September Director's Message
Colleagues,
This summer has been an exceptionally trying time for many of us. With the recent loss of three valued members of our AgriLife Extension family, it is important, now more than ever, for each of us, to take care of our physical and mental health. Please take the time you need to focus on supporting yourselves and those around you.
When we think about how we care for and connect with each other, our dispersed workforce creates quite the challenge. We are positioned throughout the state to effectively serve Texas, and we have been dealing with an increasingly virtual landscape this past year. These circumstances can make it feel difficult for us to remain connected as one AgriLife Extension family. In moments like these, we need to re-prioritize staying connected with each other.
With that in mind, we have realized that our agency monthly webinars may not be an effective method of communication for most of you. To better reach you, we will pause the monthly webinars and instead prioritize keeping the AgriLife Extension employee hub up to date. We will be sharing a 6-month Strategic Plan update with the agency in the coming weeks, and it will include an opportunity for you to share feedback about how you would like to connect with Extension leadership moving forward.
For our agency to best serve Texas, each of us must take care of ourselves. Although The Texas A&M University System does not require employees to be vaccinated or to wear masks, we strongly encourage employees to get vaccinated and wear a mask while indoors.
Remember, every one of you was handpicked for your position. We need you. The people we serve need you. I encourage you to do what you can to keep yourself healthy and avoid spreading yourself too thin.
As always, please feel free to reach out to me directly if you have any questions or concerns.
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Stay well,
Jeffrey Hyde
Director, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service
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Strategic Plan Update: Fall 2021 |
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The Pilot of Coordinated Program Areas Continues
County Extension Agents and Specialists have participated in discussions about the locally-identified issues facing Texans.
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Looking Ahead to October - CPA State Forums
Specialists working within the relevant Coordinated Program Areas, along with agents that have been identified for each region are encouraged to participate in the following state forums:
Active Living: Oct. 19, 10 a.m.
Beef Cattle Ranching: Oct. 19, 2 p.m.
Urban Commercial Ag/Green Industry: Oct. 20, 2 p.m.
Cotton: October 21, 2 p.m.
Youth STEM: Oct. 26, 10 a.m.
Youth FCH: Oct. 27, 10 a.m.
Food Safety: Oct. 27, 1 p.m.
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Next Steps: Catalogue our Current Inventory
Each of the seven pilot Coordinated Program Areas is working to build a resource inventory in an effort to identify, review and catalogue existing educational resources in response to identified issues. This process will also help identify gaps and needs for additional resources to support programmatic efforts.
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Year-End Goals: Development of a Master Plan
All of these steps are leading up to each Coordinated Program Area developing a master plan, which will be completed later this fall. This master plan will ultimately serve agents and specialists as a resource outlining of the future direction of the program area, including:
- Resource development
- Personnel needs
- Professional development training
- Strategies for program implementation and evaluation
- Measuring the agency’s collective impact.
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Employee Development Updates |
Professional development is like other healthy habits. We know we should do it, but if we don’t prioritize/commit, it doesn’t happen. |
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Employee Development Challenge: |
Schedule a consistent time in your week (15-30 minutes) to invest in professional development.
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Navigating Change in the Workplace
Returning to the Office:
Continuing our Work Virtually on TEAMS:
As you plan for the upcoming year, plan for success.
Check out this simple infographic to build effective programs.
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Mark Your Calendar:
upcoming professional development opportunities
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Coming soon: a comprehensive calendar of AgriLife Extension's varied professional development opportunities! |
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The Superior Service Awards recognize our Extension faculty and staff members who provide outstanding performance in Extension education or outstanding service to the organization and to Texans.
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Superior Service Awards Quick Links: |
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Hitting the Road for In-Person Events?
If you've thought about refreshing your promotional material, but don't know where to start, be sure to check out the most recent template updates.
Pro tip: Banners are only $141 through Canva!
(no tax and free shipping)
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Program planning season is fast approaching! Make sure you keep your marketing strategist in the know so they can help you maximize your promotional efforts for next years' big events.
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Pro tip: The more time they have, the better they can help (Example: two-week minimum advance notice is needed for AgriLife Today coverage of events)!
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It's been a busy summer! Our team has been hard at work migrating paid publications and educational merchandise from the AgriLife Bookstore to the newly launched AgriLife Learn platform.
August Highlights include:
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50.8K
customers visited AgriLife Learn in August - that's a 60% increase from July!
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96.2K
sessions with an average of five minutes per session for a customer
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Top Counties
using these resources include: Harris, Cameron, El Paso, Dallas and Hidalgo.
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Quality Counts was the top performing course with 4,842 sessions. This course is designed for 4-H and FFA members participating in livestock projects. Are you recommending this valuable course to your county's 4-H'ers? Don't forget to ask them to write a review in order for us to improve our offerings!
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After December 1, 2021, neither you, nor AgriLife IT
will be able to access your folders or files stored in Syncplicity. We ask that if you have not already started migrating your content out of Syncplicity, please read or do the following:
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The migration process is broken up in to 5 parts, 4 if you don’t share any of your content. You can find very detailed steps complete with screenshots, to migrate your content from Syncplicity to OneDrive here.
- Download all files and folders you want to keep
- Make a list of all data shared within Syncplicity and who you have shared it with
- Move this data into your OneDrive
- Reshare your data
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If you need any assistance with this process, please contact the AgriLife FirstCall Service Desk, or your Zone IT team.
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AgriLife online course are here for Texans, but they can also be valuable educational supplements to your in-person programs. Check out the latest offerings, developed by your colleagues! |
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Online Ranchers Leasing Workshop:
The online course teaches landowners and those with an agricultural lease about the legal and economic issues pertaining to Texas ranch lands.
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Beekeeping 101
Explore how to start a beehive with this online beekeeping course for beginners. Learn about beekeeping equipment, honey bee biology, and what to expect in the first year of beekeeping.
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