January 17, 2002January 17, 2002
University of Missouri Outreach and Extension's budget and programming is going to go from "good to great because we are working together on getting better," Associate Vice President Pat Sobrero told members of the SW Regional Extension Council during its Jan. 14 meeting at Tri-Lakes Telecommunication Community Resource Center.
Speaking from Columbia via interactive video, Sobrero said: "We all will be living with some uncertainty this year, which makes it important for us to focus on the things we do know about. We are being pushed to think a little differently from how we have thought about it in the past."
The regional extension council, which meets quarterly, is comprised of representatives from the 16 SW Region extension county councils. Regional extension councils provide a forum for county councils to discuss common issues and promote and support multi-county programming.
Revenue generation ? grants and contracts, private fund raising and fee generation - will be a major focus for extension councils in the coming year, she said.
"We won't be making programs change the way they work simply to generate fees. Instead, we are asking extension councils to help come up with a structure that will generate new fees. We won't be taking dollars away from the counties."
Special attention will be given to which types of programs should or should not charge fees. For example, the Family Nutrition Education Program is supported by a contract and is targeted toward families with limited resources. This is the type of program that will not have additional fees added to its programs, she said.
"We don't want to panic or come up with a quick fix. We want to be strategic and choose a direction that is good for everyone. We also want to be sure to involve extension council members," said Sobrero.
Tony
Delong, chairman of the Missouri Extension County
Council Leadership Council, said cost recovery
will strengthen UO/E's capacity to meet its
statewide mission at all levels. “Cost recovery
is a big part of revenue generation. It will help
us to get through a time when it is important that
we help each other. We have to consider what
efforts or changes will benefit the entire state.”
"When budgets are tight, it is important that we work with our partners, our councils and our communities to improve together. This makes the council leadership training work that is being done even more important," Sobrero said. "Uncertainty is going to cause us to work together and to communicate even more."
Dan Hudson, regional council chair, said word-of-mouth marketing and networking were crucial to extension's future. "Part of this organization's future success depends on extension council members doing a good job of talking about extension with neighbors, friends and co-workers."
|
|
||
 |
Eileen Yager,
yagere@umsystem.edu |
|
|
© 1993 to 2010 Curators of the
University of Missouri, all rights reserved.
DMCA and other copyright
information |
||