When my plane did take off last week it was after dark. However, there remained a bit of sunset in the upper atmosphere and the colors were spectacular. Perhaps the deepest red and brightest oranges I have ever seen on a night flight. And while it did occur to me to snap a photo, I couldn't tear myself away from just looking at it. Clearly a strong reminder that even air pollution has a silver lining.
For those who have asked if I am really up posting things at all hours of the day and night, yes, this one is a live post. I attended the Research Center Administrators Society business meeting in San Jose yesterday and left the meeting feeling like I was caught up with the weekend to-do list, other than reading a manuscript I had hoped to get back to my last remaining graduate student before the end of today. At the time, I knew this feeling of being caught up was the ramification of either being so far behind I think I am first or too much time in the sun in Saturday. Either way, I woke up a few hours ago with the actual, lengthy list in my head and I've been scrambling to get some things checked off before I head to the office. The manuscript won't be one of them.
Last Friday Mark Bell, Raj Kapur and I met with the UC Berkeley CE Specialists to talk about the list of condition changes as they currently exist and plans to have an improved list ready to be coded into Project Board by October 1. A tall order with a short timeframe but achievable nonetheless. I hadn't expected the discussion on that topic (condition changes) to take almost the full 2 hours we had scheduled but it did and I think it was a good conversation. The CE Specialists agreed to meet as a group and work on the list. This approach should lend itself to a list that represents how they see our work needing to contribute to the 2025 Strategic Vision. The conversation also served as a reminder that I need to post the current list of 19 condition changes to the UC ANR Strategic Plan website (should be there by the end of the day!).
Luke Macaulay attended the meeting and had some great insights as to how these condition changes and public value statements can be used with elected officials and their staff. His AAAS fellowship in DC provided him a good perspective. Luke is a past participant in the Graduate Students in Extension pilot program and he reminded me that he is not the only GSE participant to have been recruited by UC ANR for an academic position. Matthew Shapero is another. If you recall, Matthew just started in Ventura County. I was in that office last week but didn't get a chance to see if he was around.
Kate Wilkins, another GSE alum, joins UC ANR today! Kate is an Assistant Cooperative Extension Advisor, Area Forestry and Natural Resources in Yuba City, with programmatic responsibilities in Sutter, Yuba, Butte and Nevada Counties. Those counties have much to celebrate today as it is Chelsey Slattery's first day as well! Chelsey is an Assistant Cooperative Extension Advisor in Nutrition, Family and Consumer sciences, headquartered in Oroville, with programmatic responsibilities in Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Sutter and Yuba Counties. Welcome to both Chelsey and Kate!
I had a chance to meet Emily Symmes, UCCE County Director in Butte County, in person for the first time last week. Emily stepped in as County Director following Cass Mutters' retirement, so in a sense she is the silver lining to losing Cass' talents and wisdom. I will bet she is quite excited to have these 2 new academics in the area. Thanks to Emily and all of the County Directors for their conversation last week and all of the feedback and offers to help that I have received since we met. More on that later but for now, back to working on my to-do list.