- Author: Wendy Powers
My mind is full. The result of taking on some additional responsibilities while we try to fill some vacancies is that my calendar is running me. Last week was packed. From arriving in DC on Saturday and all-day meetings Sunday and Monday, to flying back on Tuesday just in time for a few brief minutes at the New Administrator Orientation followed by a 3+-hour meeting with R&E Council that was idea-rich, to the night drive to Visalia so I could meet with the REC directors, business officers, and superintendents all day Thursday into the evening then half-day Friday before driving back, I didn't have a chance to sort thoughts and even now haven't fully processed things.
In between there have been conversations about moving forward with the Public Value Statements now that Condition Changes are complete, and reviewing documents to prepare for both Strategic Plan updates and accountability against our goals as well as documents and talking points to prepare for a deep dive on UC ANR's budget.
All of these things position us for continued success, as success rarely just happens. However, I could use a timeout to provide some quiet time so that I can process everything. I'm sure most of us have taken a Myers-Briggs Type Instrument assessment. Surprisingly, and following an expanded version of the assessment tool, I learned that I land close to the middle in all categories but one. But because the intent is to type each participant, I am typed as an INTJ. {For reference, it is the “T” (vs “F”) where I am clearly a “T”.} Perhaps the commute this upcoming week will give me some time to work through what I heard, saw, and learned last week.
UC ANR welcomes a number of new faces, including Mary Bonaparte- Saller who is a Youth Development Advisor in Orange County. Mary started October 9th and I have had the opportunity to meet her at the New Employee Orientation last month. I haven't had a chance to meet either of the 2 Advisors who joined UC ANR most recently. Please welcome Kari Arnold, Advisor in Area Orchard and Vineyard Systems, based in Modesto with programmatic responsibilities in Stanislaus and San Joaquin Counties and Michael Rethwisch, Advisor in Crop Production and Entomology, headquartered in Blythe (Palo Verde Valley), with programmatic responsibilities in Riverside County. Michael has returned to UC ANR, to the same office where he was located previously. We are pleased to have Mary, Kari and Michael on board!
New faces are exciting for UC ANR! At a time when there are many changes going on, welcoming new colleagues/friends/peers is one of perhaps few ‘changes' that is always welcome. There seems to be no shortage of change going on, from policies, to reports and training needs, to budget accommodations, and insufficient hands on deck, change is challenging and a source for stress. I think many could use a time out right now. Fortunately we have a bit of a break coming up – time to renew and refresh our outlook.
- Author: Wendy Powers
This week I've had an opportunity to learn a ton of things about fund development. On Tuesday I spent much of the day in interviews for the Executive Director position for the fund development team. The team is all quite new and part of a goal to increase gifts, endowments, and general funding for UC ANR. Each of the candidates brought much to a conversation and, fortunately, I think we ended in a place of recommending the candidates that best fit the needs to move forward – we weren't in a place where we were trying to identify a candidate to move forward to the next stage; it's a nice problem to have. A couple of things that were reinforced to me over the course of the day: 1) Gifts aren't a means of stabilizing existing fund sources. We all know that grantors are interested in shiny, new ideas and not in supporting what we have done for years. The same is (mostly) true for donors. I say mostly because I think we have a window where some of our prospect (alumni, retirees) may be very interested in funding what they remember as the critical functions of an organization. 2) You must have a plan and be able to clearly convey why you are seeking funding. This, too, is not much different from the granting world but I'm not sure we are at that place yet. Rather, I think we have many needs and ideas but perhaps without that 10,000 ft value proposition tied to a specific ask. That leads me to 3) You have to be ready to make the ask. Again, we may not quite be there yet (or maybe it is just me) but I know there are many conversations going on about needs and I wonder if some of the meetings in the near future aren't a good place to shore up the vision such that we don't share a list of what we've done but rather a compelling vision about where we want to go and what the specific funding needs are (shiny/new and traditional support) to get us there. The other key point that was reinforced is that there is a need for great clarity about who has what roles and responsibilities in the fund development process. Success doesn't lie solely with a team of 5 or 12 but with each and every one of us. A better understanding of this and what and how to go about achieving success is needed.
Mark Bell had a chance to do some 10,000 ft thinking when he was in Chile last week. It was a quick trip but it sounds like there were some interesting discussions about the Extension service in Chile and comparisons with the US Cooperative Extension system. It's easy to take for granted what we have here in the US and CA, in particular. We know we could do so much more if we had more but what Cooperative Extension has done for the US is nothing short of remarkable. And in UCCE, we are especially fortunate to have the RECs, 10 campuses generating new knowledge with active research in every county, tremendous partners and stakeholders, and resources in each county office that exceed what many in other states across the US could only dream of having.
Today I had the good fortune of spending the day in Santa Cruz County with Mark Bolda, Laura Tourte, and Steven Tjosvold. I'm embarrassed to admit that I hadn't met Laura or Steven before – one would think I would know every Advisor by now. We saw the Master Gardener's demonstration garden, some research to use polyacrylamides to floc sediment from the nursery, visited a few berry farms, and toured the UC Santa Cruz Student Organic Farm. A great day! The stop at UC Santa Cruz served to reinforce the messages about fund development and really showcased what can result when you have a strong message and value proposition.
Two UC ANR Competitive Grant proposals to read/review and off to Monterey and San Benito Counties tomorrow!
- Author: Wendy Powers
Over the weekend I reviewed the compiled list of recommended condition changes that were collected by Program Team, Strategic Initiative, Statewide Program and Institute leaders. Thank you to all who were part of this process! Obviously there was a great deal of thought and effort put into the process. The next step is to make some tough decisions about what to move forward. This won't be easy because clearly we interpret words quite differently. Given that the purpose isn't to develop a list of changes that call out a program area/audience but rather develop a list that applies across program areas and audiences, it's important to use words that resonate broadly. To foster the sense that UC ANR is a system, as opposed to a confederation of individuals, the path forward will be to avoid calling out specific program areas in the condition changes and encourage people, teams, groups, programs to consider how their work fits into any of the condition changes, and what data support this. We'll be able to sort through the stories and indicators by program area using the Program Team codes that will replace Core Issues in the reporting program. The result is that when we can share the stories of how our efforts effect change, we can address the breadth of our programs or we can tailor the content to the audience by talking about the range of condition changes affected within the program area.
I had a chance to meet a few of our new Advisors this week when I visited Lassen, Plumas and Butte counties. While in Lassen, Janyne Little (Junior Specialist) talked about a project she is working on with David Lile, Laura Snell, Elise Gornish and Leslie Roche to look at post-fire grazing. It was a timely topic given what's going on across California. David and Mary Ann Gollnick (office manager) took me out to see some of the grazing sites that are part of the local research – a beautiful day and meadows that are really beautiful this time of year. It was nice to meet Darcy and Jack Hanson for dinner. Darcy is a long-time 4H program rep and Jack is a member of the President's Advisory Committee for UC ANR. It was a fun day despite all of the news rolling in about office closures due to fires.
The group that met in Plumas were all reasonably new to UC ANR, David Lile excluded. It was fun to listen to the group talk about how they could collaborate on different projects! As I mentioned in an earlier post, Traci Schohr hadn't even officially started yet. And I learned a ton of things about weeds from Tom Getts. Kari O'Reilly shared her perspective of the challenge of reaching more youth when the population is declining. This is a high energy group that keeps Barbara Goulet (office manager) busy, I'm sure.
The group in Butte County UCCE is relatively new as well. But already this is a tight-know team that enjoys each other's company. Oddly, even those that are ‘new' (Luke Milliron, Chelsey Slattery, Nicole Marshall) all have a past connection. Be sure to visit with them and learn about that connection. Don't forget to bring Suzie Lawry-Hall, Karina Hathorn and the ring leader, Emily Symmes, along to guarantee a fun time. We all went to the Chico State farm and met with Dean of the College of Agriculture who started about the same time I did (also an Animal Scientist and from Kansas State University so we have some colleagues in common). The partnership with Chico State is remarkable. Dani Lightle and Betsy Karle made me aware of this soon after I arrived in 2016. This was reinforced on this visit and we had a chance to see how Dani's work is progressing as well as some of the work that Emily and Luke are undertaking at the farm. Tons of opportunity to expand efforts with the college!
This blog is getting a bit long so maybe next time I will circle back to finish some of my thoughts that were stimulated by the Western Extension Directors Association meeting.
Please stay safe everyone!
- Author: Wendy Powers
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.
- Author: Wendy Powers
When my plane did take off last week it was after dark. However, there remained a bit of sunset in the upper atmosphere and the colors were spectacular. Perhaps the deepest red and brightest oranges I have ever seen on a night flight. And while it did occur to me to snap a photo, I couldn't tear myself away from just looking at it. Clearly a strong reminder that even air pollution has a silver lining.
For those who have asked if I am really up posting things at all hours of the day and night, yes, this one is a live post. I attended the Research Center Administrators Society business meeting in San Jose yesterday and left the meeting feeling like I was caught up with the weekend to-do list, other than reading a manuscript I had hoped to get back to my last remaining graduate student before the end of today. At the time, I knew this feeling of being caught up was the ramification of either being so far behind I think I am first or too much time in the sun in Saturday. Either way, I woke up a few hours ago with the actual, lengthy list in my head and I've been scrambling to get some things checked off before I head to the office. The manuscript won't be one of them.
Last Friday Mark Bell, Raj Kapur and I met with the UC Berkeley CE Specialists to talk about the list of condition changes as they currently exist and plans to have an improved list ready to be coded into Project Board by October 1. A tall order with a short timeframe but achievable nonetheless. I hadn't expected the discussion on that topic (condition changes) to take almost the full 2 hours we had scheduled but it did and I think it was a good conversation. The CE Specialists agreed to meet as a group and work on the list. This approach should lend itself to a list that represents how they see our work needing to contribute to the 2025 Strategic Vision. The conversation also served as a reminder that I need to post the current list of 19 condition changes to the UC ANR Strategic Plan website (should be there by the end of the day!).
Luke Macaulay attended the meeting and had some great insights as to how these condition changes and public value statements can be used with elected officials and their staff. His AAAS fellowship in DC provided him a good perspective. Luke is a past participant in the Graduate Students in Extension pilot program and he reminded me that he is not the only GSE participant to have been recruited by UC ANR for an academic position. Matthew Shapero is another. If you recall, Matthew just started in Ventura County. I was in that office last week but didn't get a chance to see if he was around.
Kate Wilkins, another GSE alum, joins UC ANR today! Kate is an Assistant Cooperative Extension Advisor, Area Forestry and Natural Resources in Yuba City, with programmatic responsibilities in Sutter, Yuba, Butte and Nevada Counties. Those counties have much to celebrate today as it is Chelsey Slattery's first day as well! Chelsey is an Assistant Cooperative Extension Advisor in Nutrition, Family and Consumer sciences, headquartered in Oroville, with programmatic responsibilities in Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Sutter and Yuba Counties. Welcome to both Chelsey and Kate!
I had a chance to meet Emily Symmes, UCCE County Director in Butte County, in person for the first time last week. Emily stepped in as County Director following Cass Mutters' retirement, so in a sense she is the silver lining to losing Cass' talents and wisdom. I will bet she is quite excited to have these 2 new academics in the area. Thanks to Emily and all of the County Directors for their conversation last week and all of the feedback and offers to help that I have received since we met. More on that later but for now, back to working on my to-do list.