Almost at the end

of Kellogg Rural Leaders course.

Yesterday we all completed 

what seemed a huge hurdle at the start of the week,

our small group work project.

We started out innocently identifying

some of the most important issues in the rural sector

Water

Monoculture

Markets

Corporatisation

and something else.
Serves us right for trying to be so smart.

Once the issues were sorted

we were numbered into groups.

Given 5 days but very little time

in a schedule that starts at 830am and finishes at 9pm.

But we survived.

Only to be blindsided by a new assignment.
Such fun!

This one was to be part of a commission hearing on
a moratorium on dairying in New Zealand.

The groups were Fed Farmers,
environmentalists, Treasury and us, the Press.

Being the Press was fun.
I enjoyed coming up with totally left field questions.
Our team had the best time doing it too.
Two nights before as we were out on the town,
some of hit the tiles in a non-dancing way more than others,
we stole photos of the different groups talking to each other
and made gross and assumed assumptions (haha)
about this environmentalist talking to that Fed Farmer rep.

Our last morning on Kellogg Rural Leaders, stage one
was spent being half serious about swiping each other's arguments.

Our last hour was sharing what our learning was during the 10 days
of voluntary Kellogg imprisonment
(I think my partner felt it was more than I).

What I've learnt over the last 10 days is
that it is not enough for me to strive in areas I am relatively comfortable in.
I need to get my butt out on the edge and scare and impress myself.
I need to push myself harder.
I need to be more self aware of how others see me,
not how I see myself,
assuming of course that others see me as way more competent that I do.

Was 10 days of being challenged by Patrick and Tony
at Kellogg Rural Leaders worth it?
Hell yes.

Would I do it again?
Yes but not this week...
I need a break from being mentally stimulated and thinking so much.
Good thing the Boss doesn't read my blog!

Kellogg Rural Leaders

This year I have the privilege of being part of the

Kellogg Rural Leaders programme.

I've long wanted to do the Kellogg programme.

When I worked at Lincoln Uni

organising conferences,

I worked on the periphery of the Kellogg programme.

I'd often sneak into the back of the Council Room

where the Kellogg programme is held,

and sit in on one or two of the presentations

from some really brilliant speakers and authorities in their fields.

The course is a year long course in three parts.

The first part, of which I am part of now,

is a ten day residential session

with 50 different presentations.

Yes 50 in ten days.

That's a lot of presentations in a not very long time.

The presentations subjects range from

critical thinking to an overview on the Deer Industry,

presentation skills to water management on the Canterbury Plains,
social media to an overview of the Pip Fruit Industry,

so a mix of practical and personal skills

and overviews of the different sectors in New Zealand's Hort/Ag industry.

The second part of Kellogg is our individual resaerch project.
The third and final part is residential again but
this time we do a few days at Lincoln Uni presenting our research
then travel to Wellington to wrap up
with some more leadership inspiration.

This year's participants come from nearly all regions of New Zealand

but for the first time from Australia too.
There's a range of ages,
professions and industries represented.

There are 20 of us and nine are Dairy farmers
then a couple of pipfruit/ag consultants,
a seed scientist, a sheep and beef farmer,
a banker, orchardist, a vet, a research scientist,
a policy writer and me,
the non-ag person.
I just tell them in the business of farming people.

The group is diverse but
united on a desire to build a better
future for our industry and for our country.
Kellogg has a proven track record for it's alum
to go on to lead not just the industry but
in one case the country.
There are a lot of people who have radically realised
a very different future for themselves,
envisioned a huge future for their sector of the industry and
then taken both to some amazing horizons
as a result of their particpation in Kellogg.

It is renouned for changing lives.

There are some 600 alumni out and about in the world.
Almost without exception they are making a positive difference
in their communities of interest.

To make the ten days a little pressured,
along side the presentations,
 we have to make a few ourselves too.

My wee group of four,
Jamo, Wayne, Phil and myself
are researching and presenting on
Canterbury as a Dairy Monoculture.

This is something none of us know anything about
but at least the other three are Dairy farmers,
me,
I'll make the slides,
research the people impact,
and the meaning of monoculture.
Then we present on Thursday,
which is beginning to feel like high noon.

I think what makes Kellogg an amazing experience at this stage,
is the people.
The members of my cohort are all really interesting,
successful people.
Who think for themselves, who are driven and focused,
it's kind of like being on an elite team
where everyone is learning their strengths and
we are learning each others,
we are learning to make the best of what we can do,
and invite others with skills we don't have to share with us.

I'm loving it.

Farm on.

Things I'm looking forward to changing when I change jobs

The countdown has begun - 5 working days until I leave Lincoln Uni for my new job. I never intended on leaving LU, it just happened that an ideal job came up and was an opportunity was too good to miss but there are a few things, superficial things I'm looking forward to when I change jobs...

1. 
   being able to remember where I parked my car. I find that working at a University and having to park in the student parking (very egalitarian) means I don't get to park in the same place and everyday at about 4pm I have a little brain fart where I think "now where the sam hill did I park today?"
2. 
   driving a long way to work. Currently I drive about 15-20 minutes to work which is only three songs and not long enough to get in the work groove or fully out of it. As of the 25th it will take me 40 minutes to get to work - that's lots of songs!
3. 
   not having vending machines nearby - man those things are killing me!
4. 
   not having an office by the men's loos - although that has proved handy when giving directions to fullas.
5. 
   having a microwave in the same building as my office. I try to bring leftovers everyday and sometimes the walk effectively from my building, through another and finally down the stairs and into a third building to heat my lunch in a foyer (of all places!) is rather extreme. Having said that offsets the effects of item 3.
6. 
   not having to hear the crazy, random self starting hand dryer in the men's loos that goes in short bursts all by itself like it has hiccups. Rather annoying. (Super Heather, bless her has fixed this by turning it off at the wall - did I tell you sometimes my thought processes are very limited).

Last day at work for the year!

This year the University has 'given' us all compulsory leave - that's our annual leave that we have to take unless we get special dispensation. I happen to work in a unit that can get special dispensation and even though I have a short-course tour in the second week of January there is no way I'd be seeking special permission to work.

This time I will happily succumb to the oppression of The Man.

Yesterday was the last day the University was open for this 2009 and I had a

meeting for Time outSIDE with Adele and Emz at the Dunsandel Store

(which I really want to like but there is just something missing from the atmosphere) and so I borrowed a work car....

Yes a teeny tiny Smartcar....

See how teeny tiny it is? There is no backseat.

It cruises nicely at 120kph but it suffers quite a bit from being buffeted by the wind to the point where I got car sick - I was driving for goodness sake! I feel sick just thinking about it!

This is where I had to pull over for just a minute.

No I'm not on a back road, this is the main road from work out to State Hwy 1 and yes I am taking the photo from standing in the middle of the road and no there are not many cars. When there are they travel at quite a pace.

See how small it is!

I heard somewhere that it is safer to drive in a small car because you drive more defensively and therefore watch out for other vehicles more. I wouldn't know about that, I think it takes more then 30 minutes of driving to transistion into that frame of mind.

Even with the bout of motion sickness I had a great day.

For lunch the Blue Fairy and I joined lots of our co-workers for a picnic on Forbes Lawn in the sun and just a bit of wind.

Yay for Curried Sarah and Jane the party aunties for sending a viral email invitation - good idea and a lovely lunch break!

Now what the heck am I going to do for two weeks......

Happiness!

Let's talk about happiness - well I'll do the talking and you do the reading but feel free to comment - blogs are meant to be interactive!

Yesterday and the day before I was very happy. It doesn't take much in my increasing old age to make me happy. So Thursday and Friday all it took was brilliant sunshine. Yesterday it was a long, hot day so that even when I finally left work at 10.30pm (I started at 7.30am) it was still 19C - loved that!

What made me very happy on Thursday was that because I was working in another building but needed to go clear across campus to get back to my office at least 6 times (I only worked 11 hours on Thursday so the hourly average wasn't too bad) and I was wearing heels, I got to take them off and walk on the newly cut grass on the Forbes Lawn (I don't know if thats what the lawn is called but it makes sense to me). This is a picture on a not so sunny day but from the Forbes Building to Ivey Hall library - see the grass. The gardeners keep it all so lovely and
walkable on.

So now heaps of people think I'm a hippie wandering around campus in business attire sans shoes. I even got catcalled from a passing van - it was on campus so only driving at about 20 kms and hour so I called back.

Anyway before you think I'm some crazy person (one word out of you Mrs L! One word!) for working all those hours I should explain. I'm whats called on conference - actually thats what I call it, not sure if any other conference organisers call it that. So this is how my week has been.

Tuesday - A.M. Small group arrives for a one and half day meeting, oh plus an evening meeting, staying on campus, meals, equipment (hmmm where did my stapler go???) and pleasant conversation from me.

Wednesday - get same group going with additional equipment, needs to vacate room at 12 sharp. New group (one I'm actually getting paid to organise) starts at 11am and is of on a bus tour of ecological sites - one delegate phones to say he'll be late and could I drive him to catch up with the bus - of course I can. Notice there are more people than brown bag lunches - like about 12 more people! hmmm pretty sure I counted numbers correctly, double check, why yes I did. Some sneaky people changing their minds! Good thing the bus was big enough, but then no need to worry about this because we use Travlon buses, best buses in the world, nah universe! Seriously if you do something like forget to book a bus for about 50 that are lining up at the bus stop... waiting... for a bus to come right now - you just call Alex and he makes a bus appear! I've never forgotten to book a bus but someone I know has.

Then Wednesday night is drinks and nibbles and poster reading - thats what they do at academic conferences, read posters. Good thing: Have organised poster boards to be there for the drinks and nibbles (they don't consume much) slight change in plans from having them there for Thursday only. Posters are a big academic deal and cost about $400 to $800 to get made up (that includes design) and they are quite hard to print because they SHOULD be A0 size but some academic struggle with the concept. Nod to the Spanish academics at ISBCA for printing theirs on material so they are easy to transport (major conference issue is lost posters) although very hard to keep up for three day with Velcro sticky dots.

Thursday - Sunny day and full day workshop - more people arrive... late. Good thing there are back doors to lecture halls. Pretty easy day, just long. I really like the organiser Glenn he makes me laugh and we have this weird thing where we bump into each other in the supermarket often - seriously at more than one supermarket too. Conferences are easy when you like the people you work with.

Friday - new mini-conference, just one day. Very pleasant people and got meet Katie's mum, lovely woman just like her daughter. Spent the day running around but in two small windows of time got to sit in the sun and read - was reading two books, The Winner's Bible (because the author is potential speaker for another project, but basically the book is a guys self help book filled with Formula 1 stories but the science bits are interesting) and A Field Guide to Melancholy (was on the for sale desk as Jacky the author was also the convener of the day's programme). I was only borrowing the Field Guide and I do realise the irony of the two titles.


Friday night - building opening (new School of Landscape Architecture building above) and art auction - a luxury to be involved in one capacity, the money taking capacity. Had a lovely but long evening using the EFTPOS machine - that was really fun. Heaps of people turned up and so I didn't get to hear the building opening speeches (dang it!) maybe because I stayed in a completely different building (it has a open door to the new building and believe me you can hear every word said the in hall of new building). Anyway the SoLA students did a fantastic job getting a massive and impressive array of art together and most of it sold well. Turns out the hungry attendees ate all the food and the food for today's reunion and dance. Whoops!

So today is another long day and for those of you who think going to functions and dances and lunches and gala dinners is fun and games - not so much fun, more relief that another function has gone well. Besides today is meant to be 29C and windy as a windy thing and it already is. Nor'Wester today so must get lots of pain killers and wear sandles so I can walk on the grass in barefeet. Tired but happy.