The cyclical economic downturn in the United States has
forced many Extension administrators to rethink and adjust
services and programming. The Cooperative Extension System
(CES), the organization primarily responsible for governmental
Extension work in the United States, at Iowa State University responded
to this economic downturn by restructuring its organization
from county based to a regional model. This paper shares the experiences
of key administrators in planning this restructuring
process and the lessons learned. This experience and the restructuring
processes used have implications for administrators in all organizational
settings