Minnesota Agricultural Economist 693

Livestock Production/Industries,

Minnesota Agricultural Economist 694

Crop Production/Industries,

HOW SUCCESSFUL ARE BR&E IMPLEMENTATION EFFORTS? A FOUR-STATE EXAMPLE

For several years, Business Retention and Expansion professionals have pointed out that BR&E visitation programs appear to be relatively successful until it comes time to implement the plans developed in the BR&E visitation program. At the implementation stage, however, there have been very mixed reports. A number of articles have documented the benefits of BR&E visitation programs. Yet, none of these have examined the implementation of the strategic plans developed by BR&E visitation programs. Few communities would undertake the program if they did not expect to see some action on their plans. Likewise, few state agencies or universities would continue to support BR&E educational efforts if the BR&E programs do not implement the results of their BR&E visitation and planning programs. Because of the importance of this issue and the lack of systematic research on it, a four-state research project was conducted on this issue over the past two years. The major questions addressed were: (1) To what degree have BR&E visitation programs implemented the strategic plans which they developed? (2) How beneficial have these BR&E plans been? (3) Did these BR&E visitation programs conform to strategic planning principles? (4) Was the level of benefits received higher for programs that followed strategic planning principles?Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Minnesota Extension's Mixed Regional/County Model: Greater Impacts Follows Changes in Structure

The Cooperative Extension Service has as its mission helping the public use the research generated at land-grant universities. Since 1914, most states have used a county-based Extension model, with educators in every county and campus-based faculty supporting local educational efforts. This paper outlines why and how the Minnesota Extension Service has replaced this model with a mixed regional/county model, the major features of the new delivery model and the employment consequences of the shift as well as the non-financial advantages of the new model. The structural changes in Minnesota are of interest to Extension stakeholders in other states who are facing similar challenges and want to learn more about the benefits and costs of Minnesota's new model. Within Minnesota the public is beginning to ask a much more important question: What are the impacts of the programs being delivered? Structural change is only valuable if it results in increased programming and greater impacts than would have happened without the change. Although this paper starts to outline some of the changes in program impact, the bulk of that discussion will be reserved for later papers.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

"Extension Field Specialists": Believable Label or Oxymoron?

Includes Poster and accompanying Poster PaperTeaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Minnesota Agricultural Economist 685

Livestock Production/Industries,

State Specialists’ Views of Minnesota’s Evolving Extension System

extension, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,