The future of Extension

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The future of Extension

• Moving to multi-county assignments

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• All agents serve multiple counties. Agents with
  100 county funds are encouraged to contribute to
  state-wide work and to participate on work teams,
  at the discretion of the county.

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• In June and July, all Extension faculty and staff
  speak with advisory boards, commissioners,
  stakeholders and staff to gather input on
  implementation of multi-county teams.

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• Our regions (northern, southern and western) will
  remain the same. While it was suggested by agents
  to change the regional structure, this will not
  occur at this time.

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• For each region, directors (regional/area/county)
  identify which counties will work together. Many
  county groups are already working together, but
  there may be other groupings identified.

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• Agents and county/area/regional directors in each
  cluster will get together. They identify program
  expertise existing and needed.

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• As of July 1, 2009, we anticipate being able to
  fill some positions state-wide, as determined by
  the states economy. All formula-funded
  positions that are filled will serve multiple
  counties.

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• How we fund positions can be negotiated with
  county commissioners. We are not bound by
  previous funding formulas, although MOUs may need
  to be re-written.

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• Assume that each agent will spend 60 of effort
  in their home county and 40 of their effort in
  their other assigned counties. We encourage
  agents to include technology in these efforts.

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• Each agent will write a position description
  outlining his/her job responsibilities, including
  geographical area. We will work with agents to
  provide a template to accomplish this by January
  1, 2010.

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• Each agent will write a plan of work on what they
  will do in multiple counties for 2010.

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• The plan for regional centers is being developed
  and must be funded and approved by the Board of
  Governors. While regional centers will enhance
  our work, our plan for multi-county-ism will be
  implemented beginning August 1, 2009 regardless
  of the approval of regional centers.