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OSU Extension

College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences

CFAES

Communiqué June 24, 2015

Contents

Reflections on a Career: Honoring Keith Smith – Submit a Record of Your Work TODAY

-Bruce A. McPheron, vice president for Agricultural Administration, and dean, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences

As you know, Keith Smith will retire from The Ohio State University next Tuesday, June 30, after 35 years of significant impact and influence. We have been fortunate to have Keith lead Ohio State University Extension for 23 years, during times of tremendous programmatic growth and through challenging times as the country adjusted to a new economy. Ohioans, and indeed individuals across the country, will benefit from Keith’s leadership for years to come.

To celebrate Keith’s career, it seemed fitting that we reflect on the evolution of OSU Extension over the past 35 years. Keith has fond and clear memories of what life was like when he began his career. His desire is to hear from each of you as you share what today’s Extension professional is doing each day. Please honor Keith by taking a few moments to share what you are doing on a particular day to realize Extension’s mission (go.osu.edu/ThankUKeith). Today is the deadline to submit your information. Ultimately, we are going to present Keith with a day-in-the-life of an Ohio Extension professional!

Note: Keith has indicated that he might also turn this information into a publishable article, possibly in the Journal of Extension.

To recognize and honor Keith’s leadership, we have established the Keith L. Smith Lecture on Innovation in Extension to be presented annually by an invited speaker at the OSU Extension Annual Conference. If you wish to support the lecture series, you may direct contributions to fund 315170 at give.osu.edu.

As this chapter in Keith’s professional career comes to a successful end, I hope you will join with your colleagues to reflect on your day and submit at the above website.

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New Extension Event Coordinator Announced

-Ken Martin, Department of Extension chair and associate director, programs

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Jared Morrison as the Extension event coordinator, effective June 29. Jared’s position will plan and coordinate ongoing events in Extension; organize and manage logistical details of ongoing events, special events, programs and conferences; assist with planning of training activities; assist the committee for Extension Annual Conference; coordinate the publication of various event programs and invitations; and coordinate event budget and fiscal activities.

Thanks to the search committee members, co-chaired by Greg Davis and Julie Fox, for their work screening and interviewing candidates.

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Human Resource’s loss is the Business Office’s Gain

-Amy Burns, CFAES HR generalist

The Human Resources team has supported a request received by Laura Keesor, who asked to be relocated to the Business Office. Laura’s job duties are more consistent with Business Office functions and will not change. Laura will be missed by the HR team, although we are excited that we will continue to collaborate with Laura in her role with the Business Office. We wish her well!

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New Human Resources Team Member on Board

-Amy Burns, CFAES HR generalist

I am pleased to welcome the newest addition to our HR team, Brandi Gilbert-Hammett. Brandi began as our new HR generalist for the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences on June 1. She will be working from the Ag Admin building, and she will support Extension 20 hours per week. You may begin to hear from or see Brandi’s name on correspondence as she handles various Extension HR tasks; however, I will continue to be your main point of contact as I am the full-time CFAES HR generalist assigned to work with Extension. Please continue to contact me with inquiries at burns.897@osu.edu or 614-292-2776.

Brandi comes to us from The Ohio State University Office of Academic Affairs where she served as a Human Resources associate. Brandi brings with her years of experience from both the academic and HR fields. With her experience, knowledge, and impeccable skill set, I am positive Brandi will be a wonderful addition to our college HR team!

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Qualtrics – New Online Survey Tool Now Available

-Debby Lewis, leader, Program Development and Evaluation

As you may have heard by now, The Ohio State University has contracted with Qualtrics, one of the leaders in online survey software products, for provisioning surveys for classes and research at the university. If you have a subscription to another online survey tool, you must provide a business case for continued use before renewing your subscription. The CFAES LimeSurvey service is open-source software and is not affected by the Qualtrics agreement.

Any faculty or staff member (or Ohio State student) may use Qualtrics by setting up an account. Read the knowledge base (KB) document published by the Office of the Chief Information Officer about how to log in for the first time: http://ocio.osu.edu/KB04697. Pay special attention to the first-time log-in instructions if you have an existing Qualtrics account. The URL is http://osu.qualtrics.com.

When you first log in, you will be given a “student-trial” account, which you will need to “upgrade” to a “standard” account to be able to use all the features available. Please read the KB document on how to use upgrade codes: http://ocio.osu.edu/KB04699. You will need to email cfaes-ithelp@osu.edu to obtain the upgrade code.

Once you have set up your account and are logged in, check out the many “how-to” videos at Qualtrics University by clicking on the “Helps and Tutorials” button in the upper-right corner of your screen. A nice available feature will be the ability to collaborate on surveys across the university. Read the KB document on how to collaborate with colleagues: http://ocio.osu.edu/KB04706.

Do you need help constructing an online survey or would you like advice from an evaluation professional? Make a request of the OSU Extension Program Development and Evaluation (PDE) unit at http://go.osu.edu/SurveyRequest.

What happens to your SurveyMonkey account when it expires? The PDE unit has some experience in this area. If you had one of SurveyMondey’s professional (paid) plans, your account will revert to the BASIC (free) plan when your subscription expires. Best practice is to export your data for important surveys BEFORE the expiration date of your paid subscription. Be warned that people can still respond to any surveys that are active (even with the BASIC plan)! You will want to close your active collectors, because you will not be able to export data from these surveys after your paid subscription expires. You will only be able to VIEW the first 100 responses to your surveys when your account reverts to the basic plan. You WILL be able to continue to view your surveys after your account reverts to the basic plan, whether or not the surveys are “closed.”

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