Plugged In: For UMaine Extension Staff and Volunteers

ELT Minutes: March 1, 2016

Extension Leadership Team Minutes
March 1, 2016
Augusta – Farm House Conference Room 11

Facilitator: Jon Prichard
Note taker: Dennis Harrington

Guests

• Beth Bisson and Paul Anderson, both of Maine Sea Grant
• Ryder Scott, State Director of 4-H Camp and Learning Centers
• Susan Jennings, Maine 4-H Foundation

 Annual update on Maine Sea Grant

Paul Anderson, Director, and Beth Bisson, Associate Director, joined the ELT for an annual update of the Maine Sea Grant program with a focus on our partnership to fund and administer the Marine Extension Team. It was acknowledged by both Maine Sea Grant and Cooperative Extension that we remain committed to the partnership now and for the future. We both affirmed that the annual Sea Grant updates are helpful. Information about the Marine Extension Team and its activities can be found on the Mane Sea Grant Website at http://www.seagrant.umaine.edu/extension .

Annual update on 4-H Camp and Learning Centers

Ryder Scott, Statewide Director of 4-H Camps, presented an annual update of Maine’s 4-H camping program, highlighted by interactions with nearly 8,400 campers in summer, classroom, tech wizards, and food corps programs during 2015. This was a significant increase in enrollment especially for the summer programs. This year Bryant Pond opened the beautiful new Bolger Outdoor Center, a new building that contains an educational classroom and climbing wall. Tanglewood and Blueberry Cove is initiating a capitol campaign in 2016 to support infrastructure improvements. This was the first full year of the Telstar Freshmen Academy at Bryant Pond which has been very successful. The programs were highlighted by an interdisciplinary unit on food systems. It was also the first year of Camp Northwoods a program for kids run by the Maine Warden Service. The camps are looking ahead to a future of innovation and increased integration with Extension that includes more enrolled 4-H club kids from Maine attending the camps. The ELT suggested that camp staff meet with County Executive Committees and challenge them to sponsor at least 1-2 4-H kids to attend camp each year.

 Annual update on Maine 4-H Foundation

Susan Jennings, Director of the Maine 4-H Foundation, updated the ELT on 2015  and 2016 activities. Susan distributed the Maine 4-H Foundation annual report that chronicled Foundation support for a wide array of 4-H Youth Development activities including STEM Ambassadors, 4-H Summer of Science, 4-H Animal Science, Youth Trustees, the statewide 4-H camping programs, and more. The report will be available soon at https://umaine.edu/4hfoundation/ . Susan also reported that the Foundation has had a successful year of fund development work supporting the 4-H Youth Development and Food Systems programs of Cooperative Extension, and that the current year is shaping up to be even better with many successful program partnerships in the works. The Maine 4-H Foundation has a new Facebook page and suggests that Extension staff “like” the page. The Maine 4-H Foundation annual meeting will be held at Wells Conference Center on May 11^th.

 Employee Group Meeting; Progress on Actions

The ELT updated progress on proposed actions related to items generated in the Employee Group Meetings. The intention was to ensure continuous progress and to define next steps. The updates will be forwarded to employee group representatives to review.

 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.

Search Update:

Cumberland County Sustainable Agriculture Professional – Filled (Jason Lilley)

ELT Meeting Dates –2016 – Meetings are from 9:00 am to 3:30 pm – unless otherwise noted.