SRSM Staff Retreat

Written by Manpreet Virdi, ES Administrative Assistant

On March 7, 2018, the Student Records & Systems Management team had our annual team retreat! This year we spent the first portion of the day here in Brock Hall doing a Family Feud dress rehearsal in preparation for the ES Stand Up Meeting the next morning! You can read more about how that went here.

The team then headed out to Browns Social House to have lunch. I really enjoyed having lunch with everyone and it was nice because I had the opportunity to chat with everyone. The food was delicious and I had the Blackened Chicken Caesar.

The team then walked over to 4Cats on 10th Ave to learn how to make clay mugs. Everything was going smoothly until we arrived at 4Cats. Despite previously confirming it was accessible, tere was a step going into 4Cats and there was no proper ramp or alternative entrance for me to get up in my wheelchair! So the staff at 4Cats created a make shift ramp which consisted of four pieces of wood to get me up. It was a scary experience for me because I almost fell when I left 4Cats because the four pieces of wood moved when I was going down. To learn more about some of the challenges I face check in next month for my article on accessibility on campus.

While at 4Cats, we all made different types of mugs. I made a panda mug and saw various different mugs being made such as: Panda, Unicorn, Sloth, and a Tree planter. I really enjoyed my experience at 4Cats and I think everyone else had fun as well. I did notice how artistic everyone’s mugs were while we made the mugs.

For the last part of the retreat we focused on a professional development activity where the different departments in SRSM got to share their successes with the rest of the team! While we were at 4Cats, we separated into 4 separate groups and shared with eachother some of the successes we identified previously. Unfortunately we ran out of time on the day of the retreat, so we continued this activity at our next team meeting in our small groups.

At the team meeting, we discussed the successes within our teams and matched them with the 2017/18 fiscal year and the goals that the managers had identified during the budgeting process. It was a good activity to see how each of us in the team are able to impact the larger goals of the unit and the department! We also discussed as team how we can all be more involved in creating these goals next year so it might be even easier to see how we all fit in.

We also took this opportunity to create certificates of appreciation for each other! Before the retreat, each of us drew a name and wrote a certificate for that person. I drew Ashley’s name which was really convenient because she is my supervisor!

Then finally at the end of the meeting Annie, Coby and Ashley handed out little appreciation gifts! I got a package of Extra gum that said “The difference between ordinary and EXTRAordinary is the little be EXTRA that you did!” Overall it was a really fun experience.