Wave 2 County Educator Hiring is Underway

The Area Extension Directors (AEDs) are already on the second round of County Educator hiring and are working to fill an additional 29 prioritized positions. The first round of hiring is wrapping up and included 17 prioritized positions. For a reminder of how the process worked, each of the positions in the hiring waves met the following criteria:

• AEDs prioritized positions within their respective area for consideration in each hiring wave and forwarded their recommendations to the Assistant Deans. Decisions were based upon:

• • The county firmly committed to future funding for the position
  • The position being the highest priority of the county
  • The length of the vacancy (priority was given to longer standing vacancies)
  • The position is a high priority for the program
  • The immediacy of need (e.g., a county with multiple vacancies or no staff at all)

• Assistant Deans and Associate Deans reviewed the position prioritization rankings. Positions were either approved or recommended for further discussion and follow up.

County Educator Vacancy Postings: To date, these 10 positions have been posted in Wave 2.

• Grant County – 1.0 FTE – Agriculture Extension Educator – Closes 03/16/2018
• Taylor County – 1.0 FTE – Positive Youth Development Extension Educator – Closes 03/09/2018
• Fond du Lac County – 1.0 FTE – 4-H Program Coordinator – Closes 03/07/2018
• Ozaukee County – 1.0 FTE – Community Development Extension Educator – Closes 03/07/2018
• Florence County – 1.0 FTE – Human Development & Relationships Extension Educator – Closes 03/05/2018
• Marathon County – 1.0 FTE – Agriculture Extension Educator – Closes 03/04/2018
• Ashland County – 0.80 FTE – Community Development Extension Educator – Closes 03/01/2018
• Bayfield County – 1.0 FTE – Community Development Extension Educator – Closes 03/01/2018
• St. Croix County – 0.5 FTE – Agriculture Extension Educator – Closes 02/27/2018
• Langlade County – 0.5 FTE – 4-H Program Coordinator – Closes 02/25/2018

 

Decision Document for Updated Organizational Structure

On January 26, 2018, the Associate Deans released a decision document detailing updates to the nEXT Gen organizational structure. These changes were based on feedback that they had received, which included feedback through the county contract negotiation process for 2018. The changes have been minor and will not impact the programming that we have underway in the counties or hiring process. The main change is that there will now be 6 institutes to further distinguish the types of programming that Cooperative Extension provides, and these include the Extension Institutes for Agriculture, Natural Resources, Community Development, Health & Well-Being, Human Development & Relationships, and Positive Youth Development. This will allow for the same great programming with better alignment between Educators and the work that they do. Some county partners may have already seen county educator working titles that align with the new Institutes, such as the Health & Well-Being or Positive Youth Development educator positions.

You can read a view-only copy of the decision document here:

·     https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aCeDM-rK5WWmAz015kM-XMGhi2-KoRktR3d03K95YeU/edit?usp=sharing

You can see a view-only copy of the organizational chart here:

·        https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c5Ak0lhXUpsKYFWiGJLtau8pyGpFitWJ/view

We encourage you to review this document in conjunction with the previous IWG’s Institutes and Centers decision document. Many of the details in the Institutes and Centers document are still relevant.

For more information about Cooperative Extension’s nEXT Generation initiative, please visit the project website at: https://blogs.extension.wisc.edu/nextgeneration/