Posts Tagged: restructuring

Leadership notes about collaboration, budget and communication posted

An ANR leadership meeting was held June 28 at the UC Davis Activities & Recreation Center. In addition to the Executive Working Group, Strategic Initiative leaders, executive associate deans, county directors, statewide program directors, REC directors, and unit directors attended.

Dan Dooley, Barbara Allen-Diaz, Kay Harrison Taber, Bill Frost, Bob Sams and Don Klingborg gave updates on ANR’s budget and restructuring efforts that have been completed or are under way.

For the majority of the meeting, the participants formed break out groups to discuss four questions and brainstorm answers.

The four questions were:

1. How do we as ANR’s leadership catalyze the development of internal partnerships across the continuum and prevent silos from forming?
2. What changes not mentioned this morning do we need to consider to help preserve more of our budget for hiring positions?
3. Beyond the ANR Report and our weekly email updates, what can we do to more effectively communicate with you, ANR’s leadership team, and with the whole of ANR?
4. How do we better support you in your role of communicating with others in and outside of ANR?  What roles does each of us play in telling our story to achieve awareness, understanding and support?

Group responses from the brainstorm session were recorded by facilitators and are now posted at http://ucanr.org/files/117046.pdf. These brainstorming comments will be used to further develop and refine the Division's structure, procedures and communication practices.

View or leave comments for the Executive Working Group

This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

Statewide YFC program org chart unveiled; No VSP for ANR

Statewide YFC program org chart unveiled

The organizational chart for the new Statewide Youth, Families and Communities Program has been released. The new program encompasses the administration and leadership for the 4-H Youth Development Program (4-H YDP) and Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP), as well as other ANR youth, nutrition, family and community programs.

Last June, AVP Barbara Allen-Diaz announced the restructuring of nutrition education, youth and community programs with the goals of improving the communication between county and state offices, identifying new opportunities for collaborative efforts, streamlining administrative functions, maximizing funds and other resources, and realigning the goals of these statewide programs with ANR's Strategic Vision 2025.

“By integrating ANR’s youth, families and communities programs into a single program, which incorporates the full research - extension continuum, we will assure more interdisciplinary collaboration to address urgent issues facing California youth, families and communities,” said Allen-Diaz.

The director of the Statewide Youth, Families and Communities Program provides statewide programmatic leadership as well as administrative and operational support to youth development and nutrition education programming. This position is under recruitment, with interviews scheduled for Feb. 15 and 16.

Reporting to the associate vice president of Academic Programs and Strategic Initiatives, the director convenes and chairs the YFC Senior Leadership Team, which is composed of the associate director of 4-H program policy; chair of EFNEP Leadership Council; associate director of 4-H youth development- research; associate director of nutrition - research; associate director of family & communities-research; associate director for development and director of the 4-H Foundation; and YFC management services officer.

The Statewide YFC Program works collaboratively with and complements the Healthy Families and Communities Strategic Initiative priorities and other critical issues affecting California youth, families and communities and develops strategies for effective organizational responses. The development of policy, program guidance, outreach, educational curriculum and professional development for ANR’s youth, families and communities programs will be consolidated under the newly formed YFC statewide program.

The Statewide YFC Program organizational chart can be viewed at http://www.ca4h.org/files/70906.pdf.

No VSP for ANR

The UC Davis campus has announced it is offering its Voluntary Separation Program (VSP) again as an opportunity for employees to self-identify their willingness to voluntarily resign their UC Davis employment.

ANR has made the decision to NOT offer the VSP to ANR employees located either on or off campus.

If you have questions, contact Robert Martinez, human resources coordinator, at (530) 752-3467, ramartinez@ucdavis.edu, or Linda Manton, staff personnel executive director, at (530) 752-0495,lmmanton@ucdavis.edu.

View or leave comments for the Executive Working Group

This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

July 1 changes - ANR / Sea Grant, Staff Personnel Unit, county director reporting

On July 1, ANR and the Sea Grant program officially complete the transition announced last fall. Formerly called Sea Grant advisors, Jodi Cassell and Leigh Taylor Johnson will remain with ANR as coastal resources advisors. Other Sea Grant advisors – Carrie Culver, Monique Myers, Paul Olin, Carrie Pomeroy, Susan Schlosser and Rick Starr – will now be part of the Sea Grant College at UC San Diego.

Also effective July 1, Linda Marie Manton assumes her duties as executive director of staff personnel and can be reached at (530) 752-0495 and lmmanton@ucdavis.edu.

As previously announced, effective July 1, county directors report administratively to Barbara Allen-Diaz, AVP – Academic Programs and Strategic Initiatives. However, to consult for policy decisions, the county directors will contact directly the appropriate source according to the nature of the issue. For example, questions involving academic personnel matters should be directed to Kim Rodriques, executive director of academic personnel; staff personnel questions should be directed to Manton; and environmental health and safety questions should go to Brian Oatman, EH&S manager.

View or leave comments for the Executive Working Group

This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

2009-10 merit and promotion cycle completed

Dear Colleagues,

We have completed the merit and promotion cycle for 2009-2010. More than 80 actions were processed statewide for UC ANR academics.

I am grateful to the academics who served on the Senior Administrative Council (SAC) this cycle – Peggy Mauk, Linda Manton, Bill Frost, Steve Vasquez, Terry Salmon and Lucia Kaiser. This University service is extraordinary and allowed the process some stability during this time of transition.

I am working with AVP Barbara Allen-Diaz and the Executive Working Group to develop the new merit and promotion process reflecting our shared goals to maintain academic excellence, streamline the process and provide peer review input. Academic Assembly Council, the Personnel Committee and others have provided input to this point.

The new process will be confirmed this summer in order to be prepared for this fall’s cycle of events. We will send you details of the new process when they are finalized. We envision the new process to be led by academic peers selected through an open nomination process.

Kimberly A. Rodrigues
Executive Director, Academic Personnel

View or leave comments for the Executive Working Group

This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

Youth, families and communities statewide program created

Dear ANR Community,

As you may be aware, each of ANR's statewide programs undergo a five-year review to assess the program's activities and impacts of the past five years, and to make recommendations for the program's future.  In May 2008, the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) underwent a programmatic review conducted by an expert committee. The review committee was charged with assessing EFNEP's program management, resource utilization, decision-making, communication, and impact in California. After lengthy analysis, the committee forwarded a thorough and well-supported recommendation that the statewide program be subject to a major restructuring effort to allow for greater collaboration and to make organizational changes to utilize ANR's resources more effectively and efficiently. Those recommendations and the EFNEP leadership response were discussed at length at Program Council.

During the same period, ANR has experienced an unprecedented reduction in state funds. To adjust to reduced funding, ANR has consistently taken action to reduce administrative overhead, direct a larger portion of available resources to support program delivery, and to maintain core programmatic expertise.  Following the review of EFNEP, a committee was convened this past winter to explore options for restructuring nutrition education, youth and community programs with the goals of improving the communication between county and state offices, identifying new opportunities for collaborative efforts, streamlining administrative functions, maximizing funds and other resources, and realigning the goals of these statewide programs with ANR's Strategic Vision 2025 (http://ucanr.org/files/906.pdf).

In examining different options for restructuring, the committee explored the feasibility of integrating the 4-H Youth Development Program (4-HYDP) and EFNEP.  The committee analyzed both the pros and cons of integration and found ample opportunities for both programmatic growth and administrative efficiencies.  The model that best meets ANR's needs would maintain programmatic functions of 4-HYDP and EFNEP separately, but place fiscal management and administrative functions under a single unit, which will allow for a more sustainable funding model.  Under this structure, integration of 4-HYDP and EFNEP will be housed in a newly created Youth, Families, and Communities statewide program with the goal of strengthening ANR's capacity to support community sustainability; promote collaborations among UC faculty, specialists and county advisors; and identify effective program delivery strategies for youth and families living in California. During this statewide program reorganization, Sharon Junge will be providing leadership to this new program and will guide the transition.

ANR will carry out this program integration through an orderly transition with a target completion date of October 1, 2010.  We recognize that this administrative consolidation will affect many valued ANR employees and acknowledge the dedicated work and valuable contributions that you bring to ANR and to the people of California. We are confident that this new structure will make more resources available to county programs, provide greater accountability, and expand programmatic opportunities.  The timeline and work plan to carry out the functions of this restructuring effort will be widely communicated in the coming months.

We will continue to discuss this transition with ANR leadership, colleagues, and other key stakeholders to implement this plan as efficiently as possible and to realize this opportunity to improve ANR's service to California.

Barbara Allen-Diaz
Associate Vice President for Academic Programs and Strategic Initiatives

View or leave comments for the Executive Working Group

This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

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