ELT Minutes October 23, 2012

Extension Leadership Team Meeting Minutes

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

102B Libby Hall

Present:         Fran Sulinski, Jon Prichard, Lisa Phelps, John Rebar, and Dennis Harrington.

Guest:            Michele Lodgek

Facilitator:    Fran Sulinski

Note taker:    Jon Prichard

Please note: Due to the confidentiality and sensitivity of some agenda items, these ELT minutes do not represent the full content of each meeting.

Expanded Organizational Support for Grant Proposals – The ELT endorsed the intentions of Travis Beyerl and Dennis Harrington to expand their support of those seeking to create grant proposals through increased participation in:

• Budget development & budget spreadsheet building
• Budget justification/budget narrative writing
• Grants.gov and other application documents
• Proposal & submission
• Proposal review
• Post-award management

Staff members should contact Travis and/or Dennis early in the process to coordinate their participation and help in crafting your grant proposal.

Centralized Data Base updates.  Michele Lodgek updated ELT members on the progress of the management, installation and implementation of the Centralized Data Base.

Business Reply Envelopes – The US Post Office has changed our “business reply” account number starting January 1, 2013. This is the account that gets charged when our staff sends communications (surveys, etc) to customers who can use the envelope to reply without adding postage – the return postage is charged to our business reply account number. This means that our existing inventory of envelopes cannot be used after December 31, 2012 and will need to be recycled; all Extension offices should discard/recycle their old envelopes on or before December 31.  New envelopes will be available on or before January 1, 2013.

ELT Meeting Dates –  ELT meeting dates were set through June, 2013.

Hourly Employee Classification and Compensation Program (HECCP) – The Hourly Employee Classification and Compensation Program (HECCP) has been implemented for classified employees.  The result has been an increase in wages and retroactive pay.   In the past, Counties have been responsible for the increases in wages.  Regarding this current situation, the ELT decided to pay the retro, and since many Counties already have submitted their 2013 budget requests to county governments, the ELT will also pay the increase in wages through December 2013.

Performance Evaluations Completion – Human Resources and the Provost’s Office is getting ready for the next round of performance evaluations with the same expectation to achieve 100% completion as requested by the President and Board of Trustees.

Success Stories – We will soon complete reporting for FY12, and begin the process of highlighting impacts through success stories. While there is much in the system, Dennis would like to highlight programs that might not be well represented in past reports. We brainstormed a list of programs for Dennis to explore.  As always, all staff are encouraged to submit success stories on the Maine Planning and Reporting System (MPRS).

Announcements:

Please remember to visit  University of Maine’s news site for additional University of Maine Cooperative

Extension highlights.

• Congratulations to James Dill who has been awarded $65,000 from the Department of Agriculture, Conservation & Forestry – Board of Pesticides Control to fund ongoing development of pesticide safety education manuals.

ELT Meeting Dates –2012

Meetings are from 9:00 am to 3:30 pm – unless otherwise noted

Anyone wishing to participate in an ELT meeting should contact the facilitator for that date.

Dates                                  Facilitator                          Notes                              Location

 

November 7	Phelps	Rebar	Orono — 102B Libby Hall
November 27	Rebar	Prichard	Orono — 102B Libby Hall
December 13	Prichard	Harrington	UMA—Jewett Hall, Room 114
January 14	Harrington	Sulinski	Orono — 102B Libby Hall
February 5	Sulinski	Phelps	Orono — 102B Libby Hall
February 22	Phelps	Rebar	Augusta – Room TBD
March 14	Rebar	Prichard	Orono — 102B Libby Hall
April 4	Prichard	Harrington	Orono — 102B Libby Hall
April 24	Harrington	Sulinski	Augusta – Room TBD
May 15	Sulinski	Phelps	Orono — 102B Libby Hall
June 4	Phelps	Rebar	Orono — 102B Libby Hall