I'm anxious to hear how the RCAS tour went that was hosted this year in California. It wraps up today. Lisa Fischer chaired the tour planning committee that included a number of Advisors, Specialists, and REC Directors. One of the tour stops was the Kearney REC. It looked to be a great tour, but one I unfortunately couldn't participate in. I did have a chance to meet the group on Sunday for their business meeting. As the group went around the room and talked about some of the challenges they have in their respective states there were some common themes, most of which are not altogether unfamiliar to CA. The real benefit of having such a group from around the country is the opportunity to share potential solutions and experiences and clearly this group is solutions oriented and not stuck on just discussing the problems.

I spent yesterday at the annual meeting for the UCOP Global Food Initiative. Both NPI and SAREP have ongoing projects with GFI. Peggy Lemaux's CLEAR program was one of the projects discussed in detail. Peggy commented to me how pleased she was to hear many of the GFI participants from around the UC campuses refer to UC ANR. I couldn't agree more. Given the topic is food, it only makes sense that UC ANR is an integral part of the GFI. I had the pleasure of sitting at a table with Jeff Couture's daughter who is a researcher at UCSB where she studies marine food sources. She is quite an impressive young lady; no doubt he is quite proud of her. I don't know Jeff very well but every morning that I head to Davis I hope he has arrived ahead of me so that I don't have to remember my alarm PIN. Fortunately he's pretty regular with his early arrival.

Today we had a UC ANR Strategic Plan Goal Owners meeting to share updates on each of the strategic plan goals and take a reflective look at the feasibility of all that is in the plan. Now that we've had 6 months or so to work on the goals, it is much easier to be realistic about the workload and investments involved in accomplishing the plan, not to mention the benchmarks and metrics to evaluate our progress. Now that's not to say that there isn't a strong commitment to achieving everything in the plan, but it's all about ensuring that we are realistic about how best to accomplish the goals. Time has also led to a new perspective on the 15 goals and how intertwined they are. That's a bit scary if you think of it in terms of potential to fail. On the other hand, that interconnection lends itself to a sense that all of the goal owners are headed in a common direction – an essential factor for success. During the meeting Gabe Youtsey talked about a grant submission to the U.S. Economic Development Administration's (EDA) Regional Innovation Strategies (RIS) program only to discover while we were meeting that is was funded! Congratulations to Gabe Youtsey, Glenda and their team for a successful submission!

In other exciting news, the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors will be recognizing the 10^th Anniversary of our Master Gardener Program this coming Tuesday, September 26^th.  The BOS will also recognize the few Master Gardeners that have contributed more than 1,000 hours of volunteer time each. Congratulations to my home county! San Joaquin County has and is a tremendous partner with UC ANR. The county provides strong financial support to fund and support Marcy Sousa, the Master Gardener Coordinator, Marcy Sousa, and the Environmental Horticulture Advisor position, held by Karrie Reid. As a result, San Joaquin County is home to 200 certified Master Gardeners. Way to go Marcy, Karrie, Brent and team! It is this type of partnership that makes UC ANR's work so effective and broad-reaching.

I can only guess what the rest of the week holds!

Last week it rained in southern California. And no one warned me. Despite that, it was a productive trip to the South Coast REC to talk about a different model for calculating recharge rates. No surprise that Chris, Darren, Kat, Deb and Lisa were way ahead of the topic and had an approach ready to propose. It made for easy work that will meet the goals of providing a better experience for the researcher by being able to provide multi-year rates at time of proposal submission. The researcher costs would be guaranteed for specified services and space, thus eliminating the uncertainty of budgeting costs. Mid-October we will have the conversation at Kearney and then work with the remaining RECs to meet the same goals.

October is a busy month. My entire career, it seems that October, March and July have been heavy travel months. This position promises to maintain the trend. If I had more time, I'd like to hear the conversation next week at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Science Breakthroughs 2030: A Strategy for Food and Agricultural Research meeting to be held in Irvine, October 2 – 4. NAS conducted a study “to identify ambitious scientific opportunities in food and agriculture” and identified five focal areas for the Breakthroughs 2030 Study including Greener Plants, Greener Animals, Reducing Food Waste, Safer Food Supply, and Pathways for Resilience. These areas will be explored in greater depth by experts at the approaching "Jamboree Meeting" on October 2-4 in Irvine, CA. Anyone planning to attend?

Had the study identified ‘developing new foods' as a focal area, the study group might be interested in a news piece Ruth Dahlquist-Willard sent along about the moringa (http://abc30.com/2433622/). I had never heard of the moringa before. I suspect it might still be a while before I actually come across the ingredient on a menu, but it is good to know how it ties to CA and UC ANR.

This week I am in Philadelphia attending the annual Ag Experiment Station Directors meeting. NIFA presented a session on Big Data and talked about their upcoming listening sessions to seek stakeholder input on science opportunities. There is one in Sacramento on Nov 2 that I hope will be well attended by UC, including UC ANR. The Big Data session was interesting, particularly comments that Amazon and social media are the biggest contributors to big data – I typically think of remote sensing and automated data acquisition as sources of big data and don't give much thought to these other sources. I learned a lot in this session, including what the term georectification means and how it ties to deep learning used by Siri and Watson. I also learned about DRYAD – an open platform for sharing data. This might be of use to a MultiState Research Project that I have been involved with and now work with as the administrative advisor.

Next week, instead of heading south to Irvine, I head back east (Vermont) to the annual Extension Directors meeting. I preferred the arrangement last year when the Ag Experiment Station Directors and the Extension Directors met jointly, and in the west. I haven't looked at the agenda yet but hope to learn a few things there. I need to stay focused on the fact that I am the secretary and have to take minutes – not my strong suit and perhaps explains my calculus grade (the first time through).

In the meantime, more learning tomorrow, another manuscript to read, some position descriptions to wrap up before next week and what looks to be a full day in Davis on Friday. I will keep you posted how these progress.

The last session at the Ag Experiment Station Directors meeting in Philly this week was intended to focus on integrating the teaching and research missions within individual faculty appointments. It was a panel discussion and two of the panelists, in particular, did not stick to talking just about teaching and research. One of those two spoke repeatedly about the need to enhance work ‘across the functions'. The panelists, all with extensive experience in administration and long careers behind them, spoke of this as a relatively new approach and the two panelists, referenced above, cited examples of Extension and research administrators working in silos. Despite the hour of the day and two days spent sitting in a chair I found the conversation fascinating – not because I find it a novel approach but because, at least to the event planning committee, there appeared to be a need for the topic and, sadly, I agree that it doesn't happen to the extent that it should.

About 2 months into my first faculty position (split research and Extension appointment) a mentor told me that a strong Extension program had at its foundation a strong research program. But as I went through my career I found the reverse to be true as well; my Extension program informed my research program as much as my research program informed my Extension program. Yet I have read promotion document after promotion document from candidates all across the US where the portfolio was divided into ‘Research' and ‘Extension' sections in a deliberate effort to isolate the two. And as I moved into administrative roles, I've had a firsthand look at how often the administrators of the Extension and research programs fail to work together and sometimes even compete for resources. Citizens see a single university and have no need to recognize that there are departments and units and that any given person within the system is not responsible for all things that go on at the university – that alone is sufficient reason to work collaboratively. And for the individual academic, there is great benefit to an integrated program.

The integration of research and Extension that is inherent in UC ANR was one of the things that drew me to my current position. I had looked at Extension Director positions and I had looked at Ag Experiment Station Director positions. But each time I had to wonder if I could really walk away, entirely, from the other. It would be difficult enough to leave behind my personal program much less a mission altogether. If you haven't spent time in other programs you may not realize how lucky we are in UC ANR to have research and Extension integrated into field-based academic positions. While nothing is perfect the UC approach is ahead of the curve.

A goal across UC ANR is to have an integrated research and Extension program that is as strong as possible. This goal became part of the conversation when considering how to proceed with developing leadership positions to fill the two vacancies that will exist at the end of this week. We could refill the positions as described previously or we could look at where we want to be, what goals we have in front of us and structure positions in a way to support the goals. That's not to say that it is a perfect situation but it is unnecessary to assume that the positions can't be changed down the road. Change is, after all, part of growth and improvement. As a result of the discussions about goals and needs, a position will be posted, soon, for a Vice Provost with oversight for county-based Cooperative Extension (UCCE) and the Research and Extension Centers (RECs), highlighting that UC ANR values the seamless integration of research and Extension. While a heavy workload and, perhaps daunting, responsibility, the position to me is one of great opportunity without having to choose between the two missions. I am optimistic that we will attract a strong pool of applicants who have a solid track record of working ‘across the functions'. Surely I am not alone in my sense that we should be well beyond thinking that such integration is a novel idea.

I arrived in Burlington, VT (think Stowe, the Von Trapp family and Ben & Jerry's ice cream) this afternoon to attend the National Extension Director Association annual meeting. The fall colors are far from spectacular but peak color won't be for another two weeks this year. I grew up not far from here so I know that some years October 1 would be closer to peak time no such luck this time. Note this is also my excuse for not having a photo. Given the timing of peak color, it is unlikely any of the ski resorts will be open in time for Halloween this year but soon enough it will be time to welcome the 2018 ski season.

For now, we are excited to welcome Randi Black and Brooke Latack to UC ANR! Both start tomorrow. Randi is an Assistant CE Advisor in Area Dairy Systems, headquartered in Santa Rosa, with programmatic responsibilities in Sonoma, Marin and Mendocino Counties. Brooke is an Assistant Cooperative Extension Advisor, Area Desert Livestock Advisor, headquartered in Holtville, Ca with programmatic activities in Imperial, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties. Please welcome both new additions. I hope to meet Randi and Brooke at the upcoming New Academic Orientation in mid-October.

In the meantime, I need to prepare for the meeting this week. The Tuesday afternoon session focuses on 'Communicating the Impact and Value of Extension' – sound familiar? UC ANR is not alone in working on this. NIFA is part of the conversation as well as states across the US work to help get the message out about the importance of the work that Extension professionals do and, simultaneously, develop a mechanism for those Extension professionals convey the societal benefits of their work. No doubt a large portion of our conversation this week will address condition changes and the indicators. The timing of the conversation is completely coincidental with our own work within UC ANR, though not surprising given the need, nationally, for better messaging of Extension impacts to the public. What's different, perhaps, is the driver. A number of land grants are facing budget challenges of a magnitude greater than that faced by UC, at present. While those institutions may be looking at sharing impacts as a means to maintain budgets, we are looking at is as part of what might parallel an adaptive management approach to resources (conceptualize, plan, do, analyze, learn) – we have conceptualized the Vision, planned the Strategic Initiatives as a result of the 2025 Strategic Vision. The Strategic Initiatives have been a means to pull people together across program areas and/or audiences. Now we need to analyze how we are progressing towards achieving the Vision and the condition changes are a means of doing this that break the Strategic Initiatives down into societal changes. After we analyze our progress we learn from the information and adapt our plan by determining where gaps in reaching the Vision may exist and directing resources towards filling the gaps.

The timing of this really good in that we are now looking at proposed revisions to the current draft of the condition changes. I'll keep you posted what comes out of the conversation.