Have you heard?

• Vanity Campbell was awarded the Rising Star Award, by the National Organization of Research Development Professionals (NORDP). Way to go, Vanity!
• Michael Yang was honored by ABC30 during Asian-Pacific-American heritage month. So well deserved, Michael!
• Deanne Meyer, Livestock Waste Management CE Specialist at UC Davis, was selected by the Agricultural Sustainability Institute (ASI) as this year's recipient of the Eric Bradford & Charlie Rominger Agricultural Sustainability Leadership Award. Congratulations, Deanne!
• Jennifer Heguy was quoted by Capital Press stating “The best part (of my job) is that I get to work on projects that are of interest me, so I'm never bored,” she said. Jennifer, I can completely relate to the ‘never bored' sentiment!
• The 2019 UC ANR Annual Reportis now posted. Congratulations to the Program Planning and Evaluation team and the Strategic Communications team for their efforts on this!

It is nice to balance out the budget news with some good news! In addition, the majority of our county and REC locations have plans approved to move into Phase 2. We are still a ways off from ‘normal', even the new normal, but the horizon remains bright.

This week I am winding down the merit and promotion reviews for 2020. Tina, always way ahead of me, has already sent me the 2021 review timeline. And the AAC Personnel Committee is hard at work thinking through improvements. We are never bored.

 Today I had a Zoom meeting with the national Cooperative Extension Budget and Legislative Committee. Our budget situation is not unlike most states, and better than some. As a result, there is much discussion about the future of Cooperative Extension and how best to position the national system for long-term success, growth, and recognition for the contributions made to state economies, and work force. We spent some time talking about the 2023 Farm Bill and what areas of focus we want to organize our efforts around. Topics that came up included rural broadband access and SNAP-Ed funding. Associated with this topic was the need to equip our advocacy partners and stakeholders with good talking points about Cooperative Extension impacts.

Following, I attended the last portion of the SI Leader meeting before joining Program Council. This month we had just a total of 2 hours for Program Council, including updates on a number of topics such as the REC Strategic Framework process and the reopening progress. In addition, we reviewed several emeritus requests.

It's hard to believe it is that time of year again, when we prepare to wish our colleagues well in retirement. No doubt that our Emeritus academics are rarely bored. Based on some of the work plans I have reviewed, I'm not sure there is much rest in retirement for some. We are so fortunate to have retired personnel that remain committed to UC ANR for many years following their official retirement date. I reviewed one work plan for an academic who retired, I believe, 12 years ago. We can definitely add this to the list of ‘good news' items!

Many meetings yet to go this week. Definitely not bored!