Posts Tagged: Staff Assembly Council

Become a Staff Assembly ambassador

 

UC ANR's Staff Assembly invites staff members to serve as ambassadors for their colleagues at their locations.

Staff Assembly ambassadors represent all UC ANR and County paid staff in their local office at ambassador meetings. It is a great way to develop relationships and enjoy networking opportunities with other ANR staff members throughout the state.

ANR locations needing ambassadors:

• Hopland REC
• Intermountain REC
• Kearney Agricultural REC
• UCCE Butte/Glenn
• UCCE Central Sierra (Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado and Tuolumne)
• UCCE Colusa
• UCCE Humboldt/ Del Norte
• UCCE Kern
• UCCE Lake
• UCCE Lassen
• UCCE Mendocino
• UCCE Merced/Mariposa
• UCCE Modoc
• UCCE Napa
• UCCE Plumas/Sierra
• UCCCE San Benito/Santa Cruz
• UCCE San Luis Obispo/Santa Barbara
• UCCE Solano/Yolo/Sacramento
• UCCE Sonoma

Each ambassador acts as a conduit for Staff Assembly, relaying messages (via email, flyers, verbal communication) to staff members at their location. They informally collect information, ideas and suggestions from local staff and share them with ANR Staff Assembly Council.

Ambassadors also encourage and promote participation in Staff Assembly activities and opportunities – such as ANR Grows, education reimbursements, wellness activities and council vacancies – and UC ANR activities.

When possible, ambassadors may attend monthly drop-in-meetings via Zoom and attend the annual UC ANR ambassador meeting via Zoom or in person during their two-year term.

If you would like to be a Staff Assembly ambassador, email co-chairs Suzanne Lake at slake@ucanr.edu and Rosalinda Ruiz at rlruiz@ucanr.edu.

 

Humiston addresses CUCSA

Vice President Glenda Humiston spoke to the Council of UC Staff Assemblies delegation at their quarterly meeting on March 4. To give the CUCSA delegates an overview of UC ANR, she presented "Bringing the power of UC directly to all Californians."

Starting with UC's establishment as a land grant institution in 1868, Humiston described how ANR serves Californians through campuses, county offices, statewide programs and institutes, and research and extension centers. She also explained how ANR partners with all 10 UC campuses, the national labs and medical centers on projects.

Turning to external partnerships, Humiston provided several examples of ANR's collaborative projects, including the new AI Institute for Food Systems, bringing ultra-fast broadband capability to Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center and the surrounding area, and South Coast REC's new HUB for Urban Living.

“Her presentation was great, and it was well received,” said Dohee Kim, ANR's senior delegate. “She answered questions after her presentation regarding organization fiscal matters (budget stuff) and how ANR is getting through the pandemic.”

CUCSA delegates represent Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Los Angeles, UC Merced, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UC San Francisco, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, UC Office of the President and UC ANR. Each site sends a senior and junior delegate. LeChé McGill is currently ANR's junior delegate. 

The delegates meet quarterly with the locations taking turns to host. The March meeting was hosted by UC ANR.

Nominations open for staff assembly leadership

The staff assembly is seeking volunteers interested in serving a leadership role within the staff assembly on the Staff Assembly Council. This is an exciting opportunity for senior and junior staff to engage senior leadership, expand their network, and help to improve the working experience for fellow staff members. 

The Staff Assembly Council currently consists of a chair, a vice chair/treasurer, a scribe, a program chair, a senior Council of University of California Staff Assemblies (CUCSA) delegate and a junior CUCSA delegate. 

ANR staff members are being sought to serve in the posts of junior CUCSA delegate, vice chair, program chair (s) and scribe. Candidates can be self-nominated or nominated by someone else.

Matt Baur is currently chairing the nominating committee, which conducts the elections and will communicate the results of the elections at the Staff Assembly Networking function at the ANR Statewide meeting in Ontario in April. In addition to Baur, the nominating committee includes two UC ANR Staff Assembly members at large. 

Nominations for positions on the Staff Assembly Council will take place from March 1 through March 9. Voting will be by survey and will take place March 19 through March 30. 

The duties of the positions can be found on the Staff Assembly website http://staffassembly.ucanr.edu under the “Bylaws” tab. In short, the vice chair/treasurer drafts annual budgets, the scribe takes meeting minutes, program chair develops programs and meetings, and the Junior CUCSA representative attends quarterly CUCSA meetings and participates in CUCSA workgroups.  All members of the council assist with committee responsibilities and committee assignments as needed. The council meets monthly by zoom and has in-person meetings once or twice a year.

If you have additional questions, please contact your local staff assembly ambassador.

 

Discuss the Staff Engagement Survey results at Feb. 6 town hall

On Feb. 6, Human Resources and Staff Assembly will host an online town hall with Vice President Glenda Humiston to discuss the results of the Staff Engagement Survey. The town hall will focus on three main areas raised in the survey: change management, performance management and wellness.

There has been a lot of activity around the results of the recently completed survey, including ANR report articles, blog posts and webinars. The staff engagement survey results and a recording of the Dec. 13, 2017, ANR Engagement Survey orientation webinar are available at http://staffassembly.ucanr.edu under the CUCSA tab. 

The town hall meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Feb. 6 via Zoom. Details for joining via Zoom are below.

When: Feb 6, 2018, 10:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Topic: Staff Engagement Survey Town Hall Meeting 

Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/244588652

Or iPhone one-tap:

    US: +16465588656,,244588652#  or +16699006833,,244588652# 

Or Telephone:

    Dial (for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):

        US: +1 646 558 8656  or +1 669 900 6833 

    Webinar ID: 244 588 652

    International numbers available: https://ucanr.zoom.us/zoomconference?m=Gh-henOyrhusK-VoaExAWjbxDueqU9Wc

 

UC ANR Staff Assembly scholarships now available

The UC ANR Staff Assembly Council is pleased to announce the 2017-18 Scholarship program.

The UC ANR Staff Assembly has established a scholarship program that is available to all UC ANR staff employees and county-paid employees. The scholarship provides financial assistance to UC ANR staff to pursue career interests, develop new career paths, and address knowledge or skill gaps needed to reach professional development goals.

This year's award dates are for courses taken between May 1, 2017, and April 15, 2018. Deadline for applications is close of business April 15, 2018. Late applications will not be accepted. Courses taken after April 15, 2018, will be eligible for reimbursement on the next scholarship cycle of April 16, 2018, to Nov. 30, 2018.  

For complete details please go to the UC ANR Staff Assembly website: http://staffassembly.ucanr.edu/News.

Last year's scholarship recipients were Jerry Harris, office manager for UCCE San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, and Ria Debiase, pest management guidelines coordinator for the UC IPM Program in Davis.  Here's what they have to say about their experience:  

1. Tell us about yourself – Where do you work, what do you do, are you a county-paid or UC-paid employee?

Jerry Harris: My name is Jerry Harris. I am a county-paid employee and work for San Luis Obispo County. My position is the administrative services officer II, which can be translated as office manager. I handle all the administrative functions of the office and many other tasks as needed.

Ria Debiase: I work for UC IPM in the ANR building on Second Street. I am the pest management guidelines coordinator.

2. How did you hear about the UC ANR Staff Assembly scholarship program?

Jerry Harris: One of the members of the Staff Assembly informed me of the program.

Ria Debiase: During an ANR Staff Meeting where Matt Baur presented.

3. What class did you take and how does it relate to your professional development goals?

Jerry Harris: I am taking several classes as I work towards earning my bachelor's degree in business with an emphasis on accounting. I earned my associates degree in accounting back in 2012.  The junior level classes that I have completed for this scholarship have been: public administration, team building and intro to organization behavior, which I passed with two Bs and one A. All three of those classes were taken at National University. These classes helped me in my progress in earning my degree and are all with the intent to work towards achieving advancement in my career.

Ria Debiase: I took an intermediate stats class, which helped me gain a better understanding of the statistical soundness of papers I use as research for the guidelines. 

4. Was it difficult to apply for the scholarship funds?

Jerry Harris: No, it was pretty straightforward process.

Ria Debiase: The main challenge was some glitchiness in turning in copies of my receipts through File Vault. The completed course requirement was also a challenge, in that there are some courses I would only consider if the scholarship money was approved ahead of time. Otherwise the process was fairly straightforward.

Note from Staff Assembly: For future application submissions, Staff Assembly Council now requests copies of receipts via email instead of through the file transfer process. 

5. Will you apply for scholarship funds in the future?

Jerry Harris: Absolutely.

Ria Debiase: Yes, definitely. 

6. Would you recommend the scholarship program to other employees? 

Jerry Harris: Yes, this program really helps to offset the expensive costs of higher education.

Ria Debiase: Yes!

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