- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A story last week in the Contra Costa Times got a few things wrong, but a story the newspaper published over the weekend was spot on. Reporter Rowena Coatsee crafted an article about the California Youth Fair, held last week in Antioch, and the local 4-H program.
The California Youth Fair was formerly a 4-H event, but it was reorganized in 2007 into a non-profit organization with its own board of directors. The fair is open to all youth, including 4-H members, Future Farmers of America (FFA) and Grange. At last week's event, all but three participants were from 4-H clubs.
One 4-H...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
![Shelley Murdock](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/anrnews/blogfiles/2106small.jpg)
A news story published in the Contra Costa Times on July 8, and referred to in this blog the following day, didn't get all the facts right. The article, which appears to be no longer available on the Times Web site, was about the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors' proposal to cut its $325,383 funding for the UC Cooperative Extension program.
The director of UCCE for Contra Costa County, Shelley Murdock, said she and her staff greatly appreciate newspaper coverage of their work, but the piece in question contained some inaccuracies she wished to correct.
The article said the Contra...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The Contra Costa Times yesterday ran a story about the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors' proposal to cut its $325,383 funding for the UC Cooperative Extension program.
The story centered on the cut's potential impact on the county's 4-H program. Writer Nanci Valcke reported that she gleaned from "UCCE literature" the breadth of the program's role in the community. "As a land-grant institution, the UC Cooperative Extension mandate is tied to the welfare, development and protection of California agriculture, natural resources and people," Valcke wrote.
The reporter also noted the wide-ranging UCCE...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
UCCE's media services manager Mike Poe recently shared a video success story with the Communications Services team. Sacramento UCCE was struggling to maintain county funding. At budget hearings, the 4-H advisor in Sacramento County, Marianne Bird, handed out copies of a five-minute video that Poe had helped put together about the 4-H Water Wizards project.
Bird e-mailed Mike last week: "Our acting county director just came in to tell me that the Department of Water Resources has committed $20,000 to Sacramento UCCE as a result of seeing the Water Wizards DVD."
This experience definitely shows how a visual communications piece can pay dividends. Here is the video:
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Director of the UC Cooperative Extension office in Yolo County, Kent Brittan, has found a way to maintain the jobs of county-paid staff even as the Board of Supervisors cut the organization's budget 11.4 percent compared to last year. The five people will each cut their hours - and therefore their pay - by 20 percent, according to a story in the Davis Enterprise.
That means no one loses a job, but also that the Woodland UCCE office will be closed on Mondays. The reduced schedule will affect all extension programs, from the county's 4-H program to pest control on farms and at the Davis Community Gardens, Brittan said told reporter Jonathan...