I'm past the halfway point of my 20-day week now. There's so much information and reflection swirling around in my head that I'm afraid I'm going to lose much of it before I have a chance to fully process it. Fortunately, as I start to think about things now, I realize that far more of it is interconnected than I first thought.
As busy as things are right now, I have to keep asking myself “was this a good use of my time?” My trip to DC this week was a good example of time spent that I questioned right from the time I agreed to participate. While I didn't get out of it what I had expected, I gained what I think will be some valuable insights. I shared, previously, some of my ‘ah-ha' thoughts. In addition to those discussions, I particularly enjoyed hearing from Charles Blow, New York Times Columnist. He talked about racism, opportunity, and ethics in ways I had never considered and he tied them all together. Given the standing ovation he received, I wasn't the only one moved by his insights. The session was set up as an interview and he was responding to questions. Even the interviewer, herself an accomplished individual, was caught off guard with his responses. I don't subscribe to the New York Times but I certainly plan to follow his writings going forward. Perhaps he has a TED Talk.
A colleague shared with me her recent involvement in diversity training, suggesting that ANR consider such training. It turned out that the training was the IDI training that a number of our 4-H staff and academics have taken. If I understand correctly we even have some trainers among us. I know just the group I am going to approach for ideas how we share at least the principles, if not the tool itself, more broadly in ANR. I used the IDI as part of a study abroad course I co-led at Michigan State so I'm familiar with it. I even co-authored a publication about use of the tool and change in students pre- and post-trip to Vietnam. And more recently, the Extension Directors from around the U.S. took the ‘test'. It was quite interesting to see where the group of administrators landed on the scale; not much different from the class students, post-trip.
A small group convened on Monday to refine the Public Value Statements (new version not yet posted to the site) in light of the agreed upon condition changes. I hear the meeting went well and there is opportunity to continue to explore how to use the statements and how to frame what we do in the context of public value of our impact. Next week the Qualtrics survey closes where we are seeking data about how our academic titles currently direct their efforts (contact Kit Alviz if you believe you should have received the survey but can't locate the email). My hope is that we can assemble a poster of the resulting data, for display at the Statewide Conference. The conference is only 5-6 weeks away so it's time for me to start really giving some thought to it. I'm excited about the keynote speaker – I think he will really tie in well with not only the theme (Innovation in Action) but also connect me back to the conference I attended earlier this week while simultaneously move us all to a place of thinking outside the box and bringing our weekend selves to work more often. I hope everyone has registered!
There's so much more to share from this week, but given the length of this post already, it looks like the rest will wait until the next post. So stay tuned to hear more about the Salton Sea, Star Wars, today's upcoming meeting with the UCR Specialists, and why Jeannette Warnert has me looking at the map of California. Believe it or not, it all connects back to today's post!