[lorend]

From MSU Blog

Hi all!

This blog entry is much overdue as I’ve had a very busy few weeks and lots of information to update you on! The first thing I realized while adjusting to my position was that I had a lot less time during the day than I had anticipated. Much of my day is filled with meetings; since I began, I’ve had meetings with various students, staff, campus groups and University administration, as well as Board of Directors, Executive Board, Board of Governors and Senate meetings. It’s busy, but exhilarating. The challenge that arises is finding the time to work on my own special projects, including my platform goals. I find this normally takes place after the hours of 5 pm, as this is when I have the time to sit in one place for an extended period and delve into my projects.

My past two weekends have also proven extremely eventful. On May 7-10, the Board of Directors had our annual transition weekend. During these days, the incoming BoD (myself, John, Nick and Joe) and the outgoing BoD (Vishal, Andrew R., Andrew C. and Chris) spend a weekend away from Hamilton in an effort to facilitate the transition into our new roles.

The weekend was organized by Vishal and included a number of breakout sessions and team-bonding activities. For example, for one session, every BoD member met with their predecessor for a couple of hours to discuss their first week in office, what they had experienced and any questions that had arisen. For another, I met with the outgoing BoD’s Vice-Presidents so they could discuss what they liked about Vishal’s leadership and areas for improvement, while Vishal met with the incoming Vice-Presidents to discuss his thoughts on his VPs and ways to ensure cohesion and efficacy of the BoD. I also had the opportunity to chair a mock Executive Board (EB) meeting in preparation for the first EB meeting that was held on May 11th, 2010. After an overwhelming week of adjustment, this weekend was immensely helpful in readying me for week two.

I realize this post is getting a little long, so I’m going to save my experience from this past weekend’s Campus Web Trends 2.0 in Niagara Falls (hosted by Square Crop studio) for a separate blog. In the meantime, if you’re curious, checkout #campuswebtrends on twitter.com!

If you have any comments, questions or ideas - as always - please contact me! That is what I’m here for

Yours,
Mary
[email protected] r.ca