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Advancement Enhancement Day is happening Wednesday, June 16, 2021. After a tough year full of challenges and changes, we are excited to come together to celebrate our resiliency in Advancement, our ability to keep positive, and move forward. 

Over the last months we noticed videos of Gurdeep Pandher dancing Bhangra on Twitter, dispatching positivity and joy, filmed in the beautiful landscapes of his home in the Yukon. This brought such joy to our days and helped us see more of Canada from our own homes. (Frankly, we've become obsessed with these feel-good videos!) 

We are thrilled to share that Gurdeep Pander will be joining us as keynote speaker and to teach Advancement a Bhangra dance lesson. Gurdeep's intentions are to broaden our minds and help us to interject some joy into our days. Gurdeep has said, “Nature grounds your anxieties and uplifts your spirits. From the famous Miles Canyon of the Yukon, I am sending joy, hope and positivity across Canada and beyond.”  

What is Bhangra? Bhangra is the traditional dance of Punjab. It is native to the Punjabi nation. A long time ago, Punjabi-Sikh farmers started to use different aspects of farming to create a dance form. This farming influenced style of dance celebrates food-growing, harvesting and relationship to the land, which they later called Bhangra. 

Take time to watch some of Gurdeep’s videos if you have not already. Come ready to watch, learn, and dance in whatever way works best for you! 

“When you treat each day as a new day, you learn how to start fresh and live in the moment,” Gurdeep often ponders. 

This year the Advancement Enhancement Day team is partnering with the Events and Strategic Communications team to have Advancement Enhancement Day on the Hopin platform (the same as what will be used for Homecoming) and to use our new registration system. What a great way to test the system ahead of time so we are all familiar with it! You will be receiving a personal email to register for the activities, if you have any questions along the way, we will be here to help you out. 

 Valuing service

In the continuing series on how we will all live our values in our day-to-day work, I offer a few thoughts on service. Below you will find the observable behaviours as chosen by your Advancement colleagues when it comes to service. 

• I respond to others in a prompt, courteous, and knowledgeable manner with thorough follow-up. 
• I identify issues and share challenges in a respectful way to improve process and system challenges that interfere with our service delivery. 
• I take responsibility for our “customers’” experience. 
• I offer my expertise as a resource to team members in addressing concerns. 
• I seek out and listen to others’ needs in order to develop ideas and solutions. 

Most certainly as I reflect on the listed behaviours, I see areas where I can improve. While I have deeper experience in Advancement Services work and Major Gift fundraising, I am committed to broadening my understanding of other Advancement disciplines. In this one small way, I hope that I can provide a higher level of service for both colleagues and constituents through a better appreciation of their needs and perspectives.   

Regardless of what part of Advancement you work in, we are all service providers. The above statements set a high standard for any organization that strives to exemplify a true service culture and represent aspirational and rewarding opportunities that each of us can explore to deepen our overall service mindset.   

Consultant selected for Technology Roadmap 

I am very pleased to announce that the Office of Advancement has chosento lead our Technology Roadmap study. Zuri has been helping non-profits effectively leverage technology since their inception in 2007. Chris Cannon, President, Strategic Services, will lead the study on behalf of Zuri, and we look forward to his insights and extensive background in the sector as we define our path forward. Our co-chairs, Rachel Deir and yours truly, will provide additional details in the coming weeks as we develop a roll-out plan with Chris.  

 Building a Better Workplace design presentations

Last Thursday, ALT was treated to a number of presentations by your colleagues in support of the Building a Better Workplace initiative. To say we were blown away would be an understatement. All the members of ALT would like to send their sincere thanks to all the teams for your preparation, thought provoking presentations, and enthusiasm. As we know, however, getting to this stage requires a whole team effort. To anyone who supported these teams, whether it be through answering a survey, providing programmatic expertise, or a supportive test ear, thank you as well for your contributions. Presentations can be found using the below file path: 

\\wfs.queensu.ca\ADVMedia\Multimedia\VP Office\BBW\Design Elements 

 As we look to keep the momentum going, I would like to provide some insight on next steps; 

1. While Advancement has been working on our Building a Better Workplace initiative, Central HR has been working on guidelines to provide information and resources to employees and managers to assist them in assessing the feasibility of a remote work arrangement (RWA) and in formalizing the RWAs if they are implemented.  Advancement will be working closely with Human Resources to roll this out, and your manager will be speaking with you over the coming months about your preferences for on-campus presence. 
2. ALT will begin immediately to develop a team charter that will define the role of ALT, how we will lead by example, and our commitment to you, ourselves, and Advancement. 
3. The list of recommendations coming out of the design presentations were comprehensive, to say the least. As a first step, ALT began a detailed review last week of each of the design presentations to identify those non-space-related recommendations that we can consider for immediate or near-term implementation. 

Employee Spotlight

The Employee Spotlight celebrates the arrival of our new staff by profiling responses they share through a fun and informal survey that will help us get to know them better. Be sure to review these profiles and use these fun facts and tidbits to find commonalities, embrace differences and spark a conversation! 

This week we welcome Brent Nickle to Advancement, in the position of Service Desk Systems Specialist, ITM.  and what the one meal is that he could eat for the rest of his life!

Jobs with Advancement

We need your recruitment help. Know great talent that would be a good addition to our team? If so, please promote the vacancies below with your networks and let’s find some amazing new team members.

Applications (including a cover letter and résumé) must be submitted through CareerQ. For additional information on this posting, please reach out to either Carla or the hiring manager for the position you are interested in.

Available Position:

Fun Fact

Athletics and Recreations Centre (ARC)

The ARC, which opened in December 2009, is a state-of-the-art fitness facility within the Queen's Centre with a wide variety of programs and activities for the campus and Kingston community. 

The ARC features a 38m x 25m pool, gymnasiums, basketball and volleyball courts, squash/racquetball courts, dance studios, and extensive cardio and weight facilities. 

Learn more about the .