Posts Tagged: Wendy Powers
Riverside supervisors vote to restore UCCE funding
After more than 100 4-H members, UC Master Gardeners and others attended a Riverside Board of Supervisors' meeting in support of UC Cooperative Extension June 10, the panel voted 5-0 to restore UCCE's funding, reported Jeff Horseman and Matt Kristoffersen in the Riverside Press Enterprise.
The vote reversed an earlier decision to cut UCCE funding as part of a larger plan to deal with reduced county tax receipts. If the funding had not been restored, services including 4-H, nutrition education and agricultural programs would have been effected, said Eta Takele, UCCE director in Riverside County.
UC Cooperative Extension, a key part of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, serves all California counties. Academic advisors work with farmers to implement more-efficient growing methods, solve pest management problems and develop smart water-use strategies. Natural resources advisors conduct wildfire education and research natural resources conservation. Nutrition educators promote nutritious eating habits and exercise for better health. California 4-H Youth Development Program engages youth to become leaders. Thousands of volunteers extend UCCE's through the Master Gardener, Master Food Preserver, California Naturalist, and the California 4-H Youth Development Programs.
During the June 10 meeting, the supervisors heard from Riverside 4-H members who have been aided by their involvement in the program.
4-H member Bethany Campbell told the supervisors 4-H helped her overcome shyness and gain confidence.
“4-H helped me rise above fear and insecurity to become a leader," Campbell said.
A Blythe 4-H member, Samantha Teater, 17, said, 4-H "definitely saved me from getting into trouble."
UC ANR associate vice president Wendy Powers attended the supervisors' meeting.
"Those who offered public comment provided heartfelt testimony about the impact of our programs and how they, personally, have benefited and how the county has benefited," Powers wrote in her blog. "The work's not over. We need to continue to engage those who don't know us but make decisions that impact us. We need to continue to engage those who do know us, and brainstorm how to do better – reach more people, have a greater impact."
The article said Riverside County officials would work with UC Cooperative Extension to save money by moving its offices from leased office space to county-owned space.
2018 CE Position Call process to submit proposals ends Sept. 15
Colleagues,
The 2018 CE Position Call process to develop and submit proposals ends tomorrow. The proposals are posted on the call web page: http://ucanr.edu/2018callforpositions. Internal stakeholders across the ANR network and external stakeholders were engaged, throughout the seven-month process, in the development of these proposals.
To recap:
- Phase 1 – UCCE county directors and REC directors submitted 20 CE advisor position proposals and the executive associate deans, working with campus departments, submitted 20 CE specialist position proposals.
- Phase 2 – Program Teams reviewed the 40 phase 1 proposals and submitted six additional proposals that they identified as higher priority than the 40 already submitted.
- Phase 3 – Statewide Programs and Institutes reviewed all 46 proposed positions, and as a group agreed there are not any additional positions they believe to be of higher priority.
To clarify Comments:
- The process was designed to engage stakeholders in the development of the proposals rather than to provide feedback after the fact. Thus, this process does not include a formal public comment period.
- Comments submitted in the comments box on each proposal web page are for feedback to the authors, for their review. These comments are not part of Program Council's review.
Next steps:
- Program Council will discuss the proposals during their October and November meetings, and will provide recommendations to VP Humiston.
- By Jan. 5, VP Humiston plans to release information on support and release of positions put forth as a result of this call.
Once again, we thank the ANR network for actively engaging in this participatory process to strengthen and rebuild CE positions statewide – which remains an ANR priority.
Sincerely,
Wendy Powers
Associate Vice President
View or leave comments for ANR Leadership at http://ucanr.edu/sites/ANRUpdate/Comments.
This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.
UC research facility brings state-of-the-art conferencing to Tulelake
UC Agriculture and Natural Resources marked the opening of a new conference and laboratory building at its Intermountain Research and Extension Center in Tulelake July 26, bringing to the region a state-of-the-art facility for business meetings, job fairs, trainings, conferences and community events.
"The facility is the first in the Tulelake area to offer modern audio-visual infrastructure and high-speed internet connectivity capable of supporting remote presentations to stay in touch with groups from around the world," said Rob Wilson, IREC director. "We hope this facility will greatly increase the visibility and accessibility of local events and help draw more regional attention to the area."
UC ANR funded construction of the $2 million building. IREC is working with the community to complete the project with furnishings and equipment.
The conference room is named after John Staunton, a local farmer and supporter of IREC whose family donated $25,000 in his memory to the project. Another conference room bears the name of Winema Elevators/Western Milling for its gift of $15,000. Donations to the facility have also been made by Sensient Natural Ingredients, Macy's Flying Service and Basin Fertilizer
The conference building opening followed the 2018 IREC field day, an annual event that showcases the research underway at the 140-acre facility.
Research presentations included updates about work on biological control of cereal leaf beetle, influence of fall harvest management of irrigated grass hays, onion white rot, managing alfalfa weevil and clover root cucurlio, pulse crop options for the Klamath Basin, cover crops and amendments, cutting schedule effects on low lignin alfalfa and germplasm evaluation of alfalfa and tall fescue.
Phase 2 of 2018 call for Cooperative Extension positions is underway
Dear Colleagues,
The UCCE county directors and REC directors have submitted 20 CE advisor position proposals and the executive associate deans, working with campus departments, have submitted 20 CE specialist position proposals. Both groups engaged program teams, statewide programs/institutes, and external stakeholders in the development of these proposals. All 40 phase 1 proposals are posted on the 2018 Call for Position web page: http://ucanr.edu/2018callforpositions.
Phase 2 is underway:
- Program teams are reviewing the 40 phase 1 proposals to determine if there are any positions they feel are of higher priority.
- If so, each program team can propose one additional CE advisor position and one additional CE specialist position by August 1-- remembering that the more proposals there are at the end, the lower the probability of being approved for recruitment.
- The proposals that didn't make the phase 1 final 40 can be picked up by Program Teams. Proposed positions available for pick up can be found on the proposal ideas web page.
We thank the ANR network for actively engaging in this participatory process to strengthen and rebuild CE positions statewide.
Sincerely,
Wendy Powers
Associate Vice President
View or leave comments for ANR Leadership at http://ucanr.edu/sites/ANRUpdate/Comments.
This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.
ANR Update – Telling our story through UC ANR’s public value statements
UC ANR's final, revised public value statements are now posted. These short and compelling statements articulate the value of our work. They can be used by everyone in UC ANR to help others understand our work, garner support for our work, and help us focus our work on impact.
The public value statements are brief descriptions that include the issues, how we address them, and the value of our work to program participants and the public in general. The recently identified condition changes are referenced, but not all listed given these are intended to be brief. As a reminder, condition changes represent the broad societal benefits (environmental, health, and economic) to which our work contributes, while recognizing that UC ANR may be only one contributor towards these long-term outcomes.
Mark your calendar! There will be a lunchtime WebANR on June 21 to help all of us think about how our work connects to our public value via condition changes. The webinar will be led by Nancy Franz, a professor emeritus nationally renowned for her work on extension public value. She will talk more about how other states are using public value statements and share success stories about using them to garner support and/or focus our work.
A volunteer team of Program Team Leaders, Statewide Program/Institute Directors, and Strategic Initiative Leaders reviewed and revised the initial draft public value statements, which were developed by a programmatically diverse group of academics last May. For their efforts in this last round to finalize the public value statements, I want to thank the following people: Theresa Becchetti, Jim Farrar, Tunyalee Martin, Missy Gable, Ted Grantham, Michelle Leinfelder-Miles, Ramiro Lobo, Deanne Meyer, Katie Panarella, Lorrene Ritchie, Suzanne Rauzon, Katherine Soule, Andrew Sutherland, Tom Tomich, Lorna Krkich, Anne Megaro, Mark Bell, Katherine Webb-Martinez, and Nilofar Gardezi.
The development of these public value statements is part of our ANR's Strategic Plan Goal 5 effort to align programs and services with the 2025 Strategic Vision. The purpose of this overall effort is to assess both current and future needs as well as the strengths and impacts of our work, and then align our efforts such that we are positioned to achieve the 2025 Strategic Vision.
Sincerely,
Wendy Powers
UC ANR Associate Vice President
View or leave comments for ANR Leadership at http://ucanr.edu/sites/ANRUpdate/Comments.
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