The County Directors were in Davis today. The agenda was meaty with lots of details, discussions, and decisions to be made. It was a bit overwhelming at times to think through everything. At one point I thought to myself, “Did we really talk about topic X just two hours ago? It seems like it has been days, so much has been covered since”.
Many, many of us continue to work to secure program support for UC ANR from traditional funding sources. Efforts haven't translated to that increase in state funding that may be viewed as the big win. However, we continue to plug away, building the foundation for success. The anxiety and frustration comes from waiting for that positive change while simultaneously having to manage with less. In the meantime, we've had an amazing number of tiny victories that we might before never imagined possible. Some may not recognize that the sum of those tiny victories is truly impressive.
One tiny victory on this front is that Regents are asking to learn more about us! Just 6 months ago, we still hadn't had the opportunity to make a presentation to the full Regents committee. Now, we've hosted two tours and some of the Regents are tweeting about our work. I've posted in the past about other tiny victories and hopefully many recognize that there are a host of other examples.
Because it's not in our best interest to rely solely on traditional funding sources to meet program needs in the future, we've placed equal effort into diversifying our support through new and expanded partnerships. So while those looking at success through the lens of what it's looked like in the past don't see what they would like, anyone who's closely watching the results of what's happened when we've tried something new can't deny that it's pretty exciting. That's not to say we don't need to recover what we used to have. What I see in the sum of the tiny victories is the potential to not only get back what we've lost but to go beyond that and to do so in a way that makes us more resilient to whatever lies ahead.
Thanks to all of the Directors for their contributions to today's think sessions and to their leadership in meeting tomorrow's needs for California. And, many thanks to all who have made the victories happen! We'll get there, not without some bumps along the way, but we'll get there. As I was recently reminded, one rock starts a landslide of good things.