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November 2006 |
Volume
3, Number 5 |
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Director’s Message Weeks
have passed since we heard Ernesto Sirolli give his passionate speech at our
annual fall conference in What
struck me the most about Sirolli’s presentation is the fact that he understands
the tenets that have made MSU Extension the unique and successful
organization that it is. His
suggestions to “listen to the elders” and “get the people to come to you,”
are very similar to our practice of soliciting stakeholder input as to what
issues are facing the families, communities and businesses in each county in
the state. Like his Enterprise Facilitators, our County Extension Directors
and Extension Educators work at the local level to identify the issues we are
best suited to address. Sirolli
uses the same logic as MSUE and places Enterprise Facilitators in the communities
they are serving. One great difference between Sirolli’s approach and ours
is that he sends in a person with no connections to the community, while
our Extension
Educators live in the communities they serve. I would argue permanent
residence gives us access, insight and credibility that Enterprise
Facilitators cannot have with so little knowledge of the community they visit
on a short term basis. Even
with this difference, I think there is still a great deal that we can learn
from Sirolli’s model. In some ways, his principles for engaging with
communities reflect our approach to engagement: work in confidence with those who come to
us, be respectful of and compassionate with those we serve, be accessible and
visible in the community, and perhaps most importantly, have expertise to
share with those we serve. I have said
many times that what really sets MSU Extension apart as a unique aspect of In some
ways these reinforce the message that Sirolli shared with us in Our challenge
during the next five years is to learn how we can apply new approaches,
such as those Sirolli has demonstrated, to the needs we have determined
we will address in the next five years. Certainly
Sirolli’s expertise in enterprise development will be of benefit to our
programs as we seek to develop entrepreneurs as a means of strengthening |
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Our |
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Michigan State University Extension helps people improve their lives through an educational process that applies knowledge to critical issues, needs and opportunities. |
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In This Issue |
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·
Director’s Message |
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·
Nugent Recognized for Work at
the NW Station and in the Cherry Industry |
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·
Gov. Granholm Makes
Appointments Michigan Renewable Fuels Commission |
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Nine Counties to Participate in
Kids to Entrepreneurs Club |
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More than 3,000 Attend MSU Women’s Basketball Game to
Celebrate 4-H, Honor Military Families. |
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I look forward to the
opportunity for MSUE to work with Sirolli’s institute in some |
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At Fall
Extension Conference Director Coon talked about the issue identification
process and the report that had been generated based on input gathered from
surveys, focus groups and interviews with key stakeholders. He also shared the results of the process
during meetings in each region. A
brief overview of the process and the priorities for MSUE and MAES is
available on the issue identification Web site: www.msue.msu.edu/issueid/. For a
full copy of the draft report contact your regional director or state program
leader. More information about the
process and the results will be available in December on the Web site and an
official report will be available sometime in January. If you
have any additional questions please contact Marie Ruemenapp at ruemenap@msu.edu. |
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At Fall
Extension Conference Director Coon also made an important announcement about
the implementation of the career path policy.
He announced changes in the minimum degree requirements, salaries and
changes in the portfolio review process.
Click
here for more details about the changes. Director Coon also indicated that this is
only the first step in the career path process and that other changes will be
taking place in the coming years. |
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Now that the 2006 election is past, it is time to
develop a strategy for building relationships and communicating effectively
with newly elected legislators and county commissioners. In the Michigan
House of Representatives, 32 of the 110 House members will be new and 14
of that group are from just four southeast This election saw some significant changes in
political party representation in the Michigan House and on several county
boards. Those changes mean that different people will be in leadership
roles--chairing committees and controlling the agenda. This is an important
time to help them understand how MSU Extension can be a resource for their
work. Check out the information on the Strategic Communication Web site
(log into the portal and then paste in: http://www.msue.msu.edu/go/go.cfm?0009) for suggestions for
developing stronger relationships with public officials. |
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Newly
elected county commissioners will be coming together at six locations
throughout the state to learn about their roles and responsibilities.
For more than 30 years, MSU Extension and Michigan Association of Counties
have co-sponsored this important learning opportunity for commissioners. The County
commissioners will have the opportunity to attend addition educational
sessions during the first part of 2007. The first set of programs will
be in late January, focused on developing effective leadership skills
for board and committee chairpersons. Another series in April will
focus on budget and finance issues. MSU
Extension and the MSU Institute for Public Policy and Social
Research are once again co-sponsoring the Legislative Leadership
Program, a policy orientation for new legislators. This session will be
December 4-6 in |
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Governor Jennifer M. Granholm recently announced
the formation of the Michigan Renewable Fuels Commission to promote the
production and distribution of alternative fuel in
The Michigan Renewable Fuels Commission was
established under Public Act 272 of 2006 signed by Gov. Granholm earlier this
year. The seven-bill package also reduced the gas tax by 36 percent on
fuel that contains ethanol and by 20 percent on biodiesel blends, provided
grants to service station owners who renovate or expand their existing stations
to make E-85 and biodiesel available, and allowed for the creation of new
agriculture renaissance zones to help spur additional ethanol and biodiesel
plants. Granholm has called for the state to have 1,000 biofuel pumps
available by 2008. The commission is charged with investing and
recommending strategies that the governor and Legislature may implement to
promote the use of alternative fuels and encourage the use of vehicles that
utilize alternative fuel. The commission will also identify mechanisms
that promote research of alternative fuels. Dr. Steven G. Pueppke of
Okemos, director of the Office of Bio-Based Technologies at To view a complete list of the appointments go to
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Nine counties have been selected to participate
in the Kids to Entrepreneurs Club Project, a new initiative being
piloted in The counties selected were: Delta,
Mackinac, Congratulations to the selected counties and
staff! For more information about the Kids to Entrepreneurs
program, please contact Erica Tobe (tobee@msu.edu) or Laura Allen (lacourse@msu.edu). |
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The
crowd at the Nov. 19 MSU vs. Texas-Arlington women’s basketball game was
greener than usual, as more than 3,000 4-H youths and family members, 4-H
volunteers and MSU Extension (MSUE) staff members came from across the state
to celebrate the MSUE 4-H Youth Development program. Sporting 4-H clover and MSUE “tattoos” on
faces and hands, the group helped cheer the Spartans to a 65-49 victory at
MSU’s The
event recognized the community service work that engages so many of the
230,000 youth who participate in 4-H and honored the 30,000 The
event also focused attention on Operation: Military Kids (OMK), a program
funded by the U.S. Army and implemented by 4-H Youth Development and other
service organizations. OMK reaches out
to “suddenly military” youths who have deployed family members in the
National Guard or Army Reserve, providing them with recreational
opportunities, emotional support and ways to keep in touch with deployed
family members. The program also educates
schools and communities about the special needs of the families in their
midst who are going through a deployment. |
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The
Michigan State University Great Lakes Leadership Academy (GLLA) has selected
Rita Klavinski, of The
GLLA Leadership Advancement Program will convene its first session in
mid-December. The program is designed to prepare individuals to provide
leadership to communities and the agriculture, natural resources,
manufacturing and environmental sectors of the |
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University Guidelines, Public Comment |
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University's guidelines regarding how to exercise
your voice in public settings, especially when speaking as private
citizens are available at http://www.canr.msu.edu/canrhome/files/documents/Public_Comment_Guidelines.pdf.
A central tenant of the guidelines is that we "should at all
times be accurate, should exercise appropriate restraint, should show respect
for the opinions of others, and should make every effort to indicate that
they are not speaking for the institution." |
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____________________________________________________________________________________
Nominations are open
and may be submitted by Dec. 20. For
more information, including criteria and list of previous winners please
visit http://www.canr.msu.edu/canrhome/anraa_awards.htm
or contact Kathryn Reed at (517) 355-0284. |
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_____________________________________________________________________________________ Window of
The newly
signed Pension Protection Act of 2006 provides for a one-step option to make
a lifetime gift of an IRA asset. If a
person is at least 70½ years of age, he/she may direct a distribution from an
IRA directly to charity, with no tax consequences. This is in effect for 2006 and 2007 only,
and the transfer must not exceed $100,000 per year. MSU, MSUE and the For
more information, see http://www.virtualgiving.com/faqs_and_resources/irarollover
or contact ANR Senior Director of Development Sue Woodard – 517-355-0284,
email woodards@msu.edu. |
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_____________________________________________________________________________________ Portal
Update MSU Extension Portal training
will be offered, Dec. 12 in 106 Farrall Hall.
User
training runs from 8:30-11:30 am, and is for MSU Extension staff members who
use the portal to share information with other staff members, or access
materials from units such as Professional Development, staff resources, etc.
Topics covered include managing your profile, your My Portal, Workspaces and
Live Sessions plus an overview of the Calendar and the Knowledge
Repository. To signup, register for
in-service class 6458 at: http://web2.msue.msu.edu/inservice/.
Portal
manager training runs from 1-4 pm, and is for individuals who will be
actively managing staffing changes and portal pages. Topics covered include
creating and managing portal pages, modules, uploading files to and from
workspaces, using the calendar and adding and removing staff from your
portal. To register for this
in-service class 6459 at:http://web2.msue.msu.edu/inservice/. Spell Check is not part of the portal rich
text editor; however, you can add a plugin to Internet Explorer(IE) called
iespell. The plugin becomes part of your
Tools menu in IE and can be used to spell check “any” forms that you fill in
while on-line including within the rich text editor. To obtain iespell download and install the
software from: www.iespell.com For
Firefox browser users, a spell check is included in the latest version and
will highlight misspellings within entry boxes. The MSUEEveryone listserv is generated from MSUE portal
profiles for members of the MSUE employees group. If you or someone within your staff is not
receiving e-mails broadcast to the MSUEEveryone list, please check to see if
the person has a portal account. If
the person has a portal account and is not receiving MSUEEveryone mailing,
please email Luke Reese (reesel@msu.edu)
or MSU Extension Everyone
Messages Guidelines In an effort to more effectively target the e-mail
messages that all staff members receive, we are implementing a new set of
guidelines for approving messages sent to the MSU Extension everyone
listserv. Instead of automatically approving every message that goes out, we
are establishing a set of guidelines to help e-mail users direct their
messages to the audiences that will be most receptive to them. When
composing a message, please consider:
Administrators are the only ones
who can delete portal accounts. When staff leave MSUE employment and no longer have an MSUE
affiliation, please notify Luke Reese (reesel@msu.edu)
or Portal
managers can remove permissions for a portal instance, which means if the
employee was an editor/manager within a county or office portal, the
employee’s portal editor rights can be removed without contacting Luke or
Joe. New user accounts can be created
by portal managers and editors. Within any portal workspace, a
portal user who has manager or editor rights will find a blue User Creation
Wizard button. Use this button to
create new user accounts for new staff or MSUE collaborators. The wizard is a two-step process with the
second step being quite important.
Step 2 is how users are added to groups. A new user who is a MSUE employee should be
added to the MSUE Employees group. A
new user who is non-MSUE employed (e.g. collaborators, advisor councils,
etc.) should be added to the Adjunct Users group. Web1.msue.msu.edu files can be
housed on and served off the MSUE portal. If you
are housing html pages on web1.msue.msu.edu, you can serve the pages from the
MSUE portal just as easily and maintenance might be easier. For an example, please see the Small Farm
Conference page found on the This
page was transferred from web1 and is housed on the Antrim portal workspace
where the files can be accessed and updated.
If you’re interested in learning more, please contact Luke Reese (reesel@msu.edu), |
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_____________________________________________________________________________________ Fall
Extension Conference Recap |
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Thanks for another successful and energizing conference. There
have been many requests for presentation materials from sessions and handouts
from Director Coon's presentations. In addition photos from the Key
Partner Banquet and the Staff Awards Luncheon have been posted. To access the photos, presentation materials and complete listings of
award winners go to http://www.msue.msu.edu/workspaces/one.cfm?workspace_id=350751.
For more information contact Megghan Honke at honkemeg@msu.edu.
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_____________________________________________________________________________________ New MSUE
Academic Staff Funeral Leave Policy |
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The Funeral Leave (Bereavement) Policy for MSU
Extension provost-appointed academic staff has been updated to correspond
with the general MSU Bereavement policy for faculty and staff. This
policy was effective for MSUE academic staff Oct. 1. The new policy can be found in the MSUE
Administrative Handbook at http://web1.msue.msu.edu/msuehandbook/funerals.htm and
reads as follows: In the case of death of a faculty/academic staff
member’s immediate family, it is practice to provide up to three days paid
time off work to attend the funeral or memorial services and to make
necessary arrangements. If additional time is needed, vacation time, as
applicable, or leave of absence without pay may be requested. The
immediate family consists of a faculty/academic staff member’s spouse or
MSU-recognized same-sex domestic partner; the son, daughter, parent,
grandparent, grandchild, brother, sister (or the spouse of any of them), of
either the faculty/academic staff member or the faculty/academic staff
member’s spouse/MSU-recognized same-sex domestic partner. One day of paid time off work will be allowed in
the case of death of an uncle, aunt, nephew, or niece of either the
faculty/academic staff member or the faculty/academic staff member’s
spouse/MSU-recognized same-sex domestic partner. |
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MSU Names
New Animal Agricultural Environmental Stewardship Director A
nationally recognized expert on odor control has been named to head animal
agriculture environmental stewardship at Michigan State University (MSU). Wendy
Powers, associate professor of animal science and agricultural and biosystems
engineering at As
director of environmental stewardship for animal agriculture, Powers will
work to influence policy and practices that will mitigate and improve the
effects of livestock production on the environment. She will have a
leadership role in developing a collaborative, multidisciplinary research and
outreach programs focused on enhancing environmental stewardship in Powers
received her bachelor's degree in animal science from |
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_____________________________________________________________________________________ Hayes Joins Roy
Hayes has accepted the position of Associate County Extension Director for In
the interim, Van Varner has agreed to step into the Acting County Extension
Director position in |
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_____________________________________________________________________________________ Rothwell
Named District Extension Horticulture Educator and MSUE and the MAES have named Nikki Rothwell district
Extension horticulture educator and coordinator for the Northwest Michigan
Horticultural Research Station, effective Jan. 1, 2007. Rothwell will provide leadership and coordination for
MSU Extension horticultural educational programs and activities in
northwestern lower Michigan and disseminate current research-based technical
and management information to the fruit industry. She will also handle day-to-day management of the
Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Station and associated efforts.
Rothwell will work with fruit industry representatives to determine research
priorities, interact with regional and MSU-based faculty members to
coordinate research activities, and conduct industry workshops and field days
for growers. Rothwell was previously the MSU Extension district IPM
(integrated pest management) educator for fruit. She was responsible for
developing programs and disseminating IPM information and conducting related
research for the northwestern lower Michigan fruit industry. Rothwell
received her bachelor’s degree in biology from |
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Agriculture’s Conference
on the Environment Set for Jan. 30 in The registration fee is
$50 ($20 for students) before Jan. 22. It includes lunch, refreshments and
parking. After that date, the registration is $75. To register by cash or
check, go to www.maeap.org to print a
registration form. To register by credit card, call Jim Van Arkel at
517-241-2232. |
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_____________________________________________________________________________________ Registration opens: December 18, 2006 Participants enjoy the college
experience of living in the dorms, attending classes across campus and
sampling the many highlights of MSU.
The inaugural Grandparents
University 2007 can accommodate up to 500 people. Registration is open to
everyone and is on a first-come, first-serve basis. For
more information visit www.grandparents.msu.edu or
call Kathryn Reed at 517-355-0284. The Distinguished Service Award to ANR, Outstanding Alumni, Honorary
Alumni, and Distinguished Faculty and Staff awards for 2007 will be presented. Additional details will be available in
January. |
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Contact Us 108 Agriculture Hall (517) 355-2308 Fax: (517) 355-6473 |
MSU is an affirmative action, equal opportunity
institution. Michigan State University Extension programs and materials are
open to all without regard to race, color, national origin, gender, religion,
age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, marital status or
family status. Issued in furtherance
of MSU Extension work, acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with
the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Thomas G. Coon, Extension Director, |
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