Staff across the UC system who are interested in public policy, advocacy and the future direction of the university are encouraged to apply to become the next staff advisor to the UC Regents. The application period is now open through March 10.
Staff advisors are staff or non-Senate academic employees who bring the employee voice and perspective to UC Board of Regents deliberations and to decision-makers at the Office of the President. Staff advisors participate in open sessions and designated committees of the board.
Each of the two staff advisors serves two years. The terms are staggered, with one new staff advisor selected each year. The term for the staff advisor position that is open for applications runs from July 2017 to June 2019.
You are eligible to serve in this role if you:
- Are a staff or non-Senate academic employee. The seat is open to both non-represented and represented employees.
- Have at least five years of UC service
The current staff advisors are LaWana Richmond, a business analyst at UC San Diego, whose term expires in June, and Jason Valdry, a director of technology at UC Irvine, whose term expires in June 2018.
You can learn more about the program and how to apply by March 10 on the staff advisor website.
If you have questions about the staff advisor position or the application process, contact Juliann Martinez, UC Office of the President Employee Relations, at (510) 287-3331 or Juliann.Martinez@ucop.edu.
More about the staff advisors to the Regents
A continuing goal of the UC Regents is to foster two-way communication between UC staff and the board.
In January 2007, the Regents voted unanimously to establish positions for two staff advisors to participate in their deliberative process and to provide a staff perspective on matters coming before the board.
One new staff advisor is selected each year for a two-year term. The staff advisors serve as non-voting advisors to designated Regents' committees; they attend and participate directly in committee and board meetings throughout their term of service, and visit many of the campuses to solicit input from staff.
UC Delivers, a collection of stories showing how ANR is making a difference for Californians, is a great option to consider when relaying the impact of your work. Once a story is posted to the website it is converted to a one-page PDF, shared with ANR senior management and posted to the federal impacts website for land-grant universities at https://landgrantimpacts.tamu.edu.
Stories or portions of stories may also be included in the annual federal report that is submitted to our funding partner, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. You can view the 2015 Federal Report Snapshot at http://ucanr.edu/sites/anrstaff/files/253625.pdf for a glimpse of research and extension that was included in the report. One-pagers on UC Delivers may also be used to educate county supervisors, legislators, funders and reporters about the impact of ANR activities.
You may consider additional creative ways to share your work using UC Delivers. For example, Andra Nicoli from the UC CalFresh state office brought UC Delivers stories to the California SNAP-Ed Local Implementing Agency Forum to distribute as handouts, and included payoffs from the stories on a display board to show off her unit's work.
“I love UC Delivers because it is a quick way for policymakers and stakeholders to understand the context of an issue and the expertise the UC can leverage as problem-solvers and collaborators,” said Nicoli.
To submit an article to UC Delivers, go to your ANR Portal page and click on “Add a New Story” under UC Delivers. Program Planning and Evaluation (PP&E) has streamlined the editing process with the goal of posting stories two to four weeks after you submit them.
Jennifer Caron-Sale will review content and work with authors to ensure articles are written in lay language, have strong payoffs and conform to ANR's writing style and the UC Delivers template. Additionally, if you completed an ANR Competitive Grant Final Report in 2016 or 2017, she will reach out to you to initiate the editing process for a public-oriented version of the summary that you include in your report.
If you have questions about UC Delivers, please contact Caron-Sale at jennifer.caron-sale@ucop.edu or (510) 987-0214. She looks forward to receiving and posting stories in 2017 that represent all five Strategic Initiatives.
The UC ANR Staff Assembly Council has been busy pursuing various ways to provide resources that will benefit all ANR staff – including limited-term and county-paid staff. For those of you who may not know, ANR Staff Assembly Council is here to advocate staff views, interests and areas of concern to leadership as well as provide opportunities for professional development.
UC ANR Staff Assembly Council began by reaching out to all offices and RECs to obtain names of colleagues who would like to be a local Staff Assembly ambassador. These ambassadors will be your local contact in helping spread the word about and promote the work of Staff Assembly Council. To determine who your Staff Assembly ambassador is, please go to the Staff Assembly's website – http://staffassembly.ucanr.edu – and click on the Ambassadors tab. If you notice your office or site doesn't have a representative and you'd like to become the local ambassador, please let Staff Assembly Council know via the comments and questions link on the home page.
Additionally, within the next few weeks, all ANR staff will receive a free UC ANR Staff Assembly reusable bag. It's a way of welcoming you as members of ANR Staff Assembly. Please use it with pride because you are UC ANR Staff Assembly.
Accepting applications for 2016-17
The UC ANR Staff Assembly serves to promote staff interests. And when asked, staff said that career development is their Number One priority. So the Staff Assembly Council prioritized the staff career-development scholarship program for 2016-17.
The 2016-17 Scholarship Program applies to the 2016-17 fiscal year and applications will be accepted for almost any job-related training or conference that occurred between July 1, 2016, and April 30, 2017. The maximum award amount is $1,500, and applications should be submitted by March 30, 2017. Travel such as airfare, rental car, hotel or meals cannot be reimbursed.
This is a reimbursement program. Reimbursement will require an invoice or receipt showing payment for the course, and evidence of satisfactory course completion. You will be asked to upload electronic copies of these documents at the time of submission.
To apply for the scholarship, answer a 10-question survey at https://ucanr.co1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_3DV1wulS6koXnz7.
If you have questions about the program, please ask your local Staff Assembly ambassador or post your question at http://staffassembly.ucanr.edu under the “Comments/Questions” tab.
The 2017 nomination process for the national Excellence in Extension and Diversity awards has been announced by the Extension Committee on Organization & Policy (ECOP) and USDA-NIFA. The due date for online nominations is May 1, 2017, at 5 p.m. Pacific Time.
For details and to access the worksheets and online nomination forms go to http://www.aplu.org/CESawards.
When completing a nomination for Excellence in Extension Award, please note that there are some changes to the criteria. Nominations from previous years that were not selected are encouraged to reapply for the national awards. Questions can be directed to Sandy Ruble, ECOP program assistant, at sandyruble@extension.org.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
If you are an administrator for any UC ANR-related social media page, please let us know. We will be able to share your news from UC ANR accounts and you can share relevant UC ANR news with your followers.
Please fill out a brief survey at http://ucanr.edu/socialmedia2017 with your contact information and links to your social media pages so we can include you in our communications about upcoming social media campaigns and content!
If you have any questions, contact Tyler Ash, social media coordinator, at (530) 750-1394 or tyash@ucanr.edu.
