ELT Minutes, January 27, 2014
Extension Leadership Team Minutes
January 27, 2014
Orono – Libby Hall
Facilitator: John Rebar
Note taker: Jon Prichard
Check-in
In the late 1990’s the administration of Cooperative Extension created a process whereby a professional employee could request to be reclassified to faculty status. Recently, the Office of Human Resources reviewed our professional to faculty reclassification process and deemed it inappropriate within the current campus guidelines largely due to equal opportunity obligations to conduct a national search when filling a faculty position.
Ryder Scott and Lisa Phelps will be on panels at the fourth bi-annual Maine STEM Summit March 28th, at Colby College. The event presents an exciting opportunity to gain an appreciation of the role STEM education plays in careers and everyday life. The Summit also provides an opportunity to share STEM education success stories from K thru12, public and private higher education institutions and industry including instructional programming, curriculum development, internships, and mentoring, among others
John Rebar and Jason Bolton took Vice President for Research Carol Kim on a tour of UMaine campus food research facilities.
The Potato Conference was held in Caribou for a large audience of growers and others connected to the industry. This annual event brings researchers, extension, non-profits groups and government agencies together for two days of presentations. This year attendees came from 8 states and two provinces. Congratulations to the faculty and staff of Extension that plan and conduct this event.
At the annual meeting of the Maine Agriculture Fairs, Susan Jennings and Lisa Phelps met with the fair presidents to discuss how they might help with fund raising in support of Maine 4-H and Youth Development.
Laptop Cost Sharing Program – The “FLIP” laptop-sharing program will be announced this week. The program is a partnership of the UMaine Academic Affairs leadership, the UMaine IT Department, and the Extension Leadership Team, who will provide matching grants towards the purchase of an Apple MacBook Pro Bundle, an Apple MacBook Air Bundle, or an iPad Air Wi-Fi 32GB. The grants are available to base funded faculty or professionals who meet the criteria in the attached Request for Proposals. There are a limited number of laptop/iPad matching grants available. Priority will be given to staff members who have not previously participated in this program. Dennis will email application details to staff. Applications will be due by February 14, 2014.
POW Update – Dennis has built the new POW system. Dennis is literally creating everybody’s plan and then they can update it as needed. Our POW will need to be integrated with the Experiment Station plan.
Development Reports and Response to Donors – The University generates development reports that show contact information for all who are making donations to Extension, county offices, camps, etc. There are lots of checks coming in. Are we properly thanking each and every donor? This should be a responsibility of the benefitting office, camp, etc. PAs or local staff should be finding a way to thank every donor, perhaps by a thank you note. PAs will check in with counties and camps to see what is their current practice in tracking and thanking donors.
Future Agenda Items:
First quarter of each year: Updates from Tanglewood/Blueberry Cove, and Bryant Pond Camps
Announcement Invitation:
The ELT invites you to submit items to be included in the minutes/announcements of the next regularly scheduled ELT meeting. This is an opportunity to share with the ELT and the rest of the organization any of the following:
- Notable programmatic accomplishments
- Development or fundraising success
- Significant new partnerships and/or opportunities
- Important transitions
Please take the opportunity to share your good works through this avenue. Keep it brief… approximately two to four sentences would be appreciated. To submit an announcement, please contact your PA or appropriate member of the ELT.
Please remember to visit University of Maine’s news site for additional University of Maine Cooperative Extension highlight.
Announcements:
Congratulations to Keri Kaczor, who has been awarded $175,000 from Maine Department of Environmental Protection to continue the coastal monitoring work of the Maine Healthy Beaches program for 2014.
Congratulations to Kathy Hopkins, Beth Calder, and Seanna Annis, who have been awarded $9,245 from North American Maple Syrup Council, Inc. for their project “Detection of Toxins in Contaminated Maple Syrup”
Congratulations to Glen Koehler, who has been awarded $8,103 from Maine Department of Agriculture to conduct a survey to determine presence or absence of three exotic Lepidopteran species in 13 Maine apple orchards.
Search Updates:
POS#208 Small Farm Business Professional – Accepting applications
POS#211 Crops Specialist – Accepting applications
POS#212 Special Projects & Compliance Professional – Interview January 17, 2014
POS#213 4-H Youth Development Professional – Accepting applications
POS#215 Accounting & Reporting Professional – Waiting for approval to advertise
ELT Meeting Dates – 2013 – 2014
Meetings are from 9:00 am to 3:30 pm – unless otherwise noted
| Dates |
Facilitator |
Notes |
Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| February 13 | Prichard | Harrington | Orono — 102B Libby Hall |
| February 27 | Harrington | Sulinski | Augusta — 124 Jewett Hall |
| March 19 | Sulinski | Phelps | Orono — 102B Libby Hall |
| April 2 | Phelps | Rebar | Orono — 102B Libby Hall |
| April 24 | Rebar | Prichard | Augusta — 218 Richard Randall Center |
| May 16 | Prichard | Harrington | Orono — 102B Libby Hall |
| May 29 | Harrington | Sulinski | Augusta — 218 Richard Randall Center |
| Sulinski | Phelps | ||
| Phelps | Rebar | ||
| Rebar | Prichard | ||
| Prichard | Harrington |