STAKEHOLDER INPUT PROCESS

State Board For Agriculture Research and Education (SBARE)
SBARE was created by the North Dakota State Legislature in 1997 to provide management and have budget authority for the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station (NDAES) and oversight to the NDSU Extension Service (NDSUES). In 1999, management and budget authority for the NDSUES was added to the responsibilities of SBARE. The membership of SBARE is composed of 15 persons from around the state. Five of the members are appointed by the Agricultural Coalition, five members are appointed from the NDSUES' multicounty programming unit advisory committees, the President of NDSU, Vice President, Dean and Director for Agricultural Affairs at NDSU, Director of the NDSUES, Director of the NDAES and the North Dakota Commission of Agriculture. This board, composed primarily of citizens from around the state, gives direction to all research and extension programs.

Multicounty Program Unit Advisory Committees
For extension programming purposes, the state's 53 counties are divided into 10 Multicounty Program Units (MPUs). These MPUs meet on a regular basis and plan and coordinate extension programming within the units. Each of the MPUs have an advisory board composed of 12 citizen members. The members for the board are selected by existing board members and county extension staff to represent the various constituencies which exist in the area and to maintain a gender balance. The advisory boards give direct input relating to needs for extension programs within their units and review existing programs.

Research Extension Center Advisory Committees
Each of the seven Research Extension Centers (REC's) have a citizen advisory board, composed primarily of agricultural producers, which gives oversight and direction to the research activities at the centers. The input from these advisory boards is utilized directly by each center, and is also utilized by all centers and the main station research staff when the staff from all seven centers meet with main station staff twice each year.

Assessment of the NDSU Extension Service
In 1996, an external and internal assessment of the NDSU Extension Service was completed by a commercial marketing firm. The study was commissioned by extension to determine the awareness of citizens of the NDSUES, to determine what they thought of extension programming, to determine people's needs and desires for programming and how they wanted programming to be delivered. The responses were segmented for the general public, businesses and agricultural producers so responses from these groups could be separated. The results from this survey are still used by extension program planning teams as they plan and prioritize their programming.