Dear Colleagues,

Across California, county governments continue to face a funding crisis.  Last year, many local budgets were balanced with the help of one-time federal stimulus money. This year, the major difference between those counties that are “stable” versus those that are facing huge deficits is the use of any available contingency funds.  Indicators suggest next year will be an even bigger challenge for our county partners and will directly impact our county programs.

Some of us hope that economic recovery is in our immediate future and that we will return to the early 1980s when Extension was at its peak in funding and political support. Others are convinced that we must chart a new course, and that the future...

The draft strategic plan for the Healthy Families and Communities Strategic Initiative is posted on the HFC website http://ucanr.org/sites/HFC/ and can be directly accessed at http://ucanr.org/sites/HFC/files/41677.pdf.

Academic staff associated with the HFC initiative should review the draft plan before the HFC Strategic Initiative Conference, which will be held Aug.  24 - 26 at the UC Davis Conference Center.

Three major issues are presented for further review, development, and refinement:
·    Issue 1: Promoting Healthy Behaviors for Childhood Obesity Prevention
·    Issue 2: Youth Science...

The ANR Business Operations Center located in the ANR Building in Davis (BOC-D) provides consolidated financial services to most of the Statewide Programs, the Research & Extension Centers, as well as ANR administrative & service units located in Davis.

Key services provided by the BOC-D include financial processing of:

• Travel expense reports
• Entertainment expense reports
• Purchasing (including UCD purchasing card transactions)
• Business contracts/agreements
• Invoice/vendor payments
• Gift acceptance
• Cash collections
• General ledger review
• DaFIS account management
• Contract & Grant financial management
• UC...

Sustainable Food conference set for Jan. 25 – 27

The Sustainable Food Systems Initiative Conference will be held Jan. 25 – 27 at UC Davis’ Freeborn Hall. Please hold the dates on your calendar. Closer to the conference date, the agenda, registration and other details will be available from the Program Support Unit at http://ucanr.org/sites/PSU/.

Reminder: Revised SNE plan posted for comment

A revised draft of the Sustainable Natural Ecosystems Strategic Initiative Plan has been posted on the Sustainable Natural Ecosystems web site http://ucanr.org/sites/SNE/. You can access the pdf document...

As of July 1, the ANR Business Operations Center located at Kearney (BOC-K) is providing comprehensive consolidated financial and payroll-related services in support of county Cooperative Extension offices statewide. This includes providing business services in support of 200 CE advisors and 400 staff employees. The BOC-K's mission is to provide highly effective and efficient financial and payroll services within the guidelines of UC and ANR policies and procedures.

Key services provided by the BOC-K include:

financial processing for:

• travel expense reports
• entertainment expense reports
• purchasing (including UCD Purchasing Card transactions)
• invoice/vendor...