Work Session Meeting Minutes - Friday, June 20, 2008
By Matthew Lord | June 20, 2008
SAC
Minutes 6/20/08
Present: Brandin, Jasmine, Alexis, Matthew, Jeffrey, Janet
Start: 10a End: 1p
Summary
Everyone arrived at the meeting not only on time but early! This is a good indicator. It shows that we have hired the right people and that we are off to a successful start! Within in a few minutes we launched right into the first agenda. Feeling that he might be moving too quickly Jeffrey paused briefly to mention that he tends to be task focused but understands the importance of balancing meeting work with the social interactions that makes work enjoyable. He encourages us to help him create this balance. A question was raised about taking minutes. Jeffrey explained that since this is a leadership development program this responsibility will rotate among members. Taking minutes (documenting work and decisions) is a critical tool that is used to keep teams focused and on task. By the end of the year we want all of our team to be
skilled and confident in documenting useful minutes.
Who and what is SAC?
For SAC to succeed we must be clear about who we are and what we are trying to achieve. This clarity will allow us to establish priorities and to set realistic focused goals that will result in the greatest and most lasting overall benefit for students. The meeting began with a short research project designed to help us begin to think about and understand what SAC is, what it does and what’s its primary mission and purpose is. We were given about 45 minutes to research answers using handouts and material available on the web. We then shared what we had learned and had a general discussion about SAC’s structure and goals. We spent a total of about 1.5 hours on this activity.
Training and meeting schedules
- We spent about 30 minutes discussing schedules. We talked about possibly needing to meet once a week through summer but soon realized that scheduling challenge. We decided to start by scheduling one meeting at a time. At our next meeting we will reconsider how often we need to meet during the summer.
- Once we fill the open positions we will identify training dates. Group training will likely occur in late August and the month of September. Weekends may be workable times for everyone.
- Jeffrey will work to coordinate bi-weekly trainings sessions starting fall. These will be organized and scheduled to accommodate SAC members needs and schedules but will also be made available to all students and possibly campus employees. Once we have hired the remaining SAC members we will come up with a day and time to schedule these trainings.
- In our discussions it became evident that scheduling will be one of the biggest challenges we will need to overcome. This is a common challenge in today’s workplace thus we have the opportunity to learn how effectively collaborate as a team to accomplish our work – even if we cannot meet as often as we like. To accomplish this we may need to do the following:
- Develop trust among team members
- Be accountable
- Use technology to monitor, track and communicate progress on our work
- Set realistic goals
- Identify and focus on activities that matter most
- Prepare for meeting and work sessions (create agendas, set goals, keep minutes, etc)
- Communicate, communicate, communicate
- Recruiting SAC applicants
- We all recognize and agree that the most effective way to recruit applicants is through direct face-to-face communication.
- Second might be faculty announcements in class.
- Jeffrey and Janet will place application on the Student Greeter’s tables
- Jeffrey and Janet will set up a display table at the espresso lounge with applications
- Jasmine, Brandin, Alexis and Matthew will personally encourage students to apply
- Jeffrey will remind International Student Programs that their students may apply for these positions
Personal profiles
- Jasmine and Alexis met earlier this week to create a template for SAC profiles. After reading the current profiles they felt they were a bit too long and so created a template that would more succinctly communicate information.
- Jeffrey said that after thinking about the profiles he reviewed the staff profiles of a variety of organizations. What and how the information says a lot about what to expect from contacting or working with these organizations. Jeffrey will send links to various websites for our review which he thinks may be helpful as we think about the underlying messages we might want to communicate in writing our profiles.
- Jasmine/Alexis will send members the profile template
- Brandin, Matthew, Alexis and Jasmine will draft profiles
**NEXT MEETING
Wednesday, June 25, 3-5p
The meeting ended with lunch – burritos from Chipotle Grill.
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Topics: Minutes |