To the communities, businesses, and families of the Commonwealth:
I am pleased to share with you this annual report from UMass Extension. UMass Extension is an academic outreach arm of the University of Massachusetts that has been serving the Commonwealth for over eight decades. As part of the federal Cooperative Extension System, UMass Extension links the 351 towns in the Commonwealth to the national public Land Grant University system and specifically to the research faculty of the College of Food and Natural Resources and the School of Public Health and Health Sciences on the Amherst campus of the University of Massachusetts.
UMass Extension has completed a major strategic reorganization and now offers its programs through a streamlined and community-focused educational delivery system organized around four major programmatic areas: Agroecology; 4-H Youth and Family Development; Nutrition Education; and Natural Resources/Environmental Conservation. We believe the strategic reorganization of UMass Extension has given it the capacity to meet the ever-changing needs of the Commonwealth while recognizing the reality of limited public funds. The current programs and funding base for each of the four Extension Programs are described in this annual report.
One of the exciting changes in the past year for UMass has been the creation of the UMass Extension Board of Public Overseers by the Massachusetts Legislature. This new board was established to advise Extension on overall goal setting, budget development and delivery of programs. While over 1000 citizens are currently engaged in providing advice to specific Extension program initiatives, this 15-member board has been asked to take a broad and long term view of the needs of the four constituency groups served by Extension and to help the University identify and secure the resources that will be needed to address those needs. This board has my full support and that of Chancellor David K. Scott.
