Miami-Dade Extension Newsletter Winter 2017-2018
Letter from the Editor
Dear Friends of Extension,
As the calendar turns to reveal a new year, it is natural to reflect on the year that was and to look forward to what can be accomplished in the future. UF/IFAS Extension Miami-Dade County had another productive year serving the community. You will find a few of our greatest hits for 2017 listed on page 12 of this publication.
Our main goal each year is to meet the needs of Miami-Dade County’s residents. Fortunately, we are uniquely positioned to accomplish that feat. We are an “extension” of the University of Florida, so we have direct access to the latest scientific research and information that concerns South Florida, and we are also a member of Miami-Dade County’s Parks, Recreation, and Open Spaces (PROS) division, giving us connections across the County with Miami’s movers and shakers.
At the end of each year, our Extension agents are asked to complete a daunting fifty-plus page report detailing our accomplishments for the year. We list every talk we give, every article we write, every workshop we organize and even every phone call and email we use to help the community. The list always ends up being long and impressive, but that is never where the report ends. We are also required to show how all of that work made a positive change with our stakeholders. As the commercial tropical fruit extension agent, I need to do more than just teach classes and write articles about pruning and propagation. I need to help commercial fruit growers make changes that benefit them economically and make the industry stronger and more viable as a whole.
I would like to close this letter by thanking you, our stakeholders, for everything you did for Extension in 2017. Every volunteer hour you gave, every time you thanked us for a job well done, every time you spoke out in support of our work, it all added up to making last year a great one for our team and all of Miami-Dade County. We are not satisfied, however, with a job well done. We always want to do better and dream bigger. We are honored to serve the community, and we look forward to another bigger and better banner year of accomplishments in 2018.
With warm regards,
Jeff Wasielewski
Tropical Fruit Extension Agent
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