- Author: Deanne Meyer
By now academics and their supervisors are aware the deadline for Project Board and merit and promotion dossier is December 8. We've moved the date for two reasons. First, the Federal Report is due earlier, so we had to move the Project Board deadline. December 8 is now the deadline for everyone (campus and ANR). Program Planning and Evaluation needs sufficient time to harvest information out of Project Board for our Federal Report. Second, the compressed time frame for merit and promotion dossier reviews is unreasonable. Ask anyone who is on the Peer Review Committee, and they'll let you know. My suggestion was November 1. In a compromise we went with December 8. This due date can be tried for a year or more. In a few years, this date may need to move to November 1 with all our extra academics. You can expect trainings to come earlier. Stay tuned for additional information.
Last week Vice Provost Daniel Obrist and I spent a few hours with Anna Lee and Steven Worker to run through discussions related to PRC activities. Before we know it, it'll be time for our debrief in August.
I am so impressed with the scholarship, scholarly activities, ideation, and general superb work that is done throughout ANR. We have great work that makes a difference to Californians daily.
Saturday was the State 4-H Field Day and Fashion Review at Wellman Hall on the UC Davis campus. I took a break from writing merit and promotion decisions and comments to drop over. The 4-H members, leaders and support teams were in full force. Club members were in their uniforms doing presentations. Although I missed some of the events, I was able to see the great skills members gain. Presentations take organization and courage. For some, presenting to a group of people requires bravery. Everyone was happy to be back to in-person events. And it was a beautiful day! Ryan Cleland, Gemma Miner, and Carolyn Warne were busy answering questions and helping people at the ANR table. Countless others were engaged in making the event happen. Kate Lynn Sutherland (Program Support Unit) was a volunteer wrangling sound equipment proving that 4-H youth give back to their community. Way to go Kate Lynn! The day was complete when I ran into a friend who is a volunteer leader in Hilmar. It's a small world!
- Author: Deanne Meyer
Spring forward, fall back
Program Council met this last week. We had another installment on the great work being done in the fire space throughout UC. Keep in mind our focus was on fire prevention both in areas with structures and wildlands. I scoured quite a few websites prior to the meeting. There are some incredible programs across UC that can be collaborators with UC ANR. The Fire Foundry is has “amazing partnerships” to “increase access to sustainable wage careers in the fire services for women and people of color currently underrepresented in the sector”. There are opportunities for the individuals in this program to work in Cooperative Extension in their careers. Berkeley also has the Fire Research Laboratory, the Center for Fire Research and Outreach at Berkeley Forests, Forest Research and Outreach, Wildland Fire Research and of course UC ANR fire website. This is just a flash in the impactful work being done across UC in fire research.
Kudos to Jing Yu, Director of Financial Services and Interim Controller, Jennifer Bunge, Executive Director of Resource Planning and Management, Tu Tran, Associate Vice President of Finance and Katherine Webb-Martinez, Program Planning and Evaluation and everyone who worked the last many months on our NIFA Audit. Financial review occurred on four grants from 2014 to 2018 from a variety of federal funding streams including Hatch Research, Smith Lever capacity awards, AFRI and Crop Protection and Pest Management. Non-federal matching funds associated with the Hatch and Smith Lever capacity awards were reviewed. Every academic plays a part in documenting how funds are spent through effort reporting and through annual contributions to Project Board. Your input is used for our USDA and other reporting needs. A total of 31,000 ledger entries were reviewed and 45 samples were selected for further testing. Findings were presented at our Compliance Review Virtual meeting. Among the USDA NIFA team we met with the Deputy Director, Office of Grants and Financial Management, National Program Leaders, and numerous others associated with financial management. The NIFA staff were very impressed with how our programs are organized and aligned with our condition changes and public values statements. It was an exciting interaction. Thank you to everyone who participated with the audit process. It takes a village!
Speaking of Project Board, many ANR academics participated in Project Board training this last week spearheaded by Kit Alviz and Chris Hanson. Project Board is how we collect programmatic information to compile annual impact stories, county and campus reports and ad hoc queries. It's also used to complete UC ANR's contributions to the UC annual accountability report, sustainability report, Office of the President budget reports and other ad hoc requests. This information is used for our USDA Federal reporting needs.
Trees are changing colors and dropping leaves. Flowers are at the end of their season. We just fell back out of daylight savings time. And our cycle continues.
- Author: Wendy Powers
Lots going on this week. For many, the week includes the Global Climate Action Summit and/or some of its many affiliated events. For others, it's a series of meetings and travel. This afternoon I received an update on Project Board, our new reporting system that many have provided input into and had a chance to preview as Kit Alviz, David Krause and team have developed it. It seems to be coming along nicely and 27 CE Specialists have already been in to use the site. Hopefully most, if not all, agree that it is an improvement of DANRIS-X.
Tomorrow I head off to visit UCCE in Contra Costa and Alameda Counties. I haven't even had a chance to tell you about our visit to Santa Clara County yet so stay tuned; I'll be sure to get to that soon but there's a lot to talk about! Wednesday there is a CD Institute for new County Directors, followed by a Research and Extension Council meeting that evening. Thursday is a County Director meeting. I suppose on Friday many will be making plans for National Guacamole Day (September 16). I presume it's not a costume-based holiday but who knows how the folks at South Coast REC celebrate one of their big efforts.
Budget notices and information about Program Team funding, CE Specialist and AES faculty travel support, and other budget items are in the process of being shared. Despite a flat budget year and perhaps some disappointments that not all requests were possible, the workload was the same, if not larger, for Jennifer Bungee and the Resource, Planning, and Management. Thanks go out to that team for their hard work in pulling this together.
Just when the Mendocino complex fire winds down, we have another one taking off (Delta fire). The folks at Hopland REC are certainly trying to make the best use of their situation. Last week they hosted a webinar to talk about “Opportunities for Postfire Research at Hopland REC”. If you weren't able to join, take a listen to the webinar recording. Or, have a look at the resources associated with the webinar on our website at: http://bit.ly/HRECpostfire. Clearly Hannah, John and team have been busy pulling this together! Talk about a group of people who see the glass half full!
Often, I use these posts to say hello to a new member of UC ANR. Sadly, we too often say good bye. While I had only met Chuck Ingels a few times, I know his recent passing has been a blow to so many who worked with him for much of their career, if not his. A Celebration of Life is planned for Chuck Ingels on September 26 at 2 PM. The celebration will be held at the Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church, which is adjacent to the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center that was so important to Chuck and a place the reflects his accomplishments. Donations in memory of Chuck may be made to the Fair Oaks Horticulture Center (FOHC) online at http://sacmg.ucanr.edu/ (designate FOHC in the drop-down menu). A memorial at FOHC will be announced and unveiled at a later date.