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OSU Extension

College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences

CFAES

Communiqué December 7, 2012

Contents

Message from the Director

Nearly 450 OSUE professionals attended the Annual Conference on Wednesday, and I feel the event was very successful. I hope the professional development sessions provided much useful take-home information for you to incorporate into your work, and I know considerable networking occurred throughout the day. Also, congratulations to all of our award winners. I am always impressed by the tremendous work of everyone in our organization, and it’s exciting to see folks recognized by their peers for their top-notch efforts.

I also appreciate your attention during the opening session as I provided a quick overview of the goals and strategies of our revised strategic plan. We will be asking very soon for your feedback on the specific tactics to carry out each strategy, as well as metrics to measure our progress. As I mentioned, Bev Kelbaugh is the point person for the strategic plan; and she will start the feedback request process with a survey sent to everyone. At that time, we will release the complete report that explains the three goals, the strategies for each goal, and the intended tactics for each strategy. You’ll receive the survey request soon, as well as more information about timing and other next steps.

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10 Inclusionist Behaviors in Leadership

And most important, an Inclusionist leader asks the questions, "What if I'm wrong?" and "What if the other person is right?"

During the past year in this section of the Communiqué, members of Administrative Cabinet have shared the 10 inclusionist behaviors in leadership as identified by Simma Lieberman. Each of us was charged with sharing how we strive to incorporate these behaviors into our work. Lieberman’s final recommendation is that inclusionist leaders ask the questions “What if I’m wrong?” and “What if the other person is right?”

In my mind, the underlying philosophy that Lieberman shared in her inclusionist behaviors is that leaders view their colleagues as partners in the task of moving the organization forward. Each member of the team has unique contributions and insights. By knowing and understanding our colleagues and their perspectives, we are better able to lead. Only by being an inclusionist leader are we positioned to have the information we need to move forward.

In her work, Sieberman defined what a supervisor tried to teach me early in my Extension career. That supervisor told me I had a responsibility to look at issues from all sides --- the side of the educator, the side of the volunteer, the side of the user of our education....I had to be an inclusionist leader. Based on all of that information I needed to then make the best decisions I could.  Sometimes I would be right, sometimes I would be wrong, and at times I would be seen by some as making the wrong decision and by others as making the right decision.

That lesson taught me that I needed to very quickly gather information from many different perspectives when making decisions, synthesize the information and then make the decision and move forward. But, in the back of my mind, I always play the "what if" game. What if there is information I missed?  What if the decisions I made about this program don't play out as planned? What if I need a backup plan? If I make this decision, what will be the reaction of people and how do we handle it? If I make this decision, how will that decision impact the other parts of the "system" we call Extension? 

Playing the "what if" game can paralyze a person in his or her decision-making processes, and hopefully I have not allowed that to happen for me. But as a leader, whether in your county program, as a community leader, or anywhere in Extension, playing “what if” scenarios through your mind also helps you make decisions that allow you to more effectively implement the decisions. And it helps you implement decisions that challenge the organization while still keeping the organization balanced.  We all need to not only make decisions with the wisdom and insights of others, but also implement decisions conscious of "what if I am wrong.”  When you do that, you add perspectives that can help you implement decisions that move us all forward.  By respecting and learning from multiple perspectives as we shape and review decisions, we are positioned to practice inclusionist leadership.

-Karen Bruns, assistant director, Family and Consumer Sciences

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Congratulations to the following Annual Conference Award Winners :

  • OAEP Appreciation Awards  – Luetta Prout, Erie County; David Jones, Belmont County; Scioto County Commissioners Vernal G. (Skip) Riffe, III; Tom Reiser; Mike Crabtree
  • ESP Friend of Extension Award – Andrea Mahone, Mahoning County
  • Friend of Community Development Award – Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce
  • ESP Retiree Service Award – Clarence Cunningham, retired associate director
  • ESP Meritorious Support Service Recognition – Melissa Swearingen, information associate, Licking County
  • John Stitzlein Award for Diversity – Greg Siek, educator, Cuyahoga County
  • CES Extension Support Staff Excellence Award – Vickie Snyder, office associate, South Central Regional Office
  • Charles W. Lifer Excellence in Extension 4-H Award – James Jordan, educator, Williams County
  • Marilyn Spiegel Excellence in Extension Family and Consumer Sciences Award – Monadine Mattey, educator, Pike and Scioto counties
  • Steve D. Ruhl ANR County Extension Award – Steve Schumacher, educator, Belmont County
  • OSU Extension Excellence in Community Development Award – Myra Moss, educator, Heart of Ohio EERA
  • ESP Excellence in Extension Award – Graham Cochran, leader, New Personnel Development, Human Resources.

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Position Your Team for Growth Executive Workshop - January 31

This hands-on workshop for executives and community leaders will help attendees “Position Your Team for Growth,” and transform team members’ thought processes. The presenters include Jim Canterucci, an executive advisor, author and speaker; Bobby Moser, former vice president and dean of CFAES, and Keith Smith, associate vice president, agricultural administration and director, OSU Extension. The workshop will be held at the Ohio State University Marion campus. This event will be sponsored by the Alber Enterprise Center of Marion. Executive Workshop brochure

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A & P Educator and Faculty Promotion

As the university seeks to move from excellence to eminence, faculty promotion is on the agenda. The university is encouraging associate professors to plan for their promotion to full professor. At the college level, CFAES is developing a mentoring initiative for new faculty to ensure their success in the promotion and tenure process. Extension Administrative Cabinet has endorsed the expectation that all educators and faculty should develop a plan for their promotion.

To help you develop your plan for promotion, Extension promotion workshops are scheduled for Extension educators and faculty on December 18, 2012 and January 16, 2013. You are encouraged to sign up for one of these workshops and begin work on your plan for promotion. A & P Promotion Committee members and Faculty Promotion and Tenure Committee members will be there as resources.

Registration is $25. Each workshop is limited to the first 25 registrants. The workshops will be held from 8:30 a.m. - 4 p.m. at the Nationwide & Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center in Columbus.

Tuesday, December 18 Promotion Workshop: Register online by December 11

Wednesday, January 16, 2013 Promotion Workshop (repeat of December 18 session): Register online by January 9

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2012 Annual EEET Summary Report Reminder

The deadline to submit EEETs for this calendar year is December 14 (your EEETs must be postmarked by that date). The Program Development and Evaluation (PDE) Unit will NOT process any EEETs postmarked after that date until 2013 (This means any late EEETs will NOT be on the EEET annual summary report that will be sent out to county program faculty and staff in January 2013).

There are still options for getting final EEETs to PDE:

  • Bring any EEETs you have to one of the RiV trainings. Unless bad weather prevents the trainings around the state, either Kim Showalter or Debby Lewis can accept your forms at one of the RiV trainings. (the RiV Extension training schedule and registration link are viewable online)
  • Mail your EEETs to:

EEETs
Suite 25, Agricultural Administration Building
2120 Fyffe Rd.
Columbus, Ohio 43210

MUST be postmarked by December 14, 2012!!!

  • Please remember to include a cover sheet with each set of EEETs, for each instructor. 
  • All EEETs should be in SEALED ENVELOPES!!!  Your form collector should sign his or her name on the seal.

Please submit ALL EEETs in a TIMELY manner! All EEETs are entered BY HAND by PDE staff. If you volunteered to collect forms for a colleague, please send them to the PDE office immediately; your peer is depending on you.

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Research in View Update (“ALL CLEAR”)

By Debby Lewis, leader, Program Development & Evaluation (PDE)

By the end of the day on December 7…Thomson Reuters will be finished running the “data clean-up scripts” for the data transfer process from OSU:pro(mc) NON-DOSSIER Extension Activities into the new RiV NON-DOSSIER Extension section. You are clear to add new data into any sections of RiV.

Trainings were held on December 4 and 6 in Columbus, and more will happen on December 10 and 11. You can still register for the December 10 training at Adventure Central or for the December 11 training at the Wood County location (Wooster location is full for December 11).

If you have not already done so, please follow the “Getting Started” directions posted at the top of this page… http://go.osu.edu/OSUErivHelp  

The link above will take you to the “Extension Reporting” section of the PDE website and it is where we will post the most updated versions of the “helpful documents” for RiV and where we will post any recordings made of RiV trainings.

Please email the RiV team with any TECHNICAL difficulties in RiV (riv@osu.edu). Please contact Debby Lewis (lewis.205@osu.edu) or Kim Showalter (showalter.56@osu.edu) with any “where do I put THIS” type of question.

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Distinguished Staff Awards Program Nomination Deadline: January 21, 2013

The Office of Human Resources will accept nominations for the 2013 Distinguished Staff Awards through January 21, 2013. Current staff members with at least five years of continuous service to the university may be nominated for these awards. Nominations must include the following:

  • A completed nomination form
  • A nominating statement that describes the accomplishments of the nominee
  • Three letters of recommendation

Twelve staff members will be honored for outstanding leadership and accomplishments in service to the university community, faculty, staff, students, and/or other customers at an awards luncheon ceremony in May 2013. Each award recipient will receive a trophy, a $1,500 cash award, and a $700 base salary increase. For more information about the Distinguished Staff Awards program click here.

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