Cooperative Extension

Council for Strategic Change

June 17, 2011

Present: Matt Hanson, Liz Hilts, Kelly Haverkampf, Mary Meehan-Strub, Annie Jones, Gregg Hadley, Nick Heckman, Rick Klemme, Rosamaria Martinez, JoAnn Hinz, Tom Schmitz, Steve Deller

Updates

  • Klemme reported on the state budgetand the expected impact in Cooperative Extension.
  • Tom Schmitz reported on how his district is working to temporarily cover vacancies in counties due to resignations and retirements. Klemme added that not all counties involved are willing to fill the positions permanently. Klemme said the expected end date for the suspension of hiring will be August 2011.
  • John Shutske, CALS associate dean and Cooperative Extension state Agriculture and Natural Resources program director, has called for suggestions for Extension specialists to serve on action teams.
  • Klemme reported that some counties are not willing to share a position and would rather pay for a dedicated educator for their county. This will be a consideration as we move toward more positions shared by 2 or 3 counties.
  • The new human resources database for the UW System is not working well for Cooperative Extension and causing a lot of payroll errors and hours of additional work for colleagues in the HR office and in district offices.
  • UW-Madison has permission to establish a separate personnel system if it chooses to do so. Other state agencies are likely to maintain the current state personnel policies that were established with the unions.

Coordinated Acts of Improvement

This meeting will be dedicated to coordinating the various implementation activities that so many colleagues are involved in. Klemme and the Council will work to ensure strong engagement from members of CEAC in the action teams.

Annie Jones will be appointed full-time to the role of coordinator for Strategic Directions.

The summit for the action teams will be conducted on Sept. 20 and 21 with all teams and CEAC being included.

Action Teams

  • There was discussion about whether the recommendation from the Strategic Planning process should be included specifically in the charge statements for the action teams.
  • There were questions about the priorities and expected activities of the Staffing Action Team relative to the changes in the districts. Klemme explained the reasons for his thinking about how the districts should be divided.
  • Ideas from the group to improve the charges to the teams--
  • Staffing—include notes about districts
  • All action teams—more on strategic planning recommendations—include on the back of the call for nominations and/or charge
  • Staffing—when do county partners champions get engaged? Klemme suggested that we will engage them as responders
  • Staffing—will there be a need for more parameters for this action team
  • Staffing and ARTIST—who will staff these action teams? Perhaps a retired colleagues would be interested and have the knowledge and skills to carry out the responsibilities.
  • ARTIST—how much emphasis will be place on the use of technology in the educational processes of Cooperative Extension. Here again, recommendations from the strategic planning document will be important to include in background information.
  • ARTIST—edits were suggested—action is taken by whom (Medium Term Outcome)
  • Scholarship—this call for nomination will be sent later after Dan Hill is ready to be engaged as interim secretary to the faculty and academic staff.

Action Teams, First Meetings

Annie handed out an outline for the first meeting of the Inclusive Excellence Action Team that will be used for other teams as well.

Council members on the action teams will be asked to remain on the teams even when they leave the Council. What will the role of the Council members on these teams be? What will be expected of us?

  • All roles should be described so everyone understands their responsibilities
  • All members will serve as representatives of the organization as a whole
  • Council members
  • Active member
  • Reporting at Council meetings
  • Provide background and Council intent relative to strategic planning, strategic directions
  • Seek Council guidance
  • Connect to other action teams
  • Catalyst to keep processes moving
  • How is Cooperative Extension different because of the meeting today
  • The above list applies to CEAC members on the Council and on action teams
  • Teams will decide on leadership models
  • It was suggested that Sharepoint be used. All team members would have access to the pages of all teams. Teams will be asked to report in uniform ways. A form could be created for reporting the 3 key points of each meeting. Key points can be pasted onto the Strategic Directions website so all colleagues can follow activities and progress of the action teams. Annie will create templates and meet with a Sharepoint manager in CE Tech Services to set up a Sharepoint based process for the Action Teams to exchange information.

Sustaining Cooperative Extension for the Future

Klemme explained his reasoning behind structuring Cooperative Extension for success into the future. He believes that we need to structure ourselves for flexibility because we do not know what the budgets of the future will be. We need to be flexible and robust enough to survive under various budget scenarios.

Interims are being hired for vacancies to protect positions. The sooner we can design alternative models, the better, and there is urgency about the work of the Staffing Action Team.

Plans for the Sept. 20-21 Action Team Summit

  • All five teams should be included.
  • Design, weaving, intersections. How will the three structural teams’ (Inclusive Excellence, Scholarship, Political Effectiveness) activity be woven into the work of the Staff and ARTIST teams work.
  • Co-informing, co-learning and advancement of plans based on co-learning, affirmation that we are moving forward with concreteness.
  • Timelines and outcomes will be stressed.
  • Another summit will be needed later—perhaps next spring

Communications Points from this Meeting

  • Importance of weaving efforts of the action teams togetherand stress this at the summit
  • Klemme articulated the vision of structuring ourselves for success to be flexible and resilient in the future. (budget)
  • Use the format from the outline for the first meeting of the action teams—where have we been, where are we now and where are we going, how will we get there?
  • Annie will interview action team members at the end of each of the first meetings—
  • Question for Marv Van Kekerix, Donna Menart, Dick Pederson, others--Since we have started the strategic planning process in Sept. 2007, what is different about Cooperative Extension
  • For June 28 meeting of district directors and program directors--district configuration, district paradigm, program area paradigm
  • We tightened up the call for nominations

Handouts:

  • Call for Nominations for the Staffing and ARTIST teams
  • Structuring Ourselves for Success timeline
  • Inclusive Excellence Action Team working agenda
  • CEAC notes, May 11, 2011