Purpose

The ECOP Program Committee establishes and manages a portfolio of Program Action Teams (PATs) that focus on high priority societal issues that may benefit from coordinated system-level leadership in Extension programming.

As such, each PAT provides systemwide or multi-state leadership to programming related to a particular area of focus. PATs may focus on Extension’s base programs (Agriculture and Natural Resources, Family and Consumer Sciences, Economic and Community Development and 4-H Youth Development) or on cross-cutting and timely issues related to one or more of these base programs. Currently there are seven PATs.

ECOP

The Extension Committee on Organization and Policy (ECOP) is the representative leadership and governing body of the Cooperative Extension System, the nationwide transformational education system operating through Land-grant Universities in partnership with federal, state, and local governments.

ECOP focuses on four core themes:

Build partnerships and acquire resources;
Increase strategic marketing and communications;
Enhance leadership and professional development, and
Strengthen organizational functioning.

Extension Foundation Role

The Extension Foundation and ECOP have a formal joint plan of work approved annually by ECOP and by the Foundation Board of Directors, and a formal MOU between ECOP and the 4-H Council. The Extension Foundation Board Chair and CEO serve as liaisons to ECOP plus the CEO serves on the ECOP Program Committee and the COO serves on the ECOP Personnel Committee. The Foundation also serves and supports ECOP Program Action Teams for system-wide initiatives.

What the ECOP PATs Do

Guided by the ECOP mission, vision, values and goals, and Annual Action Plans, the ECOP Program Committee:

Identifies and recommends action on emerging future programs, program related issues and delivery systems important to the Extension System.
Regularly scans the Extension System to identify critical issues and to determine if an issue requires a rapid system-wide response.
Promotes, supports, and manages the National Extension Diversity Award recognizing, honoring, and promoting inclusive programming for and with diverse audiences.
Appoints, coordinates, monitors and dismisses work groups for defined purposes and time periods related to national program development priorities.
Regularly reports the creation, status, and conclusion of these groups to ECOP.
Creates program communication networks and systems for national sharing and learning.

Focus of PATs

Identifying areas of greatest current or potential impact
Identifying gaps in relevant Extension programming
Identifying or developing promising programs
Identifying and fostering relationships with current and potential national scale partners and pursue national scale funding on behalf of the system
Convening work groups around various sub-areas of work related to the priority
Expanding content contained in the ECOP Advocacy Toolkit
Identifying measures of acceleration and impact
Focusing CES interests on identified actions (solutions)
Telling the story about Extension programming in these priority areas
Empowering CES faculty and staff to engage with the various teams
Managing progress toward long-term milestones
Creating continuity, coordination and impacts in programming across the country

Interested in Working with a PAT?

If you would like more information or are interested in working with one of the Program Action Teams, contact us.

This is a National Cooperative Extension Resource

This website is supported in part by New Technologies for Agriculture Extension grant no. 2020-41595-30123 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.