January
6, 2006
Topics in today's issue of Extension Update:
ANNUAL SICK LEAVE CASH OUT
Each January, and at no other time,
employees with accrued sick leave balances may exchange sick leave
for cash. Employees
whose year-end sick leave balance exceeds 480 hours may convert
sick leave hours earned in 2005, minus those used in 2005, to
monetary compensation. No sick leave hours may be converted
which would reduce the calendar year-end balance below 480 hours.
Monetary compensation for converted hours is paid at the rate
of 25% and is based on the employee's current salary. All
converted hours are deducted from the employee's sick leave balance.
Faculty on 100% Extension appointments, Civil Service employees,
and AP employees are eligible. Teaching and research faculty
are not eligible. Bargaining unit employees should refer
to the appropriate agreement for eligibility information.
Please contact
jallenby@wsu.edu at
509 335-1521, if you would like to receive payment for your sick
leave. All forms must be returned by January 24 in
order to meet the Payroll Office deadline.
DOROTHY HEITTER RETIRES
Dorothy Heitter, Finance/Budget Manager
for WSU Extension Grants, is retiring effective today, January
6, 2006 after more than fifteen years of dedicated service to Washington
State University.
Joan Root and Esther Tate are available to help you with your
Extension grants at
rootj@wsu.edu and
etate@wsu.edu respectively. We will be recruiting to refill Dorothy’s position in the
near future. Please contact
Mary
Hoffman at
509-335-2993 if you would like additional information.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR VIDEOSTREAM EVENTS
There are several exciting
videostream events planned in the next few months. Mark your calendar
accordingly and check the web site http://caheinfo.wsu.edu/video/stream.html for
more details.
Lab Safety Training, January 5, 1:00 – 3:00 pm.
Program description: This is a presentation of lab safety procedures
for CAHNRS research laboratory managers. Guests include Daniel
Gransbery, WSU Office of Environmental Health and Safety
CAHNRS UPDATE, January 11, 9:30 - 10:30 am.
Program Description: Topics include: Washington legislative
supplemental session/priorities; the CAHNRS/WSU- FY 07 legislative
initiative; the launch of the WSU campaign and how CAHNRS/Extension
will be handle their portion of this.
Guests include Dean Dan Bernardo, CAHNRS Director of Development
Patrick Kramer and Associate Dean, Director of the Agricultural
Research Center, Ralph Cavalieri.
VIDEOSTREAM ONLY
WSU Extension’s Diversity Initiative,
January 13, 9:30 - 10:30 am PDT
Program description: Learn about the background and
importance of WSU Extension’s diversity initiative; about
the CASE project and Catalyst teams; take part in some diversity
training from WSU’s Office of Equity and Diversity and
learn about some specific programs underway in Extension to reach
underserved audiences.
Guests include Extension Diversity Director, Mary Katherine Deen,
Thurston County Extension Director Cliff Moore and Melynda Huskey,
from the WSU Office of Equity and Diversity.
VIDEOSTREAM ONLY
”Privilege, Power, and Difference” February
15, 1:30 - 2:30 pm
A Conversation with author Allan Johnson on the concepts
expressed in the latest version of his book, “Privilege,
Power, and Difference.” Johnson is also author of the book, “The
Gender Knot: Unraveling Our Patriarchal Legacy.”
Guest is author Allan Johnson
Program Description: Join host Scott Fedale for a stimulating
discussion with author Allan Johnson about his theoretical model
for thinking about systems of privilege and difference in today’s
society and how we can affect these systems
VIDEOSTREAM ONLY
"WSU’s Hazard Mitigation Planning Initiative" March
17, 10:00 – 11:00 a.m.
Program Description/Guests: TBA
”Coming to America” Date: April TBA
Program Description: This program will explore some of the Extension
programs underway to serve the new audience of Slavic immigrants
in Washington State. Guests to be announced.
NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION: JOIN eXtension COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE
eXtension’s
pioneer Communities of Practice are hard at work as we enter 2006. Since
the announcement of the 8 pioneering CoPs in October, the groups
have been organizing, receiving training on working as virtual
teams and collaborative technologies and developing content for
eXtension. The
pioneering Communities of Practice are:
HorseQuest
Fire Ants
Rural Entrepreneurship
Disaster Education
Horticulture
Wildlife Damage
Parenting
Financial Security
If you have an interest in joining one of these Communities
of Practice or in monitoring the progress of these groups go
to http://CoP.extension.org.
NEW LICENSE PLATE SUPPORTS ADMIRALTY HEAD LIGHTHOUSE
Starting
this month, many Washington drivers will begin showing off a striking
new vehicle license plate celebrating our state's picturesque lighthouses.
And many of those same lighthouses could benefit from special funding
for restoration, education and environmental projects made possible
by the plate's sale.
The special plates will be issued only to those vehicle owners
who ask for them and voluntarily pay extra under the state's
special license plate program.
Lighthouses eligible to benefit from the plate's sale are those
kept open to the public by non-profit, 501c(3) volunteer groups.
This includes Admiralty Head, Alki Point, Browns Point, Burrows
Island (NW Schooner), Columbia River Lightship, Destruction Island,
Grays Harbor, Mukilteo, New Dungeness, Point Roberts, Point Robertson,
Point Wilson, Swiftsure Lightship, Turn Point and West Point
Lighthouses.
The Washington Lighthouses special plate will help raise needed
funds to help keep many of our state's lighthouses open to the
public. It will support education, restoration and environmental
projects at Admiralty Head Lighthouse on Whidbey Island - where
the project originated - and 25 percent will be set aside in
a grant fund for similar work at other state lighthouses open
to the public.
Gloria Wahlin, coordinator of Admiralty Head Lighthouse, explained: "Proceeds
from this plate will support docent programs at lighthouses throughout
the state. In Island County, the funds will support Keepers of
Admiralty Head Lighthouse in developing high-quality exhibits
and an interpretive museum, environmental education and creating
an endowment for long-term funding."
WSU Extension Island County environmental education outreach
programs including the Beach Watchers program are housed at Admiralty
Head Lighthouse. For more information check out the following
Web sites: www.admiraltyhead.wsu.edu or http://www.island.wsu.edu/ or http://www.beachwatchers.wsu.edu/.
Art for the proposed special plate is adapted from an original
watercolor by Janet Orso, a WSU/Island County Beach Watcher.
The original is on display at Admiralty Head Lighthouse and will
be kept in the lighthouse as part of the lighthouse's history.
NEW CSREES WEB SITE
Information from John Snyder, CSREES Web site
Executive Editor, January 4, 2006
All USDA agencies have been asked to shift their Web sites from
their individual designs to a common design consistent with the
department’s Web site. Yesterday, CSREES launched a new
homepage (http://www.csrees.usda.gov/index.html)
that embodies this new common USDA design.
This new homepage strives to both ensure information continuity/familiarity
with our past site and include new information categories strongly
suggested by use and usability information we've garnered
from several sources.
The most obvious change you will see on the new homepage is
the more prominent, upper-right-hand-corner display of funding
opportunities in general, and specifically the National Research
Initiative and the Small Business Innovation Research grant programs.
We’ve also added major Help, Contact Us, and Forms pages.
Beyond that, the new homepage should look comfortably familiar
to you.
You will note that the new design only encompasses the homepage – all
other pages retain the old design. Over the next several months
we will be transitioning lower level pages to the new design,
striving, as with the homepage, to maintain informational and
organizational continuity with their predecessor pages.
As we move forward, we will monitor our Web use data and user
comments to ensure that the changes are having their intended
impact and make adjustments where necessary. To that end, if
you have any comments or concerns about the new homepage, please
send them to me,
John Snyder,
CSREES Communications Staff, Waterfront Centre, Room 4234, 800
9th St. SW, Washington, DC, 20024, (202) 720-2047; Fax: (202)
690-0289 or
webcomments@csrees.usda.gov.
SCHEDULE
Next week Linda will be on annual leave. Next week Ed
will be in Spokane Monday through Thursday and in Vancouver on
Friday.
******************************
Linda Kirk Fox, PhD
Dean and Director
Washington State University Extension
PO Box 646230, 411 Hulbert Hall
Pullman WA 99164-6230
(509) 335-2933 Office
(509) 335-9223 Desk/Voicemail
FAX (509) 335-2926
lkfox@wsu.edu
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