Thoughts to Ponder
Issue 6/4/03
Jo
Britt-Rankin, M.S., Ph.D., Associate Dean, University of Missouri
Extension britt-rankinj@missouri.edu
Summer is Upon Us
Gwynn Hall is much quieter and the streets of Columbia are much
less congested as students left for the summer about two weeks
ago. There remain a few but not the large numbers we are used to.
You begin to miss the hustle and bustle, however, there is still
much activity within each Extension office here on campus.
I wanted to write all of you to
share some of the great news within HES Extension. I hope this
finds each of you happy and healthy and enjoying a bright sunny
day. I think we often forget in these hectic times, to look around
and appreciate the natural beauty that surrounds us.
HES Spring Meeting Follow-up
I want to thank each of you
who attended. This was my first annual meeting to
"organize" and we took some liberties in changing the
schedule. It is my privilege to work with each of you and I did so
enjoy talking with each of you during those two days.
I have taken the time to read each
evaluation that was submitted. I feel that if you took the time to
write down your thoughts, it is my job to read each one and take
the comments to heart. I would agree with many of you that we had
a very tight schedule. It did not allow for much free time, but we
were there to do business and that we did. Many of you liked the
sharing times within your disciplines. We wish to continue this at
future meetings. One thing that I hear repeatedly is the need for
more interaction with our colleagues. We tried to design this
year's format to allow for the exchange of ideas.
I have also noted that we need to
host a meeting, at least, annually. I have to admit that I wanted
to put another option on the list but I goofed and wrote the wrong
thing. My goal was to ask if we needed 1 or 2 meetings per year. I
believe I asked instead if you wanted to meet once a year or every
other year. However, your opinions were very resounding that an
annual meeting is what you desire.
We are looking at the possibility
of having next years meeting be focused on in-service
opportunities. Many of you noted that you needed either to be
trained or retrained on various curricula. We will do all in our
power to provide those opportunities during the Spring of 2004.
In conclusion, I want to publicly
thank Art for his offer to assist in hosting the event in
Boonville. Art, if I am not directly involved with the planning, I
am passing your note along to the person who is. I think it would
be a wonderful opportunity to have you involved and we would
gladly accept your offer to assist.
Performance Evaluations &
PRLLs
I know each of you will be meeting with your RD soon if you have
not already. I have printed each PRLL you have submitted to the
public folders. I want you to know that HES faculty have submitted
over 300 of the 500 PRLLs. These reports do report the impact you
are making. I know many of them are only a snapshot of the overall
programming efforts each of you have. I do want you to know that I
will be going through these reports. I would like to feature as
many of these as possible in the near future. I would like to
publish a piece similar to the "Impact" that Barb Froke
once did featuring work within HES Extension. I hope to be able to
bring that to you by the end of summer.
Missouri Saves Website Debuts
I want to thank Sandra McKinnon, Suzi McGarvey, Jeanne Bintzer,
and Brenda Procter for working on this site. Some of you saw the
message from Sandra earlier today sharing news of the site. If you
did not receive the earlier message, please check out the
information at http://missourifamilies.org/mosaves/index.htm.
This site is still being populated but it is off to a great start.
I thank each of these individuals for their hard work and
dedication. This is another example of the great programming we
have occurring throughout the state.
Candidate Searches Continue
Spring has been filled with candidate searches both on campus
and in the region. We are very fortunate to have only a few
vacancies compared to total regional specialist vacancies and we
are trying to fill many of those currently. As of today, we have
eight regional vacancies. We have been able to fill two of those
positions since January.
Tom Fuhrman and Caezilia Loibl
(pronounced Cecilia Libel) have or will be joining us as HES
specialists in the regions. Tom is now a HDFS specialist in
Randolph County and Caezilia will be a CFE specialist in Iron
County. The remaining vacancies are 5 nutrition specialists, 2
HDFS specialists, and 1 CFE specialist. I continue to work to
fill, at least, four of these positions before the end of the
year.
On campus, we have 3 state
specialist vacancies--CFE, EDn, and HDFS. We have extended an
offer on the EDn position which would begin June 15, 2003. We will
be announcing more details as soon as the offer letter is returned
but we are hopeful. The CFE search committee has interviewed one
candidate to date. The HDFS search committee has scheduled two
interviews to date. These will be June 3-4 and June 18-19. We are
hopeful to fill all of our state specialist positions soon.
Of course, there have been two
interviews for the Associate Dean position. Thanks to each of you
who participated in that process. The search process is moving
forward and we are hopeful to fill that position as well. No
additional information is available as I write to you. We will
share information as it would become available.
In closing . . .
There are so many things to share, I am sure I have forgotten some
things. I will be in contact soon. Please always know that you can
contact me. My door is always open. Let me close by saying Thank
You for all you do
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