During the course of a regular business meeting a number of weeks ago, it struck our small group that we’d better start thinking about fiscal year end – an annual resetting of the clock so to speak for many across the university.
I think it was more surprise than anything that the end of April was soon upon us. The pace of altering the way we work and the changing nature of how and where we are directing our energies in the spirit of continued engagement has created this feeling of time passing by at a very rapid pace. Mainly because of COVID, it doesn’t quite feel like the juncture of the past, but more like a train running through the station.
There’s no doubt we are all working at multiple levels of planning right now. Our new strategic plan and annual objectives set a foundation for both long- and short-term outcomes and through these lenses, the emerging contemplation of alternative ways to support and engage our constituents during these unique times. Just last week, the ALT had a preview of these developing plans through a preliminary review of the draft x-matrices for fiscal 2020-21. It is certainly gratifying to see the insightful application of ongoing business and new thinking during difficult times.
Many of us across Advancement are also looking at how we can be ready for times beyond COVID when we might see a semblance of normal again, and a likely rebalance of the physical and virtual. This is tricky of course, as we really don’t know what’s on the other side of this thing. In Advancement Services, while we continue to stay focused on a number of key deliverables, we are also using this time to focus on PD opportunities, data enrichment and integrity, staying abreast of the economic impacts across sectors, and fast-tracking new tools (see below) and processes. And no doubt, we have heard of the valuable and innovative outreach taking place by our colleagues across Advancement in an effort to say connected and support our alumni. All this, of course, to best position ourselves in service to our alumni regardless of the changing scenarios that lie ahead.
Thanks for staying the course as we continue to look forward in a variety of ways – it’s all really important right now. My strong belief is that all this good foundational work, coupled with the current need to adapt with fresh approaches, will one day intersect into a brilliant new normal. It was a fiscal with a big twist at the end. COVID has made our memories short. Thanks for all your tremendous contributions this past year and helping us set the stage(s) for even better things to come.
Live Alumni Update
On behalf of Rachel, Corrine, and team, thanks to everyone who helped us fast-track this new software. Last week, a good number of you participated in discipline-specific strategy sessions aimed at maximizing your use of the tool. At last count, we have more than 70 staff members signed up for access to the system. A big thanks goes out to our 28 “matchers” across Advancement who are diligently working to match additional Advance records with the profiles in LiveAlumni. This is an incredibly important data enrichment exercise, and the application of the tool will be that much better because of your assistance. We look forward to hearing about your experiences with the new tool.
Submit Your Most Important Value
Thank you for taking the time to consider the values of the Office of Advancement over the past few weeks. The value survey closed April 17, so we will now move to our next step.
Survey results are very clear about some of the things we value on this team – perhaps clearer than we ever expected for an initial step in the process. Now we would like to ask everyone to think about our values from a slightly different perspective to validate the feedback received.
Our first step was to consider the organizational culture/values we need to achieve Forward, Together – and, ultimately, to achieve our mission to foster relationships that advance Queen’s and contribute to a better world. Now we want you to fine tune your thinking and submit one value only – the one you consider the most important value for the Office of Advancement to achieve our shared objectives.
This is not a vote for our final list of values. And we will share the results of the first value survey. Before we do that, however – and potentially influence your thoughts on our team values – we want to know your number one value so we can reconcile this with submissions from the first survey to develop a list of the top ten values for the Office of Advancement.
Because we have already done so much thinking about our values, please submit your most important value by Friday, May 1.
We look forward to releasing the results of both surveys in ALTogether Now the week of May 11!
Join a Q&A with the ALT this Friday
The ALT will be hosting another open Q&A session at 10 am on Friday, May 1.
As you will recall, the ALT hosted our inaugural open Q&A session March 11, followed by a special Q&A March 26. While we originally planned to hold these sessions once per semester, based on feedback following the March 26 session we agreed to host these open Q&A sessions monthly (as long as the team deems this frequency valuable).
To recap, the rules for the open Q&A sessions are as follows: anyone is able to ask any member of the ALT any question on any topic; attendance is of course optional; and there will be no pre-set agendas so the Q&A session will last as long as you have questions (the Teams meeting will be booked for up to one hour).
As always, members of the ALT look forward to the discussion, and we will do our best to answer your questions Friday.
Fun Fact
Theological Hall
Constructed from 1879-1880, Theological Hall is the third oldest building on campus and houses the School of Religion (see Religion and Religious Studies) and the Department of Drama.
It was built with money donated by the citizens of Kingston in the first of what would be many hugely successful fundraising campaigns led by Principal George Grant. The mayor of Kingston "handed over" the building to Principal Grant in the opening ceremonies as a symbol of the goodwill between Queen's and Kingston.