The long weekend is only a week away. I need it now. This week the meetings seem to go forever. Did you know that if we lived on Venus, the ‘day' would be equivalent to almost 117 Earth days? Earth clearly has its advantages. I can't even imagine a day of Zoom meetings on Venus!
This week I am on a review panel for a joint effort between CDC and the national Cooperative Extension system. We are reviewing proposals for funding to increase vaccination rates. Proposals were due last Friday. As a result we are reading, reviewing, and ranking all this week. No room for changing our evaluations.
Scheduled around panel meetings have been a number of other meetings including a design-a-thon led by Darren to envision a Hub for Urban Living. A number of people from around the country registered; I am curious how many participated. The breakout sessions I attended were primarily, almost exclusively, California-based participants. The conversations were fascinating. I am eager to think through next steps to keep the conversation and momentum going.
I had a chance to attend a portion of the Asian Pacific Heritage month webinar. I liked the format as it was fast paced and full of information. If you haven't had a chance to attend yet, consider next week's session (Tuesday at 3 PM). The session will focus on bystander intervention training. We all need to do our part to end Asian hate and associated violent acts!
I had an interesting call inviting UC ANR to participate in a 5-state project to promote community health. The effort will link us more closely to UC Health. An exciting opportunity that could lead to all sorts of new adventures! Today I participated in a call to envision how Cooperative Extension could increase efforts around workforce development for youth and adults, by functioning as conveners, facilitators, and educators. Those of us on the call were charged with bringing our visions to a meeting on Monday to move forward funding conversations. Time to get the dream board out this weekend and put some ideas on paper. Fortunately, this connects back to some of the conversation about the Hub for Urban Living.
I am down to 60 or so merit/promotion decisions left to finalize. But, before I get back to dossiers or dream about funding sources for new programming, I had better get back to those vaccination proposals. Occasionally, I could use a day on Venus to get things done.