My Father’s Eyes are Blue – Coventry Literature Festival

Writing about – http://www.spaghettigazetti.com/2009/03/local-lad-done-good.html

Local poet Anthony Owen will be on his home turf when he appears at the Third Coventry International Festival Of Literature at the Belgrade Theatre in May. The Coventry Literature Festival is unique among UK literature festivals due to its focus on community events, with public writing workshops, children’s events and opportunities for local writers incorporated into the programme.

You can buy tickets and find out more on the Belgrade website:

Wednesday 13 May, 8pm.
Heaventree hosts the Festival’s opening night by inviting the editors of a number of poetry presses and magazine publishers to showcase their best new writers. Guests will include Horizon magazine, The Wolf magazine, Flarestack Press, Under The Radar and the Warwick Review.

This is an invaluable chance to research the diverse opportunities for publication offered by the UK poetry industry, gaining that knowledge of the terrain which is vital for new writers.

Tickets: £5.Thursday 14 May, 8pm.
The launch of My Father’s Eyes Were Blue by Coventry poet Antony Owen and Still This Need by Michael McKimm.

Antony Owen is a commercial manager from Allesley who writes poignant, unsettling poems, reminiscent in style of the Mersey Beats and their French forbears.

Tickets: £4.

 

Social Capital & Knowledge Exchange: Blogging Inside the Enterprise

You may think I’ve been unusually quiet recently, but I’ve been diverting my energies into other channels, including a guest spot at Simply Communicate a site that collates advice, toolkits and templates covering every aspect of internal communication inside organisations.

Here is a taster:

Internal blogging can give us:

• The ability to get to know our colleagues as people and individuals encouraging give and take.
• An easier way of building networks of like-minded or useful people.
• An easy way to find out what colleagues are working on (and joining the dots with our own work).
• An easier way of finding out what people extracurricular interests and skills are (and harnessing them).
• The ability to scan the internal environment, take a reading of the organisation’s mood, and spot and pre-empt issues.
• An easy way to get a rounded sounding on ideas and test out theories or approaches – both by yourself by beginning to articulate ideas for the first time, and with others as a community of interest which helps to test and build the idea.

Read the full article.

I Do Try New Things

So today I’m trying Moblog – you can text or MMS updates.

Some examples of Moblogs that work.

And my first post of last night’s Warwick staff party (I do  old things too).  I promise I was only there because it was Sam’s last gig with the Re:Offenders before moving to Brighton to be Director of the World.

Good Luck Sam & Mark!

Sam & Mark (at leaving party #1).

Am really struggling with the UI though.  Which is making me cross.

Job Vacancy: Internal Communications Manager

Anyone fancy a job? Gotta luverly one going ‘ere…

Job Purpose

To help the University to meet its objectives and to underpin cross-departmental initiatives by ensuring that University members (staff and students) understand the institution’s direction and know what part they play and where they fit into the bigger picture.

Duties & Responsibilities

1. Manage and deliver the University’s internal communication strategy
2. Manage the Internal Communications Assistant
3. Provide support for consultation and feedback within the University community
4. Monitor key University issues and provide the Director of Communications with regular reports
5. Develop management communication tools
6. Work with departments to produce specific internal communications campaigns to manage change effectively
7. Carry out a programme of regular liaison with departmental heads and the Students’ Union
8. Deliver a programme of staff management communication and social events
9. Oversee the publication of the University Calendar
10. Manage the production and distribution of the University newsletter
11. Manage the contents and structure of the University intranet and ezine
12. Provide training on internal communication tools, techniques and best practice
13. Provide a regular Awards and Distinctions paper for Senate and Council
14. Chair the internal communications network
15. Manage the internal communications budget
16. Evaluate all internal communication activities
17. Build effective relationships and work closely with relevant departments to secure the effective delivery and co-ordination of the above functions
18. Other tasks as may be required as determined by the Director of Communications.

For more information see Warwick’s Job Vacancy Pages

Next Time Gadget, Next Time

Writing about web page http://www.ipr.org.uk/excellence/shortlist.htm

At least I have another year to try for Outstanding Young Communicator….

The entries that got away:

CIPR 2007 – Young Communicator of the Year

CIPR 2007 – Young Communicator of the Year – Letter of Support

CIPR 2007 – Warwick’s Future

CIPR 2007 – Insite

The insite one was a joint submission with Karen Mortimer and Sara Lever from elab – this is meant as a credit – not an allocation of blame!

Disappears off to perform gazillions of sets of self-belief mantra…..

Even Though I Say So Myself (Or Hubris Comes Before a Fall)

Follow-up to Warwick’s Future: Get Involved from Casey’s Blog

We
are nearing the end of the University’s first ideas generation and
staff and student engagement process – and, even though I say so
myself, I am ridiculously proud of the effects.

I have held off writing this entry for a couple of weeks now (hubris comes before a fall) – but dammit I’m ready…

The team was small (two people), the budget was small (no special
funds have been alotted), the process was simple – but the effect has
been big.

There is a palpable buzz around campus and a sense of interest and
anticipation. Over 350 ideas were put forward, over 400 people were
invited to the discussion event and almost half of the University’s
departments put forward an official response to the Vice-Chancellor’s
challenges.

Of course, a large part of this is owing to the presence of a new
vice-chancellor – but I hope that this process has really capitalised
on the goodwill towards him…. the first 100 days…

The challenge now is getting back to people with feedback, giving
them the response to their idea. We are currently collating all the
various feedback on the ideas submitted and will begin telephoning
everyone shortly.

---

Consultation Process on University’s Future Strategy

Chronology of Events to Date
University Steering Committee approves process for consultation on the development of the University’s future strategy

• Vice-Chancellor publishes a consultation document outlining
  institutional challenges, which has been prepared in consultation with
  the Senior Management Team and subject specialists from around the
  University
• Consultation document disseminated via the institutional newsletter, Intranet and staff email list
• Copy
  of institutional newsletter received by all staff, Staff-Student
  Liaison Representatives (students) and Students’ Union Society and
  Sports Club Presidents
• Consultation process also advertised on WarwickBlogs and Facebook
• All
  Heads of Department (academic and non-academic) requested to discuss
  the aims and generate ideas by holding departmental meetings

• University members asked to submit ideas via a variety of
  means, including on-campus suggestion boxes; an online form; a
  hard-copy form in the newsletter to put in the internal post; a
  dedicated voicemail box or through their line manager or Head of
  Department at a Team or Departmental meeting.
• Over 350 individual submissions made from staff and students across the University
• Departmental responses provided by 17 departments

• Large externally-facilitated discussion event held on the afternoon of Wed 17 January (a traditionally non-teaching slot)

1. Over 400 staff and students invited, drawn equally from
   those who had made submissions; subject specialists; and the Personnel
   database at random
2. Over 250 attendees; split into seven
   groups which discussed all the submissions by topic (size & shape;
   research, education; internationalisation; campus community; region;
   income generation) highlighting recurrent themes and voting for their
   top three exemplar ideas

• A Primary Panel (composed of ten middle-ranking academics
  and administrators) has now received comprehensive notes from the
  discussions to inform their review of all the submissions against a set
  of pre-approved criteria

• Each submission has been sent to two members of the Panel along with the departmental responses

1. Each Panel member will review his or her responses and the
   Panel will meet once on Wednesday 24 January to discuss and resolve any
   areas of disagreement
2. At this stage people who have submitted ideas will receive feedback on the progress of their idea

• The Senior Panel has reviewed those ideas referred to them
  by the Primary Panel. They reviewed these ideas afresh, against the
  same pre-approved set of criteria and using the same process.

1. Each submission referred by the Primary Panel will be sent
   to two members of the Senior Panel along with the departmental
   responses and the notes from the breakout groups from the discussion
   event on 17 January.
2. Each Senior Panel member will review
   his or her submissions and the Senior Panel will meet once, on a date
   to be determined, to discuss and resolve any areas of disagreement.
   This meeting will be chaired by the Vice-Chancellor and will determine
   which ideas will be included in the University’s draft strategy.

• A presentation of the Warwick’s Future headlines was given
  for discussion at the Heads’ Forum on Tuesday 13 February and will be
  given at the extraordinary meeting of Senate on Wednesday 14 February.
• A
  subsequent presentation will be given to the University community by
  the Vice-Chancellor at an Open Meeting (potentially 28 February 1pm –
  3pm)
• The Warwick’s Future document will be discussed at
  Senate on Wednesday 14 March and updated for consideration and approval
  at Council on Wednesday 21 March.
• The Vice-Chancellor will attend Summer Term Faculty lunches in order to discuss further the finalised strategy.
• A
  high-level external-facing document will be prepared and presented to
  the Senate and the Council at their meetings in the Summer term.

Issues for Consideration

• The possibility of continuing a modified, scaled-down, ideas generation process
  The need to consider appropriate integration with the University’s financial planning process
  The creation of routes for acting on smaller good ideas not suitable for inclusion in the strategy

Warwick’s Future: Get Involved

After
months of preparation, with the special edition of CommUnicate, the
University newsletter, we have launched the Vice-Chancellor’s
explanation of the challenges facing Warwick and the campaign to
generate innovative tactical suggestions aligned to each challenge.

So far, we have received over 30 suggestions from staff and students
from all parts of the institution – in just under a week. Keep ‘em
coming!

If we keep going at this rate, we’ll have at least 150 ideas for Warwick’s future to consider in January.

Which, is what, amongst other things, I’ve been sorting out today:

1. Advising on the membership for the two panels which will be considering the ideas
2. Working
   on the criteria against which submissions will be considered (this will
   of course be discussed at length by the Senior Academic and Management
   Team)
3. Encouraging heads of departments to hold departmental
   meetings/discussions (a) to demonstrate how serious and sincere this
   process is, and (b) to give people the opportunity for structured
   discussion with colleagues.

Things To Do

I need to ring Quad to discuss more ways of getting students involved.

Other things on my to do list include:

• Confirming logistics for the January workshop events with the external facilitators
• Creating briefings for the facilitators
• Discussing the continuing possibility of a pre-Christmas staff event for the VC

What’s the Big Idea?

Ok, we don’t have cash prizes to offer – except in project funding –
but I’m working on an ideas generation campaign to be unleashed on
Warwick staff before the end of the year.

The VC wants to
create a process to encourage University members to come up with big
ideas for the University’s future and, that way, have their say on the
University’s future direction.

Shame about the lack of personal cash prizes because otherwise I’d be tempted to steal this idea:

And I honestly did want to call our campaign “What’s the Big Idea?” before I saw this!

Freshers’ Week Can Feel Like Big Brother

Yes, it can – but that’s probably just the strain of meeting so many
new people and trying to burn the candle at both ends for 168 hours.

It’s not because you are under constant observation and monitoring – or is it?

Well, not yet. But several recent moves from the DfES and the Home Office seem to be heading that way…

October 2006: Lecturers and university staff across
Britain are to be asked to spy on “Asian-looking” and Muslim students
they suspect of involvement in Islamic extremism and supporting
terrorist violence, the Guardian has learned. (more)

February 2005: Universities UK invited all UUK members to comment on Home Office proposals to target abuse of the student visa entry route to the UUK
in March 2004. Following these comments and further discussions, the
Home Office developed revised proposals for reporting on applicants who
do not enrol or students who do not attend. UUK also invited all members to comment on the Home Office five year strategy for asylum and immigration ‘Controlling our Borders: Making Migration Work for Britain’. (more)

This drip-feed of little signs seems to be mounting up to something that I don’t like the feel of at all.

I’m not the type of person who wears their politics on their sleeve
– but I feel uneasy about the recent trend in civil liberties policies.

Further Reading:

• First They Came for the Terrorists – Dan Goodman
• They’re Watching You – Chris Rossdale

Away Day Preparation

Writing about web page http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/about/visiting/birmingham/

Satellite Offices: London & Birmingham

• How do we evaluate them?
• Is it time for something new?

Flipchart Session

• What is the objective of having a presence in (a) London and (b) Birmingham?
• What are the current issues with the running of those offices?
• What are the advantages to (a) the University and (b) University members?
• What are the unexplored opportunities for (a) the University and (b) University members?

Hints

• Lifelong Learning
• Lobbying
• Student Recruitment
• Staff Recruitment
• Experts (Research & Press)
• Event support
• Face of the University of Warwick

Targets for 06/07

(verbal report from each divisional leader)

2004/05’s for reference:

1. Consult departments on Cascading Team Briefing to see how the system could be adapted to work for them
2. Implement inbox insite
3. Implement annual strategy special of Communicate
4. Carry out evaluation of internal communication
5. Facilitate lateral internal communication by making communication more employee-led
6. Create a reliable way of communicating to staff without PC access
7. Ensure that the quality of existing communication channels is continuously improved

Achievements 2005/06

• Pilot of Team Briefing in the Estates Office (now 6 months in)
• Inbox insite implemented and sucessful
• 2 annual strategy specials of CommUnicate produced
• Evaluation of internal communication carried out via Pulse (the staff survey) and the IC Network
• insite restructure and redesign research project ongoing
• New CommUnicate design selected
• First Warwick Network staff conference designed and implented
• Internal communications supporting discussions around Singapore and Campus Development

Targets for 20006/07

• Implement redesign of CommUnicate and realign with institutional priorities and objectives
• Implement restructure and redesign of insite
• Work with Personnel on improving Induction processes and material
• Work with Corporate Information Systems on creating a cohesive and improved online staff directory
• Creation of more structured networking opportunities for staff (building on the Communications & Marketing Network Day)
• Support the Vice-Chancellor in meeting staff and setting out his agenda

Rolling on from 05/06

• Roll out of team briefing structures through the administration
• Facilitate lateral internal communication by making communication more employee-led (networking)
• Create a reliable way of communicating to staff without PC access (team briefing & improved CommUnicate)