The team in the Central Sierra are quite creative! Take a look at the elevator pitch they put together to describe UC ANR! Of course, UC ANR is so much more, but for a 2-minute video, this team captured the essence of ANR while putting their new skills to use. Nice job!

I am working my way through merit and promotion packages, so just how much more UC ANR is, is at the forefront of my thoughts these days. Every year, I am so impressed with the accomplishments and commitment of the academics and their teams who are core to success. The impact statements improve each year and I suspect it is rewarding for some who are later in their careers to look back on long-standing programs and see all that has been accomplished. This is my fifth year reading the packages. Many in the process this year are second or third time reviews for me now, so I can see how programs have grown or matured since my first read. As much as I enjoy reading the dossiers and as important as it is to understand every academic's program, I will be okay 6 or 8 weeks from now when I put that task aside for another year.

Mark Bell is on the road this week, tired of being cooped up at home, I bet. Mark's been helping me learn Utah geography. Who knew the Great Salt Lake photographed better than it looks live!

Mark Bell visits Antelope Island

I am ready to get out of the garage and back to an office environment and make some visits to our county and REC locations. I can't put faces to all of the new hires since late 2019. As a result, I feel a bit disconnected from everything, despite Town Halls and other Zoom events. I will sit tight a bit longer and let this 4^th wave pass us by. Then, perhaps, we will be ready to move to our new normal. The upside is that I interact with pollen less when I am not commuting.

In the meantime, I continue to meet with partners via Zoom. There are some exciting opportunities for partnerships out there! Some of those opportunities are at the national Cooperative Extension System level; others at the UC ANR level. I have a couple of meetings scheduled to see what might materialize.