Despite some disappointing bowl games, I hope everyone is well rested and eager to be back at work. While last week wasn't exactly restful for me, I am glad to be back in California and ready to get to work. Admittedly, it's nice that this week is a bit slow yet so that those of us who were away can slowly get back up to speed. Others were tending to plots and projects and may not need to make an effort to get back in the groove. Still, others were gearing up to start their careers with UC and UC ANR. This week we welcome some new hires!

• Robert York started January 1, 2019, as a CE Specialist at UC Berkeley, specializing in Forest Ecology, Silviculture, Giant Sequoia restoration, and ecology.
• Also at UC Berkeley, Albert Ruhi started January 1 as an AES faculty, specializing in understanding how freshwater communities of food webs respond to global change, with an emphasis on the effects of hydrologic alteration and drought.
• Yu Meng starts today as a CE YFC Advisor, based in Holtville, CA, with programmatic responsibilities in Imperial County. I look forward to meeting Yu when I am in Holtville next week.
• Giuliano Galdi also starts today as a CE Agronomy Advisor, based in Yreka, CA, with programmatic responsibilities in Siskiyou County.
• Finally, it appears I am delinquent in welcoming Trevor Keenan. Trevor started on July 1 as an AES faculty at UC Berkeley, specializing in understanding the response of terrestrial ecosystems to climate variability and long-term change, as well as related feedbacks to the atmosphere through ecosystem carbon cycling and water use.

Please take a few moments to welcome our new colleagues and help them settle in and feel a part of the team. It's nice to know that numbers are increasing a bit, even beyond that slow growth we saw last quarter.

Today's a light day of meetings. That should allow me time to prepare for a meeting on Thursday which requires travel beforehand. Friday is a full day of meetings, starting with the monthly REC Director call followed by the monthly County Director call and then some random calls throughout the afternoon. I need to do some preparation for next week's meeting of strategic plan goal owners. I remain hopeful this won't end up as weekend homework, but it is certainly likely. We'll see how the week plays out.

Need some good news? Despite the recent disappointing news that we will need to slow hiring, we are steady or ever-so-slightly increasing in numbers in all but one of the academic title codes! Even slow progress is progress.

I thought the 11 ideas that emerged as pitches as the Ideation Workshop were fantastic. I glanced at the aggregated list of the remaining 200+ ideas thrown on the wall during the workshop and, I believe, many of those may 'stick' as ideas to pursue as we think about different ways of doing business. We will see after the participants complete the survey identifying those ideas they would like to see remain under consideration for development. Given that we are all in this together, at some point the entire division will need to weigh in on current ideas and propose new ideas. 

Earlier this week Igor brought me up to speed on his work to evaluate the incorporation of trees into bioswales used for urban runoff in areas without combined sewer overflow infrastructure. Admittedly, I have not paid much attention, but I'm pretty sure I haven't seen these on city streets before. Also interesting, I learned about wax motors as a carbon-friendly way opening and closing greenhouse ventilation. Who knew? Sheila gave an excellent overview of her program looking at the role of grazing in working landscapes. So much great information during a trip to San Mateo County/San Francisco.

Igor shares groundbreaking research to incorporate trees into city bioswales

The fruitcake I brought to the Davis ANR event was far from a hit. Fortunately, fruitcakes last forever so I can bring it back next year. Moreover, while I was physically present for 2018, based on the trivia questions, I was apparently not fully engaged. I am unsure how many questions the winning team had correct, but I heard from a couple of other people that I was not the only one who had completely forgotten that there was a 2018 Winter Olympics. Better luck next year. I am more of a New Year's Eve person - focused on the future and looking back only as a mechanism to better see forward.

Today I am visiting the California Pear Advisory Board to hear what is on their minds and provide an update on UC ANR. That follows a call with our commodity group liaisons to confer and see if there are any pressing issues to address. These calls are new and intended to keep lines of communication open. Similarly, the new REC User's Committee meets for the first time on Friday, again as a step to improve communication, share ideas, and gather feedback. Things are never dull! I hope we all have some quiet, creative time this weekend.

My mind remains where it was last week – wrestling with the reality that central funding does not facilitate growth and reliance on it becomes a shrinking proposition. Unfortunately the academic footprint numbers are a stark reminder of this. Take a look.

Now it's key to remember that these numbers were collected in July, following ‘retirement season' and in advance of when new CE Specialists and AES faculty start their positions (August). AES numbers also dropped by 9 persons and 5 FTE.

I hesitated to even show these numbers because they aren't what any of us want to see and I would expect them to go up next quarter, but there's no point in hiding from the reality. Clearly, we must think more creatively about funding positions and more creatively about how we reach more people through the work we are already doing (remote delivery of programming, stronger on-demand online presence, etc.). Perhaps the increase in the ‘Other' category, in fact, reflects different thinking about how to accomplish our work. This might be worth exploring a bit more. No doubt, though a small number, this category represents a mighty force of talent and expertise among us.

There is good news, though, and that is that Michael Jones starts October 1^st as a Forestry Advisor, based in Ukiah, with programmatic responsibilities in Mendocino, Lake and Sonoma Counties. That same day, Daniel Sanchez begins as a CE Specialist in energy technology, innovation and climate policy at UC Berkeley. So that should certainly help the numbers next time I share an academic footprint update. Be sure to take some time to welcome our new colleagues.

I hope fall is off to a great start for everyone. I'm headed to where it certainly feels a bit more like fall – Cleveland. But perhaps when I return to CA late Tuesday night it will be a bit cooler, though I am landing in ONT and there seems to be a growing fire not far away. At least the Mendocino fire is under control. Hopefully others don't pop up and those burning are on the downside. We don't want a repeat of October 2017.

Ready for more fun facts? Recall that the sense of taste and the sense of smell are tightly related. Skeptical? Try the following at home. Obtain a bag of Jelly Belly jelly beans, mixed flavors. Then, with a clothespin on your nose and your eyes closed, taste a jelly bean and try to determine the flavor. More than likely, you can determine that it is sweet but you can't identify the flavor. Now, remove the clothespin. The flavor is likely now readily identifiable. I hope it was a flavor you like!

A fact that's even more fun – we are increasing in numbers! Progress to increase the academic footprint is slow. The Program, Planning and Evaluation group are tracking numbers of academics each quarter so that we can all start to see that progress. From the chart one can see that the Advisor headcount increased by 1 while the CE Specialist headcount remained steady. Other categories, plus AES headcount (not shown) dipped slightly. There will be dips because of the waves of retirements (June and December) offset by trickling of hires throughout the year, but as we continue to plot our course, a trend in growth will become more apparent.

Headcount of CE academic titles, measured at the end of each quarter displayed.

Over the past month, Hawau Bojuwon started her career with UC ANR as an Assistant CE Advisor in Nutrition, Food and Consumer Sciences for Kern County, based in Bakersfield. That same day, Lynn Sosnoskie began as an Assistant Area Cooperative Extension Advisor in Agronomy and Weed Management, based in Merced, with programmatic responsibilities in Merced and Madera Counties. Please welcome them; we are glad they are all here!

This week is Program Council and a few more days of one-on-one meetings with County Directors. Program Council will be reviewing budget requests and talking about observations of the position call process, to date. I am meeting with the UCD Specialist Advisory Committee on Tuesday before Program Council. Thursday the Ethics, Compliance and Risk Committee meets in Oakland.

On Friday, Dr. Alejandro Del Pozo-Valdivia, starts as an Area IPM Advisor for Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Cruz Counties. Campuses have been busy extending offers to CE Specialists. So combined, we are moving in the right direction!