Archive for the ‘General Extension’ Category

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Off to South Dakota Tomorrow

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

Tomorrow I fly to South Dakota to speak at the South Dakota Cooperative Extension Service’s annual conference on Thursday.  I’m mostly presenting on technology tools and their applications to Extension work, along with some connections to generational differences.

I’m excited about the trip. I’ve never been to South Dakota and am looking forward to visiting Sioux Falls and then Brookings and South Dakota State University. I’m even more excited about talking to Extension peers about the tools that can help to create a 21st Century Extension professional.

Posted in Extension 2.0, General Extension, Organizational Development/Strucuture, Technology, Tools | 4 Comments »

Fuel Consumption and Extension Programming

Monday, October 13th, 2008

Consumers have started to drive less and appear to be keeping the driving down even as gas prices head down. Or so says a recent Wall Street Journal Online article. Less driving will likely reinforce three trends in Extension.  One is the continued difficulty in getting clientele to drive to meetings and events. The second is a move toward more changes in work structure and social entrepreneurship.  A third trend is subject matter specific: An increased market for energy programming related to conservation.

Our ability to attract audiences still appears to remain high, but converging societal trends make it difficult for all non-formal and volunteer based organizations to draw audiences. Gas prices have some impact, although there seems to be scarce research to demonstrate direct impacts.  Regardless, Extension and outreach professionals will need to find alternative ways to connect with clientele and volunteers.
A bigger impact of fuel prices occurs internally. Many Extension and third sector organizations continue to  face the double squeeze decreasing travel funds and rising fuel/reimbursement costs. Extension professionals  essentially see their travel budges reduced while the per mile reimbursement increases.  One impact from this dilemma is an increased focus on adopting (or more accurately, adapting) tools that allow for distributed collaboration.

Finally, consumers can and do change their behavior based on incentives. What new (or old) programming can we offer related to energy conservation?

Posted in General Extension, Organizational Development/Strucuture, Teaching/Programming | 1 Comment »

Time to Get Back to Blogging

Sunday, October 12th, 2008

It does not seem like that long ago that I stopped blogging. But ugghhhh, it has been a while. My original plan was to spend some time redesigning and updating the blog.  The new modified plan is to just start posting and make design and structural changes whenever possible.  Otherwise I won’t get started. So expect to see some more posts over time, including some of my new duties with Ohio State University Extension.

Posted in General Extension | No Comments »

Dreary Economic News

Saturday, March 8th, 2008

Not so good news from today’s NY Times article by David Leonhardt. It’s never encouraging when an article starts with these four lead sentences:

If history is a reliable guide, the recession of 2008 is now unavoidable.

The dismal jobs report released Friday showed overall employment to be lower than it was three months ago. Every time such a slump has occurred since the early 1970s, a recession has followed — or already been under way.

And if the good times have really ended, they were never that good to begin with. Most American households are still not earning as much annually as they did in 1999, once inflation is taken into account. Since theCensus Bureau began keeping records in the 1960s, a prolonged expansion has never ended without household income having set a new record.

Implications for Extension include more programming to meet increased economic stresses, community economic development strategies. And once again we need consider the impacts on Extension funding and budgets. It also forces us to consider more uses of technology and new organizational systems like Extension 2.0.

Posted in Extension 2.0, General Extension | No Comments »

Staying focused in an unfocused world

Saturday, March 8th, 2008

It feels like a matter of weeks since I last posted and it’s really been months. Kind of the way life feels like these days.  I’m forever committing to multiple projects. A great (and quick read) on the need to focus and on getting more done by doing  less busywork is Graham Alexander’s Tales from the top.  Some more good advice comes from a post from Dwayne Melacon’s Genuine Curiosity  blog. Dwayne recommends a simple system. Taking the top few items that are critical to get done each day and putting them on an index card. Dwayne calls it his “Daily Watch” list and creates it from the multiple project lists he maintains (this follow’s David Allen’s Getting Things Done).

Good advice for Extension professionals caught in daily white water. If you can’t at least focus on your key commitments for at least some of each day they will slip away.

Posted in General Extension, Leadership, What I'm reading | No Comments »

Galaxy III Website is Up!

Monday, May 21st, 2007

The Galaxy III website is up and running! Many of the preliminary details are posted including the broad, overview schedule. I’ve participated and presented at the previous two Galaxy programs and highly recommend attending. Having the site and information up this far in advance helps Extension Professionals plan and organize to attend.

Here is the site link.  See this link for a brief mission statement for the conference.

Posted in General Extension | No Comments »

Finally at NACDEP…and Online

Tuesday, April 17th, 2007

I finally got to Philly yesterday and online today. The east coast storms have played havoc with the flights. It would have been perfect for twitter, but oh well.

More later!

Posted in General Extension | No Comments »

2007 NACDEP Conference

Saturday, April 14th, 2007

Starting on Monday I will be attending the 2007 National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals (NACDEP) annual National Conference in Philadelphia. I hope to get a post or two up during the conference. I was hoping to play with Twitter too, but that is looking less likely to happen. How to keep up with everything?

I am also part of a team presenting a workshop on Extension restructuring, Centers, and moving to multi-programmatic programming. And a way from less geographically maintained programming issues (see the top of page five of this PDF for a brief description). And eat some real cheese steaks. Bring on the Cheez Wiz!

If you are at the conference be sure to look me up.

Posted in General Extension | No Comments »

Postive Results from Multi-tasking?

Thursday, March 15th, 2007

Jack Vinson has an interesting post about a Computerworld article that discusses some positive benefits of multi-tasking related to technology tools. One of the articles comments makes a nice point that much of what is being referred to as multi-tasking is simply switching between tasks.

Posted in General Extension, Organizational Development/Strucuture, Technology | 2 Comments »

How Many of Me

Tuesday, March 13th, 2007

I found this neat little tool on James Robinson’s “new” weblog. James seems to share his name with 11,630 other people in the US. Unfortunately at least one of them is on the TSA watch-list (see his post here). Anyway, I started to play with How Many of Me just for fun. Then the Extension programming wheels started to turn and I began to think about how I could use this tool in my programming. Some initial thoughts include:

  • An icebreaker
  • An “after break” tool
  • A meeting starter (different from an ice breaker in that you know and are familiar with everyone around the table)
  • A way to see how many other folk like you are out there in the US…or how few
  • A tool to understand the power of large groups

As of 3.13.07 there are 28 other Jerold Thomas’ in the US and 2,066 Jerry Thomas’. Try it. Then try your significant other, parents, friends, etc. Check out the stats page.

Posted in Fun, General Extension, Tools | No Comments »

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