Posts Tagged: Bob Sams

VP Allen-Diaz promises to wear bees, eat insects for scholarship donations

Celebrities, UC employees, students and people from all across California are tapping into their social media networks and making promises to raise money for UC student scholarships.

VP Barbara Allen-Diaz has made her own daring promise. If she can raise $2,500 by Halloween, Allen-Diaz promises to wear a colony of bees, highlighting the importance of pollinators to the health of agriculture and the planet. If she raises $5,000, she promises to eat protein-rich insects, a plentiful and low-cost source of protein critical to meeting the world’s growing food demand.

Assistant VP Tu Tran is making a promise on the VP’s promise. “If Barbara does the bee thing, I will donate $500,” Tu said. “If she eats the scrumptious larvae meal, I will donate another $500, for a total of $1,000.”

To see VP Allen-Diaz’s promise and to donate, visit http://promises.promiseforeducation.org/vpanr. Feel free to share this link on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks to raise money for UC students.

Norm Gary, professor emeritus in the Department of Entomology at UC Davis, has graciously agreed to wrangle the bees. Mark Hoddle, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Entomology at UC Riverside, has enthusiastically volunteered to help round up some larvae and maybe crickets for her to eat.

Currently, some regents and all 10 campus chancellors have made promises. Governor Jerry Brown promises to host a "Brown Bag" lunch at his office in Sacramento with a student from each UC campus if people donate $10,000 on his promise page.

To see promises made by Jamie Foxx, Dan Dooley, Bob Sams and others, visit http://www.promiseforeducation.org.  The campaign ends Oct. 31.

Promise for Education is a UC systemwide fundraising effort for undergraduate scholarships. All funds raised will provide direct scholarships and grants to undergraduate students from California with a demonstrated financial need. For more information about the Promise for Education campaign, see http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/30065.

View or leave comments for ANR Leadership at http://ucanr.edu/sites/ANRUpdate/Comments.

This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

Leadership notes about collaboration, budget and communication posted

An ANR leadership meeting was held June 28 at the UC Davis Activities & Recreation Center. In addition to the Executive Working Group, Strategic Initiative leaders, executive associate deans, county directors, statewide program directors, REC directors, and unit directors attended.

Dan Dooley, Barbara Allen-Diaz, Kay Harrison Taber, Bill Frost, Bob Sams and Don Klingborg gave updates on ANR’s budget and restructuring efforts that have been completed or are under way.

For the majority of the meeting, the participants formed break out groups to discuss four questions and brainstorm answers.

The four questions were:

1. How do we as ANR’s leadership catalyze the development of internal partnerships across the continuum and prevent silos from forming?
2. What changes not mentioned this morning do we need to consider to help preserve more of our budget for hiring positions?
3. Beyond the ANR Report and our weekly email updates, what can we do to more effectively communicate with you, ANR’s leadership team, and with the whole of ANR?
4. How do we better support you in your role of communicating with others in and outside of ANR?  What roles does each of us play in telling our story to achieve awareness, understanding and support?

Group responses from the brainstorm session were recorded by facilitators and are now posted at http://ucanr.org/files/117046.pdf. These brainstorming comments will be used to further develop and refine the Division's structure, procedures and communication practices.

View or leave comments for the Executive Working Group

This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.

Web site plugs Cooperative Extension programs

Education.com, a Web site that provides parents of school-aged children with parenting, developmental, and educational information, this week published an overview of the educational opportunities offered by Cooperative Extension programs around the country.

The title of the piece - "The Cheapest Kids Programs You've Never Heard Of" - and an oft-repeated phrase that opens the second paragraph - "Cooperative Extension might well be the best-kept secret around" - introduce details about Cooperative Extension's 4-H, Master Gardener and nutrition education programs. The article provides a brief history of the legislation that created Cooperative Extension in 1862 and outlines changes underway to adjust to budget cuts.

Reporter Anna Weinstein spoke to the director of UC ANR's Communications Services unit, Bob Sams, for perspective on changes expected in California's Cooperative Extension program.

Sams said the organization is adapting to what amounts to a 20 percent reduction in permanent state funding, and is involved in a major reorganization of its program delivery.

“Our approach is that we can longer afford to do business in the way that we’ve done in the past and we have an obligation to change our business processes," Sams was quoted.

Sams said he believes that making better use of the Web is one way to accomplish the goal.

“We’ve just really begun to see the impact of ubiquitously available information on the Internet and one of the things we still have to figure out how to do is to utilize that medium to deliver information that has a research and analytical base," Sams told the reporter.

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