UC Blog
Merit-based salary increases for faculty and non-represented staff
Dear Colleagues:
As you may know, the UC Board of Regents last November approved funds in UC’s 2011-12 budget to provide a pool for merit-based salary increases for faculty and staff.
I am writing to share with you the letter from President Yudof to chancellors that outlines the general terms of the merit program and explains his decision to exclude senior-level managers from participation. Yudof's letter can be read at http://atyourservice.ucop.edu/news/general/
chancellors_faculty_staff_merit_increase.081711.pdf.
As President Yudof states, the merit program is aimed at helping recruit and retain academic staff, who are the source of UC’s academic and research quality, and also to acknowledge non-represented staff for their ongoing dedication and service despite not having received general pay increases for the past several years.
The merit pool will be calculated at 3 percent of the overall pay in the eligible personnel categories, and individual increases will be based on performance and determined locally. In the coming days, UCOP will be sending specific guidelines to the ANR academic and staff personnel offices for how the merits will be implemented. We will share those additional details with you soon.
In the meantime, the Executive Working Group joins President Yudof in expressing appreciation for the contributions you and your colleagues make to the University, the people of California, and the countless others we touch every day in our service to the public.
Sincerely,
Kay Harrison Taber
Associate Vice President for Business Operations
View or leave comments for the Executive Working Group
This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.
California fruit harvest on track
Capital Press reporter Tim Hearden provided an overview of California's 2011 fruit and nut season in an article published in yesterday's edition. Table grapes, nectarines, plums, Valencia oranges, lemons and blueberries were being picked and shipped as of Aug. 8, according to a USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service.
Many crops are holding their own despite getting a late start in development, as rain and cool temperatures in the spring gave way to a mild summer, Hearden reported.
For perspective on the NASS report, Hearden spoke to Carolyn O'Donnell of the California Strawberry Commission, a California Farm Bureau Federation spokesperson and UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Rick Buchner. Buchner said plums grown for drying are approaching the sugar content needed for harvest
Harvests should begin in a couple of weeks, which would make the crop about seven to 10 days late, Buchner said. The crop is heavy, so growers "will have to hang on long enough to get the sugar up."
The table grape harvest is under way in the San Joaquin Valley. (Photo by Edwin Remsberg, USDA)
El Dorado County 4-H'ers and their Japanese exchange students meet with their Board of Supervisors
Japanese Visitors, along with their hosts, met with the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors Tuesday. The group will be visiting local points of interest as part of the 4-H International Exchange Program.
The Mountain Democrat -
http://www.mtdemocrat.com/media_gallery/photos-of-the-week-28/attachment/japanese-exchange-at-bos-b-2/
East meets West as AquaSol swimmers train together
Placerville mom Chandra Schreck was late this year filling out paperwork to participate in the 4 H International Exchange Program that would bring a Japanese student to her home for a month this summer.
The program, in conjunction with Japan’s Labo progam, pairs students with families in both countries. The exchanges are on an alternating basis. In 2012, students from the United States can apply to visit Japan.
Schreck, the mother of two girls, Maddie, 11, and Calista, 7, was hoping to host a girl but they had all been placed much to her disappointment. But then Sana Kobayashi, 13, from Matsuyama in Southern Japan, who was originally slated to go to Texas, was relocated to California and the Schrecks’ home because there weren’t enough host families in Texas.
And to make the experience even more special, Sana belongs to a competitive swim team in Japan, which worked out well because both Maddie and Calista are members of AquaSol, a year-round USA swim team based at the Western Slope Aquatic Center.
“Her application said she was an advanced swimmer, but you never know how advanced,” Chandra said. “It was a coincidence that we got a swimmer.”
“She’s a faster swimmer than I am. She’s very good,” Maddie said.
AquaSol coach Steve Skidmore welcomed Sana to the program and the month not only included lots of fun excursions, Sana, Maddie and Calista didn’t miss a day of training together.
“She was awesome — a lot of fun,” Skidmore said. “We communicated surprisingly well. She’s a nice sweet girl and a hard worker. It’s been good for our team members to have her.”
Communication was difficult but not impossible.
“It was a challenge but Sana put in a lot of effort,” Chandra said. “She really started to express herself in English the last three or four days. It was tiring for her, but it was fun for us to learn to say some of the more common things around the house.”
Maddie, who will be eligible to visit Japan when she turns 16, thought the experience was “very fun.”
The month also included visits to Lake Tahoe, Sun Splash in Roseville, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, Sacramento and the state capitol, a River Cats game, boating and tubing at Jenkinson Lake and Gold Bug Mine Park.
“We stayed pretty close to home and showed her the area around here,” Chandra said. “Sana also loved watching Looney Tunes cartoons.”
Sana, who leaves the Schreck home Thursday to return to UC Davis for a night and then home to Japan Friday, could not decide what was her favorite part of her visit.
“It was all good,” she said, also admitting she wasn’t homesick and hinting she would have liked to stay longer.
California hosted 18 students from Japan in the exchange. Five were based in El Dorado County.
To view the original article, visit http://www.mtdemocrat.com/sports/east-meets-west-as-aquasol-swimmers-train-together/
4-H clubs flourish with crop of urban locavores
Elsa Rafter, 9, has no illusions about the messy process of raising livestock. For Elsa, clad in a sundress and jelly sandals, climbing into her family's backyard chicken coop to collect fresh eggs for breakfast is nothing but a brush of hay off her golden pigtails. The Rafter household keeps one Buff Orpington and two Ameraucana chickens in San Francisco's Hayes Valley.
"You can tell the difference between Sunshine and Chicky-Chicky because Sunshine has a dirty bottom," Elsa explains matter-of-factly, holding Sunshine in her arms for everyone to get a good look. This doesn't put Elsa off; she and her brother Roan, 6, share responsibilities for taking care of the chickens, feeding them and collecting their eggs. The two joined San Francisco's only 4-H program, started this year, to share their knowledge of chicken raising with other children in the city.
Animal husbandry is probably not what first comes to mind when thinking about the extracurricular interests of urban youth, but the Bay Area's 52 4-H clubs are flourishing, with city kids raising rabbits, lambs, goats, chickens and turkeys - some destined for dinner tables. It's another sign that urban agriculture has taken hold in the Bay Area's food culture and is trickling down to a new generation.
In a city with a strong locavore and DIY ethos, 4-H seems like a natural fit, according to Megan Price, who, along with fellow parent Lauren Ward, co-founded the San Francisco Urban chapter just this year.
"With the whole urban farming movement blossoming, there are a lot of people with backyard chickens, beekeeping, etcetera," says Price. "It just seems like a really good time to start exploring these things with our kids."
Established in 1902, 4-H - which stands for head, heart, hands, health - is a national youth development program predicated on a "learn by doing" model. Members run the clubs and design and set goals for their own projects, which can range from building robots to home economics to raising rabbits.
Over the past few years, 4-H membership has been on a steady rise, especially in urban areas. According to 4-H National, about a third of participants are now from cities of at least 50,000 or their surrounding suburbs.
Raising animals is part of 4-H's agri-science curriculum, where members are responsible for daily tasks such as feeding and grooming, as well as learning about anatomy and breeding. Summertime is the wrap-up of months of hard work, with kids showing their animals at county fairs and selling them at auctions.
Grand champion
At the San Mateo County Fair in June, urban 4-Hers showed animals alongside those of their peers from more rural areas. Peri Wong, 17, of Menlo Park, a 4-H state ambassador, had this year's grand champion market lamb, sold at the fair's youth livestock auction along with the grand champion turkey, raised by Thomas Rivette, 19, of Pacifica.
While Rivette kept his Broad Breasted White turkey in his backyard, finding the pasture required for sheep presented a logistical challenge for Peri as it does for many other city kids interested in keeping larger animals.
Mary Meyer, 4-H coordinator for San Francisco and San Mateo, worked out a solution with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and UC Davis, affiliated with 4-H through the national Cooperative Extension System, to set up five locations in the area for 4-Hers to lease land - in Pacifica, Daly City, San Bruno, San Carlos and near the Crystal Springs Reservoir in San Mateo County. The rent is kept low, usually around $6 per month. Because there is no caretaker on the land, it's up to the 4-Hers to feed and groom their animals daily.
San Bruno commute
This year, Peri commuted from Menlo Park to San Bruno every day because the closer San Carlos farm was overcrowded. Raising a lamb for market involved a host of tasks for Peri, including feeding, watering, halter training, grooming and keeping detailed records on its growth. The Hampshire lamb, bred at the Casarotti Ranch in Santa Rosa, is a breed prized for its large frame and hearty cuts of meat. Peri was responsible for exercising her lamb to keep it at market weight and monitoring its food intake.
It's standard practice for animals raised for meat, something Peri understands now. "When I had my first goat, I was really sad, but then I realized if it was going for meat anyway, it should still have a better life."
Jenette Masarie, 13, of Redwood City, had similar responsibilities raising a 1,253-pound Pen Pride steer with three other girls for Redwood City's 4-H. Pen Pride steers are donated by local businesses and raised collectively by each of the Peninsula's clubs. The auction revenue generated by the Red Angus steer, donated this year by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, goes to the club's scholarship fund.
Throughout the eight years she's been a 4-Her, Jenette also has raised Blue Butt pigs and Red Wether goats - all destined for the slaughterhouse.
"I do get attached," Jenette admits. "My first year I cried and it was sad; as you go on through the years it gets easier. With the steer it was really hard because I was with him longer, and I bonded with him more."
Like Peri, she has come up against her share of adversity. "I have had people come up to me at the fair and say, 'How could you do that?' but I just say I know where my food comes from, and I know the way of life and everything now.
"I think it's a great experience. I've been doing it since I was 5 years old and I love it."
Participation in 4-H is designed to develop leadership skills by fostering collaboration and personal initiative, but it also emphasizes citizenship. Rivette, for example, donated the proceeds from the sale of his turkey - $500 - to the Bryan Stow Fund, set up to help the beaten Giants' fan.
"I like that (4-H is) focused on service, that it's nondiscriminatory," Price of SF Urban 4-H says. "I like that it is focused on earth and agriculture and animals and helping - it is something that kids don't necessarily have access to in the city."
"Run by children"
Jenette's mother, Katey Masarie, takes pride in watching Jenette hold her own in the urban farming movement. "Four-H is basically run by children," Masarie says, "and Jenette works really hard to raise those animals and become close to them, and having to learn about different meats and things - what she's really doing is learning about how life works."
The Rafter children joined 4-H because of their family's backyard chickens, but through their participation they saw several other aspects of growing and preparing food.
"When you live in a city, you're exposed to cool stuff like museums, but you have to go out of your way to see a farm, or experience milking a goat," says Price, who organized several outings to Hayes Valley Farm for SF Urban 4-H.
This year, Elsa learned to milk a club member's backyard goats and make homemade ice cream from the milk. With Price, who is a pastry chef, she baked an apple and blackberry galette with fresh fruit and an egg wash from her own chickens.
Price puts 4-H in what she refers to as "the return-to-the-earth movement."
"Like the whole Chez Panisse thing with the urban gardening and Hayes Valley Farm and people canning their own vegetables and backyard goats and chickens ..." she spouts giddily. It's reminiscent of the '60s, she explains, and laughs: "It's why the parents seem to be just as interested as the kids are."
4-H clubs
Contact SF Urban 4-H at sfurban4h@gmail.com and visit them on Facebook at on.fb.me/phMpiT
To learn more about 4-H and for a listing of local offices, go to 4-H.org.
For a listing of upcoming county fairs, go to 1.usa.gov/oMreY6
E-mail comments to lwallace@sfchronicle.com.
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