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How Maryland Keeps Producers working with Lawyers

Elizabeth Thilmany

Summary

Maryland’s Agriculture Law Education Initiative (ALEI) working group is a collaborative effort between three campuses across the state. A vital component of the ALEI mission is to connect Maryland farm families with timely, relevant information. The ALEI team produces extension resources, peer-reviewed publications, a quarterly newsletter, an updated legal services directory, and extension presentations reaching farmers, landowners, students, state employees, university staff, faculty, and environmental groups. These resources explain agricultural law as it evolves to keep pace with the changing realities of farmers and the agricultural industry.
ALEI’s most significant event is the annual Agricultural and Environmental Law Conference (AELC) which started in 2015 and has occurred every year in the fall. Beyond sharing the efforts of ALEI, this presentation will discuss and apply the registration data and post-conference survey feedback from all eight conferences to explore the following questions:
* What is the measured impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on an extension working group and its annual conference's outreach capacity and engagement?
*What topics, themes, and presentation formats bolster retention in extension-based programming?
*How has the ALEI extension working group taken into account feedback?
*What can ALEI continue to improve as an organization and in future Agricultural and Environmental Law Conferences?
ALEI utilizes all formats of feedback from the University of Maryland Extension (UME), community members, and attendees to stay a relevant working group effort as it enters its tenth year, an endeavor the team is excited to share.

Details

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