Tuesday Morning Notes

March 28, 2006


Join me in welcoming Jonathan Long, the new Assistant Agent in Agriculture & Natural Resources & 4-H Youth Development for the Hualapai Nation/Havasupai Tribe, Mohave County. His appointment is effective May 15.

Congratulations to Jing Jian Xiao (Norton School of Family & Consumer Resources) and her co-author Barbara O’Neill (Rutgers Cooperative Extension) for their recent article Financial Fitness Quiz Findings: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Disconnects published in the February 2006 issue of the Journal of Extension. The article reports findings from an online financial self-assessment tool, the Financial Fitness Quiz, and covered practices in financial management, saving and investing, insurance and estate planning, credit, and shopping.

More than 80 climatologists from around the world attended the 2006 NOAA Climate Prediction Applications Science Workshop: Research and Applications on Use and Impacts last week in Tucson. University of Arizona Cooperative Extension took a lead role in organizing the annual workshop held in Tucson for the first time. The workshop brought together a diverse group of scientists from climate modelers to anthropologists to share and discuss developments in research and applications related to the use and impacts of climate predictions on societal decision-making and resource management. Contact Mike Crimmins if you have any questions on materials shared at the workshop or check the workshop website: http://cals.arizona.edu/climate/CPASW2006/. Presentations will be posted on this site in the upcoming month.

The main college homepage has a link to a listing of websites reflecting programs, departments, units, etc. in the college. However, this listing is getting too cumbersome because of its length for site visitors to quickly find a particular site. Therefore, ECAT is developing a database so that site visitors can search by words in the site name or a keyword to find particular sites as well as finding a list of sites in a category, like water or gardening. They are asking each website contact person to take a few minutes to complete the form at http://cals.arizona.edu/ecat/web/announce-site.html about their site. The description should further explain the site's purpose or content, since it will appear in the search results after the site name. The keywords section is the main item that will be used for searches when site visitors are looking for content or a particular site. Sites will not be included in this database unless the site owner or a unit contact person enters information about the site. The link for "Listing of sites" on the CALS homepage should be replaced by this database within the next few weeks. For more information, contact Linda Ffolliott .

The State Office and CALS Administrative Services would like to remind you again that although the upcoming pay increase will be reflected in this Friday’s paycheck, you need to remember that it is the third paycheck in March and will be higher than normal due to some deductions that are not taken out. Your next paycheck (on April 14) will be the one that will properly reflect the pay increase.

Upcoming Events & Reminders:

Arizona Project WET has several workshops scheduled for the spring and summer months. Two of the first are scheduled for Wednesday, April 19 (Non-Formal Educators Workshop) in Phoenix and Saturday, April 22 (Arizona Project WET Workshop) in Tucson at Tucson Water. Check their website for other workshops scheduled around the state (http://www.ag.arizona.edu/azwater/workshops.html).

We have requested that each Extension agent send the Arizona Cooperative Extension Program Priorities questionnaire to a minimum of 10 clients or stakeholders. You are responsible for entering the completed questionnaires into the database. . The URL is: http://cals-cf.calsnet.arizona.edu/exact/stakeholder/. Use cals for username and ua for password. Contact your county director if you have any questions about the questionnaire or need another copy. Contact Robert Armstrong if you have questions about the database. The deadline for entering information is April 28, 2006.

Mark your calendars for the 2006 Arizona Pest Management Summit to be held at the Maricopa Agricultural Center on June 6. The one-day workshop will assemble CALS faculty members involved in pest management related research and outreach, along with key stakeholders from urban, agricultural and natural resource sectors, in a forum to identify program needs and priorities and to discuss the role of the Arizona Pest Management Center (APMC) and Extension in helping to address these challenges. The meeting will include breakout sessions, an opportunity for working groups to meet, along with clientele representatives, to discuss priority issues in their respective areas. Plenary topics will include sessions on documenting stakeholder needs, identifying funding resources, and measuring program outcomes. For more information, contact Al Fournier (520-381-2240 ).





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