Effective Extension educational work requires that reports be timely, accurate, concise, and complete. Reporting is an element of Extension work that most agents will tell you is not the most favorite part of their job. District 11 County Extension Agents do an excellent job of programming, but some fail to capture their accomplishments in monthly reports. It is important that “taxpayers deserve to know that their money is being prudently extended in society’s best interest” John Campbell (1995) in his book Reclaiming a Lost Heritage (p.140).
Failure to report these performance measures can severely impact appropriated funding. Reporting is fundamental to comprehensive Extension programs and is a significant part of agents professional obligations. Reporting should be thought of as tool to modify and improve educational programs, as well as to communicate program progress and results to faculty, staff, planning committees, elected officials, clientele, and Extension Administrators.
All reports should contain the following:
* Who are targeted audiences for program/activity and the number attending?
* What issue is being addressed and subject matter covered?
* When did the program/activity take place?
* The impact of the program/activity. Adoption of practices, knowledge gained or behavioral changes should be reported.
The 4th quarter of the 2010 fiscal year ended in August (June,July, and August). I will contacting county offices as I monitor agents reports on the TEXAS system for the 4th quarter. Remember your numbers are lost if not in the system by today.
Issue Identification Guidelines
Attached is a link to the guidelines to assist you in the Issue Identification process that you will coordinate through your Leadership Advisory Board late this year or early next year. Hopefully you will find the guidelines helpful as you work to facilitate a successful process with the LAB. We will have a program at next weeks Program Planning Conference to train all of our agents on issue identification.
The guide will be housed at the Extension Issues website at http://extensionissues.tamu.edu, and additional resource materials will be placed there as they are developed. For more information contact Dr. Jeff Ripley.
This process will be a critical component of our planning efforts, and will help to ensure that we have programs targeted toward the primary issues in each county. Thanks for all that you are doing to keep programs relevant and timely in your county.
Career Ladder Promotion
During this time of year, final work on dossiers for submission for 2010-2011 review are in full swing. The work that goes into the promotion process by agents, supervisors, regional program directors, and Level IV agents, is very much appreciated. This involved, highly reviewed process helps ensure a quality document for the peer review committees consideration. But, I didn't want to get too far into the 2010-2011 process without recognizing the agents who have received promotions effective September 1, 2010. Congratulations to all of our agents that submitted dossiers this past year, all four achieved promotion to the next level. A great accomplishment and recognizes District 11 once again as having some of the most productive agents in the our agency.
Agents promoted to:
Level II: Sally Garrett
Level III: Sam Womble,Brian Yanta
Level IV: Brent Batchelor
