The events of last week have me thinking about influencers, those normal people with above-average impact on behaviors and decisions of others, often people with key connections. Non-profits seek out influencers to sit on their boards because of the connections and potential for fund raising that an influencer brings to the position. As I listened to a discussion during the lunch attended by the Vice President's Council and the Executive Council, it became readily apparent that the deans have sought out influencers and been quite successful. Kathryn Uhrich, at UC Riverside, has hit it out of the park in just a short time (16 months on the job!)

Influencers aren't just those connected to money. They can be people who shape the perspective of others often by providing information that allows for better decision making. For UC ANR, this includes County Directors, REC Directors, the Strategic Initiative Leaders and the Statewide Program and Institute Directors. As Program Council and the Vice President's Council discussed various items of their respective agendas I realized the missed opportunity in being task and agenda focused with little time left for unscheduled conversation. Given demands on everyone's time, I don't know what the fix is for this, or if there is a fix, but it is worth some additional thought.

Jeff Mitchell says a few words at MOU signing

The week concluded with a MOU signing ceremony at Dixon Ridge Farms to celebrate a formalization of the California Farm Demonstration Network partnership. This is the result of vision and hard work by Jeff Mitchell. As an influencer, he brought the many partners together for just the start of something that will no doubt become much larger. Betsy Karle had a big hand in pulling off the event as did a number of people from CA NRCS. It was a beautiful afternoon with some nice comments from the partners and a few demonstrations. Jeff remained inconspicuous for most of the official part but was hard at work during set up and break down. Congratulations to the entire team for what they have accomplished!

Rainfall simulator demonstrates benefits of cover crop

This week the County Directors are in Davis on Wednesday and then off to Academic Assembly Council on Thursday. The Academic Assembly Council is meeting in San Luis Obispo for this meeting. Following, I need to take my long-awaited driver's knowledge test. I passed all of the portions of the Cyber Security Refresher training last week so hopefully that has me primed for test taking.