Tuesday Morning Notes

April 18th, 2000


Congratulations to the winners of this year's Program Enhancement Awards: Establishing Baseline Data for Community Character Education Programs, Cynthia Flynn, project leader; Arizona Farm Safety Day - 2001, Glenn Wright, Paul Baker, and Stephen Poe, project leaders; Arizona Highlands Horticultural Database with Microclimate Applications, Chris Jones, project leader; Building Better Child Care for Arizona: Meeting the Training Needs of the Child Care Industry, Patty Merk, project leader; Diseases of Native Plants of Arizona On-Line, Mary Olsen, project leader; Internet-based Ostoporosis Prevention and Intervention Provider Education Program, Linda Houtkooper, project leader; and Development of Insect and Weed Identification Web-Based Resources to Support Delivery of Cross-Commodity IPM Concepts, Pat Clay, project leader.

* Congratulations to Monica Pastor, Agricultural Literacy Program Coordinator, and her team of volunteers. The Valley Forward Association awarded their exhibit at EarthFest the "Best Interpretation of Theme". EarthFest is coordinated by Valley Forward. Exhibitors have the challenge of educating five thousand K-8 students about their industry. This is the second year that the agricultural industry has joined together to create an educational exhibit and the second time they have won an award. The volunteers that helped Monica Pastor include Vic Jimenez, Maricopa AG Center; Jeannette Fish and Pam Justice, Maricopa County Farm Bureau; Wendy Brake, AZ Beef Council; Joanne Schiller and Kaye Lunsford, Dairy Council of AZ; Lynda Tatum, AZ Nursery Assn.; and Mary Martin and Sherry Snow, AZ Dept. of AG.

* Joanne Littlefield has accepted new responsibilities. She has been an Information Specialist in Maricopa County (75%) and ECAT (25%). Her ECAT time will become 30% and in that role she will do Media Relations for the whole College of Agriculture. Her media relations role will focus on Maricopa County audiences and involve close cooperation with the appropriate news media. This does not mean she will do press releases for everyone; however, she will give advice our faculty on how to work with the media. We envision this new role as working closely with the media to assist them in reporting our College activities. She will continue her previous Maricopa County activities at the county extension office and be located at the state relations office for her media relations duties.

* Please join us in Welcoming to Dawn Gouge, Urban Entomologist to Big MAC. Dawn started on April 10th and can be reached at 520/568-2273.

* The Community Planning and Design Workshop of the University of Arizona announces the issuance of its year 2000 Request for Proposals for Planning and Design Assistance. The RFP is intended for neighborhood organizations, small cities and towns, rural associations and non-profit organizations seeking assistance in community planning and design. The proposal is due May 2, 2000. The Community Planning and Design Workshop of the University of Arizona is a public service/community outreach arm of the College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture (CAPLA). Housed in the Drachman Institute, the Community Planning and Design Workshop is intended to bring the skills and knowledge of the students, faculty and staff of CAPLA to communities in need throughout Tucson, Pima County and the State of Arizona. Support funding is provided by both CAPLA and the College of Agriculture through Cooperative Extension. The Community Planning and Design Workshop is offering its skills and knowledge in architecture, planning, landscape architecture, and urban design to community projects. The Workshop has assisted many groups over last ten years. Projects are intended both to assist communities and to insure that students involved are meeting their educational goals. The Community Planning and Design Workshop has limited cash funds to bring to these projects, therefore we ask that community groups bring some of their own funds to support project materials, supplies, reproduction, travel, etc. For more information and/or an application, please call Corky Poster at 520-623-1722 or e-mail at: cposter@u.arizona.edu or fax at 520-623-1722.

* Mark your calendars and plan to attend the Desert Horticulture 2000 Conference at the Tucson Community Center, 260 S. Church in Tucson on Friday, May 12, 2000. Registration fees include lunch: $35 before May 1; $55 after May 1. No Purchase Orders accepted. For more information consult the Web site at: http://cals.arizona.edu/deserthort/, or contact John Begeman at 520/626-5161.

* UPCOMING EVENTS.

- The Annual Sweet Onion Festival will be May 20-21 and this year it has relocated to Saguaro Ranch next to Glendale Community College.
- The 6th Annual Melon Field Day will be on Tuesday, May 23, at the UA Maricopa Ag Center. Details will be forthcoming and posted at: http://cals.arizona.edu/maricopa/vegcrops/fielddaysmtgs.htm.
- The Safe Food 2000 Conference will be July 26-27 at the Mesa Hilton and a major subject will be biotechnology impacts and its concerns.
- Planning is underway for the North American Farmers Direct Marketing Association conference in Mesa. Sponsors and manpower assistance will be needed to make the January 15-21, 2001 conference a memorable desert education experience for attendees.




James A. Christenson, Ph.D. (jimc@cals.arizona.edu)

http://cals.arizona.edu/extension/director/
Associate Dean and Director
Arizona Cooperative Extension
Forbes, Room 301
Tucson, Arizona 85721
520/621-7209
520/621-1314 FAX