- Author: Wendy Powers
I have to admit that there are days I miss the 9-min commute. This morning was one of those days. I slept in 30 min later than my usual Oakland day wake up because I was driving all the way to Oakland rather than taking the BART from Pittsburg and I didn't want to arrive much before 6 AM. Had I left at my usual time I would have been ahead of the crash; had I snoozed only once instead of twice I may have been right in the middle of it. As it turned out, I was behind the crash only far enough that I sat for an hour before Highway 12 closed altogether and I had to cross the center lane and return home. In my past life if there were heavy rains a small piece of one road would flood and I would have to drive 3 miles out of the way to detour. Though I have only traveled this route for about 6 months, I have no doubt the fatal crash was the result of taking unusual risks to get somewhere a mere few minutes earlier. Sometimes there is something to be said for being careful, albeit a bit slow.
This month we made real progress on the strategic plan goal to improve the competitiveness of CE Advisor pay. It took quite a bit of time to make these strides because of the need to ensure we could achieve our goal of increasing salary competitiveness without compromising our goal of increasing the academic footprint. VP Humiston approved a four-year plan to increase annual pay for CE Advisors, and all CE Advisors are receiving increases effective October 1. CE Advisor pay has been a long-standing concern for ANR, and the four-year plan represents a significant investment in our people. The CE Advisors are essential to everything we do at ANR, and this plan recognizes their critical role. More background information is linked from the Strategic Plan website.
The CE Advisor salary plan was only a small part of the agenda of last week's Academic Assembly Council. Other topics that ensued during the time I attended included the position call process, Professional Development Fund uses, and REC recharge rates. We also discussed making a change to the bylaws to provide for election of a member to serve on Program Council. It was a full agenda for the AAC.
One thing that is not progressing slowly is the calendar. Can you believe tomorrow is Halloween already! And it seems dark so early now – next week that condition only worsens! With the end of the month near, this also means that some important leadership opportunity deadlines are fast approaching. If you have ever thought about serving as a Strategic Initiative Leader, be sure to consider throwing your name in the hat before the November 6 deadline. Application information is available the three Strategic Initiatives that have leadership openings. If you have County Director or REC Director experience, consider devoting a portion of your time towards serving as an Assistant Vice Provost. These are 2-yr appointments, 10 hours per week on average, and won't result in a greater number of direct reports, relocation or increased travel. An email was sent to all academics on October 12 with information about how to indicate your interest.
Looking at this week's calendar, I clearly need to wrap up my UC ANR Competitive Grant reviews. And the reminder from Katherine Webb-Martinez that Program Council members owe her something before Friday only reinforces the looming deadline.
- Author: Wendy Powers
Thanks so much to all of the Program Team Leaders and member, the Statewide Program Directors and the Strategic Initiative Leaders for the hard work they completed to review and improve upon our division-wide condition changes. The timeline was short; it's never long enough, the timing was poor; end of summer is not a good time to pull people together, and the work was a challenge; something new for UC ANR to do this at a division level, but they did a tremendous job and really stuck it out despite the challenges!
These groups have submitted their ideas for condition changes to be coded into Project Board. Katherine Webb-Martinez, Mark Bell and I have reviewed the recommendations and compared the proposed variations for the original 19 that were proposed by multiple groups as well as new condition changes that were recommended. The recommended changes were not drastically different from the original but changes were proposed and adopted with the final list is now a bit longer but still manageable. The next step is for a group of self-identified 12 (Program Team Leaders, SI Leaders, Statewide Program and Institute Directors) to work together and, using this new list plus the 2025 Strategic Vision, revise the Public Values Statements drafted back in May. I so appreciate those that have stepped up to continue this work process – not surprising given the commitment and leadership ingrained in so many across UC ANR!
I suspect this iterative process of drafting and revising is a bit frustrating for many but, as we use this information to convey the importance of your work to those who don't know us and we seek to find increased support for your work, it is important to put forth compelling Public Value Statements and be able to ‘bucket' our impacts so that the stories behind the condition changes are readily available to share with decision-makers, prospective funders, and each other. These benefits are above and beyond that which comes from aligning our work with the 2025 Strategic Vision in order to position ourselves to achieve the Vision and support our achievement with stories of how we have made a difference even to those who don't know us. So THANK YOU to all for the commitment to the process and the enthusiasm you've demonstrated for continuing excellence in UC ANR!
Along the lines of “identify the performance objectives and then determine the design” that I have talked about previously, I've been thinking about the upcoming 2018 Position Call. Program Council has discussed the process a few times and soon we will need to have that nailed down. Below are what I believe to be the key attributes of the ideal process
- Considers needs/gaps across the state and across program areas
- Engages clientele/stakeholders in the need identification process
- Seeks input from all UC ANR academics
- Builds recognition of needs across program areas through a collaborative process
- Results in decisions that reflect ‘hearing' academics, partners, stakeholders
- Makes it easy for Program Council (PC) to recognize high priority positions
What am I missing? Thanks in advance for your feedback!
- Author: Wendy Powers
It was nice to see a little rain this week – my car has been waiting for a light shower.
I mentioned before that the Vice Provost positions are posted. These are the ‘spots' previously held by Chris Greer (who continues to do a portion of his previous role) and Lisa Fischer. AS we failed the Vice Provost – Cooperative Extension position for the second time, I was reminded of something I heard from a former Vice Provost who said “never fail to make good use of a crisis”. As a result, the positions have been reconfigured and have responsibilities that are different from those positions held by Lisa and Chris. Given that Mark Bell is new and in a new position, I am relatively new, and these 2 positions were to be vacant, an opportunity presented itself to think about goals of UC ANR and then construct position descriptions to address those goals.
The goals, or performance criteria, represent a commitment to continuous improvement:
- Remain cost neutral
- Increase partnering between county-based UCCE and the RECs to leverage the assets of each unit and make the sum stronger than the individual pieces
- Enhance support for academics, particularly new academics
- Increase support for County Directors
- Develop positions that are attractive to recruitment and retention of strong applicants
It's too soon to measure success and nothing is ever perfect but the group of academics, staff, and senior leaders that worked on developing the positions thought outside the box and stayed true to the goals.
To address concerns about workload for one of the Vice Provost positions and address an additional goal to provide leadership opportunities without the requirement of a terminal degree or relocation while remaining committed to the foundation goals, above, 2 partial appointments for Assistant Vice Provosts are under recruitment. These positions are less defined and will be tailored to the appointed persons based on interests and strengths. It's a “build the plane as we fly it” approach but one that likely a good fit for those that like to build things. The flexibility is also, in part, a necessity given that a new Vice Provost will be on board during the appointment period. The Assistant Vice Provosts are key positions to help that Vice Provost get off to a strong start.
I'm a strong believer in looking for the silver lining of change. While perhaps a bit bumpy, it can be a very good thing if approached with a positive perspective. No doubt we are in the bumpy period, and will be for some period of time but the prospect of improving on the current state and bringing in new ideas whether it be to senior leadership, to the County Director Council which is now an expanded Research and Extension Council that includes both REC and County Directors, or the Strategic Initiatives that are recruiting for SI Leaders, is exciting. I'm anxious (in a positive way) to see what unfolds.
Tomorrow it is off to Riverside to meet with the CE Specialists. Later this week Academic Assembly Council meets. Thursday and Friday I'll be at the Kearney REC. Hard to believe we are nearing the end of October! I really need to get my ANR Competitive Grant reviews done – Program Council review is just around the corner.
- Author: Wendy Powers
This is a strange week – I'm looking forward to Saturday while simultaneously finding the week to be flying by. I've spent the bulk of the last 3 days with a group of new academics at the Programmatic Orientation. I don't know about the group of participants but it appeared to me as a whole lot of information to absorb. I suspect one could attend a couple of times and get something different out of the event each time. I suspect the most valued part of the time was the networking with others. And the tour was great – despite having such short time to line things up and prepare due to a change in venue at the last minute. Kudos to the Program Support Unit for their efforts!
One of the tour stops was a visit with Susie Kocher #UCSierraforest. She talked to us about a 2014 fire and the current reforestation effort in the area. The big excitement was the helicopter that was onsite in case a fire broke out. The chopper carried 5 to 7 persons to deploy them to the fire area and 260 gallons of water to put out small grass fires. It was a beautiful view. Our new fire Advisor Kate Wilkins and new forestry Specialist Jodi Axelson had quite a bit to contribute to the conversation as well.
Next we visited Apple Hill in El Dorado County. Lynn Wunderlich talked about how she started her program 17 years ago and the value of long-time collaborations with producers like the one she has with Ron from Gold Bud Mountain Fruit (seated next to her in the photo). One of the things that really impressed me was how many of the new Advisors, like Luke Milliron, and Specialists, including Houston Wilson, that Lyn already knew. I'm glad even those outside of orchard and vineyard expertise had a chance to learn a few things from Lyn.
Our lunch stop included a tour of Sherwood Demonstration Gardens in Placerville where Master Gardener Coordinator Tracy Celio showed us around, talked about the history of the garden and the breadth of programming that takes place. We had a chance to meet some of the hardworking volunteers.
After lunch we were at UC Davis where we met Katherine Pope at the UC Plant Pathology farm, Sam Sandoval and Jeff Mitchell at Russell Ranch, and Margaret Lloyd at the Center for Land Based Learning. It was a long and informative day.
I think the session most enjoyed by participants today was a panel of Advisors and Specialists that provided career tips. Leslie Roche #UCDRange, Dorina Espinoza, David Doll, Andrew Sutherland, David Lewis and Sam Sandoval did a great job sharing their experiences and wisdom with the group. David Lewis shared that Steven Covey's 7 Habits and David Allen's Getting Things Done have turned out to be important reads for him. I'm going to check out David Allen's ideas and see if I can pick up a few things to help me. Maybe he has a TED Talk so that I can save time from reading it.
- Author: Wendy Powers
I spent the afternoon with some of our new academics at the Programmatic Orientation. Some of them have been on board as much as 2 years but many (most?) for less than 6 months. It's always exciting to see new blood! Julia Van Soelen Kim, Lisa Blecker, David Doll, Mark Hoddle and Yana Valachovic shared their insights into developing a new program. This type of sharing experiences reminds me of the concept of ‘learning circles' that seems to be trending now in Extension. I've heard about them during the National Extension Directors Association (NEDA) meeting (via eXtension), from one of our academics who is thinking about a thought leaders group, and from a colleague who has been reading “Working Out Loud”. At the NEDA meeting, we talked about learning circles from the perspective of encouraging innovation in Extension. I've shared some of those updates previously.
At the Programmatic Orientation, I was thinking about the learning circles as the basis for developing peer cohorts for Advisors and Specialists. In addition to a traditional mentoring approach, peer cohorts offer an equally valuable method of mentoring in that peers better recognize current challenges and what is needed because our peers are faced with those same situations. Essentially it becomes a learning circle for trading ideas, successes, cautions, and information. This group of academics are an impressive group. I look forward to helping them get started with the cohort and supporting them along the way.
Perhaps the most significant benefit of a learning circle, as I see it, is the opportunity to get ideas from others, particularly when the circle is comprised of those who are otherwise strangers – I don't normally work with them and have different areas of expertise. Albert Einstein said “We can't solve problems using the same thinking that was used to create them”. That learning circle of strangers is a mechanism to engage in different thinking. Perhaps this is the path towards addressing emerging issues that arise as the result of current conditions, that we helped to create. Looking at problems from 30,000 ft and spending some time working at that level offers the same opportunity – the logic behind Strategic Initiatives, I presume.
Two Vice Provost positions are posted. We took a different approach to constructing the positions from how they had been constructed when Chris Greer and Lisa Fischer were in the positions. They are big shoes to fill but hopefully we will be successful with this new configuration. In addition, we are looking for 2 Assistant Vice Provosts. These are partial appointments for existing academics and offer an opportunity to not only support one of the Vice Provost positions but also provide an advanced leadership opportunity to 2 of our academics without having to jump in with a full time effort. These positions, in particular, are not fully described. Rather, we are going to build the airplane as we fly it and tailor the positions to the strengths of the individuals in the positions, including the Vice Provost when they are on board. Please help share these positions with your colleagues in California and across the US!