Tuesday Morning Notes

August 12, 2003


Congratulations to Bob Kattnig who will receive the Arizona Cattle Growers "Wrangler of the Year Award" on August 7 at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort. Each year the Arizona Cattle Growers recognize the individual they believe has been most critical in helping the ranching industry develop programs and in meeting their goals with the award. In presenting Bob with the award, Jeff Menges, President of the Arizona Cattle Growers, cited Bob's role in assisting ranchers with drought programs and his work with the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service on behalf of Arizona ranchers.

Thanks to Bob Collier and the faculty of Animal Sciences who, along with Pat Reid, Bob Glock, Dean Fish, Jim Sprinkle, Dave Schafer, Bopper and other Ag Economics faculty, made the 2003 ACA/ASC/AWPA Annual Convention a great event.

Congratulations to the following Arizona agents who received awards at the National Association of County Agricultural Agents Annual Meeting/Professional Improvement Conference in Green Bay, WI, July 13-17: Jack Kelly - Achievement Award as a National Finalist in Extension Programs-Search for Excellence (for SmartScape); Lucy Bradley - Communication Award as a National Finalist in both the Learning Module Category and the Web Page Category and as a Regional Finalist in the Team Newsletter Category; Jeff Schalau - Regional Finalist in the Fact Sheet Category. Outstanding work!

I also want to thank Fred Deneke, School of Renewable Natural Resources, for his contributions to Cooperative Extension over the past several years. Fred is returning to D.C. and has been "on loan" from Forestry in USDA. He provided leadership to our forest program, helping to write grants, prepare publications and facilitate meetings. The publications were very timely given our fire situation this year. Thanks, Fred, good luck and keep in touch.

The designation of All-American Selections Display Garden has been awarded to John Begeman and the Pima County Cooperative Extension by the Chicago-based All-American Selections Board of Directors. The garden, which is to be installed at the Pima County "Our Yard" Landscape Learning Center, will be the first such garden in the Desert Southwest. Established in 1933, the All-American Selections is a nonprofit organization devoted to the testing and introduction of significantly improved new flowers and vegetables grown from seed and bedding plants. The new Pima County Extension AAS Display Garden is scheduled for opening to the public in the spring of 2004.

With a thanks to those who emailed in some of their most recent personnel changes, the latest edition of our on-line Faculty/Staff Roster (8/5/03) is now available under the "Personnel" section of our website. You can link directly to it at: http://cals.arizona.edu/extension/personnel/20030805roster.pdf.

The Arizona Cooperative Extension, Arizona Community Building Initiative (ACBI) Working Group and the Western Rural Development Center are partnering to provide mini-grant opportunities to multi-disciplinary teams to help promote and mobilize work or discussion around community needs, facilitate further fund development, and continue community development efforts. The funding is intended to be used for "seed" money rather than for "capacity building." Funding is to be provided at two levels: $500 for start-up projects and $1,000 for community projects that currently exist and are ongoing. The total amount of funds to be awarded for 2003-2004 is $4,500. Funds may be used for items that would enhance the development, assessment, design, implementation, and/or evaluation of community projects such as: consultants, incentives, travel, room rental, printing, and meeting expenses. Requests for funding should be submitted electronically by 5:00pm, Friday, September 5, 2003 to Barry Bequette, Yuma County Director and ACBI Co-Leader. Funds will be available October 1, 2003 and the funding period will extend to May 1, 2004 (with a final report is due May 30, 2004). For more information and to obtain the format for the grant application, point your browser to http://ag.arizona.edu/yuma/ and follow the link to the "Community Development Mini-Grant Opportunity" page. For questions, contact Cynthia Flynn, Pima County Director; Juanita Waits, Maricopa County Area Agent; Barry Bequette, Yuma County Director; or Beth Tucker, Coconino County Director.

ECAT is offering two distance classes in the fall-Dreamweaver Basics (9/3-10/8) and Creating and Modifying Images for a Website Using Photoshop 7 (10/16-11/6). Each class will be taught using WebCT, can be accessed through your local computer/browser, has a fee of $20 each per registrant (payable by IDB or personal check), and a time commitment for each class would be about 2 hours per week. Both classes are open to College employees, students, and volunteers, but volunteers would need to be sponsored by the appropriate department/county in order to get a University NetID to use the WebCT system. For details about each class, prerequisites and requirements, see links off the general ECAT classes page at http://cals.arizona.edu/ecat/classes/.





James A. Christenson, Ph.D.
(jimc@cals.arizona.edu)
Associate Dean and Director
Arizona Cooperative Extension
Forbes, Room 301
Tucson, Arizona 85721
520/621-7205
520/621-1314 FAX