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Posts Tagged: Strategic Initiatives
Apply to become HFC or SFS Strategic Initiative leader
ANR is seeking leaders for two strategic initiatives: Healthy Families and Communities and Sustainable Food Systems. The new Healthy Families and Communities leader will start on Nov. 1, and the new Sustainable Food Systems leader will start on Jan. 1, 2024.
SI leaders work with their panels to help people connect while unifying, communicating and advocating for UC ANR's work internally and across the state. SI leaders seek information from their panel members to help inform discussions related to programmatic resources within ANR.
Panels vary in their frequency and duration of meetings (1 to 2 hours per month on average). The SI leaders meet monthly (2 hours) and represent their panels on Program Council (up to 8 hours/month), which provides input for programmatic policy and direction for the organization. Program Council meets the first Tuesday and subsequent Wednesday of each month (except August).
These meetings may be via Zoom, in person at the UC ANR building in Davis or at a research and extension center. These are mandatory meetings and SI leaders receive a stipend.
To apply for an SI leader position, visit https://surveys.ucanr.edu/survey.cfm?surveynumber=40584 and fill out the brief form. The deadline for applications is Sept. 29.
To learn more about the SI leader role, feel free to reach out to Lynn Schmitt-McQuitty forHealthy Families and Communities or Rachel Surls for Sustainable Food Systems.
[Updated 9/14/23 to revise Program Council meetings from 6 hours to up to 8 hours]
Turini, Davy named Strategic Initiative leaders
Tom and Josh join SI leaders Helen Dahlke for Water Quality, Quantity and Security, Lynn Schmitt-McQuitty for Healthy Families & Communities, and Rachel Surls for Sustainable Food Systems.
UC ANR's Strategic Initiative leaders work with their respective strategic initiative panels to improve communication, highlight research/extension gaps, and conduct detailed panel meetings. SI Leaders represent their panels, program teams and statewide programs/institutes at Program Council providing programmatic input into resource allocation recommendations.
We are grateful to Jim Farrar for his service as SI leader for Endemic and Invasive Pests and Diseases. Jim also served as the lead SI leader during the transition to the new associate vice president. We are also grateful to David Lewis, who served as SI leader for Water Quality, Quantity and Security before leading Sustainable Natural Ecosystems.
Brent Hales
Associate Vice President
Got a compelling field story and educational content to share? Try the new UC ANR story pipeline
If you're interested in driving people to your content and field stories, and in highlighting the work of UC ANR, now there's a central “pipeline” to do just that.
Strategic Communications and Strategic Initiatives have established a process for promoting your “stories from the field” on the ucanr.edu home page and on a new UC ANR Knowledge Stream blog that is a destination page for stories and educational content.
Why this blog? The approach is based on successful similar efforts in other states, where a central distribution channel helps people find experts and useful information and grows the organization's web presence. The blog-style stories of interesting activity and achievement link audiences to people and to educational content in an easily consumable way.
Okay, where do I submit? Submit your short stories here (remember to include a picture or two to make it more appealing). The link is also available on the Strategic Initiatives main page.
Here are some examples from “early adopters” of the pipeline.
What happens after I submit? Your survey response and story will be reviewed by Strategic Communications and published on an ANR platform (e.g. Knowledge Stream blog, social media, website, etc.), or we'll work with you to develop it further. You will be notified when your story goes live so you can promote it to your networks.
What support is out there for developing my writing? Rose Hayden-Smith offers training and consultation in this area. Contact her at Rose.Hayden-Smith@ucop.edu for more information. There are also resources for developing your stories on the Learning and Development site.
For more info: Contact Strat Comm or the relevant Strategic Initiative leader: Jim Farrar (Pests and Diseases), Lynn Schmitt-McQuitty (Healthy Families and Communities), Deanne Meyer (Sustainable Food Systems), David Lile (Sustainable Natural Ecosystems) or David Lewis (Water).
Linda Forbes
Director of Strategic Communications
Workgroups, Program Teams and Strategic Initiatives - Where are we?
A major factor in job satisfaction is the extent to which people feel part of a wider supportive community. Such connections have historically been offered in UC ANR through various means, including our structural units (i.e., our 81 workgroups, 21 program teams and 5 strategic initiatives).
Healthy organizations should regularly look at their structure. Important elements of structure include how the pieces fit together and how people may better connect to more effectively implement their work. In the summer of 2018, we began a series of discussions and surveys to revisit aspects of our structure.
Thank you to the 120-plus people who provided input on our structure and suggestions regarding how we may connect.
Findings
1. Clarity of purpose:
The seeming fuzziness of the roles and goals of our Workgroups (WGs), Program Teams (PTs) and Strategic Initiatives (SIs) is not as great as people may think. Many consistent findings arose across the different structural groups. A summary of our findings follows.
Workgroups (our oldest unit of structure) are the most readily understood. They represent active “communities of practice” (that can come and go) and are the primary place where people plan and implement (noting that such groups are both formal and informal).
One point of interest is that people didn't realize they could close or start workgroups as needed.
Program Teams bring together people (typically from different workgroups) who are working on related but distinctly different topics to network, share and learn.
One clear observation is that PTs vary considerably in terms of the diversity of WG representation (e.g., 1 PT has 12 WGs and a few PTs have just 1 WG).
SIs are our highest form of aggregation (and currently the one that enjoys the least clarity). They function to unify, communicate and advocate as the umbrellas for the work we do. The recent addition for the SIs is the development of the Focal Areas and Grand Challenges, providing the opportunity to see the unifying focus in our efforts.
For more information about how workgroups, program teams and strategic initiatives fit together, see https://ucanr.edu/sites/StrategicInitiatives/files/295191.pdf.
2. Workgroups – Don't fix it if it ain't broken:
Of the 81 workgroups, quite a number are considered very active and effective (21) - while another 29 are somewhat active and 3 are new in 2019. The remaining 28 WGs have been inactive as reflected by personnel or goal changes. The inactive WGs will be officially closed (see list at end). These can be easily reopened if demand arises.
The goal is for WGs to align with a single PT which likely means realigning the PTs - see point #3 below. Currently some workgroups have no PT, whereas other WGs have aligned with many PTs.
3. Reformulate the topic areas for Program Teams:
The next step is to collect input and look at reformulating/reaffirming the PT themes. Currently, we have 21 PT themes. Some have no WGs under them. Others have many WGs under them. As indicated above, some workgroups have aligned under many PT. This creates uneven structure and at times uneven activity.
As we go forward, we encourage people to help identify needed PT themes to 1) better represent the collective work of UC ANR, 2) create or show clearer paths for people to connect at the WG, PT and SI levels, and 3) help us refine the SI Focal Areas and Grand Challenges – providing greater clarity of our efforts and clearer SI alignment with the reformulated PT themes and WG efforts.
Opportunity for more input on PT themes
The PT discussions will include a webinar and county visits over summer.
Thank you all for your efforts and we welcome input.
Sincerely,
Mark Bell (Vice Provost Strategic Initiatives and Statewide Programs)
Strategic Initiative Leaders
HFC: Lynn Schmitt-McQuitty
SFS: Deanne Meyer and Neil McRoberts
Water: David Lewis
SNE: David Lile
Pests: Jim Farrar
—————————————
Workgroups to close
Note: If there is interest and leadership, workgroups can be readily opened by this simple new workgroup request.
1. Air Quality
2. Animals in Educational Settings
3. Bioenergy
4. Body Weight and Health
5. Building Food Security
6. Conservation Biology
7. Dairy Goats
8. Ecological Restoration
9. Economics and Mgmt in Food, Ag, Nat Res and the Environment
10. Environmental Observation Network
11. European Pear
12. Exotic Fruit Fly
13. Garden- Based Learning
14. Health Promotion & Disease Prevention
15. Mosquito Research and Extension
16. Pest Management in ANR
17. Postharvest Integrated Pest Management
18. Rangeland Watershed Program
19. Turfgrass
20. Urban Horticulture
21. Water Quality
22. Woody Biomass Utilization
23. Families with Young Children
24. Food Safety Horticultural Crops
25. Land Use
26. Linking Research & Education in Agricultural & Environmental Biotechnology
27. Peppers
28. Spray Application Technology
View or leave comments for ANR Leadership at http://ucanr.edu/sites/ANRUpdate/Comments.
This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.
Changing of the Strategic Initiatives guard
2019 brings new challenges, new opportunities and new leadership to our UC ANR Strategic Initiatives. Please join us in welcoming our new leaders for two of our five initiatives.
The Future
The Strategic Initiatives (SI) play a key role in building our umbrella by Unifying, Communicating, and advocating to promote the science and impact of the work of UC ANR.
Our two new leaders join a team with a range of initiatives underway for 2019 including:
- A look at how we can better connect across UC ANR (led by Deanne Meyer),
- “California Safe”: Two one-day SI institutes looking at fire, our response, what is known and how can it be more effectively implemented (led by David Lile)
- A “Spotlight” webinar series (led by Jim Farrar) sharing short stories of the impactful work across the organization
All these help us advance the UC ANR agenda of positively impacting the lives of 40 million Californians.
The New SI Leaders
The Rotating Leaders
As one colleague joins, another steps aside and so we recognize and thank Keith Nathaniel (HFC) and Doug Parker (Water) for their many contributions to the organization as SI leaders. Their professionalism and friendship have made the past few years both enjoyable and productive.
The Continuing Leaders
Meanwhile, we thank Jim Farrar (Endemic and Invasive Pests and Diseases) and Deanne Meyer and Neil McRoberts (Sustainable Food Systems) and David Lile (Sustainable Natural Ecosystems) for their ongoing commitment to bring their leadership, experience and wisdom to advance the UC ANR agenda.
For any questions about the Strategic Initiatives, please contact Wendy Powers, associate vice president, or Mark Bell, vice provost strategic initiatives and statewide programs.
UC ANR Strategic Initiatives: Building our Research and Extension umbrella by Unifying, Communicating and Advocating.
Mark Bell
Vice Provost Strategic Initiatives and Statewide Programs
View or leave comments for ANR Leadership at http://ucanr.edu/sites/ANRUpdate/Comments.
This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.
