The eXtension Foundation is pleased to announce a new platform for all Cooperative Extension professionals, Connect Extension.

Connect Extension provides an interactive social space designed for this specific community of educators and professionals. All Cooperative Extension professionals can access our national calendar to share webinars and events system-wide and with the public.

eXtension members can access their member benefits in Connect Extension made possible through our Impact Collaborative program.

Register Your Free Account Here

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Upcoming Learning Opportunities in Connect Extension

eXtension Social Café
Every Thursday from March 26th – April 30th
1 PM – 2 PM ET
Available to All Cooperative Extension Professionals

The eXtension Social Café will provide a weekly opportunity for informal, drop-in conversations and questions about the effective use of social media and communications in Extension work. Each Social Café will open with a 5-15 minute “tutorial” of a tool or feature on commonly used social platforms, or a brief showcase of a Cooperative Extension employee who is using digital communications in innovative and effective ways. The remainder of the time will be devoted to sharing, discussion and Q&A.

Hosted by Rose Hayden-Smith, PhD, Technology in Extension Education Fellow

Dr. Hayden-Smith has most recently served as a Cooperative Extension advisor in Digital Communications in Food Systems & Extension for the University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources. She’s the editor of the UC Food Observer, a communications platform in support of UC’s Global Food Initiative.

She previously led the 4-H and Master Gardener programs in Ventura County, where she also served as the first female director of Extension. Hayden-Smith was also the leader for UC ANR’s statewide initiative in sustainable food systems. She is a practicing historian and has published extensively about gardens as a civic enterprise in America.  She was a Kellogg Food and Society Policy Fellow, advocating for a new Victory Garden movement.

Her book, “Sowing the Seeds of Victory: American Gardening Programs of World War 1”, published by McFarland, was released in spring 2014.
To participate, please create your Connect Extension account. This event is listed on the main calendar

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Virtual Culture: The Way We Work Doesn’t Work Anymore, How to Embrace the Virtual Culture In Your Team
March 24th, 3 – 4 PM ET
Available to eXtension Members Only

Christine Geith, CEO, eXtension Foundation, and Beverly Coberly, COO, eXtension Foundation, will be interviewing Lisa Zeeveld of BELAY Solutions about virtual culture. eXtension has been working with BELAY Solutions since 2016 to provide virtual assistants for the organization.

According to Christine Geith, “BELAY Solutions’ CEO, Bryan Miles, wrote the best book on virtual organizations that I’ve ever read.” The eXtension Foundation will be giving away free books to the first 20 registrants that participate in this webinar.

Description

‘How do you know someone is actually working when everything is virtual?’ It’s a question that, as a 100-percent remote company since 2010, we get asked a lot.

Additionally, brick-and-mortar organizations struggle to understand what virtual offices look like, how to overcome the inherent challenges of a virtual workforce, the benefits of going remote, and how to establish and foster a rich remote culture to maintain engagement.

Thankfully, BELAY COO Lisa Zeeveld knows a thing – or million – about organizational perspectives regarding an online workforce and will share her insights with us!

About BELAY Solutions

At BELAY, we’re a 100-percent virtual company with 10 years of experience providing virtual specialists to help your organization grow. Whether our clients need a Virtual Assistant, Bookkeeper, or Web Specialist, we have the right team member ready to help any organization excel without the added stress of having to do everything on their own. We search the entire country to find the right contractor to meet every client’s needs so that they can get back to what only they can do: growing their organization.

About Lisa Zeeveld

“I’m the COO and original culture cultivator at BELAY, the leading virtual staffing solutions company. I ensure that the optimum people and processes are in place to allow BELAY to realize maximum profitability since the success of an organization begins and ends with its people.

I thrive in creating dynamic and healthy cultures by developing recruiting strategies for hiring ideal team players, launching programs to increase team member engagement, creating initiatives that cultivate over 95-percent retention, and leveraging technology for innovative solutions.

With my Series-6 Limited Securities and Health and Life Insurance licenses, and prior experience in corporate finance and personal wealth management for several Fortune 500 companies, including Arthur Andersen and Weber Shandwick, I’m uniquely equipped to drive strategic initiative success by focusing on the company goals holistically.

I am fanatical about people and numbers, the utilization of agile methodologies, bottom-line profitability, and creating opportunities for professional and personal growth. I’m also a lifelong learner as an avid reader, history buff, and architecture geek.”

eXtension Members: To register for this learning opportunity, please create your Connect Extension account, and navigate to the Extension Responses & Resources for Extension Professionals Working Online group. You will find it listed there.