Dear Friend of Extension,
2011 marks the 97th year for Cooperative Extension in Montgomery County and the 94th year for Cooperative Extension in Fulton County. March 20 of this year marked the 100th anniversary of the employment of the first county extension agent in the state of New York.
In these difficult financial times, both locally and statewide as well as nationally and globally, some are questioning the relevance and viability of cooperative extension in the near term and into the future.
I recently read the article “Seven Reasons Why Extension is Needed Today,” by Jim Langcuster of the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, Auburn University. In the article he shared seven reasons why he believes Cooperative Extension “not only will survive in the 21st century but also carve out a lasting presence that … will enrich millions more lives {and} help make the world a safer, greener, happier place.”
Here are his seven reasons:
1. We are sustainers {to make something continue to exist}
Sustainability is taking on new meaning. Many of the nation’s governors are using it to underscore in these lean fiscal times why Americans must become good stewards in all facets of their lives.
One example: Tightening budgetary restraints on the U.S. healthcare system are prompting more Americans to adopt lifestyle practices that safeguard against chronic disease.
Meanwhile, farmers are gearing up to feed a projected 9 billion people by mid-century with less cropland and water—and in the midst of spiking fuel and fertilizer costs—even as they are being called upon to develop safer, greener production systems that emphasize organic and locally-grown foods.
Even with online sources literally available at their fingertips, people can’t solve these problems entirely on their own.
Extension is uniquely equipped to help people adopt sustainable practices in all facets of their lives.
2. We are catalysts: {somebody or something that makes a change happen or brings about an event}
One Alabama cattle producer underscored recently the invaluable role Cooperative Extension educators serve as catalysts — in this case, helping him install a GPS device to reap substantial costs savings.
“It’s gotten me started a little sooner than I would have,” the farmer wryly observed, admitting that it likely would have been years before he had discovered and installed the device on his own.
Through the internet, farmers are as readily exposed to new ideas and ways of thinking as the rest of us, but they need catalysts – trained experts who can see the larger picture and who can point to cost-effective solutions they otherwise would not have considered because of time constraints, professional preoccupation or other factors.
3. We are an agency of empowerment: {to give somebody a greater sense of confidence or self-esteem}
As New York Times columnist Roger Cohen soberly observed recently, the 2008 stock market downturn followed more recently by severe federal and state budgetary cutbacks have left all Americans in a “different mental place.”
Likewise, British sociologist Anthony Giddens has stressed, …”policymakers in this age of austerity are placing an increasing emphasis on dialog and empowerment, approaches that encourage individuals and groups to address change by making things happen rather than having things happen to them.”
A pre-occupation with personal empowerment will persist for a long time. The good news for us is that personal empowerment is our business. We are an agency of empowerment.
As government searches for cost-effective alternatives in the midst of these budgetary restraints, the role we serve enabling people to do more with less will garner a renewed appreciation — at least, so long as we are telling our story.
4. We are human infrastructure: {invest in people}
It is well known that in the 21st century, there is a strong emphasis on building technological infrastructure. Small wonder why: it offers enhanced opportunities for intellectual exchange, which in turn creates enhanced opportunities for creativity and innovation.
However, let us not forget that we are infrastructure – not the inanimate stuff like high-speed rail or internet connections – but the flesh and bone variety – human infrastructure.
Even in this wired age, there remains an enormous value in the dense network of face-to-face relationships that characterize the Cooperative Extension mission. They have enormous potential for enhancing the connections that emerge from this newer technological infrastructure.
5. We are contextualizers: {place an idea within a suitable context}
The bad news is, as flesh and bone knowledge providers, we can never keep up with the myriad of virtual knowledge sources, especially search engines, no doubt about that.
The good news is that we still possess something that search engines and other online applications lack: the ability to provide our audiences knowledge with deep, enriched learning contexts. We help our diverse audiences not only understand knowledge within a wider learning perspective but, and even more important, how to use it to enhance their lives in lasting, meaningful ways.
6. We are synergists: {one plus one can equal three}
Our longstanding experience with forging and cultivating partnerships among diverse groups has often enabled us to succeed where others have failed. We have the ability to combine elements to affect a greater outcome.
As our work in community resource development has underscored time and again, Extension educators have provided the crucial impetus that moves ideas from the drawing board to the assembly floor, and ultimately to the end user.
7. We are collaborators: {work with another person or group in order to achieve something}
Wikinomics is a term that describes the effects of extensive collaboration and user-participation on the marketplace. It emphasizes the power of collaborative wisdom and learning, and is being adopted by everyone from global companies to educational institutions.
Extension pioneers Seaman Knapp and Booker T. Washington anticipated this 21st century mindset more than a century ago: they didn’t view their clients as passive subjects, they considered them equals; more than that, they regarded them as active collaborators in their outreach efforts. Simply put, they viewed them as equals.
Wikinomics is written into our organizational DNA – a trait that gives us an enormous competitive advantage over other public and private entities that are just now coming to terms with new demands of the 21st century economy.
I agree with the author that even in these difficult financial times, “we have a charge to keep” and extension’s “longstanding appreciation for dialogue, forging partnerships and empowering people uniquely equips us for the challenges of the 21st century. We still put knowledge to work.”
Sincerely,
Marilyn J. Smith
Executive Director
