- Author: Deanne Meyer
The Western Extension Directors had our monthly meeting on Tuesday. Our guest speaker was Donald McMoran from Washington State University. Don has gathered a group together to tackle parts of farm stress. The Farm stress group has mini-grants (10K) available to those working to reduce stress in farmers or ranchers. The group in California working in this collaboration are in Biological and Agricultural Engineering at UC Davis. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention indicated farmers and ranchers were twice as likely to die from suicide than any other profession says. Last month our town hall meeting had guest Dr. Amy Barnhorst from California Firearm Research Center, UC Davis Health. I highly recommend listening to the presentation if you missed the town hall. Suicides account for the largest number of gun induced deaths, followed by homicides and lastly mass shootings.
David Lewis and Jim Farrar will be stepping down as Strategic Initiative leaders after many years of incredible service. If you have experience within ANR and have served on a Strategic Initiative Panel or been a Program Team Leader consider applying for the SI Leader positions for Sustainable Natural Ecosystems or Endemic and Invasive Pests and Diseases. Rachel Surls likely steps down in December for Sustainable Food Systems SI. Applications are brief and due May 15, 2023.
SI Leaders devote time to managing their panels and providing input into Program Council. The next 18 to 24 months will require great engagement of ANR during our visioning process.
Everyone is getting into high gear as we approach the All ANR Conference. Kathy Eftekhari and Katherine Stein are burning candles at both ends as they put the finishing touches on the program. Everyone presenting is finishing their posters and presentations. TEAM PSU is actively engaged in making their lists and checking them many times. This is a BIG conference. My request of everyone is that they bring a double portion of patience to the conference!
Over the last weeks I've seen an alarming number of unprofessional emails. Many of these fell into the category of people telling other people how to do their job or complaining because something wasn't done fast enough. These unprofessional emails violate our principles of community. My request of supervisors is to include incorporation of our principles of community into annual goals for those in need of behavioral modification.
In the category of names in the news---at the recent Association for Communication Excellence (ACE) UC ANR folks received many kudos. Gold Awards were Tunyalee Martin, Jutta Burger, Doug Johnson, Chinh Lam, Cheryl Wilen, Information Technology 3: Website, Weed Control User Tool; Tunyalee Martin, Petr Kosina, Cheryl Reynolds, Kimberly Steinmann, Brad Hanson, Kassim Al-Khatib, Information Technology 5: Instructional Design for a Non-Academic Public Online Course, website diagnosing herbicide injury; Ricardo Vela, Linda Forbes, Marcel Horowitz, Fabian Rivera and Wendy Powers, Reaching the vulnerable: a campaign to promote vaccination among Mexican indigenous and Spanish-speaking Latino communities; A Bronze Award was received for Social Media 1, Wildfire preparedness social media campaign, Doralicia Garay, Bronze Award. Way to GO!
The 17th marks the next deadline in our annual evaluation process where supervisor evaluations are due. Thank you to everyone who has invested time in reviewing performance of our academics and providing sound feedback. We truly want everyone to be successful. The annual evaluation time gives each person a chance to push pause and take stock in how they are progressing, identify where modifications can/should be made, and set a modified course to implement adjustments.
- Author: Deanne Meyer
Last week was the American Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU) meeting in Denver. Presidents, Provosts, Vice Chancellors, Directors, Government Relations staff and others attended the meeting with more than 1,200 people present. I participated in two basic tracts. The first focused on hiring and maintaining employees in a market of poachers where other branches of the University are trying to move great employees from your domain to theirs. Similar problems exist throughout the United States. Panelists spoke about a change in culture with existing people still being a team in the remote environment. They identified challenges to onboard new people into a remote team. Retention of new team members was difficult. There are great synergies when staff and academics work in the same space and interact regularly. A positive onboarding experience remains key to retention. We can all play a role to make new employees welcome within ANR.
Mental health was the second tract I attended. Covid meant isolation for many. Some employees realized how silent life can be absent human contact. Individuals suffered from one or multiple deaths in the family. Jobs were lost by relatives or friends. Supply chain issues upset purchasing ability leaving some stranded (no cars available at a reasonable price) or out priced in the marketplace. Those who reenergize by being around other people (extroverts) suffered from the lack of human contact. Those who reenergize by being alone (introverts) found themselves exhausted from zoom calls where they had videos on and were “on” themselves. Good nutrition, quality sleep, regular exercise and interactions with others remain important for mental wellbeing. It was great to know that our staff and academics in Community Nutrition and Health, Nutrition and Consumer Science, 4-H and the Master Gardener Program have continued their programming providing great tools for people. Did you know both plants and animals have therapeutic values? It's great to know that ANR programs have the ability to help people throughout the community, in nearly all communities in California.
Last week we had an in-person County Director meeting. It was great to see so much energy in a room. As you can imagine, mentoring new employees was part of the discussion. New Advisors are hired for three two-year terms. Simplistically, these terms are to become established in the community and assess needs (term 1), evaluate a path to add knowledge where knowledge gaps exist, develop extension programming, and cultivate relationships with stakeholders (term 2), and develop and deploy a research program to address questions identified in the needs assessment, feed information into extension work and continue relationships with stakeholders (term 3). This methodical approach to extension programming sets academics up for a career with great impact for local communities. Thank you to all the participants who provided content and attended the meeting! Please share your feed back with Lynn who did a great job at organizing the meeting.
For a four-day work week much was learned and accomplished. Welcome to all who are new to ANR. Don't hesitate to reach out to anyone in the organization if you have questions!