On February 1st we will have new guidelines working with social networking in association with our job responsibilities. You can go to us.AgriLife.org/social to view our new guidelines next Monday.
Social media represent an innovative and powerful tool for interacting with Extension 's many audiences. The potential for social media tools to provide education , to create communities of interest , to build relationships, and to develop dialog continues to grow. many Extension personnel, like people all over the world, are already using social media venues for personal and professional purposes.
If you will be using an account in Facebook, Twitter, and other social media spaces, refer to our guidelines for tips on creating the identity behind you effort. Set up separate accounts for your professional activities and for your personal and family interactions. Facebook allows only one account per e-mail address, so you can set up a peronal address for free with other carriesrs such as Google's Gmail or Yahoo, to create a second, personal Facebook account. Choose your photo's wisely, choose your posts wisely, even if you are using your accounts for personal use, a county Extension agent or specialist comments can be interpreted wrongly or provide the wrong image to anyone ready your posts or viewing your pictures. It will be very hard to separate professional and personal images in small communities and now we must deal with larger communities on the web. County Extension Agents will always be viewed as leaders and role models in our communities. What we say and do will always be closely monitored by our supporters and most importantly by those that may not agree with some of you. We must continue to live up to the image of the County Extension Agent that has been developed for many years as the person that local clientele views as respected leaders in a community. A CEA must be objective as they continue to extend relevant , research based knowledge to our audiences. The same goes for support staff in our offices, our clientele will also view our support staff as individuals that represent our program. It is up CEA's to monitor social networking by our support staff, and to review guidelines established by the county as a resource in monitoring there use of these sites.
We must use our new web based programs to provide good information in a timely manner, however we must learn to use these web based tools wisely. Remember what you post on these sites will never really go away. If you are going to use these tools, always stay positive. If some one posts something profane or inappropriate to your page, delete it with out a comment. Replying will only spread negativity and may even be interpreted with originating with you.
Protect the AgriLIFE brand!!! if you list your employer in your profile , anything your post can be linked to the county, agency or even the university.
2009 Volunteer Survey Update
Our District deadline for submitting the survey's was last Friday. If you have not done this already it should be priority to complete this short survey ASAP. As of today, District 11 has a 39% completion rate, not good. My deadline is this Friday, January 29th, and I will not be late, if you need help getting this survey completed, contact Courtney Dodd.
FCS Professional Development Opportunities
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center to Prevent Childhood Obesity is a national organization dedicated to reversing the childhood obesity epidemic by changing public policies and creating healthier environments in schools and communities. The center helps to shape and coordinate the efforts of policy-makers, advocates and community organizations by identifying and promoting the most promising obesity-prevention strategies and supporting the nationwide movement to improve food and physical activity environments.
For webminars provided by the foundation go to : http://www.reversechildhoodobesity.org/
these webminars are about an hour long and can support many of the areas we work with.
Some of the examples some excellent webinars are:
- “Engaging Youth
- Part II: “Intervening Early-Childcare as an Untapped
- “Is it Working? What Every Health Advocate Should
This information was provided by Gloria Fernandez-VanZante, EFNEP Agent in Nueces County.
District 11 Travels:
This week I will be in Victoria, Washington, Wharton, and Matagorda Counties conducting Civil Rights and Performance reviews. DM
