FOCUS ON FACULTY:
- We are pleased to announce the addition of Dr. Channah Rock to the Soil, Water & Environmental Sciences (SWES) department faculty. Dr. Rock will join the SWES faculty as an Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist in water quality and will be stationed at the Maricopa Agricultural Center. She recently completed her Ph.D. program at ASU in Environmental Engineering with a specialty in Environmental Microbiology and has earned a B.A. degree from New Mexico State University in Microbiology (May 2003) and an M.S. degree from ASU in Environmental Engineering (July 2005). Dr. Rock will develop a water quality research and extension education program that will complement the other fine programs that currently exist at the University of Arizona at the state and county level. She will assume her duties August 1. Please join us in welcoming Dr. Rock to the CALS faculty.
- Congratulations to Barry Tickes for receiving this year’s California Weed Science Society's Award of Excellence.
- Congratulations to Rick Gibson who was elected President-Elect of the National Association of County Agricultural Agents (NACAA). It is the first time in their 92-year history that the elected an extension agent from Arizona as its next president. Rick is an agriculture extension agent and county extension director for the Pinal County office and was elected by the voting delegates of the organization on July 17 at their annual meeting in Grand Rapids, Michigan. After serving as president-elect for the coming year, he will assume the president’s role in July 2008. He will serve in that position until the next annual meeting in September 2009. He will preside over the association’s 2009 national meeting in Portland, Oregon.
FOCUS ON PROGRAMS:
The Arizona 4-H Youth Development Program hosted the 2007 State Teen Adult Retreat (STAR) program at the UA on July 27-29. STAR provided a transactional "how to lead" leadership experience. This year’s focus was on strengthening and expanding the youth-adult partnership in 4-H in communities throughout Arizona by emphasizing the Four Essential Elements (Belonging, Independence, Mastery, Generosity) of 4-H. STAR featured the following presentations: 1) Health Rocks! Training (by Health Rocks! Training Team), 2) How To Do A Public "Elevator" Speech (presented by Jan Norquest & Katie Radosevic), 3) Dressing For Success (by Kim Gressley and Lani Hall), 4) Meal Etiquette (by Julie Adamcin, with special guest Laura Read of “Once Upon A Time” and assistance of teens from Pima Partnership High School), 5) Netiquette - Using Web Technology Appropriately (by Amy Parrott), and 6) We Salute You” Cards for Military Kids - a service learning activity presented by the Arizona Operation Military Kids Program. There were 60 participants representing teams from the following counties: Coconino, Gila, Graham, Greenlee, Pima, Pinal, Yavapai, and the Arizona Operation Military Kids program. Special thanks to all who helped make STAR 2007 a success!
2007 CALS & EXTENSION STAFF IN-SERVICES:
On October 11-12, the next CALS and Extension Staff In-Services will take place at the Tanque Verde Ranch & Hilton Tucson East). Registration information will go out in September and all staff are encouraged to attend. Both planning teams are working to engage speakers for group and concurrent sessions, so watch for future announcements in both Tuesday Morning Notes and the Weekly Staff Bulletin. As with previous policy, the State Office will cover overnight lodging for one night (unless travel is more than 4 hours to Tucson) and all catered in-service meals (which will be lunch on both days). All other costs (such as additional meals, mileage and lodging) will be covered by county funds (as agreed to at an earlier CED meeting).
2007 OUTSTANDING STAFF IN COOPERATIVE EXTENSION AWARD NOMINATIONS:
As a part of this year’s CALS & Extension Staff In-Service (October 11-12, Tanque Verde Ranch & Hilton Tucson East), the 2007 Outstanding Staff in Cooperative Extension Award will be presented at the noon luncheon on October 12. Cooperative Extension has many excellent staff and I strongly encourage you as a faculty member, CED or staff person to submit your nominations for this award by Friday, September 7. Nomination criteria are available at http://cals.arizona.edu/awards/extstaffawd.html -- please read the criteria carefully. I’d also like to point out the strength of peer-to-peer nominations and support letters and the need to follow and address the areas noted in the nomination criteria. Nominations can be sent to Steven Crofts, University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, PO Box 210036, Tucson, AZ, 85721. If you have any questions, contact Steve (520.621.7145).
WEB SITE NEWS:
- In response to requests from faculty and staff to learn more about blogs, Sheila Merrigan has created a blog in which all ACE faculty and staff may participate. The blog is not open to the public, so it is a good place to practice blogging. To access the blog, go to http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/ACEdownunder/ and enter your UA Net I.D. and password. Come and learn about blogging ... or if you are already a blogger, enter your comments, advice and tips in the blog. Questions or problems, contact Sheila Merrigan.
- On the main CALS homepage there is a link on the front, in the drop-down listing, to search the entire College site. One of the frustrations I have had with the current search is that there is no particular order in search results. Searching, for example, under a phrase like dietetics major or extension will not necessarily list the more important pages first. Therefore, CALS is considering changing the search page for the main CALS search and use Google. Google results tend to show the more popular pages first. Linda Ffolliott has put up a test page that uses Google, found at http://cals.arizona.edu/general/cals-search.html and suggests faculty and staff try searching for a word or phrase using the "webinator" search and the same word or phrase on the "google" search and send her feedback or comments, if you wish (ffolinda@ag.arizona.edu ). This change, if made, would not affect individual site managers who are using Webinator for their search engine, unless they also wanted to set up a Google search for their site.
IMPORTANT REMINDER:
A reminder based on an announcement from CCIT (on-campus computing): At 6:00pm on Sunday, August 5, the password rules used for forming a user password for RACF on the University's z/800 IBM Administrative computer (SIS, FRS, CMS, TSO etc.), will be changed as follows: 1) passwords must be 8 characters in length; 2) passwords are case sensitive; 3) passwords must contain at least one uppercase alphabetic or national
Character (# @ $), one lowercase alphabetic character, and one numeric character (in any position); 4) the minimum time between password changes is 5 days; and 5) passwords expire every 45 days. The new RACF password rules can be reviewed at http://ccit.web.arizona.edu/index.php?id=1736. You will not be required to change your password to conform to these rules until your current password expires. If you have any questions, contact the Computing and Network Support Account Administration (520-621-2985 ) and a support systems analyst will contact you.