I hope everyone had an enjoyable long weekend. Summer seems to have kicked off with nice temps throughout CA – not too hot; not too cold. This week is a bit of a slow week for me. Tuesday is pretty full with meetings, including a meeting with Specialists at UC Davis. I don't think I've met with the Specialists there since the fall so I am long overdue. I am hoping to spend more time on the campuses now that Mark Bell is on board but with the information sessions throughout the summer and a host of other things already on the calendar, it looks like it will be fall before I can act on that goal. But I suspect most Specialists will be in the field or trying to take some much deserved R&R before students head back and campuses are in full swing again in the fall. The rest of the week will be used for preparing for next week's Program Council meeting and a few other things that will be occurring throughout June. Not to mention I need to put aside a fair bit of time to read through merit and promotion packages. I plan to get started on that yet this week.
The June Program Council meeting has a full agenda. One item is to talk about the Position Call process that will begin in early 2018. Though I haven't been through a complete process yet, it sounds like each round has been considered by many as an improvement over previous calls. That's certainly the goal for the upcoming round – identify where we can make improvements to the process to thereby improving the outcome. I am l to looking forward to the Program Council discussion to hear how those who have been involved for a few cycles perceive the present process and hear their thoughts on moving forward. The Strategic Initiative Leaders will be meeting before Program Council meets and I believe one item of discussion will be rotation of SI Leaders. The two topics certainly aren't independent of each other given the time commitment the SI Leaders provide to Program Council and associated activities such as the review process for the various grant programs with their panels. My understanding is that the position call process and the grants program shifted to alternate years in order to make the time commitment for the two activities more manageable. It's not unusual to run into a new challenge as a result of removing a different barrier. One challenge I see with an every other year position call process is that laying out 2 years of positions to be filled presents little flexibility in addressing those unexpected vacancies. Perhaps we will find a way to address this.
Later this month UC ANR has its annual review meeting with the President. This gives us the opportunity to provide an update on strategic plan progress. Once those materials are prepared, they will be shared on the website for all to see. The meeting with President Napolitano is late June so be sure to check the website at the end of the month. Updates on Goal 5 should appear before then, now that there are Public Value Statements available as a first cut. These will continue to evolve, another example of improving as we go through the process.