I hear that one of my colleagues who also resists homework assignments is now well ahead of me in reviewing positions. Now I could justify the fact that I haven't reviewed them yet by stating that I am traveling or I have too many other demands on my time, but the bottom line is that I haven't made it a higher priority than doing other things (writing a blog post, for example). No harm in just owning my actions. It will get done on Monday night, with time to spare before the Program Council meeting starts on Tuesday. After all, I don't really want to come into the meeting with my mind made up (that is not an invitation to contact me and lobby for your favorite positions) and I feel like I understand the 24 CE Advisor positions. Across all positions, I feel like I am better prepared to review than I was 2 years ago. That, alone, buys me some time. The other factor is that no matter what the final decisions are, all of the 46 positions, and at least 46 others that aren't in the pool, are needed. This doesn't make the decision-making process ‘difficult' or ‘hard', it just makes it less than ideal and unpopular because there are winners and losers.
The truth is that while we may not be able to move forward with all of the positions we would like to have, we are fortunate to have all of the talented and devoted people that are already on board. It's easy to lose perspective and get caught up in what we lack. It takes effort on my part to stay calm at times. I recall a conversation with an Educator at Michigan State University Extension where that didn't happen. He was lamenting how ‘hard' it was to enter his information into the reporting system. Finally I told him that he needed a reality check. ‘Hard' is not knowing where your next meal is coming from. ‘Hard' is living in a war zone. ‘Hard' is having a life-threatening or debilitating disease. I've never known ‘hard'. That's not the case for many, even some amongst us. I am so fortunate that it's things like budget shortfalls, personnel actions, REC charges, and a long ‘to-do' list that keep me up at night rather than things I really can't do anything about.
One of the speakers this week commented that “we're all just interim”. His approach is to just do the very best he can each day, doing what he knows is right and for the good of the broader organization and not worrying about what impact it has on his specific unit, much less him, in the long run. His comments were in the context of having collective, broader impacts as a result of Extension's work. It's something to think about for our new types of partnerships. Those approaches may not realize their potential success if either party gets too hung up on who gets credit, whose logo is on the shirt, and which sub-brand is depicted on the paperwork. I left that session wondering what the world would look like if the UC brand was critical in everything we do, the UC ANR brand was considered essential where possible, and the sub-brand became nice to have but not the focus. I think we know that if UC loses, we all lose. Would it be hard to take a leap of faith, even if only on a small scale, and test whether or not we all win if UC wins?