Department Staff Meeting
                                2/14/95
                                Minutes


1.  Discussed revisions to the departmental mission statement based upon
    feedback from Jack and Brenda.

    Jack suggested that we revise it by dropping all the definitions of roles
    in the first part and to stress that we will strive to provide "outstanding"
    service.  He also suggested that we state that we replace "emphasizes the
    quality of life" to "enhances the quality of life".

    There was considerable discussion about the word "outstanding".  In a later
    message I also asked:

               Do you *want* to provide outstanding service?

    I received the following replies:

   >Of course!!!!...outstanding service is what we *want* to provide but
   >"outstanding" is a abstract term which means a lot of different things to a
   >lot of different people.  Isn't there a word or a short phrase that gives a
   >bit more definition to the level of service we expect to provide?  -- "high
   >level"?  "top level"?  "excellent"?


   >Definitely!


   >Does this statement fit into the College Mission Statement?
   >I think the mission statement should stay general and then the
   >goals can be more specific.


   >I think the mission statement sounds good, but can understand why certain
   >people are concerned with OUTSTANDING as they may be the ones to take the
   >flack when users call with complaints.  It is harder to be nice if someone
   >can come back with a miserable remark pertaining to our mission statement.


   >I like it the way it is and am *NOT* intimidated by the word outstanding.
   >I think it goes without saying that resources are limited and therefore no
   >one would judge us on a "best of all worlds" criteria.  If they did judge
   >us on that standard then I feel these are customers that we could never
   >please anyways.


   >This is all just semantics.  Outstanding relative to what?  I would say
   >we are providing outstanding service given the level of resources we have
   >to work with.


   >The word outstanding doesn't bother me. Perhaps to provide outstanding
   >XXXXX will still gives us high goal to attain.


   >We all want to provide outstanding service but don't want to feel let
   >down if we don't accomplish it right away.  Maybe the time frame is
   >what we are all afraid of--thinking everyone expects it now!!!!


   >   In our situation, if the service we are providing is not outstanding,
   >is that because we are not working hard enough or smart enough, or is
   >it because our resources (human and equipment) are not sufficient to
   >provide outstanding service.  This is the distinction that I think
   >needs to be made.


   >YES, I do want to provide "outstanding" service and support in everything I
   >do and will do so if I have the resources etc.  I don't think this
   >department (or any person) should be evaluated from an "outstanding"
   >perspective.  In other words;  I think we should strive to BE outstanding,
   >but I don't think we should advertise that  we ARE outstanding.


   >Yes, my goal is to provide outstanding service, however goal is the
   >operative word here.  I don't like implying that I ALWAYS provide
   >outstanding service.  I have no problem with outstanding just as long as it
   >is worded in a way that doesn't lead our customers to believe that we will
   >always be able to provide outstanding services.


2.  The next step to answer the question, "Who are our customers?" was
    discussed.  I suggest that each of us take our spreadsheets that
outline our
    roles/tasks and to identify the customer for each of those items
listed.  To
    date, I received 10 of 12 (I won't mention names but their initials are...)


Next meeting:  Tuesday, 2/28 @ 9am (unless I must go out of town to visit
Ft. Drum's videoconferencing facility.  No definite word on that yet.  I'll
let you know as soon as I hear.