Small and Backyard Flocks CoP Support Funds 2014

The Small and Backyard Flocks online content was launched in October 2012 with the minimum needed for the launch – Glossary terms, FAQs, and a variety of articles. Several more articles have been added since the launch with more added monthly. A Facebook page (www.facebook.com/poultryextenion) has been created. To date we have had only 99 likes but are assembling a marketing committee to help promote the Facebook page as well as the www.eXtension.org/poultry site. We have an active Askan- Expert group. In 2013 the group answered 217 questions tagged as poultry. Although the majority of the questions were answered by six core experts, we have participation from 25 people. We have obtained biographies from 11 of the experts. Dr. Jacquie Jacob will continue as the CoP manager and coordinate development of the online material, the functioning of the Facebook site, and the organization of the marketing and evaluation activities. Regular monthly meetings are held on the first Thursday of each month. Participation in the meetings has been increasing lately. The specific activities planned for 2014 include: 1. Evaluation of progress to date with the CoP evaluation committee a. Review and possible revisions to the current logic model for the CoP (attached) b. Development and use of surveys for online users c. Monitoring of google analytics for the eXtension site, Facebook participation, and YouTube video viewings 2. Creation of a marketing plan with the CoP marketing committee a. Review of marketing efforts to-date b. Development of new marketing tools including advertisements in poultry-related magazines whose demographics represent our target audience. The CoP targets the needs of poultry owners with small- to medium-sized production flocks and those with backyard flocks. This includes urbanites with a handful of chickens to small production flocks of 500 to 20,000 birds per year. For the former, poultry are kept mainly as pets while for the latter they are kept as a source of income. 3. Development of a much need introductory course for potential backyard poultry owners using Moodle 4. Continued development of additional material for eXtension site, especially topics identified by the evaluation committee 5. Creation of a mechanism for visitors to eXtension to submit success/failure stories which can be compiled and case-studies posted online and featured on the Facebook page 6. Organization of monthly webinars