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PREAMBLE The North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service (NCCES) was established as a part of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences of North Carolina State University (NCSU) by federal and state legislation for the specific purpose of "extending" the educational servic- es of the University to the people of the state on subjects related to agriculture and natural resources, family and consumer sciences, 4-H and youth development; and community and rural development. The laws creating the Cooperative Extension: Service were spe- cifically designed to assure that the find- ings of research in these areas are com- municated to the people of the state. Under the Federal Appropriations Act of 1972, funds were provided to the 1862 land-grant. universities (NCSU) to enhance the exten- sion outreach of the 1880 universities, which included North Carolina A&T State Univer- sity (NCA&T). The Food and Agriculture Act of 1977 further stipulated that these funds be appropriated directly to the 1890 institu- tions, and formalized the North Carolina Co- operative Extension Program (NCCEP) as an official part of the School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at NCA&T. While representing two separate Universi- ties, the North Cazolina Cooperative Exten- sion Service (NCSU) apd the North Carolina Cooperative Extension- Program (NCA&T) work together to better serve the people of the State through the delivery of locally rel- evant programs, eduction and expertise. Legislation further provided fora coopera- tive relationship among three levels of gov- ernment-federal, state, and county-to ensure that the needs of all three levels are addressed. The primary purpose of North Carolina Cooper- ative Extension is to provide the people of North Cazolina with the most current and relevant un- biased research-based information-particulazly that which is related to strengthening the econ- omy through profitable, sustainable and safe food, forest and green industry systems; to pro- tecting the environment and natural resources; and to empowering youth and families to lead healthier lives and become community leaders. This is accomplished by Cooperative Extension employees who are charged with carrying out the extension education programs of the uni- versity and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Cooperative Extension has sufficient flexibility to permit attention to the special problems, needs and interests ofthe citizens and leadership in each county. Therefore, the programmatic, personnel and funding complement reflects the unique needs of each county. County Advisory Coun- cils aze consulted on a regular basis to assist in prioritizing the county educational program con- tent. Program clientele or recipients of services include individuals, families, communities, mu- nicipalities, agricultural and seafood process- ing and marketing firms, other businesses and certain organizations. This includes work with adults and youth in both urban and rural settings. To assure that educational programs offered by Cooperative Extension meet the needs of local clientele, it is important that both elected and appointed decision makers at each level of gov- ernment understand their respective responsibil- itiesand relationships in the conduct and funding of this work. To this end, the following portions of this Memorandum of Understanding will de- tail the individual relationships and mutually agreed upon responsibilities of NCSU, NCA&T and each county that signs this agreement. ~~