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OSU Extension

College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences

CFAES

Communiqué November 21, 2012

Contents

Thanksgiving Message from the Director

I'm thankful. First of all I’m very grateful to God (my Christian perspective) for all that I have. A wonderful family, a great job, great colleagues throughout the state that I have a chance to work with and as of last week – a clean bill of health (so far) from my oncologist. I am so very blessed. I’m sure like all of you, I’ve watched the struggles of others throughout the world – including our own eastern shore recently with the effects of hurricane Sandy. My wife and I have tried to show our gratitude for what we have by giving to charities that support relief efforts in these affected areas.   We’ve volunteered in clean-up efforts in the past and tried to lend a helping hand by using my truck to help move someone in need to a new location. Have I done enough to show my gratitude for what I have? – no. But hopefully in some small way, my feeble attempts at being grateful will compound its effects as others feel the need to do the same. As William Faulkner said, “Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.” It will be a far better world if all of us would choose to do something for others to show our gratitude.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Keith

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Keep Commitments - Behavior # 12 of High-Trust Leaders

-Keith Smith, associate vice president, Agricultural Administration and director, OSU Extension

When you make a commitment, you build hope; when you keep it, you build trust, according to Stephen M.R. Covey’s book The Speed of Trust.

The counterfeit of this behavior is to make commitments that are so vague or elusive nobody can pin you down, or even worse, to be so afraid of breaking commitments that you don’t even make any in the first place. That’s following Napoleon Bonaparte’s line of reasoning: “The best way to keep one’s word is not to give it.” But this kind of approach clearly lacks courage and promise, and it certainly won’t be effective today. This approach didn’t really work for Napoleon, and I can guarantee, it won’t build trust for you either.

It is a leader’s responsibility to demonstrate what it means to keep your word and earn a reputation for trustworthiness. – Hank Paulson, chairman and CEO, Goldman Sachs.

Keep Commitments is based on the principles of integrity, performance, courage, and humility. It closely ties to other behaviors, including Talk Straight and Deliver Results. It’s the perfect balance of character and competence. Particularly, it involves integrity (character) and your ability to do what you say you’re going to do (competence).

There are three signs of a hypocrite: when he speaks he speaks lies, when he makes a promise he breaks it, and when he is trusted he betrays his trust. – Muhammad

When it comes to dealing with a commitment to a client, people tend to be more rigid. But when it comes to a family commitment, they tend to be more flexible - sometimes simply because they’re trying to provide for their families and they tend to justify breaking those commitments more easily. However, commitments to people at home, I believe are the most important commitments of all.

As you work to Keep Commitments, you may want to do one of the following:

  •  In establishing a new relationship where you want to build trust fast, follow this process: Find a value-added reason to make a commitment and keep it… and do it again… and again… and again. As you implement this: Make- Keep-Repeat” cycle, notice how quickly the Trust Account grows.
  • The next time you make a commitment to someone at work, be sure the commitment is realistic. Even if you have to disappoint someone, it’s far better to do it up front than to overpromise and under deliver. If you have to miss a deadline, attempt to renegotiate expectations as early as possible; don’t just ignore it and be late.
  • Pay attention to your language at home. Realize that when you say you will do something, the members of your family see that as a commitment. Recognize that the trust you build at home is, again as I believe, the most important trust of all.

What’s the bottom line? Say what you’re going to do, then do what you say you’re going to do. Make commitments and carefully keep them. Make keeping commitments the symbol of your honor. Above all traits, don’t we respect people that possess honor?

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OSUE Annual Conference- December 5

This will be our last message before the event. We look forward to seeing each of you at the Ohio Union. There are still openings for the health screenings which can be scheduled on the conference registration Web site. Remember to bring your name badges. http://extensionhr.osu.edu/AnnualConf/annualconf.htm

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WebEx Meeting Center and WebEx Event Center Contact List

(as of November 1, 2012)

If you are setting up a WebEx meeting for 25 or fewer attendees, the host individuals listed below will be able to help you schedule a meeting. To distribute use across all license holders, we have noted priority contacts for each host. Any host may assist with scheduling a meeting, but first contact the individual with noted priority for your group.

Please note: we are only able to schedule one meeting per license at a specific time. Currently, we can hold up to 12 meetings at any one time across our system. By contacting one of the individuals below, you may schedule a meeting. if your requested meeting time is already allotted to another group, the scheduler/host will refer you to another contact on the list. You can browse the list of scheduled meetings by going to http://osu.webex.com/ and clicking the “Browse Meetings” link (under “Attend a Meeting”).

When scheduling a meeting, please provide the following information:

  1. Title of meeting
  2. Date
  3. Time
  4. Length

The following hosts will assist you in scheduling a WebEx meeting for 25 or fewer participants:

  • Cheryl Fischnich (fischnich.1@osu.edu) – host for North East region, EERA, and county meetings
  • Vickie Snyder (snyder.252@osu.edu) – host for South Central region, EERA, and county meetings
  • Carol Bottoms (bottoms.6@osu.edu) – host for West region, EERA, and county meetings
  • Tom Archer/Lisa Jinks (jinks.2@osu.edu) – host for 4-H specialists and teams
  • Amanda Rysz/Kirk Bloir (rysz.4@osu.edu) – host for FCS specialists and teams
  • Sandy Odrumsky (odrumsky.1@osu.edu) – host for CD specialists and teams
  • Teresa Funk (funk.67@osu.edu) – host for ANR specialists and teams
  • Beth Rigsby (rigsby.22@osu.edu) – host for specialists and specialization teams
  • Debby Lewis (lewis.205@osu.edu) – host for Program Development and Evaluation and training efforts
  • Toni Bahnsen (bahnsen.9@osu.edu) – host for Human Resources and training efforts
  • Lisa Dune (dune.2@osu.edu) – host for Administration and training efforts
  • Rob Luikart (luikart.7@osu.edu) – administrator, questions and assistance

OSU Extension also has a WebEx Event Center license. Event Center is designed to facilitate the hosting of online sessions with a large number of attendees, such as Web-based seminars, training sessions, and marketing events.

Extension’s WebEx Event Center license provides for sessions with up to 500 attendees per session. Only presenters incur a charge for audio minutes; attendees connect for free. This presents a major cost savings over use of WebEx Meeting Center for large meetings. When existing WebEx Meeting Center sessions exceed 25 people, there is additional cost of $15 per person beyond the 25-person maximum. The Business Office will invoice for meetings that exceed 25 attendees and are not scheduled via the Event Center.

The host for WebEx Event Center scheduling is Lisa Dune. Contact Lisa to make arrangements for a session (dune.2@osu.edu). There is also an online request form to arrange Event Center sessions (http://go.osu.edu/EventCenterRequest).

Please be aware that Event Center scheduling is handled on a first come, first-served basis. Check to see if the time you want is available before you publicize a particular day/time for an event using this link – https://osuevents.webex.com – to see the current schedule of WebEx Event Center meetings.

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OSU Extension Intranet Calendar Update

-Cheryl Buck, executive assistant to the director

Within the new OSUE “For Faculty and Staff” intranet site on our Extension Web page (http://www.extension.osu.edu/), we now have a functioning event calendar for statewide, regional, and other general Extension activities throughout the state.

Events can be seen in an Agenda View, Weekly View, and Monthly View. In any “view” window, a visitor can click on the event title for more details about the event. In the Agenda View, the “read more” link also takes a visitor to the event detail page.

A number of 2013 events have already been posted to the calendar. As you plan new events, check the intranet calendar for potential date conflicts. This is not currently an interactive calendar to which events can be added by multiple people, but events can be posted on behalf of any originating unit (e.g. a regional office, a program area, PDE, HR, Business Office). If you have information about an event that should be posted to this intranet calendar, contact your unit, regional, or assistant director’s office to review and forward this information. Unit contacts – please refer to my November 5 e-mail with instructions for sending event information to me (at buck.19@osu.edu).

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Ohio Land Use Conference - January 11

Registration is now open for the 2013 Ohio Land Use Conference - Land Use and the Economy: Our land, our water, our quality of life, sponsored in part by OSU Extension Community Development. The event will be held at the Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center. Keynote speaker will be Scott Bernstein, president and co-founder of the Center for Neighborhood Technology, Chicago. Registration deadline is December 31, there is a discount for those who register by December 15. Space is limited, so register today. Visit http://balancedgrowth.ohio.gov/BestLocalLandUsePractices/2013conference.aspx for full conference information, including brochure, agenda, and registration.

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