Maine Perspective Front Page
Cooperative Extension Support Staff Form Group
The 50 members of University of Maine Cooperative Extension throughout the state have formed a committee to encourage professional development and to expand contributions to Extension, particularly through programming.
The Extension Support Staff Committee (EssC) grew out of a 1997 Extension employee conference. Now in its second year, EssC has an initial goal of supporting communication efforts between staff members and facilitating effective organizational communication links.
That communication includes informing new members of the Extension support staff of resources available to each of them, such as professional development funds. The committee also distributes resources to staff members, including videos, books, seminar notifications, public software, Website addresses and general product information.
New this year is the presentation of two EssC awards - an Extension Supervisory Award of Excellence and an Extension Support Staff Award of Excellence. The awards were created out of the importance of acknowledging and applauding the demonstration of excellence in a professional role.
The five members of EssC - co-chairs Donna Buckley and Sandy Vaillancourt, Janet Abbott, Sharon Voisine and Shelly Kreamer - will be on hand for the presentation of the awards April 15 at the Extension Support Staff Conference, Rockland.