I recently visited with Tom Tate, Natural Program Leader (CSREES) for
E-commerce and Digital Divide issues. He indicated his appreciation of Linda
Masters' (La Paz County, Acting County Director) innovative programs in
introducing GIS programs to 4-H Youth Development and community programs. I
visited with her EIRP advisory committee and county advisory committee when
in La Paz county last week for the celebration of Janice Shelton's
retirement and heard greater detail of 4-H youth technology teams, community
mapping and new partnerships. For more information contact Linda
(928-669-9843, email-lmasters@ag.arizona.edu). It was also quite nice to see
Woodie & Janice Winans and hear him sing a special song composed for Janice
Shelton. We wish her well.
My thanks to Robert Emanuel, Senior Program Coordinator Arizona Master
Watershed Steward Program-621-1268, who provided leadership for the Arizona
Master Watershed Steward Strategic Planning Meeting yesterday. Good job.
Congratulations to Monica Pastor, 4-H Agent - Agricultural Literacy for
being awarded the 2003 Leadership Award from Valley Forward Association.
Monica served as the Chairman of
EarthFest in 2003. Under Monica's direction the entire event was reformatted
to include learning stations for the 1000 fourth graders and culminated in the students working
in classroom teams to design their vision of a community. Students learned
about land use, including agriculture,
water quality and quantity, transportation and air quality issues as well as
waste management. Over 50 volunteers served as educators for the students.
Governor Napolitano visited with the students and was impressed by their
vision for their future community.
It's the time of year to remind everyone that the University campus will be
closed for five additional days as a part of an annual campus-wide
energy-saving plan. Besides the paid holidays of 12/24-25 and 1/1/04, the
campus will be closed on 12/26, 12/29-31 and 1/2/04. The campus will reopen
again on Monday, January 5, 2004. All personnel on campus are taking
personal vacation time, have "banked" some or all of the 40 hours for the
closure, or are exempt. Since county offices are not on this same plan, you
would still follow your traditional county closure policies (if county
buildings are open, your office is open and if it is closed, your office is
closed). Because of our unique tri-funding, we serve federal, state and
county mandates and offices must be open to the public and phones answered.
If you have any questions, please contact our office.
ECAT will be offering an electronic 6-week class on Dreamweaver basics, with
the class starting the end of January and finishing mid March, 2004. There
is no face-to-face part of the class; all work is done through materials on
a class CD and a special website, with the primary lessons posted weekly.
You can be using either Dreamweaver 4.0 or MX for this class. There is a $20
fee to pay for class materials. For more details about the class coverage
and a link to a registration form, go to
http://cals.arizona.edu/ecat/classes/dreamweaver-class.html The
registration deadline is January 21.
CONDOLENCES:
We just received news that Lorraine Kingdon passed away. Her family had a
private service November 20th at the Mountain Shadows Funeral Home.
Lorraine was the long-term, highly respected communications writer for CALS.
UPCOMING DATES:
The 3rd Greenhouse Crop Production and Engineering Design Short Course will
be held atThe U of A Controlled Environment Ag. Center in Tucson from
January 18-21.
Registration must be completed before January 5, 2004. This year, the
course contents
will feature advanced topics of greenhouse production and engineering in
addition to basic and general topics, hands-on demonstrations, and a tour to
a large, state-of-the -art commercial hydroponics greenhouse tomato
operation. For more information, please
contact Mark Kroggel at kroggel@ag.arizona.edu or leave message at
520-909-8679.
January 30-31, 2004 - Third Annual Youth Horse Judging Workshop, Campus
Agricultural Center, Tucson. A coaches session will be held on
Friday,January 30 with the youth program and on Saturday, January 31. For
more information, contact Dr. Mark Arns (marns@ag.arizona.edu or
520-626-9538).