Nick's Notes for November 2009

UME Name Change

Everyone is aware that we held a Connect Session on October 7 to go over the specifics of the name change to University of Maryland Extension. I want to remind you of the website that has been developed for you to access various tools and templates that have been developed for you to use. Check the site on a regular basis as new components are developed. You can access the site here.

eXtension update

Ann LaVigna attended the National eXtension Conference in St. Louis a couple of week ago. She learned about many developments with eXtension and she picked up all kinds of information on a lot of topics including Ask an Expert. I’m sharing some highlights of what she picked up, and I’d encourage you to look into and make use of these resources.

One of the most interesting talks about Ask an Expert came from Kevin Gamble of the Ask an Expert Task Force. He discusses the growth, the future growth, trends and improvements to the Ask the Expert part of eXtension. You can view the recorded session if you like.

I recommend it - it is a good way to connect your participation in Ask an Expert to the bigger national picture.

For those of you answering questions from the AaE widget on your county page, this might be interesting to you. The session is titled: "Implementing the eXtension Widget on County web sites in Ohio: A case study" and you can view it online.

Several states have decided to put the AaE widget on all of their county pages. In addition to Ohio, this list includes North Carolina, Texas, and I think Kentucky. I will be putting some effort into getting the widget on more of our county pages, thus getting more Maryland Faculty and Staff involved in eXtension.

Thanks for your efforts with the AaE system! For a report on Maryland's contributions so far, go here.

Choose Maryland under Individual state reports, and click the Go button. As of this morning, Maryland has resolved 438 AaE questions - pretty good!

Here is a report on how we compare to other states.

If you have questions please contact Ann LaVigna.

AGNR Strategic Plan

The final version of the AGNR Strategic Plan has been submitted to the Provost on November 3, 2009. You’ll note that UME plays a key role in helping the College and the University move forward with an ambitious agenda to be among the top universities in the US. The work that is underway with our Impact Teams will be critical for ensuring that UME is a strong component of the College of Agricultural and Natural Resources as well as the University of Maryland. You can view the most recent version of the Strategic Plan online.

UME Annual Conference

THis is to let you know that we will not be holding a face-to-face UME Annual Conference this year because of the current budget situation. However, we will be holding a scaled-back version of Annual Conference through the use of distance education technology - primarily through Connect. This will be held sometime in the spring. We will be sharing further details about this as this is developed.

Thanks for your continued efforts for advancing UME!

Nick Place
University of Maryland Extension
Associate Dean and Associate Director