County Commission Monthly Updates

We visited with the Board of County Commissioners on Wednesday, August 19, and highlighted some of the commercial agriculture and natural resource programming that is led by Steven Gaul, our Agriculture Agent. Steve presented his paper on Characteristics of Small Farm Operators in Florida, which was reviewed and published by the University of Florida for use state wide. You can view our monthly presentation by visiting the county website at http://www.nassauclerk.com/video/video.livemeetings.cfm. You can view the monthly activity report and review Steve's paper by clicking on Tab C of the agenda. I plan to present an update of this kind each month at the 3rd Wednesday meeting of the Board. Over the next few months we hope to provide some detail about each of our major program areas and share success stories from each of our agents about their work right here in Nassau County.

Tonight we celebrate the achievements of our 4-H members at the annual 4-H Awards program. This event is always a fun and exciting end to the 4-H year, recognizing the significant achievements of both the youth and adults who volunteer all year in this program.

FOCUS on Extension Programs

I spent a day in Gainesville on the University of Florida campus last week, meeting with my colleagues from throughout the state to discuss our goals and program focus for the organization and administration of Cooperative Extension. Each Extension faculty member in Florida is expected to participate on one or more of these goal teams. The University of Florida recognizes its county extension faculty members as full partners in the scholarship of the university. Extension scholarship is demonstrated through our service to the university, in our professional associations, and in the annual review of our portfolio of work and accomplishment in our local assignments. You can learn more about the goals and focus teams by looking at the information posted at http://pdec.ifas.ufl.edu/foci/. Some of the information is password protected for Extension faculty use, but you will see that the five faculty members here in Nassau County are active on many of the state teams.

The goals and focus teams continually strive to refine the mission of the Extension service. We help identify resources, request and provide inservice training for ourselves and our peers, and we write annual evaluation reports to document our local progress towards both local and state-wide efforts. I will continue to present highlights of these reports to the Nassau County Board of County Commissioners, and post links to these highlights through this blog. Your comments are always welcome.

IFAS visitors to Nassau County

County Extension Directors from the North East Florida District met in Fernandina Beach last Friday to share information and administrative updates.

We first met at the Hampton Inn and Suites downtown. A panel of local Extension partners presented information and challenges to all the directors. The panel included County Commissioner Danny Leeper, Port Authority Commissioner Melvin Usery, Amelia Hart from the Amelia Island Chamber of Commerce, Extension Volunteer Bea Walker, and Extension Agent Steve Gaul. Following the panel discussion, we walked to 29 South and had an excellent lunch and discussion of local, sustainable agriculture practices. We adjourned to the porch at 29 South for some administrative updates. This group of Extension directors meets three to four times a year, but it has been a long time since we have met under such pleasant conditions and had such a group of partners present to us. Thanks to the panel members and the hosts at Hampton Inn, 29 South, and the Fernandina Beach Visitors Center, we not only got our business accomplished but had some time for exploration as well.

One topic we seem to return to every meeting is "budget." Some of our colleagues in other parts of the state and nation are experiencing a lot of stress due to forced budget reductions. While we are not immune to those threats in Nassau County, we currently expect to survive the budget process this year. This will enable us to continue to provide meaningful programs and services to the citizens of Nassau County in the areas of agriculture and natural resources, 4-H youth development, environmental horticulture, family and consumer sciences, and community leadership development. Please let your county commissioners know that you appreciate their partnership and support of these programs brought to you by the University of Florida.