- Author: Wendy Powers
I'm not a reader. But recently I read an article by Morten Hansen, a faculty member at UCB. Hansen's work suggests that people who find purpose in their work perform better and bring passion to their work. Now I don't know if Hansen is familiar with Cooperative Extension or the Agriculture Experiment Station, but there's no doubt in my mind that if he were to study the work of UC ANR he would find volumes of examples to support his hypothesis. In every county of California and every department where a CE Specialist or AES faculty member resides there are examples that depict the effects of combining passion and purpose to result in extraordinary effort to transform lives.
Because I'm still spending my days as juror #7, I missed the chance to meet with those passionate and purposeful members of the Stanislaus County team on Tuesday. For whatever reason, scheduling and fulfilling that visit has posed particular challenges. Fortunately, Mark Bell made the visit. Hopefully I will get there soon. I'm also unable to participate in a trip with some of the REC directors and REC superintendents to see a couple of ‘RECs' in 2 different states and talk with the leadership of those sites. It would have been a very quick trip but hopefully one that stimulates some ideas not only for the group traveling but also those of us who were unable to travel. I'm looking forward to hearing the reports from those who traveled when we all meet in May 11.
Instead of moping about my situation, I've decided to find the positives:
- I am practicing patience as we sit through the presentation of evidence
- I've had an opportunity to put my calculus skills to use rather than just trust the witness' numbers (part of how I'm dealing with boredom)
- The time period on this jury represents what might be the longest consecutive number of nights spent at home in quite some time
- My daily commute is less than half my normal commute, even on my Davis days
- I'm reminded how fortunate I am to have never needed to be part of a jury trial as anything other than a juror
The list, though perhaps interesting, remains fairly short. But perhaps I will be able to work on my negotiation, facilitation, or conflict resolution skills when we deliberate and can add to the list a bit.
This experience doesn't exactly call for me to bring my creative self to work. I wonder if the court attendant and the court reporter are able to bring both passion and purpose to their positions. In addition, I'm trying hard to find something that I can bring back to UC ANR – a prospective partnership, a programming gap, something….
- Author: Wendy Powers
My civic duty is over. Now it's time to really focus on reviewing merit and promotion documents. With less than 50 days left between now and when I need to have them completed, I have 92 left to review. The math is simple enough so it is just a matter of actually reading 1 to 2 per night followed by reviewing all of the other feedback provided from supervisors, peers/colleagues, and the peer review committee, then writing up my own evaluation document. So far I have 0 complete. On the upside, only 92 more to go.
I have no idea where time is going. I actually started to write this blog on Monday and now it's Thursday. I still have 92 dossiers to review. But in between we've had:
- Program Council which was just a quick call on Tuesday afternoon to more or less check in with few meaty agenda items,
- A really productive meeting with the SI Leaders that covered topics ranging from strategies to increase the number of UC Delivers submissions,
- A call on Monday afternoon with the Task Force on Agriculture and Natural Resources ( a committee of the Academic Senate) where the focus of the conversation was the committee's interest in ANR making itself better known and accessible to all 10 campuses,
- Some administrative things, including the staff evaluation process in both Davis and Oakland (2 different systems so that makes it interesting and a bit of a challenge to keep straight),
- Personnel-related topics that could be any number of things,
- A continuing discussion with CDFA about a potential partnering opportunity that is making headway,
- A couple of meetings and work related to quantifying and conveying progress in our strategic plan, which is relevant to our upcoming annual review meeting with President Napolitano,
- A meeting to talk about the Public Value Statements and next steps,
- And an extended meeting of the executive leadership group to think strategically, which ended up being as much about fires as it did long-term positioning (a reflection of everyone having piles of work in front of us, making it hard to see over the pile)
And now it's Thursday with a whole day of opportunity ahead of me. Mark B., Mark L. and I have a call scheduled mid-morning to talk about the Vice Provost – Academic Personnel and Development position. While I don't have the committee report yet, I want to get their thoughts about the candidate, the position and how it fits into other internal and external factors, including budget and the President's pending decisions about reorganizing UCOP. Regardless of the outcome, the commitment to outstanding personnel development and service remains. Similarly, regardless of the reorganization outcome, the commitment to the mission and the amazing work of ANR remains. There is great comfort in knowing that we will continue to improve the lives of Californians and challenge ourselves to achieve stronger outcomes with greater impact.
Mark L. is packing up in Nebraska today and heading west on Monday. He doesn't start until June 1 but he's already got a number of things on his calendar (meetings, field days) for May. I don't envy him these next couple of weeks. The movers were in Michigan late May 2017 but it seems like that was forever ago and I'm glad to have only a distant memory of the hassle. So glad to be ‘settled' and a part of ANR. Soon, even jury duty will be a distant memory.
- Author: Wendy Powers
Have you raised your hand? National 4-H Council has launched the “Raise Your Hand” campaign and will give cash prizes of $20K, $10K and $5K to the top three states with the most hands raised! Show your support of California 4-H by helping us get as many votes or “hands raised” for California as possible. Simply visit 4-H.org/raiseyourhand by May 15th, and join the California 4-H Alumni & Friends network by providing your email address. That's it! So go ahead and raise your hand!
Tomorrow is the IPM retreat, held on the Davis campus. Mark Bell and I will be providing an update to the group on what's new in ANR. Before heading over to campus, Mark and I will welcome a group of relatively new County Directors to the first County Director Institute (a.k.a. CD boot camp). Our topic there is what it means to be part of ANR leadership and the connection between county-based UCCE and statewide programs and strategic initiatives.
It is a busy week for many. And while I might think it's hectic, I have it easy compared to Rachel Palmer and the PSU team who are supporting all of the events. When the CD Institute ends, the R&E Council meets on Wednesday evening, followed by a County Director/REC Director meeting on Thursday. The REC business officers and the REC superintendents are meeting on Thursday as well. The week ends with the entire REC group meeting on Friday.
Two of our new colleagues are heading west this week to join in on the fun. Mark Lagrimini is packed and moving with plans to arrive by Wednesday evening. Annemiek Schilder will be in town as well. She won't begin as the new CD in Ventura County and REC director at the Hansen REC until August 1, but we are fortunate to steal her away from her current position for the week to join us in these meetings.
I honestly can't say enough about the thoughtfulness and selflessness. Just one recent example our recent Distinguished Service Awardee, Cheryl Wilen donated the monetary portion of her award to ANR for use in programming. That's just like Cheryl to be thinking of others!
Have you visited NIFA's data gateway yet? Take a look. It's a follow up to one of Dr. Wotecki's commitment to big data.
I have made virtually no progress on reviewing merit and promotion packages. No point in crying over that; after all, it's within my control to manage my time and get those done. In fact, none of the above are things to shed a tear over, yet my allergies have my eyes running constantly these days. So in addition to raising my hand in support of 4-H, I'm raising it to volunteer as a test subject for any new, revolutionary antihistamines out there.
- Author: Wendy Powers
It's finally Thursday! All week I've been off on my days, for some reason thinking it was Thursday each day. I chalk it up to trying out more powerful allergy meds. I don't think there's anything particularly special about today that had me longing to get to it, but who knows, I might be surprised by the end of day. It promises to be an interesting day – CDs and REC Directors need to narrow the list of Advisor positions down to 20 (from 27).
I was able to attend portions of the CD Institute meeting this week. The group of participants worked really well together. Hopefully the group rely on each other as time goes on; there's much to be learned from peers, particularly when the group, while all relatively new in the CD role, are at varying stage of career. David Lewis did a great job facilitating the portions I attended, including some conversations about working with different personality types and conflict resolution using case studies. A refresher in these areas could prove useful in navigating the Thursday conversations. It was nice to find a few minutes to chat with the CDs and even those ‘CDs in waiting' that attended. Kudos to Wei-ting Chen and the program planning team; nicely done!
In between, Tu and I finished reviewing the FY18-19 budget requests in preparation for our meeting with Glenda at the end of the month. The ECOP Budget and Legislative committee had their quarterly call; one of the key topics again this month was the status of SNAP-Ed and EFNEP. Still no final decision who will administer which program(s). Like many other things, the conversation is bogged down in debate over organization to the point where you wonder if the mission and commitment to the goals of the programs are lost in the discussion. I just want to raise my hand and say “Can we make certain we don't lose sight of what's really important!”
I was also in discussion with some folks from NIFA who pointed out that the current they hope to see Extension driving the submissions to the current AFRI RFAs (Education and Workforce, Foundational (note that deadlines have passed; new RFA not posted yet) and Sustainable Agricultural Systems). That's nice to hear though I will reserve my enthusiasm until the review panels are seated. I would hope that Extension is prominent in submissions to the InFEWs program as well. I'm anxious to see the Foundational RFA to see how it incorporates Extension. Regardless of that one reads, the other three are tightly aligned with Extension and applied research so I hope UC and UC ANR are able to capitalize on the opportunities out there. I have to admit, the idea of getting in on the granting game again is more appealing than some of the other items on my ‘to-do' list.
A few dates to keep in mind as we rush to the weekend:
Tuesday is your last day to Raise Your Hand in support of California 4-H. Let's not let those Midwestern states get ahead of us. Pass the link on to your friends and family.
Wednesday, May 16, is UC ANR Walks for Wellness day! While finalizing plans with your team, ask them to raise their hands by May 15.
Next Thursday is the first third Thursday WebANR Café. Perhaps I had my weeks confused and that's why I was so anxious to get to Thursday this week.
- Author: Wendy Powers
After a quarterly meeting with the goal owners of the strategic plan, I headed to Ukiah this afternoon. It was definitely the driest I have seen Hopland, making it a beautiful drive up 101. No wonder the coastal area is home to some of California's happiest cows. I passed San Quentin on the drive. I haven't spent much time wondering where San Quentin actually was so I was surprised to come across it; still so much to see in the state. While I didn't stop in there, I will be stopping in at the Hopland REC tomorrow for the Research Advisory Committee (RAC) meeting.
At the goal owners meeting we focused on how to share the accomplishments of the strategic plan and how those accomplishments position ANR and all of the people in ANR for success. Accomplishments such as:
- A 12% increase in Contracts and Grants for the first 2 quarters of 2017-18, compared to the previous year. This means more resources to conduct programming.
- Development of new partnerships that translates into 3 Advisor/Specialist position FTE becoming 6 full-time positions, thereby making headway towards increasing the academic footprint.
These are just a couple of examples; more to be shared in future posts. Please share your thoughts on other methods for sharing the news as we move through the strategic plan timeline.
The group also spent time talking about the goal of ensuring that ANR is a happy place to be. While we need to be realistic and acknowledge that we are all working and ANR isn't intended to be Disneyworld, many are focused on making the work experience more rewarding and enjoyable. Development of a survey to establish a baseline and identify areas for improvement is on the ‘to-do' list.
It is clearly graduation season. A number of the County and REC Directors shared last week that they have graduates this year. Among those with college graduate: Roger Duncan, Jairo Diaz, Deb Driskill and Mark Bell. I think Mark won the contest for graduation destinations; he was in Honolulu last week to attend his daughter's graduation from nursing school. Take a look at his happy place. I had enough trouble showing up for class in Ithaca; I can't imagine ever making it to class if I was near the ocean.
Tomorrow night I head to Fresno. On Wednesday I am meeting with the UCCE group. We start our day with a UC Walks trip through the Garden of the Sun followed by some program visits and conversation. While I've been to that office before, this will be my first visit to meet the team in their happy place.
Come the end of the week, I am off to one of my favorite places. Hint: it involves water – 21% of the world's fresh water supply.