After a quarterly meeting with the goal owners of the strategic plan, I headed to Ukiah this afternoon. It was definitely the driest I have seen Hopland, making it a beautiful drive up 101. No wonder the coastal area is home to some of California's happiest cows. I passed San Quentin on the drive. I haven't spent much time wondering where San Quentin actually was so I was surprised to come across it; still so much to see in the state. While I didn't stop in there, I will be stopping in at the Hopland REC tomorrow for the Research Advisory Committee (RAC) meeting.
At the goal owners meeting we focused on how to share the accomplishments of the strategic plan and how those accomplishments position ANR and all of the people in ANR for success. Accomplishments such as:
- A 12% increase in Contracts and Grants for the first 2 quarters of 2017-18, compared to the previous year. This means more resources to conduct programming.
- Development of new partnerships that translates into 3 Advisor/Specialist position FTE becoming 6 full-time positions, thereby making headway towards increasing the academic footprint.
These are just a couple of examples; more to be shared in future posts. Please share your thoughts on other methods for sharing the news as we move through the strategic plan timeline.
The group also spent time talking about the goal of ensuring that ANR is a happy place to be. While we need to be realistic and acknowledge that we are all working and ANR isn't intended to be Disneyworld, many are focused on making the work experience more rewarding and enjoyable. Development of a survey to establish a baseline and identify areas for improvement is on the ‘to-do' list.
It is clearly graduation season. A number of the County and REC Directors shared last week that they have graduates this year. Among those with college graduate: Roger Duncan, Jairo Diaz, Deb Driskill and Mark Bell. I think Mark won the contest for graduation destinations; he was in Honolulu last week to attend his daughter's graduation from nursing school. Take a look at his happy place. I had enough trouble showing up for class in Ithaca; I can't imagine ever making it to class if I was near the ocean.
Tomorrow night I head to Fresno. On Wednesday I am meeting with the UCCE group. We start our day with a UC Walks trip through the Garden of the Sun followed by some program visits and conversation. While I've been to that office before, this will be my first visit to meet the team in their happy place.
Come the end of the week, I am off to one of my favorite places. Hint: it involves water – 21% of the world's fresh water supply.