[CED] request from Gila Co. Coop. Ext. Adv. Bd.

Wed Feb 8 11:22:55 MST 2012

Susan,

These are astute observations. Jeff also had similar questions. I agree that
we should discuss it as a group and I could hold off until then. In answer
to your question, my Advisory Board was suggesting they make a trip to the
legislature since that is where the issue is, not with Campus leaders. The
feeling is that if several people from the different counties could go as a
group, it would be more effective. Some of my committee members, like Payson
Mayor Kenny Evans and David Cook are politically connected and very saavy.

I shared with the Advisory Board that on the current timeline, we will have
to reduce staff FTE over two offices from 1.5 to 0.5 to 0.75 FTE over the
next two to three years. This is a huge concern, not just because of an
expected decline in agent productivity by 30% but even more importantly, not
allowing the public access to the Extension office (agent out in the field,
no staff person in the office). As you know, if we are not open for
business, we are jeopardizing continued funding from the county and right
now we can't even travel or do programming without county funding. State
funding for travel/ops is rapidly moving into negative dollars starting in
July, requiring us to cut staff as we deplete savings generated by grants.
My belief is that the most important thing agents do is provide educational
programs to solve problems and address critical issues. As Terry Mikel used
to say, "Programs rule, and the rest drools". That is what we do and we are
fixing to cut off our lifeline for travel/ops support. I view this as being
handed a saw and being asked which leg do you want to cut off first (because
as we cut off staff support we risk making our public upset and thus losing
county support).  

Thanks,

Jim Sprinkle
Area Extension Agent, Animal Science &
Gila County Cooperative Extension Director
P. O. Box 2844
Payson, Arizona 85547
928-474-4160 phone
928-468-8289 fax
email: sprinkle at ag.arizona.edu
http://ag.arizona.edu/gila/animalsciences

  _____  

From: ced-bounces at CALS.arizona.edu [mailto:ced-bounces at CALS.arizona.edu] On
Behalf Of Susan Pater
Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2012 08:32 AM
To: ced at ag.arizona.edu
Subject: RE: [CED] request from Gila Co. Coop. Ext. Adv. Bd.

Jim,

Before we do this the one big question I have is how freely can we share
this information? Do we need to contact our board members and ask them if it
is ok to share their phone and email contact information? Or is it all
considered "Extension" information rather than county by county?

I realize you were not able to be at our last CED meeting, but this
discussion also goes along with some of the discussion we had at our last
meeting and the committee that Linda Master's is chairing. We were going to
look at staffing support, allocations, etc. It looks like this committee
will not actually meet until the upcoming CED meeting.

I also don't think we can just look at operations/travel support solely by
each county since we all allocate it differently and our state funds include
operations, travel and staff budget. It seems the graph should show all the
"state" support. However, in the big picture there is definitely reason for
concern with decreasing budgets and the potential loss of staff with
counties and across the University. So I guess I would like a little bit
more information on who the policy makers are they are trying to influence -
legislature? And I think we need to make sure they have information that
reflects what has happened with all of our state support over time. Given
that we will be meeting in two weeks perhaps we could hold this off until
then so we could discuss this further.

Susan

From: ced-bounces at CALS.arizona.edu [mailto:ced-bounces at CALS.arizona.edu] On
Behalf Of Jim Sprinkle
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2012 4:17 PM
To: ced at ag.arizona.edu
Subject: [CED] request from Gila Co. Coop. Ext. Adv. Bd.

Hi,

As we reviewed the current financial state of our state funding for
Cooperative Extension and the eroding support which is impacting staff
positions with our Advisory Board today, they requested a list of Advisory
Board members from each county with phone numbers and email. They would like
to help organize a concerted effort to let policy makers know of some of the
concerns they have on the current trend. If there is a central database in
the state office that is available that would be good. Otherwise, could you
please email me that information, and I will assemble the information they
need?

I have attached the PowerPoint slide that they discussed today.

Thanks,

Jim Sprinkle

Area Extension Agent, Animal Science &

Gila County Cooperative Extension Director

P. O. Box 2844

Payson, Arizona 85547

928-474-4160 phone

928-468-8289 fax

email:  <mailto:sprinkle at ag.arizona.edu> sprinkle at ag.arizona.edu

 <http://ag.arizona.edu/gila/animalsciences>
http://ag.arizona.edu/gila/animalsciences

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