ITD Full Staff Meeting October 4, 2006
Who are we? What do we do? Where are we going?
More than 80 ITD and ComTech staff met for the Fall 2006 Full Staff meeting on October 4 at the JC Raulston Arboretum. (Thanks go to Harry Nicholos who helped make it possible to meet at this lovely location.) The meeting was used as an occasion to reflect on (and celebrate) ITD and ComTech’s service to NC State and to gather information and ideas that will help shape perceptions and possibilities for the future.
To encourage connections among staff in different ITD and ComTech departments, people were randomly assigned to eight tables for small group work. The meeting had three main parts: Introductory remarks by Sam Averitt; brainstorming/information gathering activities led by Sarah Noell; and lunch, catered by Coopers BBQ and greatly facilitated by Dennis Norris, Judy Beaver, Karen Horne and the anonymous Friends of ITD.
Thanks go to everyone who helped make this a positive and informative gathering.
Introductory remarks
After everyone introduced themselves, Sam Averitt began the meeting with a few remarks. First, Sam thanked everyone for the excellent work being done for the university. He said that the campus also thanks ITD and ComTech, that people take time to thank him for our efforts, and that in general, the feedback he gets from individuals and departments is appreciative. He said that in terms of the quantity and quality of services offered, ITD has the most cost-effective IT operations in the UNC System. He also noted that this opinion is backed up by data from UNC-GA and EDUCAUSE.
Sam went on to discuss the context of this full staff meeting. Change is coming, he said. Profound change, driven by political, economic and technological forces. In Sam’s judgment, we will either be leading the change or dragged along by it. Sam said that his goal is to establish our leadership role – for us, NC State, UNC, and North Carolina.
Sam highlighted two of the political forces at work: the N.C. legislature, which sees the UNC System as inefficient in its IT expenditures; and UNC President Erskine, who has identified IT expenditures as one of four categories targeted for cost reductions as part of his PACE study. Sam reported that President Bowles has proposed reducing IT expenditures for UNC schools by a total of $24 million. Sam thinks there are ways to reduce the cost of IT per unit of service, but he is among those working to persuade President Bowles that the UNC system will not be able to achieve its learning and research goals without reinvesting the savings into IT.
Sam thinks that Bowles is laying down a gauntlet to the university system to see if anyone can meet the challenge. NC State can do this, Sam said. IT leadership is traditional and appropriate for NC State, and he and many others are working on a broad front to promote ways for NC State to lead in providing astute responses to changing circumstances. He encouraged ITD—as individuals and an organization—to “step up and step out” to meet the challenges ahead.
Another change is the decision of the Provost and Chancellor to reorganize IT on campus and hire a CIO. Sam said he feels this is a potentially good move for the university. The planning committee for this transition has not yet been appointed, and it is expected that it will take a year or more from the time it is appointed for a new CIO to be in place.
Sam said he is committed to presenting ITD at its full value to the university. We need to begin now to assemble the data to fully understand all our activities and “value points” and how we contribute to the institution. This, in part, was the purpose of the exercises staff worked on for the rest of the morning—to gather information and ideas for a more in-depth understanding of ITD and ComTech activities, interdependencies, and possibilities for the future. Sam encouraged people to contribute their best thinking, to imagine what they could be doing and where they want to be going as individuals and as part of ITD and ComTech. Change is inevitable, he said, but it can be a chance for more expanded and positive opportunities, if we decide to make it so.
The Activities
Sam explained that the first activity was intended to profile ITD as an organization by more specifically identifying our values and activities. The second exercise was intended to identify some of the many internal and external linkages (partnerships, dependencies, service users, etc.) within ITD and ComTech, with the university, and with external groups. The third exercise was aimed at brainstorming ideas and insights about the next generation computing environment. The answer is not simply “VCL,” he said, but how this transformative architecture and transport infrastructure could impact services offered and advance the university’s mission. As a fourth activity, Sam invited everyone to write out 2 or 3 things they would like said to a new NC State CIO.
Sarah Noell described the activities in more detail. Each of the eight tables had copies of an ITD Principles and Values statement which was drafted from notes and ideas from directors and senior staff. There were also copies of a draft visual representation/MindMap (“Not an org chart,” "spider" ) of ITD and ComTech activities and services with a few of the major groups and organizations with which we are closely linked. Each table was assigned two areas of the MindMap to focus on for the first and second activities.
For the first activity, each table was asked to go over the Principles and Values and comment or suggest changes. They were then asked to review activities and services MindMap and to note what was missing or out of place. For the second activity each table was asked to identify linkages among ITD services and with campus and external constituencies. After the break, each table shared the highlights of their work. The last exercise before lunch was to brainstorm about the next generation computing environment, to envision what might be possible, and what resources and processes would be required.
The notes, drawings and comments from each table were gathered at the end of the meeting. The Principles and Values statement is being revised, and the activities/linkages “MindMap” is being enhanced and expanded. Sarah has transcribed the notes about the next generation environment and suggested comments for the next CIO. These comments and other notes will be reviewed and discussed at the next senior staff meetings. They will be posted for ITD staff to read at http://www.itd.ncsu.edu/staff/internal_communications.php
Jude