It's nomination time for the Extensionist of the Year award and the
Extension Faculty of the Year award! Remember the Extension Faculty award
recipient receives $1,000! Information will be coming your way next week.
The deadline for all submissions is May 16, 2002.
* I very much enjoyed my visit to Graham County last week. The Ag Center at
Safford and the County Extension office brought in the Board of
Supervisors, the County Manager, the Extension Advisory Board,
representatives from NRCS, Public Health, volunteers in the 4-H Youth
Development and Master Gardening programs and others for a day long
experience of "what is happening". There were discussions on water rights,
school water flow models, and the new Edu-Venture layout which includes
solar panels, water ponds, greenhouse, test plots, and kids experiential
learning opportunities. Great programs, great dialogue, great community
involvement!
* You are invited to join us in a 2002-2003 program planning session for
health education. We want to bring together all extension agents and
specialists who are working in health promotion, including nutrition,
physical activity, health preventative practices, healthy communities, and
food safety. The session will be held April 18,1 pm - 4:30 pm, and April
19, 8 am - 12 noon in Tucson. Extension Programs will cover mileage and one
night's lodging for all extension faculty who wish to participate. Please
RSVP to Patti B. (pattib@cals.arizona.edu) today if you are able to join us.
* Congratulations to Tom DeGomez and his colleagues who received a $95,000
grant from the State Fire Assistance program to continue their work on
forest health treatments and education in the Sherwood Forest Estates and
Parks communities.
* The Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (WSARE) is
soliciting proposals for their FY 2003 competitive grants program. The
three areas for funding are (1) Research and education, (2) Farmer/Rancher
Research, and (3) Professional development. For further information please
visit http://wsare.usu.edu.
* Monica Pastor will be coordinating the Specialty Crops grant from the
Arizona Foundation for Agricultural Literacy. AFAL received $9,600 to fund
this year's Summer Agricultural Institute. AFAL also received $33,000 to
provide for the development of Specialty Crop Curricula. Teachers who have
or will attend SAI are eligible to apply for a $500 stipend to develop
curriculum. Kai Umeda is our agriculture technical reviewer and Jack
Elliot is the curriculum reviewer. For more information call (602)
470-8086, Ext 317.
* Members of the Arizona Agriculture Extension Association hosted the
spring board meeting of the National Agricultural County Agents Association
in Tucson this past weekend. Attending the meeting were the six national
officers plus the five regional directors of the organization. Most were
accompanied by spouses on the trip. I wish to thank the many people who
assisted during the meeting, including those who helped ferry folks to and
from the airport, those who helped with the spouses tour on Friday and
those who helped with Saturday's full group tour. A special thanks goes
out to Kim McReynolds who organized the spouses tour and Dean Fish who
organized the Saturday tour and barbeque. Chris Jones, 2002 president of
the AAEA, was in charge of local arrangements.
* Congratulations to Shirley O'Brien, Steven Crofts and the entire CALS
Diversity Committee in hosting a very successful two-day "Conference on
Native American Issues Professionals in Outreach Education," April 11-12,
at the Arizona Historical Society. The conference had approximately 90
participants representing administrators, educators and other professionals
from several states, state organizations, as well as the UA, CALS and
Extension community. Speakers included Cassandra Manuelito Kerkvliet,
president, Diné College; Karen Francis-Begay and five undergraduate and
graduate Native American students; Samuel Tsosie, a Navajo Code Talker; and
Ned Norris, marketing director, Desert Diamond Casino. An evening dinner
and mini pow wow, presented by the Panther Creek Singers, gave attendees a
chance to experience yet another aspect of Native American culture. In
addition, several Extension & CALS faculty and staff members provided
personal insights into their lives and careers through three panel
discussions and I especially want to thank Fannie Begay, Prunell Charley,
Claudia Jackson, Matt Livingston, Gerald Moore and Victoria Wesley for
their time and participation. The Navajo Code Talker event, a rare and
special opportunity to experience living history, was covered in newspaper
articles by the Wildcat
(http://wildcat.arizona.edu:80/papers/95/137/01_3.html), the Arizona Daily
Star (http://www.azstarnet.com/star/sat/20413Navajocodetalker.html), and
featured on the 6:00pm broadcast of KGUN-9 news last Friday evening.
Pictures and information about the conference will soon be featured on the
CALS Diversity Committee website. With an overall evaluation of 4.7 (on a
1-5 scale), the committee's first-time effort scored high marks for our
college.