No kumbaya zone

So you may have noticed I've been relatively quiet on my blog recently, especially compared to the melee which was May. This can partially be attributed to things quieting down significantly between when students leave and when interns arrive (you can sense a trend just by looking at how few posts there were in June 2011 and June 2012 - and in both those Junes I wrote something about Staff Council elections, which I won't this year since I've stepped down from the executive committee for timing reasons... so that's even 1 less post that can be expected for June 2013). Another reason for my silence is that I haven't actually been at my desk much - you see, it's RETREAT SEASON!

Just kidding. Not this kind of retreat.
On a related note, google image searching "corporate retreats" comes up with some pretty funny stuff.

First up: COS Staff Retreat (6/5) The kickoff to my retreat marathon would have been the College of Science Staff Retreat. Unfortunately I didn't end up being able to go, due to unforeseen circumstances... My cousin's husband unexpectedly and tragically passed away, and with bereavement and all of the family commitments I couldn't afford another full day out of the office. (You should check out Cousin Jack's obituary - he was an absolutely fascinating and incredible man. If you get the newspaper, there's a good chance you've seen this already, since it took up practically a whole page. You couldn't miss it.) I hear, however, that the Retreat was a very good event, and I am sorry to have missed it.

Retreat #2: Outreach Mini-Retreat (6/13) Next, I coordinated an Outreach Mini-Retreat. By "mini", I mean that it was really only me and Joe, and only the afternoon, and not really a true "retreat". But, I have a lot of things on my plate covering a lot of different foci, so I wanted to sit down and devote some time to organizing and prioritizing everything. I wrote down everything I could think of onto small Post-It notes, be it over reaching goals, things on my to-do list, general tasks, et cetera. I ended up using my entire stack of Post-Its to accomplish this, which had over 50 sheets - so if you've ever been curious about the volume of my work load, that should give you some indication. Anyways, we went through each of them and stuck them onto sheets of paper that each represented a different scope of my work - Outreach - Communication, Outreach - Recruiting, Alumni, Events, Interns, and so on. After that we went sheet-by-sheet to discuss and prioritize each of the Post-Its. In the end, we created an over-reaching page of action items that addressed the most important items from each category, so now I have a nicely organized plan of work and a strategic vision of how to move forward.  Yeah! Overall my little mini-retreat was very productive and insightful. Joe said I planned and executed it really well and that I should lead those kinds of things... Just another trick up my sleeve that might come in handy someday, I guess.

Retreat #3: Undergrad Mini-Retreat (6/14)
Today was a Mini-Retreat to discuss the imsci undergraduate curriculum. This time "mini" refers to the fact that this retreat was only a few hours, and was being done in preparation for the full CIS retreat next Tuesday. A group of CIS professors, some folks from Motion Picture Science and Imaging & Photo Tech, and myself and Joe played around with the CIS Curriculum Builder to see how classes could be rearranged and modified under semesters to continually improve the imsci program. Imaging Science was one of the first majors at RIT to complete semester conversion, the work for which was done several years ago, so by now it is already somewhat outdated. We explored how to improve course loads, reduce redundancy, and increase collaboration between departments. Although I originally attended for the purpose of increasing my familiarity with the new semester curriculum so that I may effectively answer questions from prospective students, I found that I also could provide some insight into the student experience since I am a product of the imsci program. (It was surprising to me how many of my experiences were still relevant several years later.) We also explored how senior projects may be improved, with my major contribution to the whole meeting being the suggestion of hosting a senior research conference similar to the Undergraduate Research Symposium organized by RIT each summer. This would legitimize projects, increase exposure, and also help reintroduce an experience like we used to have when the annual Industrial Associates conference still existed (my junior year having been the last one). This idea was incredibly well received, so perhaps assisting in the creation of this conference will be made into another Post-It note to add to my plan of work...

Retreats still to come (aye yae yae)...
6/17: Intern Mini-Retreat
6/18: CIS Strategic Planning Retreat
6/20: RIT Staff Council Retreat
6/26: RIT Young Professionals Retreat