The weekend was lovely. Davis dried out sufficiently to get back into the garden and finish the important dormant pruning before trees aren't dormant! There are plenty of parts of California where people are still evacuated and unable to assess damage from weeks of rain and wind. Our thoughts remain with those individuals who are separated from their homes. Trees remain on cars and arborists are working feverishly to clear out the refuse.

Tree prunings

In addition to annual reviews, this is the season to get annual reports completed and emailed or mailed.

Academics are preparing for an annual evaluation or merit/promotion advancement. KUDOS to Program Planning and Evaluation, IT, and Academic Human Resources as well as a cadre of Advisors who worked to accomplish WFA (work force automation) and migrate Project Board from Interfolio to Uptrend. Kit Alviz championed this process with her phenomenal organization and communication skills. Other essential contributors included Sree Mada, Uriel Gonzalez, Chris Hanson, Scott Leaf, Steve Edberg, Pam Tise and Anna Lee.  Kamyar Aram, Michelle Leinfelder-Miles, Brenna Aegerter, and Peggy Mauk (UCR) worked on beta testing since last fall. In early January Marianne Bird, Devii Rao, and Barb Satink Wolfson joined the group as the first academics to reach out about Project Board; and vwala…more beta testers!  Thank you all for your incredible perseverance to get this massive project across the finish line. The detailed conversations by the ANR team and those working on the migration occurred at all hours of the day and night. Thank you, team, for sacrificing your holiday period so our system will run successfully! It takes a village! Kit is anxiously awaiting the day when she can go in and mine the reports to generate data for analyses. I personally look forward to reading Kit's early activities.

Here's a highlight of our 2022 hires. 

The number of staff and academics hired in the last 12 months is incredible. I think our awesome Human Resources Teams have been burning the midnight oil to get all these positions approved for recruitment, reuited and successfully on-boarded!

The President's Advisory Council Meets this week. Council members are incredibly dedicated to ANR's success. We thank you for your never ending support of ANR's impacts and your countless hours of working on our behalf. I look forward to the great conversations. The next day VP council meets. It's a busy week of meetings and will no doubt zoooom right on by. 

A Happy Lunar New Year to those who celebrate. We are in the year of the Rabbit. Happy Chinese New Year wishes--xn nián kuài lè. May all have good health in the days, weeks and months ahead.