, communications, accountability, and best teaching practices.  Keynoters addressed diversity, poverty, cultural awareness, societal trends and generational learning.  While these topics may be perceived as being associated with "urban" audiences, all of these issues are applicable for Extension in Minnesota whether you are in the Twin Cities or in greater Minnesota.

Several University of Minnesota Extension faculty presented at sessions or accompanied posters.  They included Dorothy Freeman (who presented a keynote), Toni Smith, Claudia Cody, Jennifer Skuza (who is also University of Minnesota's Extension representative on the planning committee), Abby Gold, Maki Kawase, Karen Jeannette, Margo Herman, Shelley Sherman, Nancy Hegland, and Joyce Strand. 

Mike Schmitt
Senior Associate Dean

A cold, rainy spring has meant delayed crop planting for Minnesota farmers. It has also meant more chances to reinforce Extension's reputation as a source for credible, research-based information.

Several Extension faculty and educators have been busy with state, regional and local media covering this topic. Liz Stahl and Russ Severson, explained the late-planting situation to a broad audience on MPR's Morning Edition, and David Nicolai helped WCCO-TV present accurate information to metro viewers. Seth Naeve, Jeff Coulter and Nicolai reached farmers with related research-based information for decision-making via Ag News Wire columns, which are distributed to hundreds of local and ag news sources. These columns appeared, for example, in Minnesota Ag Connection and Tri-State Neighbor. Local educators such as Jodi DeJong-Hughes and Dan Martens (and several others) gave interviews to ag and local newspapers and radio stations.

Extension Communications and Public Relations appreciates the participation of those who enthusiastically fulfill the media requests we bring to them and who help us proactively pitch them as experts to the news media. If you have an idea on how you or your program team can address a newsworthy topic to reach audiences via the news media, contact Julie Christensen, public relations and news media manager, or Catherine Dehdashti, public relations coordinator.

Catherine Dehdashti
Public Relations Coordinator

Renee Pardello
Assistant Dean,
Center for Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences

In February, the University approved RIO, an opportunity for voluntary retirement for eligible employees.  In April, Extension also received approval to offer VERA to coincide with RIO.  In order to take advantage of both programs, eligible employees must submit their intent to retire by May 15.

For more information about RIO, visit the University RIO website. You can read Extension-specific FAQs about RIO on the Extension intranet. 

If you have additional questions about RIO, contact the Benefits Service Team at 612-624-9090 or 800-756-2363, option 2 or send an email to benefits@umn.edu.  For questions about VERA, contact Leslee Mason, human resources director, or Kathy Murphy, federal benefits counselor.

Leslee Mason
Human Resources Director

In May and June, Extension IT is offering a half-day Google Apps training workshop in several locations throughout the state. The workshop will focus on Google Docs and Google Sites and is designed for people who prefer a hands-on lab learning experience. For a complete description, dates, locations and registration information, visit the Information Technology Training Calendar on the Extension intranet. For additional information, contact Karen Matthes or your Regional Office support staff.

Karen Matthes
Organizational Training Director

Whether you need to learn Excel Pivot Tables, upload a presentation in Adobe Connect or use the TurningPoint clicker technology, there are several online training videos and workshops available to you anytime. Links to these applications and more can be found on the Extension IT Training Resources section on the Extension intranet.

Karen Matthes
Organizational Training Director

All University professional and academic staff are required to complete a REPA form annually, whether or not you have any outside consulting to report.  If you have not yet filed a REPA, the final deadline for filing is April 22. 

You can complete and submit your form through the REPA website.  Please review the REPA information page on the Extension intranet to determine exactly where to route the form for review and approval within Extension.  If you route the form to the wrong person it will need to be rerouted, causing a delay in processing.

For policy questions or other assistance, please contact Leslee Mason, Extension Human Resources.

Leslee Mason
Human Resources Director

Tourism is a key economic sector in Minnesota, the United States, and the world.  The University of Minnesota Extension's Tourism Center is celebrating National Tourism Week with a poster session on Tuesday, May 10, 10:30 a.m. - noon at the St. Paul Student Center, Minnesota Commons Room. All Extension staff are invited to attend.  You'll meet University personnel involved with tourism research and education. They'll present their work and discuss the tourism industry, which generates $950 billion in the world and $9.2 billion annually in Minnesota.  All who attend will receive a Mall of America Super Savings Coupon Book ($9.95 retail value) and Nickelodeon Universe Mystery Ride ticket ($6.00 minimum value; both are available while supplies last). Further, you can enter to win prizes including a Mall of America Fun package valued at $400!

Joyce Hoelting
Assistant Director, Extension Center for Community Vitality

Earlier this week, Dean Durgan sent an email to all Extension staff about the University's Retirement Incentive Option (RIO) with a link to University resources and Extension-specific FAQs.  The Extension FAQs have recently been updated with information about the RIO Agreement form and the Federal Voluntary Early Retirement Authority (VERA).  These FAQs will continue to be updated as more information is available, so be sure to use them as a resource when making decisions about RIO.

RIO is an opportunity for voluntary retirement for eligible employees.  Faculty, P&A, Civil Service, Represented Bargaining Unit, and Federal employees may enroll in RIO beginning February 15 through May 15, 2011. For more information about RIO, and to determine if you are eligible, visit the University RIO website.

Leslee Mason
Human Resources Director

Extension has received approval to offer the Federal Voluntary Early Retirement Authority (VERA) to coincide with the current University Retirement Incentive Option (RIO).  In order to take advantage of both programs, eligible employees must submit their intent to retire by May 15.  Those eligible for VERA will soon receive an email containing all of the necessary information and forms.  For questions contact Leslee Mason, human resources director, or Kathy Murphy, federal benefits counselor.

Leslee Mason
Human Resources Director

As the Red River Valley prepares for a crest this weekend, Extension is moving its coordinated system from flood preparation into recovery. Extension's role is to provide research-based educational resources to assist Minnesotans in preparing for and recovering from the flood. Read the Dean's article from the March 3 issue of enews for a detailed explanation of Extension's role.

Staff can access the most up-to-date information by visiting Extension's flood website, or by calling Extension's toll-free phone services - Flood (a.k.a. Farm) Information Line (1-800-232-9077) and AnswerLine (1-800-854-1678).

Extension's flood response is coordinated by Minnesota's Extension Disaster Education Network (MN-EDEN) team to ensure consistency across the state.  MN-EDEN will evaluate needs and ensure non-duplication of efforts within Extension or with other agencies. Contact Bob Byrnes, with your program ideas and questions about Extension's flood response.

Bob Byrnes
MN-EDEN response coordinator

In recent months, Extension staff have experienced sporadic issues with attaching files in Gmail from network locations (i.e. Active Directory shared drives) in both Chrome and Internet Explorer (IE).  Google is aware of this issue and they are working to resolve it.  Until Google creates a universal solution to this issue, Extension IT has identified some interim solutions that you can try:

1. Use a different internet browser; if it doesn't work in Chrome try Internet Explorer or FireFox.
2. Drag and drop attachments.
3. Save the file to the desktop and add them through the "Attach a file" link in the email.

Billie Wilson
Information Technology Supervisor

All University professional and academic staff are required to complete a REPA form annually, whether or not you have any outside consulting to report.  The filing process was halted in February and March due to issues with the filing software, but all issues have been resolved.  If you have already filed a report on or after February 28, you do not need to file another REPA at this time.  If you have not yet filed a REPA, the final deadline for filing is April 22.

You can complete and submit your form through the REPA website.  Please review the REPA information page on the Extension intranet to determine exactly where to route the form for review and approval within Extension.  If you route the form to the wrong person it will need to be rerouted, causing a delay in processing.

All individuals filing a REPA must also complete the conflict of interest training.  The training module should be completed no later than April 15.

For policy questions or other assistance, please contact Leslee Mason, Extension Human Resources. You may also contact the Office of Institutional Compliance, Conflict of Interest Program's REPA Helpline (612/626-1462) or at repamail@umn.edu.  Technical issues with the EGMS system should be directed to the EGMS Technical Helpline (612-624-1600) or repa@egms.umn.edu.

Leslee Mason
Human Resources Director

The University goes to great lengths to prevent unauthorized access to information such as your email and personal records, and for that reason, internet passwords (i.e., x.500 passwords) are set to expire one year after the password is set. Every year you will receive an email notification from the University requiring you to change your University Internet password.  When you receive the email, be sure to follow the instructions to update your password by the deadline indicated (usually within one week of receiving the notification).

As a reminder, the University will never ask for your user ID or password, and you should never reply to ANY email request asking for that information. Always go to the University account website to change your University password.  For questions, contact the IT helpline at 612-624-6700.

Billie Wilson
Information Technology Supervisor

Employees with a remaining balance in their health care and/or dependent care Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) for Plan Year 2010 must submit claims to Employee Benefits by March 31, 2011. Claims must arrive by campus mail or be postmarked by March 31. Qualifying Plan Year 2010 expenses are those incurred between January 1, 2010, and March 15, 2011. Pursuant to IRS regulations, any of these funds remaining in accounts after March 31 will be forfeited. To view your account balance, see Flexible Spending. For more information, call the Employee Benefits Service Center at 612-624-9090 or 1-800-756-2363, option 3.

Leslee Mason
Human Resources Director
(from U of M Brief, March 9)

Video: Supporting military youth through Operation: Military Kids

A video featuring Operation: Military Kids (OMK), which supports military youth in Minnesota in discovering positive ways to cope with deployment, is now available on Extension's YouTube channel. The video was created to pitch the timely program to the news media and to feature the program on the internet. YouTube makes it easy to share videos by email or on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites--just click the "Share" button below the video for options.

The topic of military families is newsworthy as approximately 2,500 troops from Minnesota are preparing to be deployed in the coming months. In addition, more than 15,000 youth have already been affected by the deployment of a parent or loved one.

If you have an idea on how you or your program team can address a newsworthy topic and engage viewers with Extension, contact Catherine Dehdashti.

Catherine Dehdashti
PR Coordinator/Writer

As communities across Minnesota prepare for unprecedented spring flooding, I want to keep you updated on Extension's role and resources in flood education and our plans for coordinating a system-wide response.  Extension's role is to provide research-based educational resources to assist Minnesotans in preparing for and recovering from the flood. Staff can access the most up-to-date information by visiting Extension's flood website, www.extension.umn.edu/Flood, or calling Extension's toll-free phone services - Flood (aka Farm) Information Line (1-800-232-9077) and AnswerLine (1-800-854-1678).

During the spring flood season, Extension's flood response will be coordinated by Minnesota's Extension Disaster Education Network (MN-EDEN) team to ensure consistency across the state.  MN-EDEN will evaluate  pre- and post-flood needs and ensure non-duplication of efforts within Extension or with other agencies. Bob Byrnes is the MN-EDEN response coordinator and is charged with ensuring that our efforts are not only coordinated within Extension, but also with our many partners across the state. Contact Bob Byrnes with your program ideas for Extension's flood response.

During times of crisis in our communities, we must remember that Extension's role is education. Extension is not the community disaster coordinator, first-responder or social service agency. However, our relevant information and recommendations about preparing for and recovering from floods supports the work of many partnering agencies.

If you personally choose to participate in community service activities (e.g. sandbagging, patrolling), please be sure to follow normal procedures for requesting personal leave/day(s) from your supervisor.

Bev Durgan
Dean

In the Feb 17 issue of enews, I announced that the draft of the Blue Ribbon Listening Sessions Report was available on the intranet for employees to review. In addition, I invited employees to share ideas through an online form. February 28 was the deadline for responding and I want to thank those who replied. The final Blue Ribbon Listening Sessions report with the addendum of additional comments is now available on the intranet.

Extension's executive committee will be using the information gathered during this process to inform the next phase of Extension's strategic planning, including a work session with the Extension Leadership Council in April.

Bev Durgan
Dean

If you have visited the Extension intranet in the last week, you may have already noticed its new design.  If you haven't yet had a chance, I encourage you to do so soon. Enter through any one of the "Extension Units" on the right side of the homepage and you will see several prominent changes to the site:  an updated banner and footer apply Extension's new identity elements; a wider page format helps readers scan and read content much easier; and the new format provides the ability to navigate between intranet sections regardless of where you are on the site.  All of these improvements make it easier for Extension staff to find the information you need, when you need it.

We will continue to update and organize content and make additional improvements to the site based on your needs and feedback.  Please send comments or questions about the intranet to Sarah Bjorkman, bjor0180@umn.edu.

Aimee Viniard-Weideman
Assistant Dean, Communications and Public Relations

Extension centrally maintains staff email lists (formerly known as "Addressbooks") that allow Extension staff to communicate with various segments of the Extension community.  These lists have recently been reviewed and updated to make them more reliable and applicable to our internal structure.   A Staff Email List resource page has been created on the intranet that provides more information including a feature to view members on each list.

To access the latest revisions of the Extension staff email lists, you can click on individual addresses on the intranet resource page, or you can upload all of the lists into your Gmail account.  When Extension migrated to Gmail in November, 2010, you were instructed to to upload the old staff email lists into your Gmail account.  In order for all of the recent revisions to take effect, you'll need to delete the old email lists and upload the revised versions.  Instructions to update your staff email lists are on the IT section of the intranet.  Contact Sarah Bjorkman, bjor0180@umn.edu with questions.

Sarah Bjorkman
Employee Communications Manager

Due to a storm that occurred on February 21, the Retirement Incentive Option (RIO) informational session has been rescheduled for Friday, March 4, 10-11 a.m., in the Coffman Memorial Union Theater. If you are unable to attend in person, this session will be broadcast through UMConnect. For more information or to check system requirements for participating online, visit the University Human Resources website. A recorded version of the RIO presentation will be posted on the site through May 15.

More information about RIO is available on the Retirement Incentive Option website. If you have additional questions, contact the Benefits Service Team at 612-624-9090 or 800-756-2363, option 2 or send an email to benefits@umn.edu.

U of M Office of Human Resources

You are invited to nominate outstanding colleagues for the 2010-2011 Extension Dean's distinguished awards for civil service and bargaining unit staff. The award categories are: distinguished campus and field support staff, program staff and community nutrition educator.

The deadline for nominations is Monday, April 4. Guidelines and more information on how to nominate are available on the Dean's section of the Extension intranet. For questions, contact Shelly Tschida.

Bev Durgan
Dean

The Board of Regents approved the Retirement Incentive Option (RIO) at its meeting on February 11. RIO is an opportunity for voluntary retirement for eligible employees. Retirement Incentive Option (RIO) will provide a lump-sum contribution to the State of Minnesota Health Care Savings Plan (HCSP), following the last day of employment. The amount of the contribution will be roughly equivalent to 24 months (52 pay periods) of University subsidy, depending upon the employee's UPlan coverage level, permanent residence, and work location as of the last day of employment.

Eligible employees may enroll in the program beginning February 15 through May 15, 2011. Three informational RIO seminars will be held on the Twin Cities campus on February 21 and 22. The sessions will also be broadcast through UMConnect for those who are unable to attend in person.  Visit the University Human Resources events website for session details. Additional information about RIO is available on the HCSP website and on the University Human Resources website.

If you have questions, contact the Employee Benefits Service Center at (612)624-9090 or (800)756-2363, option 2 or send an email to benefits@umn.edu.

Leslee Mason
Human Resources Director

Extension employees are encouraged to take five minutes to complete an online survey about climate change in Minnesota by Friday, February 18.  The survey is conducted by Extension's Climate Initiative team and will allow them to assess perspectives and educational needs in order to refine Extension's work on climate change.

Employees in the Extension Center for Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (EFANS) took the survey earlier this year and do not need to take it again.

Thank you for taking a few minutes to complete the survey. The results and comparisons will be shared in a future issue of enews.

Bev Durgan
Dean

Extension Tech Tutoring provides Extension employees an opportunity to learn specific software skills or concepts on an individual basis. Examples of tutoring sessions include: adding narration to a PowerPoint presentation; sharing documents through NetFiles; creating electronic forms; and many other skill building opportunities.

Tutoring sessions can take place from a remote location through UMConnect, or if you are on campus, we can meet in person. Check the Extension Tech Tutoring section on the Extension intranet for a list of applications we are able to assist you with. Contact Karen Matthes or Chery Hays Day to schedule an appointment for 30-60 minutes.

Karen Matthes
Organizational Training Director

The Extension Center for Youth Development will hold a free public symposium, Exploring the impact of deployment on military youth and families: Recent research findings, withAngela J. Huebner, associate professor in Human Development at Virginia Tech. Huebner will present findings from several studies of both adolescents and parents and their experience of parental/spousal deployment since September 11, 2001 (9/11).

The event will be held on Wednesday, February 23, 10 a.m.-12 p.m., McNamara Alumni Center, Minneapolis campus.  For more details, and to register online, visit the Extension Youth Development website.

Wendy Huckaby
Communications Manager, Youth Development

One of the programming priorities of Extension's federal USDA stakeholder, the National Institute on Food and Agriculture (NIFA), is climate change. In Minnesota, we are looking at opportunities to expand our programming and grants in support for this important and complex issue that cuts across many program areas in Extension.

In an effort to assess the perspectives and educational needs, Extension's Climate Initiative team is asking for a few minutes of your time to help us refine Extension's work on climate change. Please take five minutes to complete an online survey by February 18. The survey will allow the team to compare Extension responses with other agency staff and with the general public.

Similar questions were asked of a representative population of Minnesotans this fall through the MN Center for Survey Research, and in internal surveys conducted by the MN Department of Natural Resources and the MN Department of Health. Employees in the Extension Center for Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (EFANS) also took the survey earlier this year and do not need to take it again.

Thank you for taking a few minutes to complete the survey. The results and comparisons will be shared in a future enews article.

Bev Durgan

Effective January 1, the Extension Nutrition Education Assistant (NEA) title has changed to Community Nutrition Educator (CNE). CNEs provide direct delivery of the Extension Simply Good Eating program and the new title more accurately reflects their work in community nutrition education and parallels other similar paraprofessional positions. "Assistant" has frequently caused confusion with partners and participants. While CNEs are supervised by Extension educators and program coordinators, a CNE receives training, uses research-based curricula and establishes program sites and relationships with partners. This name change does not change the great work CNEs are doing across Minnesota.

Sue Letourneau
Health and Nutrition

Before you take vacation, be sure to double check your vacation balance on the University's Employee Self Service website. As a faculty or professional and administrative (P&A) employee you earn vacation at a rate of 6.76 hours per pay period. While this measure amounts to 22 days/year, it is accrued on a biweekly basis and you need to ensure that your current vacation balance is equivalent to, or more than your vacation request. Additional information regarding vacation for faculty and P&A employees can be found on the HR section of the Extension intranet. For questions, contact Deb Page.

Deb Page
Assistant Director, Human Resources

Extension staff who use the U of M Secure wireless network will need to make a slight configuration change to continue connecting to the network.  This applies to Extension staff on the Twin Cities campuses and regional offices.  Users who use the U of M Secure wireless network must change their computer configuration settings to "trust" the "AddTrust External CA Root" certificate authority. Alternatively, staff can use the regular U of M wireless network that requires authentication on your web browser only.

For help configuring your computer, see wireless setup guides, or call the Extension helpline at 612-624-6700.

Billie Wilson
Information Technology Supervisor

AFSCME's Annual "Day on the Hill" will take place on Tuesday, March 22.  This is an event where AFSCME members jointly visit the legislature in order 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.
For questions contact Extension HR.

Leslee Mason
Human Resources Director

Extension is offering various technology training webinars in February and March for UMConnect, Google Forms, Media Mill and Adobe Presenter. Sessions are free of charge and are available at a distance so you can participate from your office. The sessions will help build your technology-based skills and create efficiencies in your work. 

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

Check out the winter issue of the Extension retiree newsletter.  In addition to news about our retirees, this issue highlights Extension's online presence and winter media moments such as Extension's response to helping homeowners deal with ice dams. The retiree newsletter is distributed three times a year in summer/fall, winter and spring.  If you have ideas for articles of interest to retirees, please send them to Gwen Gmeinder.

Gwen Gmeinder
Government Relations Associate

The University Office of Human Resources will hold its Brown Bag Financial Series from noon to 1 p.m. on Wednesdays in February. Upcoming sessions include "Remaining Confident in a Volatile Market," Feb. 9; "A Perspective on Today's Economy," Feb. 16; and "Investment Perspectives Webinar," Feb. 23. The first two events will be held at 210 Donhowe and online through UMConnect. The third session will be a live webinar broadcast directly from the corporate offices of Vanguard Funds in Philadelphia. Registration is required for session #3. For registration and more information, or to participate online, see Brown Bag finance.

Several communications and marketing templates that include Extension's new identity elements are now available to download from the Extension intranet.  Downloads include: new PowerPoint templates, customizable Word documents and HTML email banners (an example is used in this newsletter). 

These are the first in a series of tools and resources that are being developed to support Extension staff in creating professional, consistent and easy-to-use communications and marketing pieces.  As part of the rollout, Extension Communications is also working with center associate deans and communications staff to create templates and resources that fulfill specific center needs. Stay tuned to the intranet and enews for more information.  In the meantime, you can begin to incorporate Extension's new identity into your marketing efforts by using the templates that are available now.

As we continue to implement tools and resources that incorporate Extension's new identity, we encourage and welcome feedback to ensure that we fulfill the greatest needs.  Please share your questions and comments with Aimee Viniard-Weideman, Sarah Bjorkman or your center communications staff.

Aimee Viniard-Weideman
Assistant Dean, Communications and Public Relations

The Effort Certification (ECRT) system has changed and the new system will be implemented on February 14.

A 20-minute tutorial and two job aids are available to assist Principle Investigators (PIs) and researchers with effort certification in the new ECRT system. Extension PIs and researchers are encouraged to review the tutorial before the February 14 rollout. 

Extension will also host an ECRT webinar to orient staff to the look of the new system; highlight features, procedures, and deadlines; and address questions.  The date and time of the ECRT webinar will be announced in early February.  The session will be recorded and available online for those who cannot attend and will be available as an ongoing resource. The tutorial is not required to gain access to ECRT, nor is it a prerequisite for future classes.

Dianne Sivald
Grants Manager
and
Madonna Monette
Finance Director

There are several key statements that must appear on Extension materials to indicate that we uphold federal and state civil rights laws and regulations, as well as University equal opportunity policies. To meet these requirements, Extension will be automatically including required statements on all print and electronic templates and downloads available through Extension Communications to make it easier for staff when creating communications and marketing materials. 

One of the required statements is the Disability Access Statement (ADA) which has recently been revised to ensure greater consistency in Extension's response to disability requests.  The statement includes policy language along with contact information of the person who will respond to disability requests.  Since the contact number is a small detail and is sometimes overlooked, we have included a default statement in all Extension templates and downloads that lists the Extension Store number. However, the best and preferred option is to replace the Extension Store number with the name and number of a contact in your office who will handle requests.

Regardless of what number is listed, all disability requests will need to be coordinated by the program team/office that is distributing the materials or holding the event. If the Extension Store receives the request, they will forward the request to the appropriate Extension contact(s).

For questions, contact your center communications manager or Sarah Bjorkman.

Sarah Bjorkman
Employee Communications Manager

University Vice Presidents Pfutzenreuter and Mulcahy have identified three key areas as targets for improving the University's Enterprise Financial System (EFS). One target is financial reporting enhancements.  (This refers to UMReports and is not related to the web reports accessed through the Extension finance website.) A Reporting Work Group has been established and charged to coordinate a series of listening sessions in which you will have the opportunity to share existing or new financial data and reporting requirements. We encourage all interested staff to participate in one of the scheduled sessions listed below (seating will be limited by room capacity):

• Monday, January 24, 3-5 p.m., 402 Walter Library (room capacity - 92)
• Thursday, January 27, 1-3 p.m., G 55 Peik Gym (room capacity - 94)
• Tuesday, February 1, 9-11 a.m., 355 Borlaug Hall, St. Paul (room capacity - 182)

A separate session is being set up for faculty on the Twin Cities campus in mid-February and an additional (non-travel) option is being developed for staff located outside of the Twin Cities. If you are unable to attend one of the listening sessions above and would like to participate, a survey will be made available beginning Thursday, January 20. Further communication regarding the additional sessions and survey will be sent out in the near future.
At the conclusion of the Listening Sessions, the reporting work group will work to prioritize the list of reporting issues/needs based on participant input. This final document will serve as the financial data and reporting requirements.

Madonna Monette
Finance Director

If you have concerns about how long is too long for a computer to be left out in the cold, follow this basic rule: if an opened bottle of water in your vehicle has formed ice or has frozen, then your laptop has been out in the cold too long. Once indoors, take the laptop out of the case and let it sit for 20 to 30 minutes to acclimate to room temperature before plugging it in and powering it up. This includes leaving it off the docking station.

Billie Wilson
Information Technology Supervisor

If you are looking for Extension news, check out the  redesigned Extension news media website  for easier access to news releases, links to Extension in the news, Ag News Wire, features, multimedia and more. The site offers RSS feeds and subscriptions, as well as links to Extension's YouTube channel, Twitter feed and sharing icons for social networking tools. Because URLs for news items changed when the items migrated to the new format there are a couple changes you should know about:

• Links to 2010 news items from program pages have been redirected.  Please check the links on your pages to be sure they go to the correct pages.
• If you had an RSS feed for Extension news, you'll want to visit the site to re-subscribe since the old feed has ended.

Please contact Catherine Dehdashti with any questions.

Catherine Dehdashti
PR Coordinator

Catherine Dehdashti
PR Coordinator

If you are a supervisor, now is the time to direct your staff members to complete their self evaluations for calendar year 2010. They should return the completed forms to you by January 24 so you can prepare and schedule annual performance evaluations from late January through February.  Completing a performance evaluation for each of your staff members is required by University employment contracts.

After conducting the performance evaluation, send the completed form to Extension Human Resources by March 31 for the personnel file. Find the correct performance evaluation form and instructions on the employee website. Contact Leslee Mason with additional questions.

Leslee Mason
Human Resources Director

The IRS announced changes in the standard business mileage rates for calendar year 2011.  Beginning January 1, the standard business mileage reimbursement rate for personal vehicle use on approved University business increases from 50 cents to 51 cents per mile.  The standard mileage rate for moving expenses increases from 16.5 to 19 cents per mile. Business mileage incurred in 2010, but reimbursed in 2011, should be reimbursed using the 2010 mileage rate.

Read more about the 2011 business mileage rate change on the employee website. Please contact Extension Finance and Planning staff for questions.

Madonna Monette
Finance Director

We are nearing the end of 2010, and if you haven't already, be sure to update your Extension publications and marketing materials with the new Extension wordmark.   University brand policy requires Extension (and all other University units) to transition to the new wordmark by the end of this month.  This does not include large quantities of items that still contain relevant content, or signs and other costly items that do not naturally need to be replaced at this time. The rollout of the new wordmark will continue to be made in a fiscally responsible manner by replacing more expensive items when their stock is depleted or when a new order is being placed.  All other Extension publications and marketing materials should be updated with the new wordmark, including stationery, name badges and social media icons.
The following resources have been created to assist you with updating your materials:

• Downloadable wordmark files and instructions on how to use the new wordmark.
  
• PowerPoint templates
  
• Social media guide that includes information on how to request a social media icon through Extension Communications
  
• Updated name badges
  
• Several versions of electronic letterhead (to be used for official electronic communications)
• Extension stationery, including business cards, letterhead, envelopes and mailing labels
  

Aimee Viniard-Weideman
Assistant Dean, Communications and Public Relations

• You can view another person's calendar or room or equipment resource calendars.
• If you want to invite guests to a meeting, just edit the event details and enter the person's name or email address.
• Need to schedule a meeting with several people? Use the find a time feature.
•  Create another calendar for yourself or for a work team or project and share it with the people in your workgroup. You can even share your additional calendar with people outside of the University.

Karen Matthes
Organizational Training Director

The deadline for receipt of application for a federal VERA (Voluntary Early Retirement Authority) is December 23, at 4:30 p.m., in the Extension Human Resources Office, 260 Coffey Hall, St. Paul.  Extension staff who meet the eligibility requirement for VERA were notified in August. 

Read more about Extension's VERA request in the August 15 issue of Extension enews. Questions should be directed to Kathy Murphy.

Kathy Murphy
Federal Benefits Administrator

All Extension educators, 4-H program directors, county 4-H program coordinators and regional directors must submit their 2011 professional plan of work to their supervisor by January 3. The submission templates are available on the employee website. Please contact your supervisor with questions.

Leslee Mason
Human Resources Director

Updates for your Adobe Presenter 7 software are not automatic. It is important that you regularly check for software updates which may improve usability, performance and security vulnerabilities. Instructions to check for Presenter 7 updates are on the IT section of the employee website.

Karen Matthes
Organizational Training Director

When the roof of the Metrodome collapsed on Sunday morning, the Vikings-Giants game moved from Minneapolis to Detroit.  Extension Community Economics Educator, David Nelson, and Extension Analyst, Brigid Tuck, had earlier written a research report  that calculated the economic impact of a previous game's move. David and Brigid agreed to be promoted in an Expert Alert the next day to let media know the University had people who could give unbiased insight to the news.

That afternoon, David and Brigid were interviewed by a host of major metro reporters. Within hours, stories appeared on Minnesota Public Radio, FOX-9, and in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, just to name a few.

Extension coordinates Expert Alerts with the News Service.  If you think you could be promoted to the media as an expert on a timely topic, contact Catherine Dehdashti.

Catherine Dehdashti
Communications and Public Relations

Dear Colleagues,

As part of our ongoing effort to ensure that Extension programs achieve a level of quality and professional standards expected of a land grant university, Extension tenure/tenure-track faculty and educators with academic rank participate in promotion processes that recognize their accomplishments in teaching, research and outreach. 

In addition to these promotion processes, Extension will introduce a promotion process for Extension educators who do not have academic rank. This includes local/county educators and youth development educators with regional responsibilities. The promotion process for educators without academic rank will take effect in January, with the annual application beginning in July/August. The policies and procedures on promotion for educators without academic rank are available on the employee website.

Promotion is a professional indicator of personal and organizational success. I am pleased that we will now be offering this to our educators without academic rank. Promotion systems that encourage faculty and educators to actively engage in scholarship and peer review support and enhance the quality of our educational offerings.  I am confident that our promotion systems will continue to increase the credibility of Extension's work within this research university.

I want to thank the ad hoc committee who spent many hours discussing the issues, reviewing and making recommendations, and preparing the final policies and procedures: Brad Carlson, Rebecca Harrington, Nancy Hegland, Barb Liukkonen, Jennifer Skuza, Trisha Sheehan, Betsy Wieland and Nathan Winter. Thanks also to Mike Schmitt, senior associate dean, and Leslee Mason, human resources director, for your work with this committee.

Bev Durgan

Please complete survey
If you haven't already done so, please take a few minutes to fill out the Google migration survey. We want to know what you think about UM Google Apps and the migration process to help inform and improve future IT initiatives, and to equip you with the tools and resources you need to best utilize Google Apps in your work.

Check your spam
Both Google and the University apply spam filters to our incoming email, so it is possible for incoming email to end up filtered by either Google or the University. It's a good idea to monitor your email flagged as spam, since good email occasionally ends up flagged as spam by mistake.

Make Gmail your Firefox default email
When you click on an email address on a webpage in Firefox, the browser automatically opens the default email application (mailto) to compose the email. For most of us this is set to Outlook. Change the default to Google Apps so that Gmail will automatically open. Note: If you want to change this setting in Internet Explorer, please contact your tech support person or the IT helpdesk at 612-624-6700.

Gmail: drag and drop attachments
If you use Firefox 3.6 or higher or Google Chrome as your browser, you can add attachments to an email by dragging and dropping them onto the email.

Do you have email stored in Outlook PST files?
If you have email stored in Outlook PST files and would like to move them to Gmail, follow these instructions to copy your old email into Gmail.

For a complete list of Google tips and to access additional Google Apps learning tools and training resources, visit the Google Apps employee webpage.

Karen Matthes
Organizational Training Director

The Sponsored Project Administration (SPA) will be closed on December 28-30. Extension's grants team is planning ahead to ensure that Extension's grant applications are completed and approved prior to SPA deadlines.

The most important due dates for sponsored projects (grant) materials to be submitted to Extension in conjunction with the SPA deadlines prior to the closure are: 

Monday, December 6 (4:30 p.m.) Deadline for fully-signed PRF, budget and Statement of Work for industry-funded agreements that the sponsor requires to be completed (fully-executed) by December 31.

Tuesday, December 15, (noon) Deadline for:

• Complete (ready-to-submit) Grants.gov proposals (with fully-signed PRFs) due to sponsors between December 23-January 4.
• Paper or other electronic proposals with fully-signed PRFs due to sponsors between December 21-January 3.  Includes rebudgeting requests; requests to open additional budget accounts; no cost-time extension requests (either agency-approved or SPA-approved); prior approval requests; materials needed to issue subwards; PI-approved subaward invoices that need to be paid.

It is highly unlikely that extensions to these deadlines will be approved. Extension educators planning to submit a grant proposal prior to the University closure should notify the appropriate center accountant immediately.

Dianne Sivald
Grants Manager

The Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Minnesota is holding a seminar series in the spring of 2011 titled, "New Curricula for Sustainability Studies: Making Places That Maintain Abundance and Alleviate Scarcity." The seminar will bring together a diverse group of faculty and graduate students to discuss, critique, synthesize and apply curriculum ideas for sustainability studies in a wide range of disciplines.  It  will examine essential meanings of 'abundance' and 'scarcity' and will serve as a curriculum design workshop for faculty who are participating in, or exploring innovation relating to, the pursuit of sustainability by developing pedagogical (and andragogical) materials for undergraduate, graduate and continuing education.

Participants will meet biweekly on Tuesdays from 2:30-5 p.m. in 235 Nolte Center on the East Bank Campus, beginning January 25.

Faculty and graduate students interested in participating in this seminar are requested to submit a short description of their background and interest.  For submission instructions and further information, visit the Institute for Advanced Study website.

Nick Jordan
Agronomy & Plant Genetics, CFANS

Gmail spell-check options
Learn more about how to check spelling in your email messages and how you can add words to your browser dictionary.

Organize your email with labels
Labels do all the work folders do and give you an extra bonus: you can add more than one to a conversation. Once you've created a label, you can view all the messages with that label by searching, or by clicking the label name along the left side of any Gmail page. Read more about how to organize labels.

Compose a new message in a new window
You can compose a new message in its own window, allowing you to move back and forth between your new message and other email messages.

Insert a calendar invitation with Gmail
Create a calendar invitation in Gmail by clicking on the Invitation link right under the subject. When you click it, a small window appears that displays the availability of the people you are emailing (within the U of MN TC domain).

Can I share my calendar with people outside of the University?
The University only allows full calendar sharing between Google Calendar users within the same campus. In order to maintain the integrity of privacy and security of University information and business, only free/busy information will be sharable (for scheduling meetings, etc.) outside of each domain, including between campuses and with non-University Google accounts. View more Google Q&A.

Karen Matthes
Organizational Training Director

A couple months ago, we announced that name badges with the new Extension wordmark were available to order. Many of you completed orders and have already put them to good use at events and workshops. Since the initial implementation, we have received several requests to add the M to the wordmark and increase the text size of the name, title and unit text lines for better readability. Based on those requests, we have updated the design and will begin fulfilling orders with the new design immediately. Everyone who has ordered a name badge with the previous design will receive a replacement - sent to the address indicated in the original order.

As we continue to implement tools and resources that incorporate Extension's new identity, we encourage and welcome feedback to ensure that we fulfill the greatest needs.

Sarah Bjorkman
Employee Communications Manager

Through a partnership with KIMT-TV (CBS News 3) and Iowa State University Extension, University of Minnesota Extension began a monthly news segment appearing on the network in July. The pilot agreement called for one Extension MidDay Moment every two weeks, rotating between Iowa State and the U of M, and continuing through December 2010.

KIMT-TV reaches approximately 275,000 households in the Mason City-Austin-Albert Lea and Rochester market.

Since July, four MidDay Moment segments have aired live during the noon news update and have featured Extension faculty and staff addressing timely news topics: financial disaster recovery in the wake of the September flooding (Phyllis Onstad, family resource management educator); National 4-H Science Day (Melissa Koch, Mower County 4-H program coordinator and a local 4-H participant); school menus and fresh, local foods (Stephanie Heim, farm to school coordinator); and choosing healthy beverages (Kelly Kunkel, health and nutrition educator).

Extension Communications will evaluate the pilot project and 2011 participation over the next few months along with the centers that chose to participate-Family Development and Youth Development.

As always, if you are willing to conduct media interviews that tie your area of expertise to timely news events, please contact Julie Christensen or Catherine Dehdashti. For tips on understanding what makes something newsworthy, see News Values on the Employee site.

Julie Christensen
Public Relations and News Media Manager

On October 20, cell phone numbers for Extension faculty and staff were added to the online staff directory.  Cell phone numbers will be listed for Extension staff who receive reimbursement for their cell phones.  This new addition will make contacting your colleagues easier and provides a one-stop place for employee contact information.  Contact Bobbie Roberts, Extension Human Resources, with questions or changes to your current listing. 

Sarah Bjorkman
Employee Communications Manager

We are midway through Extension's migration to Google Apps, which is scheduled to be completed by November 12, and the migration has gone very well thus far. We have appreciated everyone's effort and support through this process and we look forward to a successful migration of remaining Extension staff throughout the next couple of weeks.

For those of you who have not yet had the time to clean up your email, don't panic!  You should proceed with your migration as scheduled.  If your mailbox does not fulfill the requirements to transition to Gmail, the system will notify you during the process of specific items you need to clean up in order to make your mail ready for migration. 

The Extension Google Apps employee webpage contains detailed migration instructions, information on how to forward UMGmail  to a county system, and links to University and Google resources. Extension Organizational Training will also be holding two webinars in November that will give attendees an introduction to Gmail and Google Calendar. Below are specific calendar issues you should know about:

·         Invitees and/or resources you have invited to meetings in UMCal/Outlook will be disconnected from the meeting when you migrate to Google Calendar.  The meeting will show up on their calendars, but they will not be automatically notified if the meeting is rescheduled or cancelled.  Meeting owners will be responsible for re-inviting staff and resources to the meeting. (This is a one-time happening and will not occur when you schedule future meetings in Google Calendar.)

·         Recurring meetings will convert to individual entries.  You will need to delete and reset the reoccurrence.

·         You will need to reset permissions on your calendar in order for specific individuals to schedule on your calendar.

All Extension staff are expected to use Google Calendar by November 19; however, several other University units have not yet made the transition, and it may be necessary for Extension staff to schedule appointments with those University staff members directly by email (or by another means) as an interim solution until all University units make the transition to Google Calendar. If you are not sure whether someone has moved, contact them directly.

For questions about Extension's transition to Google Apps, visit the Extension Google Apps employee webpage or call the Extension IT helpline at 612-624-6700.

Rex Wheeler
IT Operations Manager

Beginning October 25 Extension faculty and staff will start migrating their calendars and email systems to U of M Google Apps, with all of Extension's migration to Google Apps completed by November 19. Please take a moment to review the Extension Google migration schedule to determine your scheduled migration day.

If you are in a regional or county office, you should have received notification from your supporting regional director with detailed migration information. If you are in a Twin Cities campus location, you should have received notification from your supporting IT department. If you have not yet received notification regarding Extension's Google migration, please contact your supporting regional director or IT department immediately or call the Extension IT helpline at 612-624-6700.

The long-term goal of the University is for all faculty, staff and students to adopt Google Apps. However, at this point, several University units have not made the transition, and people that you may want to include in a meeting may not yet be using Google Calendar. It may be necessary for Extension staff to schedule appointments with those University staff members directly by email (or by another means) as an interim solution until all University units make the transition to Google Calendar. If you are not sure whether someone has moved, contact them directly.

As with any project, there may be bumps along the way, but we are confident that with your support and understanding-along with the planning and processes that have been put in place-we can look forward to a successful migration. For questions about Extension's transition to Google Apps, visit the Extension Google Apps employee webpage or contact Rex Wheeler at rwheeler@umn.edu.

Rex Wheeler
IT Operations Manager

A new featured added to the Office of Human Resources, Employee Self-Service website allows you to view all University financial reimbursements made to you online. You will need to authenticate with your University x.500 login and password to view the payment information. The page is automatically displayed in a web report format, and you also have the option to download as an Excel spreadsheet.

To view your reimbursements, visit the University's Employee Self-Service, and select the appropriate "Reimbursements/Payments" link, depending on if you wish to view pre- or post-June 30, 2010, information.

For questions, contact Extension Finance and Planning.

Madonna Monette
Finance Director

The first-ever InCommons Collaboration Challenge recognizes and supports innovative local collaborations in solving community problems. Communities across Minnesota are facing tough problems - economic and otherwise. Many people are working alone, disconnected from others addressing similar issues. Some are struggling to achieve scale and gain critical mass. Others are stymied because of the status quo, "that's just how we do it here."

In spite of this reality, organizations, leaders and community members are working together to advance solutions to a variety of challenges. The InCommons Collaborative Challenge celebrates these efforts. The University and Extension are not eligible to enter, but many of our community partners are; consider nominating them on the InCommons website. The deadline to complete a nomination is Friday, October 29. The first-place winner receives $25,000 toward implementation of their idea.

Diana Martenson
Organization and Program Development Specialist

The Fall 2010 issue of Source magazine-which includes two fully produced videos for the first time-is now available on the Extension website. There are several ways you can take advantage of Source's content as you communicate about Extension's impact in Minnesota.

In addition to using print copies of the magazine in communications with key stakeholders, you can:

- Print copies of individual articles from the website;
- Link to individual articles or videos in your program e-newsletters and blogs; and
- Share articles or videos in social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

To obtain specific URLs for either video, click on the video on the Fall 2010 Source webpage, and then click on the "YouTube" icon in the lower right corner of the screen. This option takes you to the video on Extension's YouTube channel, where you can share and/or shorten specific video URLs.

Employees can also access all previous issues of Source online. For more information or to request hard copies of Source, contact Catherine Dehdashti.

Julie Christensen
Public Relations and News Media Manager

Extension IT has worked with Extension Regional Directors and campus administrative leadership to create a detailed Google migration schedule for Extension based on office location.  All Extension faculty and staff will be expected to make the move to U of M Google Apps between October 25 and November 12, with all of Extension's migration to Google Apps completed by November 19.  Please take a moment to review this schedule to determine when you will be requested to transition your email and calendar systems to Google Apps.

To make the transition as smooth as possible, you will need to review and prepare your current email environment.  If you have not already, take time as soon as possible to clean up your current email system: delete large emails (over 25 MB) and executable files such as .zip, .tar and others that contain an .exe attachment; ensure that you have no more than 6 GB of total emails in your mail account; and rename folder names that are longer than 39 characters.  

Although it will take time and effort to make the transition to Google Apps, there are many benefits in doing so.  Following are just a few of the advantages Google Apps provide:

- Improved speed and stability of email and calendaring
- Same "umn.edu" e-mail address--no need to change 
- Increased mail storage (1GB to 7GB)
- Better email and calendar support for more mobile devices including 'push' support
- Google Chat instant messaging client with video support
- Ability to share documents easily with other users at the University
- Automatic threading of email messages to keep conversations together

We will be providing detailed migration instructions as your scheduled migration date draws nearer. For questions or comments related to the Extension migration to Google Apps, please contact the Extension IT helpline at 612-624-6700.

Rex Wheeler
IT Operations Manager

Lorem Whether you are already using social media to reach your audiences, or wondering what social media is and how you could use it, check out the new social media guide on the employee website. This site features resources for using social media as a strategy to achieve your business objectives. It outlines Extension's policies, standards and best practices for social media. We will continue to add more resources and tools over the coming months.

Aimee Viniard-Weideman
Assistant Dean, Communications and Public Relations

As the November election races ramp up over the next month, it's important to be reminded of Extension's guidelines regarding activity in partisan political activity. Extension faculty and staff (and all University of Minnesota employees) who would like to participate in politics are permitted and encouraged to be civically engaged, as long as behaviors are consistent with Board of Regents policies. See campaigning or running for public office. 

In terms of supporting candidates and the campaigns of others, the main thing to remember is to conduct such activities as a private citizen and not in the identity of your University position. It is not appropriate, for example, to use professional credentials in advocating for an individual.

Likewise, financial contributions and other supportive activities are acceptable as long as they are made without reference to Extension and/or the University.  Each individual should use good judgment about the wisdom of visible partisan participation and the impact on his/her job effectiveness.  If you have questions, talk with your supervisor or the Extension Government Relations unit.

Sarah Greening
Assistant Dean, Government Relations

Questions have surfaced from staff about whether they may hold meetings on Election Day, November 2. Extension follows University of Minnesota guidelines, but there are no policies currently in place prohibiting meetings on Election Day. This differs from scheduling meetings on caucus nights because of the limited time people have to attend caucus meetings. Minnesota polls are open from early in the morning into the evening, to accommodate a variety of work and meeting schedules.

We recommend that staff do not schedule Extension conferences that would inhibit citizens from getting to the polls. There is the option of absentee voting if something is scheduled and cannot be changed.

Extension staff should refer to their employment contract or policies regarding voting during work time and can contact Extension Human Resources with questions about staff voting policies.

Sarah Greening
Assistant Dean, Government Relations

Over the past few months, questions have been surfacing about the mandatory furlough and office closure that is happening at the University of Minnesota this winter. The University will be closed the week between the Christmas and New Year holidays (see the Economy and U website for dates University campuses will be closed over the holidays).  Extension regional offices that are located on coordinate campuses should follow their campus closure dates.  All other Extension regional offices should follow the Twin Cities campus closure dates.  

County offices will not necessarily close during the holiday closure dates; however, regardless of whether the county office is open or closed, the furlough is mandatory for CSBU staff and they should not work during the campus closure dates.

All University civil service and bargaining unit staff (CSBU) are required to take a mandatory, unpaid, three-day (twenty-four hour) furlough during the closure period.  The reduction in pay for these mandatory furlough days will be reflected on the check received January 12, 2011. Supervisors have the latitude to change the actual furlough days if absolutely necessary for program reasons.  Payroll documentation is necessary; send completed forms to Leslee Mason, Extension Human Resources.

During the closure, the heating in University campus buildings will be greatly reduced to save on utilities and other costs and there will be minimal or no staff working during these days in most offices. University professional and administrative faculty and staff (P&A) are strongly discouraged from working on campus unless they are required by their supervisor or responsible administrator to report to the worksite or if their research programs require daily attention.  P&A staff should consult with their supervisor or responsible administrator regarding how to continue to fulfill job duties within the context of their appointment during the temporary holiday closure.  Or, they may elect to use vacation days if they intend to use this time for personal reasons. Supervisors are responsible for documenting work plans or vacation time during the closure. 

Extension staff may also elect to take additional, optional voluntary furlough days with supervisory approval.  For more information, read Voluntary Furlough , Extension enews, July 1, 2010.

Leslee Mason
Human Resources Director

Extension faculty and staff who hold a joint position with a University college or department and/or who are taking a U of M course(s), may experience difficulty logging on to the homepage of the Extension employee website.  This issue happens because Extension and all other University colleges and departments are using the same myU University software for faculty, staff and student portal views. Most often, when you login to a portal page, you will be automatically routed to your college or student pages instead of the Extension page.  If you do not see the Extension employee site, after you log on click on the "Change Views" link at the top left of the portal page (below the myU logo), and select "EXT (Extension View)."

For questions, contact Sarah Bjorkman at bjor0180@umn.edu.

Sarah Bjorkman
Employee Communications Manager

As announced in Dean Durgan's column today, all Extension faculty and staff, led by Extension IT, will be transitioning their current email and calendar systems to U of M Google Apps between October 25 and November 12.

To make the transition to GMail (the Google Apps email system) as smooth as possible, you will need to review and prepare your current email environment. Extension IT has created a Google Apps section on the employee website that includes guidelines for cleaning up email in Outlook.  There, you will also find Google migration instructions, learning tools and other resources that will be helpful later on during the migration process.

Cleaning up your current email system will be the single most effective way to ensure a smooth transition to GMail.  Large emails (over 25 MB), more than 6 GB of total emails in your mailbox, and folder names that are longer than 39 characters will all cause issues when migrating. 

We are encouraging all Extension faculty and staff to complete their email cleanup effort by Friday, October 1.  The following week, Extension IT will be working with University IT to review and identify mailboxes that are still unable to migrate due to the issues listed above.

Thank you for your support in this initiative.  For questions or comments related to the Extension migration to Google Apps, please contact the Extension IT helpline at 612-624-6700.

Rex Wheeler
IT Operations Manager

In March 2010, Extension implemented the new Extension wordmark for use in all print and electronic materials.  The rollout of the wordmark is occuring throughout the 2010 calendar year, allowing for a natural and fiscally responsible replacement of Extension materials and publications. 

As part of the rollout, Extension Communications will continue to update and replace Extension-wide print and electronic identity elements as their stock is depleted or a reprint is necessary.  This week we are implementing the new name badges and electronic letterhead. 

The name badges include Extension's new wordmark in maroon and white and have been reduced in price from the old version.  Name badges can be ordered through the employee website.

Extension Electronic letterhead is available in Microsoft Word format on the employee website and should be used for official University electronic communications.  Several download options are available based on Extension center, regional office, county office and unit.  

Templates for MS PowerPoint, fact sheets and other print and electronic communications are being developed and will be made available in the next few months.   Stay tuned to the employee website and enews for more information. In the meantime, please continue to update your electronic and print marketing and communications materials with the new wordmark .

Sarah Bjorkman
Employee Communications Manager

This week, Extension Communications launched In The News, a sampling of Extension news clips from local, regional, statewide and national sources.

In The News will be sent weekly to the Dean's Leadership Council, program leaders, regional directors and center communications contacts. Others wishing to subscribe to In The News should email extnews@umn.edu with the subject line "Subscribe to In The News."

In The News features news stories with significant Extension mention (not brief references to Extension, pre-event or calendar items.) News items are compiled primarily from Google News searches and submissions from employees. If you have a news article or broadcast to add to In The News, please check the website to confirm that it has not already been discovered, and then forward the link to extnews@umn.edu.

In addition to the weekly In The News email, news headlines about Extension are updated online Monday through Friday.

Julie Christensen
News Media and Public Relations Manager

Check out the summer/fall issue of the Extension retiree newsletter.  In addition to news about our retirees, this issue highlights summer media moments such as the Farm Family of the Year recognition, Extension's crop educators in Itasca County, as well as Extension's presence at the 2010 Minnesota State Fair.  The retiree newsletter is distributed three times a year in summer/fall, winter and spring.  If you have ideas for articles of interest to retirees, please send them to Gwen Gmeinder.

Gwen Gmeinder
Government Relations Associate

As part of the Celebrate U! employee appreciation event that took place on the Twin Cities campus on August 25, University faculty and staff were offered a ceramic mug and spoon as appreciation gifts.  Extension Human Resources has received the Celebrate U! coffee mug and spoon gift for all of our off-campus employees who were unable to attend the event.  Regional Directors will pick up and distribute the gifts to regional office staff, nutrition education assistants, 4-H program coordinators and Extension county support staff.  Most regional directors will pick up their supplies while attending the 2010 Extension Program Conference in early October. 

Jo Ann Hardy
Human Resources Manager

Funders look for grant proposals from applicants who are prepared for success. They look for clearly defined short- and long-term goals. They look for applicants who know their target audiences and who know what knowledge gaps or needs their grant proposal will serve. Funders also look for proposals that include innovative ideas and established partnerships with other universities and institutions. Finally, funders look for applicants who clearly identify the need for financial support and demonstrate the capacity to manage an award of grant funds.

Realistically, preparation for writing a winning grant proposal begins long before the application process. Dedicating time to focus on planning is time well spent to prepare now for future grant success.

Dianne Sivald
Grants Manager

The Extension Staff Consultative Committee (ESCC) is looking for more members to serve on the committee. The purpose of the committee is to provide leadership for staff issues and concerns by working in cooperation with Dean Durgan, Extension leadership groups, and Civil Service and Bargaining Unit staff. The committee also plans the ESCC Staff Day held each spring.

Staff from the following categories may serve on the committee: clerical/technical bargaining unit, civil service, nutrition education assistants, 4-H program coordinators, Master Gardener coordinators, community program specialists and assistants. Meetings are held on the third Wednesday of each month and members are expected to attend all meetings when possible. Supervisor approval is needed before joining the committee.

For more information visit the ESCC section on the employee website or email committee co-chairs Lorelei Finley, swens451@umn.edu, or Sonja Meline, melin046@umn.edu.

Lorelei Finley
County 4-H Program Coordinator

As you know, the University has signed an agreement with Google to provide email and calendar services to all University faculty, staff, and students.  As a result of this agreement, University Office of Information Technology is expected to discontinue support for all current University email clients and UMCal sometime around the end of 2010 (actual date has not yet been confirmed).  In response, Extension IT has developed plans for an Extension-wide transition to Google Apps in summer-fall 2010 that will occur in two phases: Phase I will include Regional Office support staff in August and September (after the bulk of state and county fair efforts have subsided); and, Phase II will include all remaining Extension faculty and staff and will occur in October and November (after Program Conference). 

We will be providing information about Gmail and Google calendar, including instructions on preparing for and managing your migration, through future issues of Extension enews as well as individual email messages.

For questions or comments, please contact anyone from the Extension Google Migration project team:  Rex Wheeler (project manager), Karen Matthes (training), and Billie Wilson (technical).

Rex Wheeler
IT Operations Manager

Extension recognized the contributions of 74 farm families with the 2010 University of Minnesota Farm Family of the Year Award, presented at Farmfest on August 5. An Extension news release provides the names of all, and highlights the businesses of some, recognized families. Profiles of all the families can be found at on the U of M Farm Family of the Year website. The July 26 issue of Extension Ag News Wire also featured a column from Dean Durgan about the importance of farm families in Minnesota. That column was printed in 20 newspapers across the state in the last 3 weeks.

Julie Christensen
News Media and Public Relations Manager

Most funders require additional supporting information at the time a grant application is submitted. This information can be time consuming to organize and assemble when trying to meet a funder's deadline. This necessary information includes:

• Curricula vitae (CV) for lead project personnel;
• A list of all other grants the applicant is working on (including the names of funders, the names of lead project personnel, and the project start and end dates); and
• A list of the applicant's non-grant collaborative projects and publication co-authors (needed to quickly identify potential conflicts of interest).

To reduce the stress of meeting funder application deadlines, always keep this information up to date and readily accessible so it can be easily inserted into a funder's application forms.

Dianne Sivald
Grants Manager

The 2011 Minnesota Gardening calendar is now available from the Extension Store at Early Bird Special pricing. Now through Labor Day you can purchase any number of copies for $6.50/copy. After September 6, the price returns to the normal wholesale cost of $8.00/copy.  The suggested retail price is $13.99.

Timely tips for each month guide the gardener through the growing season, and the beautiful photos offer inspiration year round. This year's special feature describes edible landscaping, incorporating fruits and vegetables in the home landscape. Profits from the sale of the calendar support the Master Gardener program. The calendar is produced jointly by the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station and University of Minnesota Extension.

Jennifer Obst
Communication Specialist, Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station

Lawn weeds can invade and compete for nutrients needed for healthy turf grass. Jason DeRusha of WCCO's popular "Good Question" segment had received a question from a viewer asking how to distinguish a weed from a desirable plant. The reporter met with Bob Mugaas, Extension horticulturist and turf grass specialist, giving Mugaas' expert answer (along with an entertaining nod to Abbott & Costello) in this video.

To see more recent Extension news headlines, visit www.extension.umn.edu/inthenews.

Catherine Dehdashti
Public Relations and News Media Coordinator

Since last fall, the University has been working with colleges, departments and units to transition to Google Apps, a suite that includes email, calendar and other communication and collaboration tools.  Extension is planning an organization-wide transition to Google Apps for all Extension faculty and staff in fall 2010--after the bulk of state and county fair efforts have subsided.  Extension IT is currently working on a detailed project plan to ensure a smooth transition for all staff.  Updates and announcements will be distributed via listservs and Extension enews, and willbe posted to the Extension Google Apps employee webpage throughout the duration of this project.

The long-term goal of the University is for all faculty, staff and students to adopt Google Apps. Most immediately, CFANS faculty and staff on the Twin Cities campuses are scheduled to make the transition beginning July 12.  This may affect some Extension staff, especially Extension staff who hold joint appointments with CFANS or who are directly supported by the CFANS IT department.  Those staff members should email the CFANS IT helpdesk with any questions about the CFANS transition to Google Apps. All other Extension staff will wait to transition with Extension in fall 2010.

Since CFANS staff will be changing their calendar client from UMCal to Google Calendar, it may be necessary for Extension staff to schedule appointments with those folks directly by email (or by another means) as an interim solution until Extension makes the transition to Google Calendar in the fall.  For questions about Extension's transition to Google Apps, stay tuned to the Extension Google Apps employee webpage or contact Rex Wheeler at rwheeler@umn.edu.

Rex Wheeler
IT Operations Manager

After the June 17 tornados caused destruction across Minnesota, Extension family resource management educator Phyllis Onstad, provided many critical tips for people on the process of financial recovery in her timely June 18 news release Putting the pieces back together after a tornado, which was published in several news outlets, including the Hampton News and The Pine City Pioneer. She also developed a release, Document losses, expenses as first step in financial recovery after tornado, about a key practice for disaster recovery.

Catherine Dehdashti
Public Relations and News Media Coordinator

University Libraries has created a usability survey, using Usabilla, to collect feedback from University and Extension staff on their recently redesigned website. The survey, which takes as little as three minutes to complete, focuses on capturing information about what portions of the site you are most likely to use and which areas need improvement. You can add comments to all of the questions. Please take a moment to check out the Libraries website redesign survey today.

Kristen Mastel
Assistant Librarian, Magrath Library

Important due dates for submitting financial transactions for Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 must be followed to help minimize last-minute problems.  Respecting these deadlines will provide adequate time for appropriate review, approval and processing of transactions, and will reduce the risk of improperly posted documents due to system delays, unavailable approvers, unforeseeable errors or other problems. 
FY2010 deadlines include:

- June 17, noon - Requisitions (requests that are $50,000 and over)
- June 17, noon - PO Vouchers (any invoice that is matched to a PO) 
- June 23, 2 p.m. - Non-PO Vouchers (Single payment requests including expense/travel reimbursement.  Reminder:  University policy states that all expense and travel reimbursements should be submitted within 15 days of the scheduled trip return.)
- June 23, 4:30 p.m. - A/R Billing (customer maintenance requests)
- June 25 - Purchasing Card (PCARD) reconciliation
- June 29, noon - A/R Billing (customer profile exists)

Madonna Monette
Finance Director

Creating products and publications is just another way Extension specialists and educators can help Extension's programming achieve its intended impact.  The Program Resource Unit has recently updated a products and publications resource section on the employee website to help you create, manage and sell your products.  The page includes time saving informational resources to:

- Get started
- Identify information to have on your publication
- Make a publication available for sale
- Manage a publication, and
- Determine your Center contact for publications assistance 

In addition to print publications, you can now sell your virtual products as a download in the Extension Store.  Your Extension Center and/or program team earns back 80% of all gross sales revenue.  A new decision guide illustrates the different types of Extension publications and shows an example of each.  For details on selling your products through the Extension Store, contact Erik Bremer.

Neil Anderson
Director, Resource Development Unit

On June 1 and 2, the Extension Center for Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences and the College of Food Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences hosted a series of presentations by Mario Piedra, director of EARTH University.  The presentations were part of an ongoing effort that started in 2009 called "Extension in the World" - an effort focused on evaluating Extension's role and potential impact in international work. 

Both days of the June presentations are now available via UMConnect web recording. The June 1 presentation focused on EARTH University's three educational approaches in Central America. The June 2 presentation discussed biodiversity and how to strike a balance between production and conservation.

Renee Pardello
Assistant Dean, Center for Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences

All University employees will receive the paycheck originally scheduled for Wednesday, June 30, 2010, on Thursday, July 1, 2010.  This is a one-time occurrence. You are receiving this notice so you can make accommodations for this one-day change in the pay date. In particular, if you have set up auto pay to cover any bills, we ask that you plan accordingly and make adjustments with your bank, if needed. For those with Direct Deposit, the funds for that pay period will not be available until Thursday, July 1.

In earlier communications, you learned that in fiscal year 2009-10 (FY10) there are 27 paydays instead of the usual 26. Anticipating that the budget shortfall for FY10 would be more significant than in FY11, the decision was made to move this extra pay date from Wednesday, June 30, 2010 to Thursday, July 1, 2010, thus moving the financial impact from FY10 to FY11.

University Office of Human Resources
Original message sent to all University faculty, staff and student employees on 5/25/2010

The Policy Fellows Program, offered by the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance, Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, is now seeking applications for the 2010-11 program.  

This nine-month program, sponsored in part by Extension, offers participants practical training in public affairs leadership for emerging leaders seeking new experiences and skills. The program equips participants with three core leadership competencies to inspire, organize and work effectively with others to advance the public good: mindfulness, strategic effectiveness in context, and persuasion and collective action.

The deadline to apply is June 14. For application instructions and additional information, visit the Hubert H. Humphrey website; or contact Kate Cimino at 612-625-8330 or cspg@umn.edu. You can also contact a fellow alumni or Extension staff member such as Bruce Schwartau, Mary Ann Hennen, Toni Smith, Toby Spanier and Cindy Bigger to hear about personal experiences. If you are interested in participating in the program, contact your supervisor.

Dick Senese
Associate Dean, Community Vitality and Public Engagement

Extension P&A employees have elected new Council of Academic Professionals and Administrators (CAPA) representatives who will serve for the next three years. They are: Neil Anderson, director, Resource Development Unit; Danny Sussman, webmaster, Information Technology; Renee Obrecht-Como (alternate), associate program director, Health & Nutrition Programs; and Dave Nicolai (alternate, write-in candidate), Extension crops educator, Regional Office, Hutchinson. Thank you to those who have served the past three years: Neil Anderson, Dave Nicolai, Karen Lilley and Claudia Cody.

CAPA ensures that P&A concerns and perspectives are considered in the areas of University governance and representation, compensation and benefits, communications and professional development. The council meets regularly with University administrators, sends representatives to the University Senate and committees, and is represented in all college, campus and administrative units. Extension P&A employees can get involved by bringing their concerns and ideas to their elected CAPA representatives.

Sarah Bjorkman
Employee Communications Manager

The North Central Region's Sustainable Communities Task Force-a task force made up of Extension representatives from the 12 states within the North Central Region- is conducting an inventory of Extension materials related to sustainable communities. The goal of this project is to create a searchable database of Extension resources from across the 12-state North Central Region related to food systems, energy, built environment design and development, mobility, natural resources, community capacity and knowledge, and regional economy.  The resources can be curricula, fact sheets, video, etc.

There is no submission deadline, and anyone within Extension can participate.  Please add your sustainability resources, programs, curriculum, or other materials to the online inventory collection.

Cynthia Messer
Extension Professor, Tourism Center

The Extension office in Dodge County is the latest contributor to Minnesota Reflections-an effort by Minnesota libraries, archives, historical societies and museums to digitize content related to our state's history.  Minnesota Reflections is the first project of the Minnesota Digital Library which supports education, scholarship and enrichment through Internet access to the digitized collections.  The Extension, Dodge County collection, which spans the years 1923 to 1982, exemplifies changes in agriculture science and technology throughout the years and reflects educational programming in rural Minnesota.  

To view the Dodge County documents and other collections, visit the Minnesota Reflections website. Currently, University of Minnesota Libraries is investigating avenues to capture Extension's "born digital" documents.  For more information, or if you are interested in submitting a project, visit the Minnesota Reflections Phase 7 website, or contact Marian Rengel at mrrengel@stcloudstate.edu. 

Kristen Mastel
Assistant Librarian, Magrath Library

Check out the online version of the spring 2010 edition of the Extension Retiree Newsletter. In addition to news about our retirees, this issue highlights the Extension website and the Minnesota 4-H Science, Technology and Engineering (SET) initiative. If you have ideas for articles of interest to retirees, please send them to Gwen Gmeinder.

Gwen Gmeinder
Government Relations Associate

Renee Pardello recently accepted a new position as assistant dean in the Extension Center for Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (EFANS). In her new role, Renee's three primary areas of responsibility for EFANS are programming, personnel, and finance and grants. Her work will include driving next steps for multidisciplinary initiatives, working closely with the evaluation team to strengthen capacity to report on impacts, providing tools to program leaders to aid them in their work with teams, helping bridge collaborations with Extension and other units on grants, managing the promotion process for educators, and pursuing ways EFANS can operate effectively as an Extension center.

Renee has diverse experience in program development, implementation and evaluation on multiple levels (rural, urban, across cultures) and during different circumstances (challenging budgets, famine, coup d'état). This experience comes from work throughout West and Central Africa and within non-formal and formal educational organizations in Minnesota. She has worked with multiple audiences: youth, volunteers, local Extension educators, natural resource professionals and community leaders.

Renee has been with Extension since 2000, most recently as a program leader for the Water Resource Management, Environmental Science Education and Housing Technology program areas. She is currently leading EFANS initiatives in international work and multidisciplinary, water-related programming.

Please join me in welcoming Renee to this new and important role for EFANS.

Greg Cuomo
Associate Dean, Center for Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences

Community partners and University of Minnesota faculty and staff will host the official opening of the University's Urban Research and Outreach/Engagement Center (UROC) - a facility that signifies the University's commitment to the state's growing urban communities.  The open house will take place Wednesday, May 12, from 1-6 p.m. and will highlight the many research, outreach and education programs in the facility.  Extension programs that will have a presence at the UROC, including Urban 4H Youth Development, Simply Good Eating, Hennepin County Master Gardeners and Operation Frontline, will showcase their community partnerships along with providing hands-on demonstrations.

The event is free and open to the public and will be held at the UROC facility in North Minneapolis, 2001 Plymouth Avenue North.  Welcome festivities will begin at 3:30 p.m. followed by a ribbon-cutting ceremony and brief remarks by President Bruininks at 4 p.m. More information can be found on the UROC website.

Barb Grossman
Director of Urban Operations

Extension's central SurveyMonkey account has been extended through May 2011 to support Extension's survey needs. The list of surveys in the central account is very long, which makes it difficult to search and find current and past surveys.  To help keep the account tidy and provide more efficient search efforts, please take some time to download and delete surveys that you no longer need and file existing surveys into the appropriate SurveyMonkey folder.  It is best practice to always download your survey results to your computer so as not to rely on SurveyMonkey to store your data.

The Extension SurveyMonkey account will continue to be monitored and evaluated on an annual basis to ensure viability as a centrally supported tool.  Call the IT Help Desk at 612-624-6700 for the login and password to access this account.

Although SurveyMonkey will continue to be supported by Extension IT, we would like to encourage people to also try UMSurvey, the University-supported tool. You can find more information on the UMSurvey website, including an orientation video to help you get started.

Allison Jacobsen
Business Applications Manager

The Arboretum's 2010 exhibit "Powerhouse Plants: Veggies By The Yard" will be on campus this year. Five designs have been created by Arboretum gardener Ted Pew, and will be on exhibit to encourage the home gardener to make space for some healthy, delicious vegetables in their gardens.

Julie Weisenhorn
State Master Gardener Director

In March, the Government and Constituent Relations section on the Extension employee website was extensively updated to better serve Extension administrators, educators and staff who work in advocacy roles for federal, state and local government relations. 

On the section, you will find tools on general advocacy; guidelines for meeting with elected representatives; information on how to reinforce Extension's important value to the state; and resources for effective advocacy at the national, state and local level.
It is important that all Extension staff continue to support and advocate for Extension and the University.  To help us maintain a collective advocacy effort within Extension, remember to follow our government relations guidelines:

- If you have been formally invited to testify at a legislative hearing you need prior approval.
Send the following information to Sarah Greening: committee, agenda topic, date and time

- If you meet with legislators or staffers, complete this form. The form is automatically routed to Gwen Gmeinder for inclusion in the Extension legislative database. 

Sarah Greening
Assistant Dean, Government and Constituent Relations

The University's Office of Information Technology is making a change in the way email messages in trash or deleted items folders are handled. In the past, messages in the trash or deleted items folders have been auto-filed by the University. Beginning May 1, OIT will no longer auto-file these email messages; instead all messages marked as trash that are older than 30 days will be permanently deleted and cannot be restored.

Karen Matthes
Organizational Training Unit Director

On Monday, April 19, all University of Minnesota faculty and staff will receive a voice mail and email asking them to complete the 2010 Pulse Survey. Beginning in 2004 and administered every other year, the Pulse Survey is designed to measure the opinions or "pulse" of University employees in order to improve the organization's performance or health.  Results of the survey will be provided to all employees and will be used to make continuous improvements in the workplace.  You can view past Pulse Survey results on the University's HR website.

Leslee Mason
Human Resources Director

The statements Extension is required to use on all print and electronic materials have recently been revised to include new guidelines on using key statements on electronic communications.  These statements must appear on all Extension communications materials-whether printed or electronic-and indicate that we uphold federal and state civil rights laws and regulations, as well as University equal opportunity policies. 

Sarah Bjorkman
Employee Communications Manager

The University goes to great lengths to prevent unauthorized access to information such as your email and personal records and for that reason, internet passwords (i.e., x.500 passwords) are set to expire once per year. Every year you receive an email notification from the University requiring you to change your University Internet password.  When you change your password, you will also need to update your email settings and Smartphone settings. Instructions on updating your email and PDA settings can be found on the IT section of the Extension employee website. 

As a reminder, the University will never ask for your user ID or password, and you should never reply to ANY email request asking for that information. Always go to the University account website to change your University password.  For questions, contact the Extension helpline at 612-624-6700.

Billie Wilson
Information Technology Supervisor

Entries are now being accepted for the Sixth Annual Minnesota Cup. The statewide competition rewards breakthrough business ideas with more than $130,000 in prize money across six categories: clean technology and renewable energy, biosciences, high tech, social entrepreneurship, general, and students 19-25. Nearly 4,000 participants have benefited from the competition since 2005. Last year's winners have gone on to secure $8 million in funding as well as new partnerships, patents, and distribution agreements. For more information, see Minnesota Cup.

U of M Brief
March 31, 2010

Last fall, Dianne Sivald was hired as grants manager for Extension to provide oversight for the entire grants process, from proposal preparation through project management and final closeout.  Before coming to Extension, Dianne managed state and federal grants for Minnesota Public Radio.  

Dianne provides guidance to Extension faculty and staff in the preparation and submission of grant proposals and budgets. To initiate the grant proposal process, Extension faculty and staff should contact Dianne as early as possible to ensure there is adequate time to prepare a high-quality proposal with an accurate budget, comprehensive supporting documentation and necessary approvals.

Dianne will also monitor Extension's grant projects for compliance with state, federal, University and funder policies, with the goal of setting a high standard of accountability to the University and to funders.

If you are planning to prepare a grant proposal, a pre-proposal or a sub-award proposal, please notify Dianne at dsivald@umn.edu or 612-626-4554.

Mike Schmitt
Senior Associate Dean, Programs and Research

On Sunday, March 21, from 6 a.m. to noon, the University's Office of Information Technology will be updating their operating system causing intermittent email and listserv outages.  During this time, Extension staff will not have access to their email accounts and will not be able to send messages to University listservs. Updates regarding this outage will be posted on the OIT system status website as they become available, as well as during the morning of the outage.

Billie Wilson
Information Technology Supervisor

On February 8-9, Extension, in partnership with the Minnesota Farmer Assistance Network (MFAN), hosted a series of webinars to inform Extension staff about the resources available to them through the efforts of Extension and MFAN. 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.

The webinars were recorded via UMConnect and can be accessed on the Extension employee website. The target audience for these webinars is Extension staff who receive questions regarding the MFAN program and those who work with and provide business and financial guidance to dairy and swine farm families.

Ellie McCann
Extension Educator, Family Relations

Last month, Extension launched a new homepage and web design that incorporates the new Extension wordmark. This week, the new Extension wordmark is being implemented across Extension for use in all print and electronic materials and publications.  This new wordmark fulfills the requirements of the University brand policy that was approved by the Board of Regents in May 2009. 

The rollout of the new wordmark will occur throughout the 2010 calendar year, allowing for a natural and fiscally responsible replacement of the majority of Extension materials and publications.  University brand policy requires Extension (and all other University units) to transition to the new wordmark by December 2010.  Throughout the remainder of 2010, the new Extension wordmark should be applied to all new print and electronic materials. Existing materials should to be used through the end of 2010.

Downloadable wordmark files and instructions on how to use the new wordmark are available on the employee website. Extension's PowerPoint templates have also been updated to reflect the new wordmark.  Additional designs and templates that utilize the new wordmark and other Extension identity elements will be developed soon.

We are also implementing a new stationery system that is consistent with the University's new brand policy.  Extension, like all other units, will now use the University's letterhead and business card format. In addition, we have worked with the University Print Shop to develop an online order system for Extension staff that will make ordering faster and easier.  The online order form can be accessed on the Extension employee website.  Samples of the various stationery products are also available to view. 

If you have questions, contact Sarah Bjorkman or Aimee Viniard-Weideman.

Aimee Viniard-Weideman
Assistant Dean, Communications and Public Relations

On March 14, the University Office of Information Technology will be upgrading UMConnect. If you use UMConnect for web conferencing or if you have published Adobe Presenter presentations, there are a few things you need to know to prevent losing content you may have stored on the UMConnect server. Read more about the UMConnect upgrade on the Extension employee website.

Karen Matthes
Organizational Training Director

The University of Minnesota announces the sixth recruitment for the School of Agriculture Endowed Chair in Agricultural Systems. The Chair, which is supported by a $1.9 million endowment, represents a strategic opportunity to explore and influence the future of Minnesota agriculture at a time when it must increasingly respond to both global markets and local opportunities.  This is a full or part time appointment for up to one year. The focus of the Chair will be on the role of agriculture in developing sustainable communities, landscapes and food systems. 

Helene Murray
Search Committee Co-Chair, Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture

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

I want to thank all of the staff who assisted in closing the regional offices in Albert Lea and Mora. The Albert Lea office closed September 30 and the Mora office closed on December 18. While reducing operation costs, we were able to maintain the educator and support staff positions that were located in these offices. The educators and staff have been reassigned to other regional offices and their specific contact information is available on the Extension staff directory.

Lee Raeth
Director of Field Operations

The Fall/Winter 2009 issue of Source magazine is now available on the Extension website. There are several ways you can take advantage of the Source feature stories as you communicate about Extension's impact in Minnesota.

In addition to using print copies of Source in communications with key stakeholders, you can print copies of individual Source articles from  the website link to  link to articles  in your newsletters and blogs, and refer to them in your  social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook.

Employees can also access all previous issues of Source online as well.  For more information or to request hard copies of Source, contact Catherine Dehdashti.

Julie Christensen
Public Relations and News Media Manager

As outside temperatures drop, do not leave laptops in cold vehicles for extended periods of time. The damage caused by prolonged exposure to cold weather may not be covered under warranty. 

If you have concerns about how long is too long for a computer to be left out in the cold, follow this basic rule: if an opened bottle of water in your vehicle has formed ice or has frozen, then your laptop has been out in the cold too long. Once indoors, take the laptop out of the case and let it sit for 20 to 30 minutes to acclimate to room temperature before plugging it in and powering it up. This includes leaving it off the docking station.

Billie Wilson
Information Technology Supervisor

The IRS announced changes in the standard business mileage rates for calendar year 2010. Beginning January 1, the standard business mileage reimbursement rate for personal vehicle use on approved University business decreases from 55 cents to 50 cents per mile. Business mileage incurred in 2009 but reimbursed in 2010 will be reimbursed using the 2009 mileage rate. For more information see the rates section of the University policy, Traveling on University Business.

Dave Werner
Chief Operating Officer

In October, the University announced new Social Networking Guidelines that apply to the use of tools like Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and YouTube, among others, for official University of Minnesota business. Specifically, the U recommends not tying a social networking site to any individual's e-mail address. Given the nature of our work in Extension, distinct value often comes when audiences recognize faculty and staff as members of the University and members of Minnesota communities.

Because many Extension programs may use social networking tools for education and marketing, the U guidelines may need further refinement to address Extension's evolving use of social media.  A small work team has been formed to review the guidelines and develop best practices in social media for Extension. If you have questions or ideas,  please send them to any team member: Sarah Bjorkman, Employee Communications Manager; Julie Christensen, Public Relations and News Media Manager; Allison Jacobsen, Business Applications Manager; and Danny Sussman, Webmaster.

Julie Christensen
Public Relations and News Media Manager

The winter 2009 edition of the Extension retiree newsletter is available online as a blog. The new blog format follows the same format as Extension enews, making it easier to search for and find past retiree articles and issues. The blog also provides links to the employee newsletter so retirees can stay updated on what is going on in Extension. If you have ideas for articles of interest to retirees, please send them to Gwen Gmeinder.

Gwen Gmeinder
Government Relations Associate

Materials from many sessions that were offered at the 2009 Extension Program Conference are available online. Slides and/or handouts from eight sessions have been posted. Photos that were taken at the event are also online for viewing. Visit the program conference page on the employee website to access the available conference materials.

Amy Baker
Program Resource Director 

Eating healthy may seem like a tough task. It takes a lot of time and money to ensure daily doses of this and that. But Extension's Operation Frontline Minnesota program argues against that misconception. In chef-led courses, participants are learning how to easily make the healthiest food choices with limited resources. Executive Chef Seth Bixby Daugherty is involved with the initiative and says the culinary lessons are for everyone. For more information, visit Extension's Operation Frontline Minnesota website. Using Chef Daugherty's expertise, University Relations produced an audio clip called "Healthy Eating Boot Camp" for use as a University of Minnesota Moment radio feature

Extension email lists are updated daily with new employees and retirees.  To have the latest Extension address books installed on your computer, you must perform a manual update by following the "Adding and Updating Extension Address books" instructions on the employee website. These instructions are compatible with Outlook 2003 and 2007.

It is recommended that you update your address books at least quarterly to ensure effective communications with Extension employee groups.  If you use the Extension email lists frequently, you may want to consider updating more often.  Contact the Extension IT Help Desk at 612-624-6700 with questions.

Billie Wilson
Information Technology Supervisor

The Office of Information Technology (OIT) is in the final stages of testing for the implementation of Google Apps to University staff, faculty and students.  OIT is planning a phased implementation beginning as early as December and is currently working with departmental technology staff to determine the appropriate timing for each department.

Extension IT sees great potential with Google Apps and the benefits it could provide as a communication and collaboration tool, and is working with OIT to plan a scheduled Extension-wide rollout. Throughout this project, you can stay up-to-date about Extension's implementation plan and timing of the rollout by visiting the Extension Google Apps webpage.

Rex Wheeler
IT Operations Manager

The Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment (IREE), a signature program of the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment, is pleased to announce its 2010 request for proposals for Large, Seed and Early Career Grants. IREE anticipates making $2.5 million available for four to seven Large Grants, with totals ranging from $250,000 to $750,000; $750,000 for five to six Early Career Grants, with totals ranging from $120,000 to $150,000; and $750,000 for 10 to 15 Seed Grants, with totals ranging from $50,000 to $70,000. Please visit the IREE funding website for complete details. Email questions to the IREE grants team at iree@umn.edu.

Dick Hemmingsen
 Director, Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment

A wet and cold October has made the 2009 harvest incredibly challenging for Minnesota producers. Management decisions for harvesting, handling, drying or storing crops are proving complex for even the most well-managed operations, not to mention concerns about feeding certain crops to livestock and insurance claims.

Extension continues to lead an ongoing response, using news media interviews and the Late Harvest website to share information and help farmers make informed decisions. All told, Extension experts have been quoted or cited in more than 40 news stories during the last month, from The Caledonia Argus to Minnesota Public Radio. You can view many of the stories on Extension's In the News site.

Julie Christensen
Public Relations and News Media Manager

Extension promotional items are available to order from the Extension Store.

Imprinted with the Extension wordmark and website address, these items will help make Extension visible at your events and meetings, and are ideal to use as gifts of recognition or door prizes.  These items are available at wholesale price to Extension staff, making them a more affordable purchase.

• #09987 Carabiner Key Tag with LED Light, wholesale price $4.35
• #09988 Biodegradeable Bags (Packet of 100), wholesale price $40.25
• #09989 Recycled Ice Scraper, wholesale price $3.00  

When choosing promotional items that fit your project and budget, it is important to consider your target audience, the purpose of your project or event, and the impression you'd like to make. For a complete listing of Extension promotional items and information on how to produce new promotional items, visit the Promotional Items webpage.

Sarah Bjorkman
Employee Communications Manager

Are you interested in publicizing your workshop, webinar or other facet of your Extension work in the news media? A new decision guide, which was distributed to attendees of the Program Conference session, "Getting the Word Out: Media Relations," is now available on the employee website. The decision guide features six steps to help you think through your audience and purpose before you communicate with audiences via the news media. A decision tree is also included to aid program teams in reaching the news media efficiently and effectively.

Julie Christensen
Public Relations and News Media Manager

By now you should have received an email that all University of Minnesota IT systems and applications will not be available for use from Saturday, October 24 at 2 a.m. through Sunday, October 25 at 7 a.m.  During this time you will not have access to University email, network shares (H: and S: drives) and PeopleSoft Financials.  View the University's IT website for additional information and a complete list of affected applications.  The Extension website (including MyPrograms) will not be affected. 

Please plan for this outage accordingly by storing documents that you may need to access on your desktop or hard drive and respond to all urgent email before the outage begins. Call the Extension IT helpline at (612) 624-6700 with questions.

Rex Wheeler
IT Operations Manager

As outside temperatures drop, do not leave laptops in cold vehicles for extended periods of time. The damage caused by prolonged exposure to cold weather may not be covered under warranty. 

If you have concerns about how long is too long for a computer to be left out in the cold, follow this basic rule: if an opened bottle of water in your vehicle has formed ice or has frozen, then your laptop has been out in the cold too long. Once indoors, take the laptop out of the case and let it sit for 20 to 30 minutes to acclimate to room temperature before plugging it in and powering it up. (This includes leaving it off the docking station.)

Billie Wilson
Information Technology Supervisor

In addition to sending Extension enews out to employees via email, the online version of enews will now also be available as a blog. The new blog format makes it easier to search for and find past articles and issues and provides an area to leave comments on the articles.  

All issues of the newsletter that were published in 2009 and all future issues will be available on the blog.  Archive issues that were published prior to 2009 will remain available on the Dean's Office section of the employee website.

Sarah Bjorkman
Employee Communications Manager

Three Extension educators in the Center for Family Development recently presented at this year's National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Science Conference (NEAFCS) held in Birmingham, Ala.  Extension Educator in Food Science, Suzanne Driessen's presentation was entitled, "Safe Handling of Fruits and Vegetables:  Considerations for Educators." Rosemary Heins and Becky Hagen Jokela, Extension educators in family resource management made two presentations: "Action Plans for Making Dollars Count," and "Teaching Financial Education Across Generations."

The presentations highlight Extension's work in the areas of food science and family resource management and how it applies to educators on a national level.

Becky Hagen Jokela
Extension Educator, Family Resource Management

Extension's mission statement is to connect University resources with community needs and we do this by offering research/scholarship-based programs that have measureable outcomes and impact for the residents of Minnesota.  In difficult financial times, it can seem that organizations are more focused on money than mission.  While grants are vital to our financial future, grants are not simply about the funding.  Grants provide many research/scholarship opportunities for Extension's programs and faculty.  Programs can benefit from the accountability reports that funders require, because it helps to demonstrate the impact of our work. Next time you see a request for proposals (RFP,) don't think about money without thinking about scholarship potential as well. 

Mike Schmitt
Senior Associate Dean, Programs and Research

Making time for one media interview can be worth more coverage than you might guess. Extension horticulture educator Terry Nennich found that the effect of cool weather on pumpkin crops had a warm reception in the media when his interview with the West Central Tribune (requires log-in) was published by at least six other news outlets, including KMSP-TV (FOX). This can happen when news outlets are owned by a larger corporation and share news, or when a wire service such as the Associated Press picks up the story. As coverage expands, more reporters eventually come calling for their own story. Bottom line in this case: a five-minute phone interview with a reporter can often help you reach thousands of Minnesotans.

Julie Christensen
Public Relations and News Media Manager

This year's State Fair provided an exciting opportunity for 4-H to be featured in news media across the state. With Wendy Huckaby, youth development communications manager, sending regular "tweets" on Twitter about events and other updates, 4-Hers were featured on a variety of radio, television and newspaper outlets. Fortunately, the H1N1-related media coverage, from the Star Tribune to the New York Times, did not overshadow the stories being told about the projects and learning 4-Hers were exhibiting at the State Fair. Check out Minnesota Public Radio's heartwarming video on the llama costume contest illustrating how 4-H youth learn and have fun. The Star Tribune also wrote an in-depth article about 4-H, and how its diverse programs and partnerships position the program to weather the current challenging economic times.

Julie Christensen
Public Relations and News Media Manager

This fall, the University will be introducing UM Google applications for use by faculty, staff and students. In addition to email, Google Apps provides a suite of communication and collaboration tools that makes it easier to work with others. Using Google Apps will be optional for faculty and staff. In the next month, the Extension IT team will be testing how Google Apps works with our existing email configuration and developing a plan for Extension. For more information, check out the Questions & Answers section on the University's Google Initiative webpage.

Karen Matthes
Organizational Training Director

The Equity, Diversity, Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action policy has recently been revised and approved by the Board of Regents. The policy, which was formerly two policies - Diversity, Equal Employment and Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity -- was submitted for a series of reviews and merged into one document. The new policy incorporates language that protects individuals from discrimination and harassment based upon their gender identity and gender expression. This change is important as it reflects the protections that are available under Minnesota law.

As a result of the policy change, the language of the Equal Opportunity Statement has been revised.  Be sure to incorporate the revised statement on all Extension publications and materials.  

Sarah Bjorkman
Employee Communications Manager

On August 26, the University's Office of Information Technology officially launched UMSurvey, an academic online survey tool which is available to current students, staff, and faculty at the University of Minnesota. The tool is self-service, so users can create and publish surveys on their own. It is free of charge, ad-free and assures data integrity and security.  It will be supported centrally by the UMSurvey specialists at OIT Services.  For more information on how to use and access the tool, and best practices for survey research, visit the UMSurvey website.

Extension will continue to maintain its central SurveyMonkey account at least through May 2010-the end of our current contract.  After that date if Extension decides to replace SurveyMonkey with UMSurvey, we will develop a migration plan and work with current SurveyMonkey users to move to the new system.

Allison Jacobsen
Business Applications Manager

Check out the summer 2009 edition of Extension Update, an e-newsletter for Extension retirees. In addition to news about our retirees, this issue highlights the Extension intern program, Extension's involvement with the emerald ash borer invasion, and examples of Extension work in the media. If you have ideas for articles of interest to retirees, please send them to Gwen Gmeinder.

Gwen Gmeinder
Government Relations Associate

Starting with this issue, the employee newsletter will be published semimonthly on the first and third Thursdays of each month under the new title Extension e-news. Due to the change in publication schedule, the deadline for submission has been adjusted to noon on the Monday before publication. Submission guidelines and resources on how to create articles for Extension e-news can be found on the Dean's section of the employee website.  For questions, contact the editor: extenews@umn.edu.

You can read more about these changes in the July 30 Dean's Column.

Sarah Bjorkman
Employee Communications Manager

The Northeast Minnesota Sustainable Development Partnership (NMSDP) coordinated a resource team visit to Boulder Lake Environmental Learning Center in March 2008. The team's recommendations, actions taken by Boulder and next steps are outlined in their report. Some recommended actions include offering cohort opportunities for learning through the Woodland Advisor and Master Naturalist programs; connecting Master Naturalist volunteers to school forest programs; and developing an online forum to continue to discuss ways for Boulder Lake to engage people that live, work and play in forested landscapes.

For more information about this project or the NMSDP Forestry Team program visit the website.

Okey Ukaga
Executive Director, NMSDP

On Monday, August 17 the University's Office of Information Technology will be making adjustments to email that will affect all Extension employees who use University email clients such as GopherMail and Outlook.  The maximum email message size will be 25MB and Trash and Sent folders will be auto-filed after 30 days. It is important to note that when emails are auto-filed they will remain easily accessible in an archive folder.  Also, large attachments can be shared through Netfiles instead of sending them through email. 

More information about these adjustments can be found on the Information Technology section of the employee website.  For additional assistance, contact the Extension IT helpline at (612) 624-6700.

Karen Matthes
Organizational Training

The popular perennial calendar, Minnesota Gardening 2010, makes a great holiday gift for Minnesota gardening enthusiasts.  This award winning 12-month calendar has beautiful color photos and timely tips for lawn, garden and house plant care.  This year's special feature provides information on using vines in Minnesota home landscapes.

From now until September 6, Extension and University staff can purchase the calendar through the Extension Store at the wholesale price of $6.50 plus shipping per copy.  Purchases made after that date will be $8.00 per copy plus shipping.

Jennifer Obst
Coordinator, Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station

Recognize and celebrate the achievements of your colleagues (or yourself!) by nominating them for an award from the Minnesota Association of Extension Educators (MAEE). In addition to the Teamwork and Effective Leadership Awards that have been presented in previous years, this year MAEE is introducing new awards recognizing innovation and scholarship. MAEE is an organization of professional educators working in county, regional and state positions within Extension representing professional development, personnel policy and public awareness interests of its members. Any current Extension employee can nominate a colleague, but you must fulfill eligibility requirements to receive an MAEE award.

Nomination forms are due on September 4.  For a description of each award, eligibility details and information about how to submit a nomination, please visit the MAEE awards website. Award winners will be honored at the MAEE awards banquet at the Fall Program Conference in October. For additional questions contact Nancy Hegland.

Andrea Lorek Strauss
MAEE Awards/Public Relations Committee

Educators from the Extension Center for Community Vitality were joined by residents of Grand Rapids and Jeff Horwich of Minnesota Public Radio (and other panel members) to discuss "What Makes a Small Town Thrive" on June 22. Ben Winchester, research fellow, and Jodi Horntvedt, educator in leadership and civic engagement, gave their informed perspectives on why some small towns in Minnesota are dying while others are thriving despite large challenges. Maxine Norman, educator in leadership and civic engagement, also participated from the audience, describing her Connecting Rural Communities initiative.

If you have ideas for a radio program, visit the communications section of the employee website for Tips on Developing a Radio Broadcast, and contact Julie Christensen or Catherine Dehdashti.

Catherine Dehdashti
Public Relations Coordinator

Extension in Minnesota is a national leader in partnering with other states to address today's issues that often cross state lines. Flood response in the Red River Valley, Emerald Ash Borer research, and financial security education are all examples of timely issues that Minnesota faculty and educators are addressing with other states.

As we continue to look for ways to increase both our impact and funding, Extension program teams should look across state lines for opportunities to initiate or strengthen partnerships with other states. Federal agencies, nonprofits and industry often recognize and value states that work together by rewarding multi-state collaborations when making funding or grant decisions.

Professional societies as well as regional and national conferences all provide opportunities to develop the necessary relationships with colleagues from other states that lead to joint programs. Recently, eXtension has placed much emphasis and many resources on forming communities of practice, which enables faculty from multiple states to collaborate. And, many of our departmental faculty have worked across state borders via Multi-State Research Committees overseen by the Agricultural Experiment Stations. These multi-state committees have resulted in great regional projects like the US Pork Center for Excellence. 

Many of the issues we are dealing with are not unique to Minnesota, thus working with other states provides an opportunity to leverage other resources by expanding our scope. 

Mike Schmitt
Senior Associate Dean, Programs and Research

If you are planning to use copyrighted material in an article, publication, presentation or program materials, you must obtain permission. The University's Copyright Permission Center works closely with publishers, rightsholders, and the University of Minnesota Office of the General Counsel to help you get the permission you need. Their effective process makes it worth the nominal fee they charge. 

You can submit your permission request online. Remember to give yourself plenty of time to get permission and be aware of the center's busiest months-before the start of a school term.  See their deadlines and plan accordingly!

Neil D. Anderson
Director, Resource Development Unit

The Master Gardener program's main office has moved to 155 Alderman Hall on the St. Paul campus, while maintaining a satellite office at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum where the program manages the Yard and Garden desk and phone line.

Both locations offer work space for consumer horticulture Extension educators and Master Gardener program staff visiting campus as well as work space and computer access for Master Gardeners volunteering with state projects.

State Program Director, Julie Weisenhorn, will maintain the satellite office at the Arboretum. The new Master Gardener Administrative Specialist, Bridget Barton, will manage the new state office location in Alderman Hall. The new mailing address and phone number are: U of M Extension Master Gardener Program, Department of Horticultural Science, 155 Alderman Hall, 1970 Folwell Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55108, (612)624-4211.

Julie Weisenhorn
State Master Gardener Director and
Assistant Extension Professor, Horticultural Science

IT Operations will be performing maintenance on Extension servers this Sunday, June 19, from 6 a.m. until noon.

During this time, please do not enter data into MyPrograms or any other web form located on Extension websites and do not use queries and reports that rely on our database servers.

The Extension website may have sporadic availability during the maintenance period on Sunday, but email and network shares (H and S drives) will not be affected.

Rex Wheeler
IT Operations Manager

The environmental science education team is excited to announce the new Prairies & Potholes field guide to selected native species commonly found in Minnesota prairie and wetland ecosystems. Illustrations and descriptive text help novice naturalists identify representative grasses, soils, woody plants, seasonal flowers, mammals, insects, aquatic and upland birds, wetland plants, fish, reptiles and amphibians.

The field guide provides an excellent introduction to the prairie biome for Master Naturalists, Master Gardeners, teachers, youth, nature lovers and outdoor enthusiasts. Orders can be made through the Extension Store for $4.95 per copy.

Renee Pardello
Extension Program Leader
Food Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences

The Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (MISA) seeks your help in identifying individuals who may be willing to serve on the Board of Directors. The purpose of MISA is to bring together the diverse interests of the agricultural community with interests from across the University community in a cooperative effort to develop and promote sustainable agriculture in Minnesota and beyond.

Beginning September 1, the following vacancies will be filled: two sustainable agriculture practitioners (e.g. farmers and ranchers); and one representative of the sustainable agriculture community (e.g. nongovernmental organizations, business, government and citizen representatives). A term on the MISA Board is three years and you may nominate yourself or someone else to serve.

More information can be found on the MISA website.

Helene Murray
Coordinator, Agronomy and Plant Genetics

As part of our Centennial activities this year, we've identified an opportunity for friends of Extension to help celebrate our shared history: an Extension Centennial 4-H project for county and State Fair exhibits! Minnesotans of all ages are invited to participate.

"Honorary" 4-Hers can submit photos and memorabilia representing Extension's work over the years in the areas of agriculture, the environment, food/nutrition, youth, families and communities. Submission criteria and other details can be found on the Extension Centennial site.

We are promoting this project to 4-H families and partners, agricultural commodity group representatives, other friends of Extension and state and local news media. Regional directors and center communications contacts are also sharing the news with groups in their networks.

We hope you'll think about groups you work with who may be interested in this unique opportunity and take a few moments to share the details with them.

Thanks for helping to spread the word about the Extension Centennial 4-H project!

Wendy Huckaby
Youth Development Communications Manager
Julie Christensen
Public Relations and News Media Manager

If you missed the UMConnect meeting on the emerald ash borer (EAB) infestation hosted by the MN EDEN team and presented by Dr. Jeffrey Hahn, Extension entomologist, the EAB presentation is available for viewing online. The information about Extension resources will assist county and regional Extension staff respond to consumer inquiries.

Gwen Gmeinder
MN EDEN team

There will be a full power outage in Coffey Hall, St. Paul campus, on Friday, June 19 from 5-7 a.m. All building systems including the Extension public website servers will be out of power for the two-hour outage. As a result, you will not be able to access the public website during the outage time. Full access will resume at 7 a.m. For questions, contact the Extension IT Help Desk at 612-624-6700.

Rex Wheeler II
IT Operations Manager

Extension's federal partner, CSREES (soon to be National Institute for Food and Agriculture or NIFA) has offered grant funding to state partners for many years.  While the amount of funds that they offer in their competitive grants program (NRI, soon to be known as Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, AFRI) has stayed relatively constant for many years, there will be a significant increase in competitive grant funding due to the recent Farm Bill appropriation and authorization.  Traditionally, NRI grants have primarily funded discovery research projects.  In the future, the trend will be to fund a new type of grant--integrated grants. This is a significant change. 

Integrated grants are grants that combine discovery, research and educational outreach.  At a recent national workshop sponsored by NRI/AFRI, the director of the competitive grants program spoke about the need and importance of integrated grants.  Writing a grant for research work and then adding a paragraph about presenting at a meeting to share the results or writing a bulletin about the data does not constitute an integrated grant.  For 2009-2010, AFRI will be allocating approximately one-third of their grant funding to go to integrated grants.  The director continued stating that Extension components of most grants will be evaluated primarily from their logic models that have become a mainstay for educational outreach (Extension) grants.  This is where our existing teams--field and campus, Extension and non-Extension, internal and external partners--need to come together and leverage each other's expertise and niches to compete for grant funds that can enhance our programming and truly make a difference.  

Mike Schmitt
Senior Associate Dean, Programs and Research

Extension computers are currently installed with the Adobe Acrobat 6 Professional software which allows you to create PDF files. This software is outdated and some advanced features do not work with new versions of Microsoft Office.  Extension IT will be phasing out Adobe Acrobat 6 Professional by no longer including it on new or reimaged computers. For simple PDF creation, the new and reimaged computers will include an application from Microsoft which allows Office 2007 documents to be saved as PDFs.

You may continue to use the existing Adobe Acrobat 6 Professional software unless you are using advanced features (eg. interactive forms) or encounter problems creating PDF files. If you use advanced PDF features, the new Microsoft application will not work for you. You may purchase Adobe Acrobat Pro 9.0 for $25 until July 1, 2009. After July 1, the cost will increase to $54. The University's UTools Web site  provides a link to purchase Adobe Acrobat software.

If you have any questions, please contact the IT helpdesk at 612-624-6700 or view additional information on the employee website under the Information Technology section.

Rex Wheeler
IT Operations Manager

A recent workshop provided an opportunity to discuss what it means for Extension to work globally and identify what we should be doing internationally or cross-culturally now and in the future.

The workshop, "Thinking Globally, Acting Locally: Extension and the World," was held May 11-12 in Roseville, MN. Several speakers from the state of Minnesota, USDA/CSREES, and other extensions (University of Maryland, Penn State, University of Florida) shared what they learned from working globally in their host states and in other countries.

Thank you to the workshop organizers, Renee Pardello and John Vreyens; the planning committee of Wayne Martin, Juan Moreno, Matt Musel, Dawn Newman, Dick Senese and Diomy Zamora; and all workshop participants, speakers and supporters. The cross-state group will stay connected to develop a plan for this work. We will share more as this important work develops.

Greg Cuomo
Extension Associate Dean
Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences

It is impressive to see how registration fees and product sales have increased over the last few years as our audiences place greater value on these programs and products. Program fees, contracts, grants and gifts are becoming a more significant source of funding for Extension. They will continue to be critical to Extension's future financial sustainability, especially given the decrease in federal formula funds as the USDA moves from federal formula funding to competitive grants and as the reduction in state funding impacts our county partners.

While program event and contract revenue are helpful in covering Extension's program teams' variable costs, event revenue does not cover the significant costs of personnel and infrastructure. Grants and gifts are alternative funding options that have the ability to cover program costs, associated personnel costs, and some infrastructure costs such as electricity, heat, technology and maintenance fees. While securing external funding from any source takes significant time and effort, the potential return on investment is significant. 

As Extension continues to garner federal, state and county funding and continues to grow income through appropriate registration fees and contracts, we must also strive to grow our grants. Information on how you can find grant funding opportunities is available on the employee website.

Mike Schmitt
Senior Associate Dean, Programs and Research

While the gardening season typically starts Memorial Day weekend, gardening this year became a hot topic before the snow shoes were put away. People have been excited for months about the prospect of growing their own food--the phenomenon has become known as the "recession garden" or a renaissance of the "victory garden." Extension has seen an uptick in the would-be gardener's need for help.

Horticulturalist Karl Foord is one of the many Extension educators and specialists who are rising to the occasion. Since many people simply don't have the time or the space for a backyard garden, Karl worked with University Relations to produce a video about container gardening. In this video, he shows how simple it is to turn a patio, deck or balcony into your very own vegetable haven. Using Karl's expertise, University Relations also produced an audio clip called "Fresh Taste from Your Container Garden" to use as a University of Minnesota Moment radio feature.   

If you have an idea for a video or audio clip that would address another timely topic, contact Catherine Dehdashti.

Catherine Dehdashti
Public Relations Coordinator/Writer

Extension email lists are updated daily with new employees and retirees.  To have the latest Extension addressbooks installed on your computer, you must perform a manual update by following the "Adding and Updating Extension Addressbooks" instructions on the employee website. These instructions are compatible with Outlook 2003 and 2007.

It is recommended that you update your addressbooks at least quarterly to ensure effective communications with Extension employee groups.  If you use the Extension email lists frequently, you may want to consider updating more often.  Contact the Extension IT Help Desk at 612-624-6700 with questions.

Billie Wilson
Information Technology Supervisor

Since the emerald ash borer (EAB) was discovered in a St. Paul neighborhood on May 14, Extension has been fielding phone calls about it. For years we have been preparing for this situation with partner agencies. Callers should be directed to the Extension EAB webpage for many resources on identifying EAB and making decisions about ash trees. 

A new publication on the webpage, "Insecticide Options for Protecting Ash Trees from Emerald Ash Borer," explains that trees 10 to 15 miles outside of where EAB has been discovered are at low risk of EAB infestation, and insecticide treatment could waste money. The publication gives detailed insecticide recommendations, including insecticide products, as well as guidelines for informed decision making. The webpage also provides a link to where people can track the spread and find out which counties have quarantines on wood products. 

Please check the EAB webpage for updated information on phone numbers before directing calls to various phone lines. In this changing situation, plans for fielding calls are in flux. Also watch for upcoming professional development opportunities to learn more about EAB resources. Phone calls from reporters may be directed to Catherine Dehdashti at 612-625-0237 or ced@umn.edu.

Jeffrey Hahn
Extension Entomologist

There has been a rise in the number of Phishing email scams looking for personal information. As a reminder, the University will never ask for your user ID or password, and you should never reply to ANY email request asking for that information. The University's Office of Information Technology offers additional tips on safe computing and guarding yourself from email scams.   

If you get an email requesting information about your University ID or password, please forward to Phishing@umn.edu.  You can also contact the Extension IT Help Desk at 612-624-6700 with any questions or concerns.

Billie Wilson
Information Technology Supervisor

Check out the spring 2009 edition of Extension Update, an e-newsletter for Extension retirees.  In addition to news about our retirees, this issue highlights the Centennial celebration, Extension's response to weather and public health emergencies, Extension at the Capitol, and the Speak Out for Military Kids program. If you have ideas for articles of interest to retirees, please send them to Gwen Gmeinder.

Gwen Gmeinder
Government Relations Associate

The recent outbreaks of H1N1 flu virus have raised questions within Extension about when to cancel Extension programs due to public health emergencies. Guidelines outlining the procedures to use in the event of a public health emergency are now available on the employee website.

To summarize the guidelines: Extension programs will be delivered in a manner consistent with local and state public health directives so as to not compromise the safety of the program participants or the staff. Decisions on conducting programs in locations where heightened public health concerns exist will be based on recommendations of local public health officials and the local situation. Program staff will work with the regional director to contact the local public health official for the recommendation based on the local situation. Program leaders/supervisors will work with the program staff and regional director to make the final decisions.

As always, the health and safety of the Extension staff and program participants is the highest priority. Recommended best practices for the recent H1N1 flu virus includes avoiding program attendance when ill, covering coughs and washing hands.

Bob Byrnes
MN EDEN Coordinator and Regional Director

With the retirement of Rod Elmstrand, former regional director at the Extension Regional Office in Mora, an interim team has been assembled to provide regional director operational support to the regional office and the counties and staff in the Mora region.

Lead contacts for counties will be: 

• Chisago and Isanti counties―Pat Morreim, Extension regional director, Andover
• Kanabec and Pine counties―Jim Carlson, Extension regional director, Brainerd
• Mille Lacs County―Sarah Chur, Extension regional director, St. Cloud
• Carlton County―Mardi Harder, Extension regional director, Cloquet

Lee Raeth will provide temporary leadership to the Mora office and Toni Smith will assist regional directors in facilitating their work in the newly assigned counties.  A special thanks to Pat, Jim, Sarah, Mardi and Toni for expanding their roles to provide this interim support through calendar year 2009.

Lee Raeth
Director of Field Operations

University of Minnesota Adjunct Assistant Professor of English, Michael Tortorello recently began writing a gardening blog for the New York Times, chronicling his adventures in gardening at his Minneapolis home. His blog features several experts on a range of gardening and horticulture topics.  In his May 8 blog post, Tortorello features expert advice from Extension Soil Scientist (and Senior Associate Dean), Michael Schmitt, and Extension Specialist in Nursery Management, Jeff Gillman.  

Social media applications connect users worldwide by allowing them to publish and access information via the web. Contributing to social media outlets such as blogs increases Extension's scope in Minnesota and beyond, thus increasing our visibility and impact.

Catherine Dehdashti
Communication & Public Relations Coordinator

By the end of this week, you will find a link on the Extension website with information related to the H1N1 (swine) flu. Specifically, we will direct the public to the national websites and resources that provide timely updates and information about the virus. In addition the swine team will be updating the swine website with timely information for producers.

The Minnesota EDEN team will also be working with the University to outline our policies on whether or not to hold public classes and meetings in the case of a local outbreak of the virus. Watch for more information about that in the next few weeks.

Bob Byrnes
MN EDEN Coordinator and Regional Director

On Saturday, May 2, maintenance will be performed on Extension servers between the hours of 8 p.m. and midnight. Services impacted include but are not limited to:

• Extension website
• Extension Store
• MyPrograms
• File shares and printing in Extension Regional Office, Marshall
• Twin Cities campus printing

Individual and department shares (H: and S: drives) and email will not be impacted by this maintenance. If you experience issues with connecting to Extension resources on Sunday, May 3, please call and leave a message on the IT helpline at 612-624-6700.

Rex Wheeler
IT Operations Manager

If you haven't looked through the Extension website lately, you may be interested in seeing some of the new program overview pages thatexplain the work of the program team, describe and link to program pages, and gather content from all over the website into one place. If a program has its own website, the user can easily get to it as well, and all  overview pages now also have automated sections such as "New on the Web" and "Workshops."

The latest overview pages to be added this week are the new agriculture and garden overview pages. The Extension website team will continue to work with program teams and Extension center staff to create a site that meets the educational goals of the centers, the programs and their audiences.

Karen Lilley
Extension Web Manager

There are several key statements that must appear on Extension materials to indicate that we uphold federal and state civil rights laws and regulations, as well as University equal opportunity policies. These statements, which include equal opportunity (EEO) and disability access (ADA) statements, must appear on Extension publications and materials whether printed or available online.

For definitions and information on how to use these statements visit the required statements webpage on the employee site. A shorter version of this document that provides just the wording for each statement is available to both staff and freelance designers as part of the "Production Guidelines for Freelancers and Staff" on the public site.

Sarah Bjorkman
Employee Communications Manager

There is a temporary change in the approval process for grants with Extension personnel.  When someone from Extension is listed as a Principal Investigator (PI) or a Co-PI, the Proposal Routing Form (PRF) needs to be approved by three "approvers" in Extension. 

They are as follows:
1. Supervisor for the PI/Co-PI
2. Extension Finance and Planning team member, Betsy Leverty (lever002)
3. Extension administration, Mike Schmitt (schmi009)

If there is a case where Betsy is preparing the PRF, she will list her alternate approver, Georgia Dunlevy.  If you have any questions don't hesitate to contact Mike Schmitt, or Madonna Monette. More information is also available on the employee website.

Mike Schmitt
Senior Associate Dean, Programs and Research
and
Madonna Monette
Finance Director

The following sessions are coming up in the next few weeks. Please note, we are using a new audio conferencing system. Log into the UMConnect meeting and follow the audio conference instructions on the screen. Click on the links below for event details.

Movie Maker to Media Mill: Creating video for the web, April 16, 1 p.m.
 

Office 2007 Overview, April 21, 1 p.m. and April 30, 1 p.m.
 

A complete list of upcoming webinars can be found on the employee website.  If you have questions, contact Chery Day. 

Chery Day
Organizational Training Unit Coordinator

The University has introduced a new policy on the use of the University's trademarks, logos, colors and seals which is now available for a 30-day review and comment period. The policy outlines the requirements for establishing a consistent visual and brand identity. Feedback received will be considered prior to the policy going into effect. For more information, view the policies under review.

Aimee Viniard-Weideman
Assistant Dean, Communications

Extension has always valued innovation in fostering self-guided, participatory learning.   Peer-to-peer learning guided by an Extension professional, either face-to-face or online, can align well with adult learners' schedules, objectives and learning styles.   If managed well, this approach can ensure relevance and build active participant engagement.   

In a one-hour webinar held on April 8 at 11 a.m., Extension educators Eli Sagor and Bill Craig will present examples and lead a discussion of this approach and how to apply it to Extension programming. Webinar details can be found on the Extension Employee Site.

Larry Coyle
Coordinator for Distance Education

The Extension Regional Office in Morris will be closed for moving on Monday and Tuesday, March 16 and 17 and will reopen on Wednesday, March 18. If you need assistance, please call (320)589-1711 during business hours and a message will be relayed to the Morris regional office staff.  After the move is complete, refer to the Extension Regional Offices page on the public website for updated office contact information.

Kay Stanek
Regional Director, Morris

Family Development educators are in high demand from the media as a result of the economic crisis. Working in tandem, family resource management and family relations educators address problems the current economic reality presents to families from both perspectives. Last week, Rosemary Heins (family resource management) and Kathleen Olson (family relations) answered questions on a Pioneer Press website. They had more than 300 participants online as they chatted live, and have had hundreds more view the archived responses.

Kathleen has been reaching out in the same interdisciplinary fashion with Shirley Anderson-Porisch (family resource management) through the U of M Newswire, collaborating on a weekly column called "Connect@home" which reaches thousands of readers who are dealing with family and financial challenges. Two of their most recent columns were "Keeping your home" and "Job losses require family adjustments."

These are just a few examples--thanks to all of the Extension faculty and staff who have been working with the media to show how Extension helps Minnesotans during difficult times.

Catherine Dehdashti
Communication & Public Relations Coordinator

There is an email message circulating from e-cards@americangreetings. IT IS A VIRUS! Do NOT open the card. Delete it! It will prompt you to install/update Microsoft Antivirus360. There is no such antivirus software on our machines as we use Symantec. It will install the nasty virus floating around. This virus is impacting individuals University wide. Please do not open.

Rex Wheeler
IT Operations Manager

University of Minnesota Libraries are offering a workshop called "Who Owns Your Scholarship? Copyright, Publication Agreements, and Good Policy" on Monday, February 16, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. The workshop is for authors and creators of academic work, so this should be of interest to many Extension educators and specialists.

Neil D. Anderson
Director, Resource Development Unit

Did you contribute any of your time toward a grant last summer? If you provided effort (paid or cost-shared) toward a sponsored project during summer semester 2008 (June 9 through August 31, 2008), you will receive an email notification. The email will link you to the Effort Certification and Reporting Technology (ECRT) page, letting you know your effort statement is ready to be certified by electronic signature.

Tim Sang-Wan Ha
Principal Accountant

To be eligible to serve as a "principal investigator," the lead person for sponsored projects at the University, it is required that you attend the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training. The next RCR Workshop is on Monday, February 16, from 1 to 3 p.m. in McNamara Center, Minneapolis campus. Registration information is available online.

Amy C. Baker
Program Resource Director

Recently the University of Minnesota has been the target of a new phishing email scam.  Phishing emails are deceptively designed to steal your valuable personal information such as user name, password, birthdate or location.  To make them look legitimate, they appear to be sent from a University email address, but they are not from the University. The scam artists may place a link(s) in the body of the email that appears to go to a legitimate website, but actually takes you to a phony site where you might unknowingly submit your personal information.  

As a general rule, the University will never ask for your personal information via email.  The only time you should be asked to change your password or verify any information is when you log into a secure University website.  Do not reply to these emails.  If you already have replied, change your X.500 password right away.   More information on phishing emails is available online.  

Please forward any email asking for your University credentials to phishing@umn.edu or contact the IT Help Desk at 612-624-6700 if you have any questions.

Billie Wilson
Information Technology Supervisor

Minnesotans have survived the latest wave of arctic temperatures, but we're not out of winter yet. For nearly 600,000 residents who have septic systems, severe cold temperatures pose a serious threat. Nick Haig, program associate, Water Resources Center, has tips to keep your septic system regular. For more information, see U of M Moment "Keep Your Septic System from Freezing" or Extension's news release.

If you have an idea for a short audio or video news release on Extension work that would be of interest to the Greater Minnesota consumer audience, contact Catherine Dehdashti who will work with University News Service to determine if your idea is a good fit for a news release.

Catherine Dehdashti
Public Relations Coordinator/Writer

Just a reminder that as the temperatures drop, do not leave laptops in cold vehicles for extended periods of time. The damage caused by prolonged exposure to cold weather may not be covered under warranty.

If you have concerns about how long is too long for a computer to be left out in the cold, follow this basic rule: If an opened bottle of water in your vehicle has formed ice or has frozen, then your laptop has been out in the cold too long. Once indoors, take the laptop out of the case and let it sit for 20 to 30 minutes to acclimate to room temperature before plugging it in and powering it up. (This includes leaving it off the docking station.)

Billie Wilson
Information Technology Supervisor