We are getting ready to turn the calendar to March and with that comes Daylight Savings Time, the beginning of spring, spring break and flowers bringing color to our winter landscape. Be watching for the change of seasons! UAAD committees have been busy planning programs and activities through the remainder of the academic year with several opportunities being offered in March.
The Tobacco-Free Campus Taskforce has continued to work with ASUN Campus Life and Safety Committee with discussions culminating in a survey being sent to students, faculty and staff on March 8th. This is the time to gauge the pulse of UNL constituents and determine interest in creating a tobacco/smoke-free campus policy. There will be a 12-hour window of time (8 am until 8 pm) to respond. I encourage all of you to answer the questions in the survey as this is your opportunity to voice your opinion in developing a policy for UNL.
Our March 15th monthly meeting will be at College of Journalism. Matt Waite, Professor of Practice, will give us a tour of the Drone Journalism Lab. We will hear how this new technology is being used at UNL and specifically within the College. Due to the lack of space in which to meet for a brown bag lunch or business meeting, we will meet and start our tour at noon. If the weather is nice and you want to bring your lunch, there are tables on the Mall, depending upon availability. I would ask that you plan to arrive at the west doors of the college at close to 11:50 where Matt will meet us and let us into the main entrance. The building is secured with card access and if you arrive after 12:00, there is no guarantee you will be able to get in.
UAAD Community Outreach has planned an event that will take us off campus March 24th. This is a wonderful opportunity to see an organization in our local community and experience firsthand the story of The Bay, located at 2005 Y Street. This is a local skate park and resource center dedicated to supporting the youth of Lincoln. We will meet from 12:00-1:00 for a brown bag luncheon and tour where we will learn about the programs and facility. For more information, visit https://www.thebay.org/lincoln.
The spring UAAD professional development workshop is scheduled. For those of you who attended the fall Strengths Finder workshop, this will be an excellent opportunity for follow-up as we are fortunate to have Josh Erickson from Team Concepts facilitate “Using Strengths to Manager Engagement”. For those of you who were not able to attend in the fall, this is your opportunity to join us for a hands-on workshop that will allow you to connect with peers around the topic of engagement. This experience will allow you to understand the engagement cycles of employees; learn how to provide encouragement to your team; develop the perfect culture to thrive; and reinforce how strengths add to value to all members of your team. We will meet Wednesday, March 29th from 8:30-11:30 at NET, 1800 N. 33rd . To register, go to: http://go.unl.edu/uaad-erickson-strengths. The cost is $20 for UAAD members and $40 for non-members. Coffee and continental breakfast will be provided. No shows will be billed if cancellations are not received within 72 hours of the event.
February was a busy month as we had Chancellor Green take time out of his schedule to meet with UAAD and UNOPA members on February 8th. This was an information-filled hour in which he updated us on the current and future budget issues facing UNL and the NU system. He also addressed questions from the group regarding the role of UAAD as a voice for managerial/professional staff at UNL and provided those in attendance “food for thought” on where we go from here.
On March 15th, we celebrated UAAD’s 55th anniversary at our annual Founder’s Day Awards. Mike Boehm, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Harlan) Vice Chancellor for IANR and University of Nebraska Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources was our guest speaker and again we were fortunate to have Mike attend this event and present the awards to our winners. We want to congratulate Jenny Schnase, the winner of the Carl A. Donaldson Award for Excellence in Management Award. Jenny is Assistant Director, Project Controls Manager, Facilities Planning & Construction. Our congratulations also go out to Robin Bowman, the winner of the Floyd S. Oldt Award. Robin is Assistant Director for Injury Prevention and Care at Campus Recreation. Thank you to all of the UAAD committee members who helped make this event a terrific success! I also want to thank all of those who attended.
Mark your calendars for some or all of the March events planned. As UAAD members, you have excellent professional development, outreach and learning experiences coming your way in the next 31 days!