What a gorgeous weekend, at least where I was. I wasn't sure it was going to ever start given that it took me 4 hours to get home from Oakland on Friday due to extra security on BART followed by a car accident. Who knew it would be quicker to get from San Jose to Davis, departing at 4 pm (3 hours).

While we were visiting Santa Clara UCCE the results of an employee survey were shared with us. The survey showed that those who live in the Southwest Bay had an average commute time of 27 min, by car, and 60 min by public transport. Those in the East Bay area spent 90 min in the car (no data provided for public transport). Finally, those in South Bay spent 38 min in the car. Presuming those numbers are one-way travel times, I suspect there are many other offices throughout the state, including the Davis and Oakland offices, where similar travel times are experienced. Depending on office destination, my own commute is either 1 hr or 2 hrs. I do my best to make good use of the commute time.

Over the weekend I happened to come across an article that indicated the average U.S. commute time is 26 min, each way. This compares to Stockton, CA which boasts the longest average commute time of just over 2 hours. The article featured 10 individuals that shares how they make the most out of their long commute times. Sam Shank, CEO of HotelTonight shared that he uses Uber for his commute in the Bay area. This allows him to fire up his laptop or make calls – not exactly applicable to the BART. Soledad O'Brien makes lists while she rides Amtrak. I can relate to that but it's not possible for the drive time. Bryn Mooser, CEO of the virtual reality studio RYOT, admits he just daydreams during his Venice, CA commute as it relaxes and prepares him for the office bustle.

Hopefully we all make good use of our commute times, no matter how long it is. Weather like this weekend certainly makes living in CA worth the traffic. Not to mention the chance to be part of UC.

MONEY magazine just ranked the top 50 colleges based on offering a superior education at an affordable price that enables graduates to avoid heavy debt and succeed in the workplace. Seven of the 10 UC campuses made the list with 4 (UCSC, UCI, UCLA, and UCB) in the top 10! UC Davis just missed the top 10, coming in at #11. Congratulations UC!

I managed to get a couple of projects done over the weekend and am close to caught up on emails. This week a group will be talking about the position description for a communications director. VP Council meets on Thursday and will be talking about developing business plans for the statewide programs. Executive Council (4 deans plus Glenda, Tu and myself) will meet with VP Council for lunch, followed by an afternoon meeting on Thursday. Time to get ready for the week.

It's time for more fun facts:

• Almonds represent approximately 29% of ag receipts in Stanislaus County and dairy brings in 18%
• Mechanical thinning of stone fruit translates to an estimated $1400/acre profit
• Nutria, a rodent pest, is a force to be reckoned with in California. Its orange teeth distinguish it from other rodent relatives. It reminded me of the capybara that were seen everywhere during a visit to the Pantanal. Capybara have been spotted in California.
• Stanislaus County has recently provided support for both a 1.0 FTE Master Gardener Coordinator and a 1.0 FTE 4-H Community Educator
• A local school district provides the land where almond variety trials are conducted
• The UC ANR team in Stanislaus County is beginning to discuss metrics and indicators of progress, as part of their reporting back to the County

These are all things I learned during a recent visit with this relatively new team, many of whom have been with UC ANR less than 2 years. While this may have some suddenly calculating how old they were when these newcomers were born, the upside is that 1) the offices are almost all occupied, and 2) there are new skills and energy contributing to the team environment. I'm excited for this office team. They have great relations with clientele, the county, and each other – provided Roger remembers to bring cake on his birthday.

Today, a group of us talked about communication needs for the division with the intent of these needs/goals translating into a position vacancy announcement for a Director of Communications (I may have the title incorrect). As Scott Brayton pointed out, we are all communicators, each with different primary audiences. Yet, we all need to be part of the effort to enhance communication to a broader audience – whether that is increasing reach to clientele, improve understanding of who we are to others in UC, or conveying the public value of UC ANR work to influencers and supporters. Crafting the message and getting it out there offers a continuous improvement challenge for us all.

Communication, the message itself and how the message is shared, is especially challenging when the topic is controversial or evokes strong emotions. The need for our messages to be balanced and science-based can't be understated. Fortunately, we have a number of people who do a great job at this! Take a look at the blog that Laura Snell hosts. Her 2 summer interns provide the content, under her mentorship. And if that's not a great example of how Laura's work addresses all sides of a topic, take a look at the new video that she and her team produced, working with the US Forest Service. A great example of the important communication coming from Modoc County!

Speaking of Modoc County, the big topic for a group of us heading back from Alturas a few weeks ago was the price of a drink + hot dog at Costco. I stand corrected; Anne Megaro was correct in telling us that the cost was $1.50. That definitely fits my expense budget for the upcoming long weekend. I hope everyone makes the most of the ‘last weekend of summer'!

I hope everyone had a good long weekend. Email traffic seemed light on Friday so I suspect some were able to get a head start. I had big plans to make the most of what many consider the last weekend of summer. In addition to ‘summer things', I planned to spend some time on a creative hobby. To get into a creative mindset, I listened to a couple of TED Talks last week. One of them, “How to get out of the box and generate ideas” was ok. I've listened to that one before.

The one I really liked from last week's listenings was by Guy Kawasaki, a former Apple employee. His talk, “The art of innovation” focused on 8 key principles to success in innovation”

• Make meaning
• Have a mantra (not mission statement)
• Jump to the next curve
• Don't be so successful on the icemaking curve that you can't see the refrigerator curve
• Innovation isn't a better daisy wheel printer but rather a laser printer
• Create something that is deep
• Don't worry, be crappy
  • When you have jumped to the next curve, it is ok to have elements of crap in an outstanding product
• Let 100 flowers blossom
  • Macintosh was saved by Aldus Pagemaker (The Apple product stood out from other computers because it was viewed as a desktop publishing machine)
• Polarize people
• TiVo, iPhone
• People need to either love the product or hate it
• Churn baby, churn
  • Keep evolving
• Niche thyself
  • Uniqueness (y-axis) and value (x-axis)
  • Be in the upper right corner (high value, highly unique)
• Perfect your pitch

During VP Council last week, we focused on strategies to be more entrepreneurial in our efforts. Some of the ideas generated were quite creative. One idea was for each statewide program to develop a business plan using the talents of business school students. A better understanding of what restrictions/policies are the sideboards to entrepreneurial activities is needed by all. Another recommendation was to discover and share what our counterparts in other states are doing to address the same challenges UC ANR has with declining central funds. #3, above, might be a good principle to consider. Now that I write this, I realize that I left with homework – I had better write that down or it won't get done.

Well now that the holiday is over, it's time to get ready for the week. The SI leaders have a full agenda tomorrow. Program Council meets on Wednesday. REC directors and County Directors have Zoom meetings on Friday. I can't remember what's on the calendar for Thursday so I will just leave it to be a surprise. Construction seems to be everywhere so I'm not clear how I will get to Oakland or Davis this week but that's all part of the adventure.

Program Council met on Wednesday. For those who were relaxing over the weekend and staring off into a lake, they were quickly pulled back to reality. We cancelled the Tuesday meeting, assuming we didn't have enough content to justify the day and a half. We ended up rushing to finish on time. It's difficult to judge, in advance, how much conversation a topic will generate. The first topic, alone, extended well beyond the allotted 45 min. It was about how to meet all of the needs within the constraints of limited resources. Messaging becomes key. I think it is human nature to feel unsupported when programs can't be supported at desired levels or even at levels they have been in the past (numbers of academics, support provided to REC research, travel and supply funds, grant programs, etc.). So how does one message sufficiently to overcome these feelings of abandonment? Is it even possible to message well enough or often enough, particularly when those impacted have already created their stories about the situation?

 The next topic was work groups (WG), program teams (PT), and strategic initiatives (SI) and how best to support getting the work done in a way that promotes synergies and sharing, even across unexpected groups, in a manner that doesn't add layers of work to organizers or participants. Yet, at the same time, we need some record of accomplishment as a result of the efforts in order to convey the value of continuing. The SI Leaders polled the work group and program team leaders about their perceived value of WG, PT, and SI. As you can imagine, the responses were varied, indicating that each approach was everything from most important to least important. I imagine the same would be true if we polled the entire division on just about any topic – some would say the issue/program/investment should be our highest priority while others would rate it at the bottom. I'm not sure consensus is even possible for such a large, diverse, and dispersed organization.

Mark Bell's long weekend view

Other topics included branding (should we be UC ANR or UCCE or perhaps represented by the well-recognized statewide programs) and strategies to increase entrepreneurialism in our programs. Overall, there was a bit of a theme throughout the day – that we can't please everyone and that it's difficult to message enough.

 We also discussed the 2018 position call process and how to review the proposals during our October meeting. Between now and October, we all have some homework to do in reviewing the proposals. We anticipate having our recommendations ready following the November meeting. We will spend some time in November reviewing the process so, please, provide your ideas for improvement to any of the Program Council members. Your feedback is important to us.

And while we wrap up releasing the 2016 positions throughout the remainder of the calendar year, we have another outcome of that call to welcome to UC ANR. Jaspreet Sidhu started on Tuesday in Kern County as a Vegetable Crops Advisor. Please welcome Jaspreet!