News March 2014
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NACDEP 
NACDEP December 2013 Newsletter
Need an Invoice to Join or Renew Your Membership?

If you need an Invoice from NACDEP just send us an email at [email protected] with your Name. Organization, and contact information and we will email it directly to you.
You can still login to the new NACDEP Membership Portal and update your personal information or create a new account and indicate you will be paying by Check.
 
 
Job Opportunities

Purdue Univ.
Extension
 
Ohio State Univ. Extension
 
 
University of Vermont
 
 

University of Nebraska-Lincoln
 

 

 

Bricks to Clicks Helps Small Businesses in Mississippi  

 

Facebook now has over 1.3 billion followers. As a result, small businesses can access an enormous, online market to sell their products and services by creating a Facebook business page.

 

But a gap exists between having a Facebook business page and actual business sales. That's where the Mississippi Bricks to Clicks Entrepreneurship Extension Program can help. The program has been implemented as a pilot project in Woodville, Mississippi. Four modules teach business owners how to build, market, and maintain their Facebook business pages. The curriculum will soon be available.

 

Despite the icy weather preventing his attendance at the JCEP Leadership Conference in Memphis last month, Dr. James Barnes presented about the program and its impact on small businesses in Mississippi via WebEx.

 

To learn more about the JCEP presentation or Mississippi Bricks to Clicks, click here.


 

 
A Fond Goodbye to Jen
 
Our association management firm, PAR, has had a changing of the guard.  More accurately, a switch of the friendly face and competent association executive who manages NACDEP business for us in their Grand Rapids, Michigan office.  We bid a fond farewell to Jen Schottke in January, who took a new position with the Associated Builders and Contractors Association in Grand Rapids.  Jen served NACDEP for about 18 months.  And we welcome back Peter Metsker as our association executive.  Peter is a co-owner of PAR and was our representive before Jen.
 
Michael Darger, President
 
 
WEBINAR: Lessons from the Storm: 
Using Community and Economic Development Strategies to Build Disaster Resilient Economies. 
 
Building the resilience of businesses and regional economies to natural disasters calls for a creative mix of land use, hazard mitigation, capital improvement, economic development, and other approaches.  Join the NADO Research Foundation on April 8 from 2:00-3:15 pm ET for a free webinar, Lessons from the Storm: Using Community and Economic Development Strategies to Build Disaster Resilient Economies. 
 
LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

NACDEP is Thinking Big -- How About You?

 

Greetings NACDEPers.  A lot of innovation has happened since our last issue:  a new member sharing portal on NACDEP's website, a promising collaboration with natural resources colleagues at ANREP, and increased engagement with the Joint Council of Extension Professionals (JCEP).   This is sparked by input we've received from members like you.  It's also our continuing effort to actively engage with other Extension professionals through JCEP.    The board of directors is "thinking big" about our future.  In particular, how do we go to the next level for our organization.  In fact, we're not just thinking, we're on the way there.

 

Member Sharing Portal.  Please see the article in this issue.  This new Portal promotes all of  our members to the public.  The world can now find you through searches by your name, title, state, region, or organization.  This is true for everyone who is a current member.  Now for the innovative part.  For those who opt in, you can share several files and/or videos.  This "portal" system is for our members only.  As far as we know, we are the only national Extension organization to offer  this dual-purpose benefit to its members.  It's a work-in-progress that we will perfect over time.  So check it out, use the Portal and share your favorite, proudest, or most practical items with other NACDEP members.  This is a way to help yourself and help your fellow community development Extension professionals at the same time.  Kudos to Susan Kelly, Chair, and all of the Communications Committee members who contributed to this effort. And to Element 74, the company we worked with to create the portal.

Michael Darger

Michael Darger
Extension Specialist, Community Economics
Director, Business Retention & Expansion
University of Minnesota Extension Center for
Community Vitality
[email protected]
(612) 625-6246

 

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

NACDEP Colleagues:   

Greetings and welcome to the March 2014 edition of the NACDEP newsletter.  As we open 2014, a lot of people are gearing up for the annual meeting to be held in Grand Rapids.  We have some information on the conference I am sure you will want to see.   We have an update on the Farm Bill by Brent Elrod, information on Mississippi "Bricks to Clicks," as well as some items from the Western Rural Development Center and Utah State University.  Happy reading!

Thomas Blaine
Thomas W. Blaine, PhD
Associate Professor
Ohio State University Extension Community Development
 
Members Portal is Open
GIF Logo

 

Communications Committee

Susan A. Kelly

 

This is a good time to recap the past two years of accomplishments of the Communications Committee as the completion of the member sharing portal provides us with an important milestone. The NACDEP membership participated in a social media survey in August 2012 and the most requested item was a member database, followed by Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter. So far our committee has accomplished the first three and has dabbled in Twitter. During this period a social media policy was established, committee members contributed to facebook and website updates and helped develop and test the new portal. If you are looking for committee work that will make a difference in our organization, consider joining Comm Comm!

 

The new Member Sharing Portal has been in development for over a year and is now ready for the members, YOU, to start sharing. The NACDEP Board of Directors approved and funded the project in 2013 and it is now ready for you, the NACDEP members, to start developing profiles and sharing with each other and the world!

 

This project was very ambitious but the results will set us apart from our sister Extension professional associations as leaders in communication and technology. Members are now able to develop profiles, share their work and social media sites,register, and pay dues all in one portal. The registration part of this project has created a little bit of additional work and some headaches, and may not work as smoothly as we would like in the beginning. We hope that you will help us perfect this portal by trying it out and letting us know what works and what doesn't quite work well yet.

 

To access the portal, go to the NACDEP homepage at http://nacdep.net and click on Membership Directory if you are already a member. You can go directly to this location anytime by entering http://members.nacdep.net and clicking EDIT MY PROFILE to update your profile, or upload any files or videos that you would like to share with other NACDEP members. To enter the website use your email address and the password "test". Once in the database you can change your password and update your information. For some of you, we may only have an email address listed simply because this is the information that we used most often in our correspondence with members. We encourage all members to add/correct their contact information, areas of expertise ("discipline"), links to social media, websites and files. You can also pay your annual dues by credit card or by check in the portal.

 

We know that a project of this magnitude will have a few flaws and hope that you will notify me at [email protected] with any issues you encounter. If you have problems with registration, please contact Peter Metsker at [email protected].  The NACDEP Board has invested in this portal to give members a better way to communicate and share, and to demonstrate to the rest of the world the breadth and depth of community development Extension education.  They should be commended for taking this step forward and ultimately shaping a brighter future for our organization!

 

 

Susan Kelly 

Susan A. Kelly

County Extension Director

North Carolina State University

NC Cooperative Extension - Richmond County Center

PO Box 1358

Rockingham, NC 28380

910-997-8255

910-997-8257 fax

http://richmond.ces.ncsu.edu

http://www.facebook.com/richces 

http://twitter.com/kellyced_ncce

https://storify.com/RichmondCoExt 

 

 

 

 

 

NACDEP 2014 Conference
"The Art of Reinvention"
June 22-25, 2014
Amway Grand Plaza
Grand Rapids, MI

NACDEP is celebrating its 10 year anniversary! 

We are so excited to see you all in just over 3 months in Grand Rapids!  Please remember to save the date for NACDEP's Art of Reinvention Conference, June 22nd through the 25th, at the Amway Grand. 

Just a quick update about the upcoming conference:

  • We were thrilled to have received 126 submissions. You should have heard by now if your abstract has been accepted.  If you didn't hear be sure to email me, [email protected]
  • The conference will convene Sunday evening at 5pm with a welcome reception and kickoff session by Dr. Tom Coon, Michigan State's Extension Director and Christian Gale from ArtPrize. ArtPrize was one of Time Magazine's "Top five events you won't want to miss."
  • We have five excellent mobile workshops lined up for Tuesday afternoon.  Here are just a few of the options: Geeks, CEO's and Entrepreneurs: New Ideas for Economic Growth; Combining, Water, Heritage and the Arts for a Memorable Tourism Experience and; Local Foods and Community Vitality. 
  • This is a beautiful time of the year; make sure to bring the family and enjoy all that Grand Rapids and the surrounding area offers.  Grand Rapids was recently named one of the top destinations in the U.S. by Lonely Planet. 
  • We are excited to have almost all of NACDEP's past presidents attending the annual conference. There will be a special Presidents' Panel Discussion on Tuesday morning where we will hear about the past, present and future of NACDEP and community and economic development Extension programming.
  • The conference registration should be up soon.  We will send out an email to all NACDEP members as well as those presenting at the conference as soon as the registration is up and running.

Really looking forward to seeing you all!

Submitted by Alison Davis & Dave Ivan

2014 Conference Co-Chairs 

 

A Message from Brent Elrod on the Farm Bill

 

Colleagues,

 

It's a busy time at NIFA focused on budget and Farm Bill implementation.  The President signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014 (Pub. L. 113-76), which provides annual funding for the Federal government including the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its agencies on January 17, 2014.  H.R. 3547 provides $1.28 billion in discretionary spending for the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) which is about $135 million above the FY 2013 Net Appropriations.  We're now focused on preparing NIFA FY14 Request for Applications with a goal of publishing all competitive RFAs by June.

NIFA is also moving forward with the authorities and programs mandated by the Agriculture Act of 2014 (commonly known as the Farm Bill).  This five-year legislation was signed by the President at Michigan State University on 7 February.  The new Farm Bill allows USDA to carry out its vital mission of serving rural America, creating jobs, and providing a safety net for Americans in need.  It provides additional funding for critical scientific research and expands the potential for economic growth in rural America by investing in renewable energy and the emerging bio-based industry.  Local and regional food systems also receive a critical boost under the new legislation, with additional support for food hubs, farmers markets and on-farm businesses with a local or regional focus.     Meanwhile, the President's topline FY15 budget is scheduled for release on 4 March.  The detailed budget follows on 7 March. 

The current and future year budgets, and the Farm Bill, include significant investments in rural regions that support the goal of promoting our nation's economic vitality and growth.  The community development educational programs you lead help ensure that those investments demonstrate clear and convincing returns at the regional, state and local levels.  Capturing and sharing the impacts of your work, in turn, makes the case for why such investments are wise ones, and worthy of additional support in future years.  NACDEP helps amplify that message so consider how your individual efforts can further strengthen a collective endeavor that benefits us all.


 
 
Brent Elrod
National Program Leader - Community & Rural Development
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
United States Department of Agriculture
202.690.3468 (V)  202.720.9366 (F)
 
 
  Western Region News



 

The Western Rural Development Center's Community Development Extension Institute was held February 26-28 in Boise, Idaho. Organized by Lorie Higgins (ID), Debra Hansen (WA), Monica Babine, (WA), and Jacque Miller (CO), the Institute offered 17 training and best practice sessions of community development beginner and advanced skill building, and three keynote sessions. Visit the Institute website for session descriptions and details. http://wrdc.usu.edu/htm/programs/cdei Sponsors included the Arco Butte Business Incubation Center and the Division of Governmental Studies and Services-Washington State University. 

 

Please contact me if I may be of further assistance. 

 

Thanks!

Betsy

 

Betsy H. Newman

Assistant Director

Editor, Rural Connections 

Western Rural Development Center

Utah State University

4880 Old Main Hill

Logan UT 84322-4880

AGRS RM 117

Phone: 435.797.0218

Email: [email protected]

 

 

 

Workshops Offered by Utah State University

 

Upcoming community development workshops - connecting farmers to chefs to decrease food miles and enhance community viability. Information about these workshops can be found here: http://extension.usu.edu/sustainability/htm/programs/utah-farm-chef-fork/ 

 

submitted by:

 

Roslynn G.H. Brain

Utah State University Moab

Assistant Professor, Sustainable Communities Extension Specialist

https://extension.usu.edu/sustainability 

125 W 200 S Moab, UT 84532

(435) 259-7432 x1816 Work

(303) 514-8738 Mobile


 

 

 
 
2015 NACDEP CONFERENCE LOCATION

LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS
May 17-20, 2015

 

Join us for some southern hospitality at the 2015 NACDEP Conference to be held May 17-20, 2015 in Little Rock, Arkansas. Voted #1 on Kiplinger's Top 10 Great Places to Live in 2013, the conference will offer something for everyone. We'll be staying downtown in the River Market District, an area that has been transformed over the past several years.      

 

Here's a sneak peak at some of the local community development highlights being considered for workshops and tours. 

 

Submitted by Stacey McCullough,University of Arkansas
 

Volunteer Leader Wanted 

 NACDEP has this leadership need at the moment. 

History is important to any organization.  NACDEP has ten years of history yet our website is pretty sketchy on anything before 2010 or so.  We could use someone who likes to work on such things.  Especially since we have a 10th anniversary that we're celebrating this year.

 

If you have an interest in NACDEP history, and want to help us influence the future, please contact me.

 

 

Michael Darger, President

 [email protected]or 612-625-6246.


 

 

  [email protected] or 612-625-6246.

 
 
  
MISSION

NACDEP is an organization dedicated to improving the visibility, coordination, professional status and resource base of community and economic development Extension programs and professionals.
 
NACDEP

PO Box 68721 | Grand Rapids, MI 49516 | (616) 301-1011
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