Conversation, planning, and strategy

Strategic planning is in full swing at Queen’s and Advancement is in the thick of it. Last week Principal Deane took his Conversation initiative on the road to an alumni branch event in Toronto to hear their views on possible future directions for the university. Watch our social media channels for the video this week.

Meanwhile, the Advancement Leadership Team is moving forward with the new Queen’s Advancement strategic plan. Last week we met with the Offord Group to go over the results of extensive internal and external interviews with faculty, staff, alumni, and donors. Now, ALT is using the information from these interviews along with the results of the earlier employee and alumni surveys (read the results) to formulate the strategic plan itself. We want to thank everyone for taking the time to be part of this process and we will present the results to you and the Queen’s community in early February.

Drilling down a little further, planning within Communications, Marketing, Events, and Donor Relations is also in full swing. As reported in the Vol. 25 ALTogether Now, I presented a draft outline of our three-year communications plan to ALT last month. Strategically, we are going to focus on three main areas: demonstrating how the Queen's community and a Queen's education contribute to a better world; reorienting our messaging, delivery, and visual identity; and working hard to make our communications channels co-creative environments where we interact with our communities in mutually beneficial ways. 

What does that mean? Well, stay tuned. We are now making plans to present our outline to each department within Queen’s Advancement to get your specific feedback on strategy and brainstorm tactics so that our communications plan reflects everyone. More details will come soon.

Email and Events Tool Update

The procurement process continues as we had a competing bid in the ACAN (Advance Notice Award Notice), which forced us to undertake a full RFP process.

We have been working with Procurement on the RFP paperwork and it was posted last week. We are working on revising the timelines and work plan to get a better sense of whether we can be in a position to have a new event system in place for Homecoming 2020. There is work in support of this project that is tool agnostic that we are able to move ahead with.

Thank you for your patience with this process. If you have any questions, please reach out to project leads Rachel Deir and Julia Bryan.

Happy Holidogs (and Cats)

The holidays are almost upon us. It is a time, depending on your persuasion, to celebrate Christmas with your family, or light candles to celebrate the festival of lights. Some of us use the occasion air our grievances while others simply enjoy some down time with those they love.

Me? I like to humiliate my pets. Because nothing says Christmas like a cat in a Santa hat or a normally happy dog decked out like the Grinch’s mutt, Max. This year, my dog Franklin is going old school and is absolutely delighted with his classic Scandinavian ugly Christmas sweater. The picture above is our cat Guppy getting out of harm’s way when the box of pet costumes comes out.

So this week I am encouraging you to help me spread the joy. Take a minute or two and force your cat, dog, budgie, or even toddler (I know … technically, they are not pets, but anyone who prefers to eat off the floor qualifies) into the most horrible holiday outfit you can dream up and take their picture. Submit them to Danielle van den Brink by end of day Wednesday, Dec. 3 and they will appear in next week’s newsletter. Our selection committee (me) will pick a winner. The winner’s owner gets a Tim Hortons prize pack while the winning animal will receive a gift suitable for their species.

Holiday Cards Still Available

Queen’s Advancement’s very own graphic designer, Wendy Treverton, has created a series of beautiful holiday cards featuring a pen and ink drawings of a number of Queen’s landmark buildings. These cards are available in digital and print versions. Please contact Danielle van den Brink to get yours.

Get Ready to Party

Advancement’s annual year-end celebration is tomorrow, Tuesday, Dec. 3, from 11:30 am to 3 pm at the Donald Gordon Conference Centre. We welcome you to wear your best holiday ugly-sweater, and to enjoy the delicious holiday lunch, fun, games, and prizes our organizing committee has arranged for us. See you there!

Jobs with Advancement

We need your recruitment help. Know great talent that would be a good addition to our team? If so, please promote the vacancy below with your networks and let’s find some amazing new team members.

Applications (including a cover letter and résumé) must be submitted through CareerQ. For additional information on these postings, please reach out to either Katelyn, Carla, or the hiring manager for the position you are interested in.

Available Position: