The UC ANR Staff Assembly Council has been busy pursuing various ways to provide resources that will benefit all ANR staff – including limited-term and county-paid staff. For those of you who may not know, ANR Staff Assembly Council is here to advocate staff views, interests and areas of concern to leadership as well as provide opportunities for professional development.

UC ANR Staff Assembly Council began by reaching out to all offices and RECs to obtain names of colleagues who would like to be a local Staff Assembly ambassador. These ambassadors will be your local contact in helping spread the word about and promote the work of Staff Assembly Council. To determine who your Staff Assembly ambassador is, please go to the Staff Assembly's website – http://staffassembly.ucanr.edu – and click on the Ambassadors tab. If you notice your office or site doesn't have a representative and you'd like to become the local ambassador, please let Staff Assembly Council know via the comments and questions link on the home page.

Additionally, within the next few weeks, all ANR staff will receive a free UC ANR Staff Assembly reusable bag. It's a way of welcoming you as members of ANR Staff Assembly. Please use it with pride because you are UC ANR Staff Assembly.

Accepting applications for 2016-17

The UC ANR Staff Assembly serves to promote staff interests. And when asked, staff said that career development is their Number One priority. So the Staff Assembly Council prioritized the staff career-development scholarship program for 2016-17.

The 2016-17 Scholarship Program applies to the 2016-17 fiscal year and applications will be accepted for almost any job-related training or conference that occurred between July 1, 2016, and April 30, 2017. The maximum award amount is $1,500, and applications should be submitted by March 30, 2017. Travel such as airfare, rental car, hotel or meals cannot be reimbursed.

This is a reimbursement program. Reimbursement will require an invoice or receipt showing payment for the course, and evidence of satisfactory course completion. You will be asked to upload electronic copies of these documents at the time of submission.

To apply for the scholarship, answer a 10-question survey at https://ucanr.co1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_3DV1wulS6koXnz7.

If you have questions about the program, please ask your local Staff Assembly ambassador or post your question at http://staffassembly.ucanr.edu under the “Comments/Questions” tab.