Hopefully everyone in UC ANR is staying far out of the fire zone though it may be increasingly difficult to do. It sounds like SLO and Mariposa Counties are two of the worst areas at this point.

This week has been a week full of meetings. Program Council met to talk about the position call process. The process isn't finalized yet but we made good progress. The goal is to retain ample opportunity for input into high priority positions. We need to be realistic in how many positions can be moved forward and submit those representing the greatest needs making it easier for Program Council to make good decisions. There is an important role in the process for those submitting positions; that is to work in groups, perhaps across program teams to refine how many positions are submitted.

Plans for the April 2018 Statewide conference are coming along. The theme for the event is Innovation in Action with plans to showcase efforts across UC ANR through a lens that focuses on the creativity that happens every day. Be sure to start looking at the UC ANR website for program and agenda updates. In addition to a phenomenal learning opportunity, it will be motivating to see everyone in one place and meet some of the new faces. This includes the suite of gift officers who, while new to UC ANR, are already off and running to share the word about the great things happening across the division.

It feels like summer is starting to come to a close quickly. I didn't make it to any of my professional society meetings this year; a bit disappointing but too many conflicts during those weeks. I turned down 2 opportunities to manage peer review panels; one for NIFA and a second for an ARS program review but in both cases they really didn't give sufficient lead time so I'm not sure how successful the program managers were in recruiting a panel manager for their desired timeline. I also have two promotion packages in my Inbox for faculty seeking promotion to Full Professor at other institutions. And I am working on a couple of manuscripts so that keeps me tied a bit to the science. A new manuscript recently surfaced that will be interesting to co-author – it's addressing a general topic of sustainability metrics for food production.

Similar to other years, my ‘summer to-do list' doesn't have an appropriate number of items crossed off. I'll bet I'm not alone in feeling that way. Time to light a fire under my feet and get going on some of those items. Don't tell anyone but I seem to have a couple hours open tomorrow morning so now excuse to not being highly productive.