PAT-UC Covers - California Sea Grant - UC San Diego

Program Accomplishments & Impacts
I. ORGANIZATION & MANAGEMENT
Leadership of California Sea Grant
California Sea Grant uses a management team style for all
key program decisions. The team is comprised of: Director,
Deputy Director, Associate Director for Extension, Research and
Education Program Manager, Communications Director and
Fiscal Officer. More often than not, one or more staff persons
join management team meetings, which are held approximately
once per month, usually in the La Jolla office. Topics of
meetings including issues such as decisions on funding,
allocation of program resources, key decisions on outreach
activities, and requests for program development and rapid
response funds. All of the members of the management team
have 100 percent FTEs devoted to CSG. See Appendix A for an
organizational chart of CSG.
In addition to members of the management team, staff
associated with CSG management include: two assistants to
the fiscal officer, one computer/web specialist, one proposal
coordinator, and one program assistant. Each of these five staff
members has a 100 percent appointment to CSG. There is also
a half-time specialist assisting the Deputy Director with special
projects.
One key aspect of management is the process of program selfevaluation
and improvement. Recognizing that a weakness
for CSG was overall program integration, beginning in 2001
a series of three program-wide retreats were held for program
evaluation and strategic planning. The first of these retreats
held in March 2001 was facilitated by Dr. Harvey Liss, an expert
in strategic planning. In aggregate, the three retreats focused
on the task of working more as a single program and planning
for the future. Between these retreats, extension staff meetings
are held three times a year. The Director and other members of
the administration and communications staff often join these
meetings.
California Sea Grant uses a model with three advisory bodies
(see Appendix B for a complete list). The principal one is
the California Sea Grant Advisory Board. This twenty-one
member board advises the UC Vice Provost for research.
Approximate membership is one representative from eight
UC campuses, one representative from the California State
University (CSU) system, one representative of Cooperative
Extension, one additional academic representative, and ten
nonacademic members representing a broad spectrum of
external stakeholders. The Advisory Board meets approximately
twice per year and considers a broad range of topics such as
recommendations on strategic and implementation plans,
suggestions on proposal review protocols, advice on interacting
with universities and California state agencies, and guidance on
the intellectual thrust of the program. Member terms are three
years with option for renewal.
The second advisory body is the California Sea Grant
Committee. This is a standing committee that serves
the specific function of review and recommendations on
preliminary and full proposals. There are eight members
of this committee, coming mostly, but not exclusively, from
academic institutions. In the past two years, the membership
of this committee was greatly changed to ensure there is no
conflict of interest during proposal review. As a result, all but
one of the eight members come from outside of California.
The lone Californian is from the National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS) Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla
and does not have academic institutional conflicts. Ad hoc
members are added to the California Sea Grant Committee
as needed to round out the subject matter expertise of the
committee to ensure all topics are covered during the review
phase. Each member serves a three-year term.
The third advisory body is the Resources Agency Sea
Grant Advisory Panel (RASGAP) and is comprised mostly
of representatives from state agencies. The panel meets
annually to allocate general fund money and provide input
and recommendations from a state agency perspective on
preliminary proposals submitted to CSG and University
of Southern California (USC) Sea Grant. There is one
representative from the UC system, one from the CSU system,
one from USC, and several members from marine industries.
Panel member terms are indefinite in length.
California Sea Grant Retreat, 2001. (L to R) Marsha Gear, Gretchen
Frederick, and marine advisors, Rick Starr and Susan McBride.
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California Sea Grant: 1998-2003