Looking for a Silver Lining

I keep telling myself that it’s not all doom and gloom despite every day being a bad-hair day. I am running more, reading more and, finally, washing my hands before and after every meal (my grandmother would be so proud).

I do realize, however, that my situation is a little different that those who have had to adapt to working from home with small children around. 

Over these weeks, I have also experienced contactless grocery shopping, contactless wine delivery, virtual birthdays, virtual coffees, and virtual pub nights. If I can find a virtual, contactless barber, I am all set.

The last few weeks have also seen some positive digital transformation in our day-to-day activity despite the general chaos caused by moving an entire unit to remote work. We are moving, for example, to electronic signatures, which will help immensely to speed up approvals. We are moving some of our many donor reports to digital formats rather than our traditional printed reports and we are thinking of ways to do this with many more. Karen, Leigh, and I have also been working digitally with colleagues from many areas of the university to understand how to work together on student enrolment and retention in this disrupted time.

All these things are steps forward in process and collaboration and I am hoping we can retain these positive changes when COVID-19 is behind us. I have made retaining these initiatives part of my unit goals for 2020-2021.

What’s happening like this in your unit? I would love to hear what you are doing in your area that has improved a process, led to new, functional collaboration, or eliminated work that really doesn’t need to be done. To that end, we have set up a channel called Changes and Ideas in the Advancement team group to collect great ideas. Please contribute!

Connecting with our Alumni Community

Last Wednesday, the Office of Advancement hosted a special virtual town hall with the Queen’s community featuring Principal and Vice-Chancellor Patrick Deane and David Walker, Meds’71, Special Advisor to the Principal on Planning and Preparation for COVID-19.

Moderated by Karen, the town hall provided alumni with the opportunity to question the university administration on the ongoing response to the pandemic as well as the direction moving ahead.

The conversation was shaped by a wide range of questions submitted by participants in advance and during the event through the Zoom platform. Questions ranged from the university’s expectations and plans for the 2020-21 academic year to how Queen’s is cooperating with postsecondary institutions around the province and across the country.

From a planning perspective, the town hall pushed the Communications, Marketing, Events, and Donor Relations team to quickly pivot to a virtual event platform, which provided a valuable learning opportunity. Despite having a week to plan Advancement’s first online event, we were able to bring together more than 250 people in the virtual town hall and connect directly with alumni in a meaningful way.

We will continue to innovate and learn from this experience and look forward to creating more opportunities to connect as a community in the coming days.

If you missed the live event, you can see the recording here.

Opportunities for Learning and Growth

Advancement is dedicated to the success of our employees through professional development. As you know, we're committed to investing time and resources in learning and growth opportunities.

A new leadership development initiative called Everything DiSC 363 for Leaders is being implemented this year. This program will be used for professional development, not for appraisal. 363 is designed to give leaders a better understanding of how their colleagues see their leadership behaviours — both strengths and challenges — and to get direction on how to become more effective leaders.

This is an important initiative and team-effort, and I am asking for your help in making it successful. For 2019-20 ALT will be participating, in 2020-21 it will be ALT and all managers. While not everyone will participate as a leader or as a rater in this current year, we want you to be aware of the program. Many of you will contribute in some way. Whether you're a leader, or a rater, this is a team effort.

Thank you in advance for helping to make Everything DiSC 363 for Leaders succeed in our organization. If you have any questions, please talk to your ALT member.

Choose a Charity for Advancement Enhancement Day

Your Advancement Enhancement Day Committee is hard at work, planning some great activities for everyone. Just as we have all had to make adjustments to how we are conducting our daily business, the 2020 Advancement Enhancement Day will look a bit different from previous years. In the coming weeks, we'll be sharing details with you about how we plan to deliver an informative and FUN virtual experience. For now, we need your help to decide which charity we will be supporting this year. We've created a quick survey and would ask that you pick one COVID-19 related local charity for us to support during Advancement Enhancement Day. If you have any questions about the survey or AED 2020, please reach out to one of us.

With thanks from your planning committee: Kate Bearse, Deanna Bennett, Gage Benyon, Jess Boland, Pavel Civin, Kym Cook, Judy Griffiths, Erica McIlquham, Carey-Ann Morrison, Michelle Pruefer, Emily Rees, Carla Ferreira Rodriques, Ben Seewald, Peggy Shanks, Katelyn Siu, and Michelle White

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 this posting, please reach out to either Katelyn, Carla, or the hiring manager for the position you are interested in.

Available Position:

Fun Fact

Medical Quadrangle

This is the small square located behind Summerhill. It is so named because the other three buildings surrounding the square - Kathleen Ryan Hall, the Craine Building, and the Old Medical Building - once belonged to the Faculty of Medicine.