- Author: Wendy Powers
We spent the day with the Sutter/Yuba team. This was my first trip to meet with personnel in these counties; Mark Bell had visited previously. Mark L. and Nicole Marshall-Wheeler found a common bond in that they both just started last Friday! It was a good ‘first county visit' for Mark! The team is a mixture of long-time UC ANR'ers and a number of new ones. The new personnel are in good hands but I get the sense that they don't need much help; they are an ambitious bunch that are prepared for just about anything.
What really struck me about the trip was that the team has made time to find reasons to work together, not letting any program area silos build up around them. While we were at the Learning Garden, Shyra talked to us about the ‘wheelbarrow project'. This is a joint effort between UC CalFresh, Master Gardeners and 4-H. By working together, they found that pooling resources they had more purchasing power than it was individually but that their programmatic impact was greater, too! Instead of purchasing supplies for 3 wheelbarrow projects, they were able to support 10 projects and combine the expertise of nutritionists and gardeners to support youth development beyond that which they could provide independently.
It was motivating to hear that the team makes intentional efforts to find ways to work together to the benefit of their local communities. They did it around soup – yes, soup! Each week, one person brings in broth and everyone else grabs something from their fridge. The final product makes for a bit of a ‘surprise' lunch, but it's always better than if they each ate only the ingredient they brought. The act, itself, builds team and brings everyone together to talk about what's going on in their program areas. Very creative! No wonder there were Star Award winners amongst the team (Shyra and Melissa)!
Imagine if we could all find a way to make the time to explore where synergies could exist. Would we find it rewarding? Or perhaps a way to achieve more that we could alone? Maybe even make things a bit easier for ourselves? I'd love to hear what ideas you have to stimulate synergies and collaborations. I think this is where the Strategic Initiatives fit in – bringing people under an umbrella and creating the opportunity to find ways to accomplish your goals by working with others.
Congratulations to all of the Star Award winners!
- Author: Wendy Powers
While the temperatures are certainly heating up, my productivity is definitely down. I started the week with a scratched cornea, the result of gardening. Who knew blinking could be so painful! Just another reason I've been trying to keep my eyes open. Anyway, that left me with only have my target merit and promotion reviews completed for the weekend. But I'm back to clear vision (almost) so I can pick up again in the evenings – about 30 to 35 left to review.
Today I meet with the California Leafy Greens Research board. They are meeting in Davis and asked me to stop by. It will be the end of what may have been a long meeting for them. I am sure we will be discussing the 2018 Position Call process and the recently posted positions (scroll to bottom) as the Advisors in the central coast area are key to their businesses. Research needs and costs, indirect cost rate, and the UC ANR budget are other likely topics. The Board is a strong supporter of UC ANR so it is good that I am able to spend some time with the group and brainstorm a bit.
Tomorrow is the Star Awards ceremony, beginning at 2 PM. In case you can't make it to Davis, here's the Zoom info: https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/5307501239 or call 669/900-6833 with meeting ID 530 750 1239. Please join in to celebrate our awardees!
Thursday I am off with the 2 Marks to visit Janine and the Yuba/Sutter UCCE offices. This will be my first time in those offices. Then Friday we are in Butte County. I'm close to wrapping up my first visit to every county; I think only Santa Clara County is not scheduled or in the process of being scheduled. Then it's time to go around again. Given our hirings and departures, as well as changing goals and challenges, I don't plan to visit counties just once. Rather, my goal is to be in every county at least once every other year, pending invitations to visit. I find this helps as I am reading the merit and promotion documents because I can put the work into context and names to faces and conversations. I find it very rewarding as well as educational. I use the conversations to find common themes around the state and keep my eyes open to opportunities. Offices put considerable time and effort into the visits; hopefully they find it well worth their time.
Next time, I'll be able to share some of my journey with you!
- Author: Wendy Powers
I'm sitting on what I think is the loudest plane I have ever been on. I'm not sure if a motor is missing a bearing or what. While it is a bit uncomfortable, I am not complaining because, by predicting the impacts of rain in the Midwest and changing my flight plan long before I knew for certain that I would benefit from the change, I averted a long ground delay in Chicago that would likely cause a missed connection. That's the benefit of looking back on past experiences in order to better see forward.
I was at a meeting with a number of other Extension leaders from across the U.S. We met with NIFA to talk about their grants programs. Did you see that NIFA's AFRI Foundation Program was just released? If not, take a look at that and the other programs currently open. The NIFA leaders shared with us some tips to help our academics succeed in their funding pursuits. The most important tip – apply! And, be prepared to need to apply more than once before you are successful. Given that most programs have funding rates of 10 to 15 percent, odds are you won't be successful the first time. But call the Program Leader for the grant program you are interested in and see if they think your proposal concept fits with the program. If you've submitted in the past, unsuccessfully, look back and the reviewer feedback and take to heart the comments (after you've first criticized the anonymous reviewers for not knowing anything about your topic and not really reading your proposal). The NIFA leadership is counting on Extension academics taking the lead on integrated proposals, indicating that these are the people that can best understand what it takes for NIFA to achieve their 25-year goals (see page 8 of link) that are the foundation for the Sustainable Agricultural Systems grant program that is out right now.
The NIFA leaders stressed how much they rely on our impact stories to tell their story and justify federal funds (capacity, like Smith-Lever and Hatch, as well as competitive funds. Sound familiar? We do the same thing with stories put into UC Delivers and Project Board. They really do get used when written well and focused on impact – by leadership, for government relations work, and for fund development efforts.
We met with the CEO of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA; who happens to have been one of my mentors long ago) and we talked about the different types of partnerships that the various states have with their Departments of Agriculture. One state is talking about shared ‘Advisor' positions. Imagine that! It happens to be a state where the director shared that leadership didn't change quickly enough so changed happened to them – like closing research stations and layoffs when they weren't proactive in finding new sources of funding. It sounds like some lessons were learned there, albeit the hard way. But they can still help others better see a path forward.
It's pretty easy to change flights to avoid getting stuck in Chicago but not so easy to see and make other changes. Fortunately, we pride ourselves on being change agents. As a result of efforts to boost funds development, the 2017 Giving Tuesday was up 49% over the previous year! And online giving in FY17-18 is on track to surpass FY16-17 by 13%. That's in addition to the increased contract and grant funding that I mentioned before and includes support to have shared-funded Advisor positions with NRCS. Not all necessary change is as pleasant to share, but here's to staying ahead and making change rather than having change happen to us.
Update: my flight original flight, to O'Hare, was canceled.
- Author: Wendy Powers
I hope everyone had a relaxing long weekend. Now that we are unofficially in summer, it's hard to believe we are almost halfway through 2018! Hard to believe. What's not hard for me to believe - I'm not quite halfway through my review of the merit and promotion documents. Nonetheless, I will make it, I swear! I think I have made considerable progress over the last week. I'm reading every word so that I don't miss out on what everyone has been up to so it takes a bit of time to get through them. I need to talk with the Deans and see if they have a better process than the one I've been using. With the 2 to 3-yr review cycle used throughout UC, it makes for far more reviews than at other institutions. When I was on the College review committee at Michigan State, we had a record year one of the years, with 36 reviews but faculty (teaching, research and Extension) were only reviewed by the College at promotion to Associate or Full Professor (twice in one's career). As the demographic of ANR academics shifts to a more junior group the number may remain closer to the 92 dossiers there are this year because the cycle is 2 years early in the career before shifting to 3 year cycles.
Now I am in DC for a couple of days. This trip gives me a chance to meet with a number of the NIFA program leaders, including California's liaison. It's a quick trip; I'll fly back Wednesday night. When I get back there will be planning for the annual budget meeting with President Napolitano, an update on how the new IACUC partnership with UC Merced is going, and the monthly meeting with REC Directors followed by the monthly meeting with County Directors, among other meetings.
You may have seen Mark Lagrimini around – he arrived in California in early May. Friday, June 1, is his first official day. That makes us more than halfway to having a full team for programmatic leadership. While that still leaves a vacancy, I'll take it. I'm looking forward to working with the team of ‘Marks'.
The UC ANR Advisory Council has begun meeting. This is the ‘tiger team' that President Napolitano referred to in her remarks at the Statewide conference. So far, I believe, they've had a phone call. This Thursday they meet for the better part of the day. Glenda and Tu will be there providing requested information. I'm holding a late June date to meet with the Advisory Council. There's no further update at this time as we are primarily responding to information requests at this point. We'll see how things develop.
The academic positions put forward by the CD/REC directors (Advisor positions) and the campus associate deans (Specialist positions) should be posted soon. The 40 total positions have been identified so be on the lookout for an ANR Update. There were difficult decisions made. Given that we are just under halfway through the position proposal phase there are likely to be a few additions to the list before the final proposals go to Program Council for deliberation.
Welcome to Nicole Marshall-Wheeler who will be starting June 1 as 4-H Youth Development Advisor, based in Colusa, with programmatic responsibilities in Colusa, Sutter and Yuba Counties. Please make Nicole feel welcome and help her off to a great start!
Enjoy the remainder of our short week!
- Author: Wendy Powers
This week I am up on the 46th parallel. It seems much further from Sacramento (38° N) than the coordinates suggest. The snow is gone as is the lake ice. Some damage that resulted from a hard winter has been left behind. While I'm sure the soaring eagles, lake loons and daffodils just coming into bloom are a welcome sight for many, we've lost the ice caves and the Northern Lights for at least a few months. You can't have everything – at least not all at once.
Technically, I'm on vacation. But with only 17 merit and promotion packages completed and 75 to go, making a dent on the 63 packages I downloaded before I left seems like an obvious thing to do when phone and WiFi signals are weak and my other options include power washing, painting, yard work or other repairs during an unseasonably warm week (up to 75° F).
As I read through the dossiers I continue to learn more about the work of UC ANR. While I previously wondered if we should be doing more to address the aging population (eating to live), I read about the inspiring work that at least one of our academics is doing to address the needs of this group. In a different dossier I learned more about the work of an academic whose efforts address, almost exclusively, the needs of underserved audiences.
Most, if not all, of the work we do is important. Having sufficient capacity to have a meaningful impact as opposed to being spread too thin is the challenge. With so many needs and opportunities in front of us, how do we decide what to do and what to not do? We can't do everything with finite resources, and do it all well. So as I read through dossiers, I can see how decisions have been made to shift and, often times, focus efforts towards the greatest need or the opportunity or the greatest impact. After all, the goal isn't to have individuals contribute to as many condition changes as possible, but to have individuals focus their efforts such that their work contributes to meaningful change in conditions. In order to direct sufficient effort towards a targeted change, one has to pass up other opportunities so as to avoid becoming stretched too thin.
Though I really need this vacation, if only to have time to read the bulk of the dossiers, I am missing, for perhaps only the first or second time, a MultiState Research Committee meeting that I have attended since 1997. Another example, that you can't do everything. Hopefully the group is having a productive meeting. Given all the new, young talent within the committee, I have no doubt they are planning great things. Perhaps I can catch up next year.
