Area 51 notes – Apr. 22, 2010

Present:  Mike Roy, Terry Simpkins, Carol Peddie, Shel Sax, Jeff Rehbach and Doreen Bernier

Preamble: The Apr. 15 meeting was canceled due to general moroseness (actually, no one was here).

We kicked off the festivities this week by discussing recruiting strategies for open positions. Mike would like to see ADs/hiring managers try to come up with 5-10 ways to find good candidates for these jobs.  Other strategies we will employ: Mike will post to CLAC, Oberlin, etc., lists announcing open positions; Carol will post the 3 external positions with Educause and NERCOMP lists; Mike will create a spreadsheet for us to use as a weekly check-in.

We also clarified the decision making process for hires.  The hiring manager will listen to the recommendations and concerns of the search committee, but the ultimate hiring decision will be made by the hiring manager

We spent some time figuring out how to maintain the project directory information.  Specifically, how we will keep it current, approve projects or mark projects for further discussion, keep everyone involved with decisions (especially those that may impact staff in multiple areas), etc.  It was suggested that team sponsors should come up with project recommendations for AD approval.  This would help to minimize spending large amounts of time editing the directory during AD meetings.    We also agreed that ADs can approve projects that affect only or primarily their areas, and mark other projects that need AD discussion as proposed.  Once a project is “approved,” the AD can then send an email to the other ADs noting as such, in order to allow 3 days for discussion or objection.  Mike told the ADs to update the directory within 2 weeks.

The ever-popular topic of goal setting was next up, and especially how we can use the administrative calendar we’ve set up to facilitate this.  We settled on this timeline: LIS-wide goals due in May; area goals due in June; workgroup goals due by Aug 30.  We need to review and edit the administrative calendar, and set up a refresher from Sheila on goal setting.

For the coup de grâce, we reviewed a proposal from Jeff and thoughts from Ian for a tech project tracking taskforce (originally crafted when ETI was still an area, to be led by Ian). After some debate as to how best to organize this worthy proposal, we settled on having Mike confer with Ian as to how the project can work side-by-side with the Administrative Efficiency Taskforce already in process.  MR would be the project sponsor.

Thanks for reading,

Terry