Team Support

Program Team Support

Extension program planning, development, delivery, and professional development are currently facilitated through ten Extension program teams. The outcomes of these team programs are communicated through impact reports. Extension provides the following guidelines and support to program teams in regard to planning meetings, professional development, and team programs.

Planning Meetings

Teams are expected to hold at least one face-to-face planning meeting per year (beyond fall conference) to re-evaluate priorities and plan signature programs. The timing of this meeting is at the convenience of the team members and their team activities and it may include one overnight stay. For several teams, a portion of the fall extension conference may be a convenient time to schedule a planning meeting (i.e. a half day block).

Additional team meetings or workgroup meetings are highly encouraged to support continued team activities. These meetings can occur via conference calls, wimba, or IVN or in association with other scheduled events. Examples of agendas could include review of progress on signature programs, development and review of evaluation tools, professional development plans, etc.

All staff should actively participate in at least one program team (i.e. attend and contribute at a team meeting). Experienced agents may participate in two teams with the support of their district director. Agents will likely deliver programs developed by various teams even though they are not official team members.

• Funding:  Travel to team planning meetings is a replacement for spring conference and travel will be funded in the same manner as state conference.
• Agent travel is at district expense if staff carpool. If staff drive individually, half of the mileage is reimbursed from district expense, half from county expense. FNP, EFNEP, and PRC staff are encouraged to travel with other county staff to reduce expenses and travel expenses will be covered at district expense as long as staff follow the same procedures.
• Area specialists travel on their operating funds that are available through the REC.  State specialists travel on state funds provided through their respective program leaders. Grant-funded specialist’s travel is paid by their grants.

Program teams are charged with maintaining current listings of priority professional development opportunities on their team menu for team members and other extension staff. In addition, program teams are encouraged to consider developing training workshops, in-services, conferences, or tours to fulfill specialized training needs. These training events may be focused entirely on extension staff or may include stakeholders. Examples may include the livestock workshop at Washburn, 4-H training workshops, etc.

• Funding: A maximum of $2,000 is available for either professional development or a team program per team/year. Extension administration will allocate up to $2,000/team/year for teams to develop professional development opportunities (i.e. invited speaker, new workshop). A brief proposal using the outline below with projected expenses must be submitted to the program leader for approval of funding. Typical expenses such as travel for an invited speaker, meeting materials, room charges, refreshments, bus rental, etc. would be acceptable. Agent travel expenses should be charged to county funds. Specialist travel should be charged as other in-state operating expenses.

Teams are encouraged to be innovative in identifying new impactful programs (i.e. signature programs). These innovative new programs would have the elements of a well-identified need, a well-planned program of delivery, and a well-conceived evaluation.

• Funding: A maximum of $2,000 is available for either a team program or professional development per team/year. A brief proposal using the outline below with projected expenses must be submitted to the program leader for approval of funding. Requests for equipment, software, etc. will be considered based on how it will improve or support the program.

Provide the following information to support your professional development or program request for up to $2000.

Team name:

Team goal for project:

Description of project:

Brief budget with description:

Attach a Contracted Service Agreement Short Form if a speaker is receiving an honorarium