Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Uw Extension topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
UW–Extension urges county to lean on webinars, grant help and local‑foods work
Summary
UW–Extension staff presented a quarterly packet and urged supervisors to lean on extension webinars, grant-writing support and local‑foods programs; members asked for more economic‑development metrics and agreed quarterly reports are acceptable when substance is limited.
UW–Extension staff presented their quarterly packet and highlighted community‑development work that county supervisors and staff can use to address local economic and land‑use issues. The educator who spoke identified themself as an Extension community development specialist and described programming in local foods, farmers markets, grant research and organizational development.
Committee members asked that future reports emphasize economic‑development metrics such as population and job trends. "Some of the programming we do doesn't directly read as economic development, but it does support local markets and workforce needs," the Extension presenter said, noting partnerships with local educational institutions and options for bringing demographic specialists to the county.
The presenter described specific services Extension can provide: grant‑writing assistance for local groups, strategic‑planning facilitation for nonprofits and townships, and community needs assessments such as the Spider Lake survey the office recently completed. They also said Extension evaluates its programming to measure whether training participants used skills learned and secured subsequent funding.
Supervisors discussed the cadence of reporting. One member said a county trend report that includes age and job shifts would be valuable but acknowledged it may not be feasible every month. The committee indicated it would accept quarterly reporting if there were no action items to present.
The presenter also mentioned an upcoming professional development opportunity abroad focused on export processes and food‑safety compliance that could help staff advise producers seeking to sell outside the U.S., and noted Extension can connect the county with specialists who track demographic trends.
The committee took no formal action on the presentation; staff were asked to consider how to emphasize economic‑development information in future packets.
