Aug. 21 , 2006
Questions answered regarding the Strategic Plan

1. Are there "point persons" or teams established for each Strategic Priority and who can be contacted to support county-level programs identified as a priority resulting from the Environmental Scan process?  If so, please provide the list.  If no, can it be so?
A. At this point, no point contacts have been established. The organization plans to do this and will communicate those contacts when established, hopefully by Dec. 31.

2. We have some tools for doing strategic planning but will the core team or campus staff come and be involved in the process?
Campus staff will be involved in development of a strategic plan. There are representatives from both N.C. State and N.C. A&T State on the team.

3. Integrated culture?  Exactly how will this be made operational? What exactly does this mean?  Program prioritization?  How will this be accomplished?  Who will decide using which/what process?  More specifics please.
Program prioritizaiton will be critical to the success of change management, and the organization will provide a dynamic environmental scanning  process to allow all professionals to focus on  relevant programs that truly impact clientele. A dynamic programming model will be used to plan, implement, and evaluate all programs. Developing an integrated culture will require agents and specialists who determine prioritized programs to ask the question of who else can add value to this effort looking not only within their primary discipline, but to other areas as well.

4. Following interviews with county managers, what were the five most important areas of concern that Extension may assist with a solution:  How can we be sure the programs we provide are those that county managers will value?
Top programs identified by county managers included:
1. Economic development
2. Workforce preparation
3. K-12 education
4. Land use planning
5. Water quality and environmental issues
6. Infrastructure
7. Agriculture (alternative crops production development engine, agri-tourism farm land preservation)
8. Family (health, parenting, financial planning, obesity, nutrition)
Based on these responses, programs focused in these areas should have value within county leadership.

5. My understanding is that there are  two groups needing a high level of a change in perceptions and beliefs about Cooperative Extension are county managers and county commissioners. What specifically is being done to positively influence these groups to change the perceptions from negative to positive?
This is a great opportunity and the following are strategies that may be implemented:
1.  Educate commissioners and county managers by networking with their county association structure to provide tours of NC State and A&T State showing what departments have to offer and to market the quality research that is being conducted.
2.  Involve the total university in making every county a Gateway and involving county government in the process.
3.  Increase the quality of involvement in the Institute of Government expanding on our education of new county commissioners and managers highlighting Cooperative Extension.
4.  Develop a "Report to the People" model that is high quality and markets clearly the impact Cooperative Extension has within every county center.
5.  require a county commissioner representative for every local Extension County Advisory Council.
6.  Implement the new Memorandum of Understanding.

6. As a county Extension director, my background is agriculture and I often feel that I am less aware of the program priorities/topics needed to address hot topics. This is key to effective marketing for CEDs. How can we establish an understanding and appreciation of priorities and issues affecting disciplines?
County Extension drectors have a primary responsibility as staff leaders to:
1) make it a priority to research and educate themselves within the broad arena of all programs under their leadership; 2) request that all staff send to them new and relevant program information; 3) have a continuous environmental scanning process to measure program needs; and

In addition, all State Program Leaders should immediately set up a mail group for county Extension directors that will be a vehicle for sending hot topics and cutting edge programs to them for review. We should make sure that every program area has a representative on the County Advisory Council. Have these members report relevant program needs and plans for addressing those needs on a regular basis during the County Advisory Council meetings. We should also establish regional program leaders that have the responsibility of broad program knowledge within the region and also the responsibility of keeping county Extension directors and agents on the cutting edge.