- (Public Value) UCANR: Protecting California's natural resources
- Author: Deanne Meyer
What an exciting week! ANR advocated at the capitol Tuesday for all the great work we do. It was a day of pride as we shared our many stories with legislative staffers. We split into two groups and crossed paths occasionally. It was nice to see the capitol dome from a different vantage point. Anne Megaro and Sheron Violini did a fabulous job with the arrangements with some help from Lara Schroder. Sheron championed the team with VPHumiston, Hanif Houston (the Vine), AmiraResnick (Director of Community Nutrition and Health), Organics Advisor Stephanie Mar and 4-H Ambassador Sruthi Sudarsan. Anne's group included 4-H Ambassador Megna Nayar, Forestry Advisor Susie Kocher, Vegetable Advisor Zheng Wang, Lara and me. Thankfully there were a few breaks to catch up on emails. While Glenda worked on an important news release I continued negotiations on Specialist positions.
Wednesday we received the exciting news that Brent Hales will be our AVP beginning July 1. I'm excited to work with Brent as he assumes his new role. ANR has many moving parts and we're a bit more complex than most Land Grants where Cooperative Extension and the Ag Experiment Station reside on a single campus or at least co-locate across a system. Brent is up to the California challenge. He's excited to be joining us. I've enjoyed our interactions thus far and look forward to helping him in his transition. Please give him a warm California welcome when you see him at the conference.
We are in single digits countdown before the conference. So much organization is needed. Today PSU was in high gear just getting things done. Thank you Bridgett Alvarez, Maria Alvarez, Julia Kalika, PJ Kelly, Mariette Malessy, Kate Lyn Sutherland and Director Sherry Cooper. Kathy Eftekahri and Kathryn Stein spent the day immersed in all things conference. Katherine Hanke, Andrea Ray Ray and campus add ins (thank you Joyce Pexton and Lexi Martinez) rounded out the packing and arranging festivities. (Apologies if I've missed anyone). Getting ready for conference is similar to a big family party with all the preparations, and then it's over in the blink of an eye. Kindly join me in extending gratitude and appreciation to all who participated in the planning and execution of this conference.
The All ANR conference will be one for the records. It'll be wonderful to see new hires in person as well as old friends/colleagues. I'm especially excited to catch a minute with people who may be retiring to thank them for their contributions toANR, their county or campus, and California. Collectively we all contribute to great impacts for Californians. For the extroverts in the group this will be your energy source after a few years of zoom meetings. For my fellow introverts, please practice self-care during the conference. When the crowds and regular interaction get to be too much, take time to collect your thoughts. (It's ok to sneak into a quiet corner to regroup!)
- Author: Deanne Meyer
Last week Program Council met to review programmatic budget requests. February was our warm-up when Jennifer Bunge of Resource Planning and Management (RPM) walked us through the budget request process. Each of the statewide programs and institutes have funding that is allocated as permanent and other funding allocated as temporary. In some instances, the temporary has gone on for many years making it appear permanent. We went through each line of each budget and each organizational chart. Thank you to Jennifer and Han (RPM), each of the Program Council members and Katherine Webb-Martinez and Kit Alves for their phenomenal facilitation. A special shout out to Joni Rippee for her institutional and ability to provide important historic information.
Glenda, Erik Prose (Director of the California Institute for Water Resources) and I met with Magalí Muria-Tunon and Isidre Sala Queralt to discuss the UC Catalonia Memorandum of Understanding. Glenda and Doug Parker had visited Catalonia previously after the MOU was signed. Since we are now in a new phase after COVID 19 it's an opportune time to more fully identify the activities that will occur between the two groups. Given our climates, drought, impacts of changing climate there is no time like the present to strengthen this working relationship.
Following the UC Catalonia meeting I drove to Ukiah to work with John Bailey and Lenya Quinn-Davidson. The drive over 20 and around Clear Lake was fantastic. Hills were green and the lake was full! A year or so ago as I drove around the lake nearly all boats were out of the water and docks seemed like they were in a different zip code since water levels were so incredibly low. What a difference a year makes!
With April 1 comes the official start of “retirement season”. Whereas Daniel Obrist has the excitement of hiring new academics, I get the pleasure of thanking others for their service and wishing them a happy next chapter in their lives. Although a letter of intent to retire is not necessary, it is appreciated so we may track position gaps. It's the UC Path documentation that every retiree needs to get straight! Many in ANR have contributed for decades and likely will continue to contribute in one capacity or another. Recently I signed a plan of work for a retired advisor who continues to work 25% time (near 50 years now). It's a testament to a passion for identifying driving questions, designing, and deploying research, summarizing information, and making change happen.
Everyone working on the All ANR conference is in high gear getting the last details in place. Thank you to all committee and subcommittee members, Kathy Eftekhari and Katherine Stein as well as Sherry Cooper and Program Support for all your efforts. A huge shout out for our phenomenal IT team who in between patches has been loading new equipment for us to use.
Speaking of IT, please have patience as they work through very complex and at times unpredictable issues with our website. Keep your eyes alert for ANR updates that provide additional information. There may be a few more bumps in the road. In the meantime, any new information on outages will be available on the ANR IT information zoom channel.
