Style Guide Released by Communications Department

The Monterey Institute’s Style Guide was recently updated and is available for download here and on the Web site’s Faculty & Staff resources page. The Style Guide provides policies and guidelines for use of the Institute’s logo and seal, as well as answering questions from “What’s the correct way to refer to alumni degrees?” to “How should I format the term M-squared?” Please make it your first reference for any and all question about Monterey Institute style, and share any feedback with Jason Warburg, executive director of communications.

Get Connected!

Get Connected

Records, IT, and TLC Departments invite faculty and staff who directly support academic departments to attend one of four “Getting Connected” sessions for a detailed update on academic technology resources, tools, and processes including: Bannerweb, Exchange E-mail, and Moodle.

All sessions will be held in B104, Morse Lecture Hall.

Weds 8/19  10-11:30am
Weds 8/19  2-3:30pm
Thurs 8/20  10-11:30am
Fri      8/21  10-11:30am

RSVP for one of the four sessions by following this scheduling poll: http://www.doodle.com/9u6nrvwy5gud6vtp

New Letterhead Template

Recently, all faculty and staff received information from Jason Warburg regarding the introduction of new graphic identity standards for publications, correspondence, business cards, etc.  Much of the material that we produce in house does not necessarily need to be printed on expensive  letterhead, and may indeed be appropriate to disseminate electronically. Anne Marie Steiger has created a Microsoft Word template that incorporates the new letterhead design.  You can download it here: http://www.miis.edu/jobs_forms.html

As you prepare handouts, reports, and other documents please consider using this template to reproduce the letterhead design accurately and consistently.

Go! … or how to shorten those messy urls

Ever want to take that long URL from our website and make it something nice, short and simple?  Well…now you can!  Welcome to GO! (Clicking this link will take you to a Middlebury authentication page, where you should enter your exchange username and password, and then you will get to the main GO page.)

Go is a service provided by Middlebury that will take a long URL and make it nice and short (like tinyURL or bit.ly).  For example, the MIIS facebook URL used to be five lines long but is now: http://go.miis.edu/facebook.  Anyone with an exchange account can login to this system and create their own shortened URL.

Why should you care?

  • Shortened URLs are pretty.  All URLs will be http://go.miis.edu/”your chosen shortcut”.
  • From computers on campus you just have to type go.miis.edu/bannerweb and it will magically take you to bannerweb.  Short is quick.
  • URLs change – go URLs can be updated/modified. The URL you publish can remain the same, while the longer “real” URL changes in the background.

Many URLs will be changing during the website redesign process.  Before you send out a mass communication that includes a URL, think to yourself:

  • Will the recipient need this URL after September 1st?
  • Will this URL likely change?

If the answer is yes to both question – it is probably in your best interest to make a go URL and simply update it when the new website is unveiled. Confused?  If you have any questions or concerns about URLs and the new website, please contact any member of the web strategy team. They can help you think through whether or not you need a go URL, and walk you through the process.

Web-in

Guidelines for Appropriate Use of All Campus Electronic Mail Messages

The following guidelines are adapted from Middlebury’s policy on the use of college email.  We think they make sense for us as well, and would like to ask that all members of the community to follow them.

1. Messages must relate directly to College business. Announcements of non-college events should be handled through other channels.

2. E-mail messages should be avoided for College events already listed on-line or in publications, unless there is significant supplemental information or last-minute changes in location or time.

Currently, everyone has the ability to send an all faculty or all staff message, and it would be wonderful if everyone could voluntarily use these guidelines so that we don’t have to restrict access.

When the students return in the fall, we will need to adopt similar guidelines for messages to all students, and student messages to faculty and staff.

We understand that there is a need for a place to post “classifieds” and other messages of a more personal nature, and we are working on a solution.

Thanks for your patience!

Staff Advisory Team

The votes are in and the working group dedicated to creating a staff council structure will now move forward in creating a proposal for the 6-person staff advisory team.  56 staff members voted and gave important insight and feedback into the staff council structure.  The working group will now create a proposal that incorporates your ideas to share with the administration.  Stay tuned for more information!

Karen Weiss
Priscilla Lorenzo
Toni Thomas
Lynn McDonald
Susan Wolfe
Erika Johnson
Kenley Butler

Appropriate Use of MIIS Faculty and MIIS Staff Email Addresses

Now that we have the capability of posting email messages to all faculty and staff simultaneously through Exchange/Outlook, we would like to suggest some guidelines to make sure that this capability is used to greatest effect to convey those messages that are truly of community-wide interest and importance.

The following guidelines are adapted from those in use at Middlebury.  They have had this capability for some time, and these general guidelines are fairly well respected by all (or the sender usually gets swift feedback from colleagues).

* Messages should relate directly to Institute events and activities. Announcements of non-Institute events, fund-raisers, activities, etc. should be handled through other channels. MIIS@work is happy to publish such announcements, and we will continue to use the MIIS Faculty and MIIS Staff emails to publish the latest blog headlines.  This gives the reader the opportunity to choose items of interest, and reduces the number of separate email messages people receive in their already-crowded boxes.

* E-mail blasts should be avoided for Institute events already listed on-line or in publications, unless there is significant supplemental information or last-minute changes in location or time.

Open Enrollment for Benefits

The HR office would like to remind all employees that the Open Enrollment period for benefits will end on September 19.

Open Enrollment provides the following opportunities:

1. If you or your dependents are not currently enrolled you may add yourself and/or dependents to the medical, dental, or vision plans. Please contact Human Resources for coverage application form(s) if you would like to add coverage.
2 If you are currently enrolled in the medical, dental, or vision plans you may terminate your own or your dependents’ coverage. Please contact Human Resources for coverage change form(s) if you would like to end coverage.

In addition, there is one thing all benefit-eligible employees must do as part of Open Enrllment: return the Section 125 (Flexible spending) election agreement.  This plan allows you to do 3 things:

1. If you are on MIIS insurance plans, you can have the premiums deducted from pre-tax dollars.
2. You can have a portion of each paycheck (in pre-tax dollars) deposited into an account that you can draw upon to pay for medical expenses not covered by insurance.
3. You can have a portion of each paycheck (in pre-tax dollars) deposited into an account to pay for dependent care.

If you do not want to do any of these three things, you still must sign and return the form indicating that you do not wish to participate.

New Hiring Guidelines

It can be confusing to know how to proceed when you need to hire new staff. HR has tried to demystify the process by publishing new guidelines that provide a step-by-step roadmap of the process. Along the way, we consulted with several veteran supervisors who helped us to see the process through their eyes.

— from the Human Resources Office