Please don't toss this message in the "to be read later" pile...  Take a quiet moment (yes, I know, one of those rare moments) and look over what we talked about in our last department meeting.  Remember, we want to talk about this in our next meeting on the 14th and continue to move forward in our departmental planning.  During times of uncertainty, such as these, being clear about our mission and what we do, and how well we do it, will never be more important.


In our last meeting (1/31), we continued to review mission statements that truly reflected what we are about and what we should measure up to.  Here's the latest draft of what we talked about.  There seemed to be general agreement that the following statements reflect our mission:

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  The mission of the Distributed Computing/Telemedia department is:

  1. to increase the effectiveness, productivity and creativity of 
     faculty, staff, administrators and students in their various 
     College roles (research, learning, teaching, student services,
     management of college resources) by:

     o  providing outstanding voice, video and desktop data services and
        support based upon assessed customer requirements;

     o  satisfying customer requirements for basic information technology
        and services;

     o  supporting and promoting the College's technological competetiveness
        in higher education through partnerships with other Information 
        Services' departments and other SUNY schools; and,
    
     o  informing the campus of technological trends and developments.


  2. to create an exciting, challenging place to work that emphasizes the
     quality of life for every member of the department. 



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Here's what I ask.  Copy the mission statement between the ------'s and print it.  Post it somewhere so that you can look at it frequently between now and next Tuesday (2/14).  

   Ask yourself if--Is this is what we are about? Is this what we want to be
     about?  
   
   Ask yourself--Is this mission what we want to be evaluated against?

   Ask yourself--Does this mission encompass my work?  Is something I do
     missing?


Other meeting notes:

 - Bob asked, "What is our primary mission?  Service?"  

   The response was uncertain, but seemed to indicate that "service" is NOT 
   our primary mission.

 - Bob asked, "What isn't our mission?"

   Responses to this indicated that 1-to-1 training is not our mission even 
   though we do it; and, we do not "satisfaction is not guaranteed".  We need
   to talk about this one!

 - Next steps to be taken:

   1.  Refine and establish our mission via email (between now and 2/14).

       That is, send me email and tell me what you think is good/not-so-good
       about the mission statement above.  Give me feedback.

   2.  Define our customer(s).

   3.  After discussing #2, we'll start the "exercise" to identify what you like
       and dislike most about working here. (see last week's agenda for 
       specifics on this).

   4.  Look at the assignments from last week's agenda.


See you on the 14th--but I hope to hear from you before then.
 
...Bob