Archives: October 2014

Elected! Thank you! (2014 AAPS Election)

depositphotos_43728237-Elected-stampI would like to thank all the people who took their time to vote in AAPS 2014 elections. Thank you for allowing me to serve as your Member at Large in AAPS board.

I will do my utmost to enhance job security, professional development and members engagement to make AAPS more strong. We are facing serious challenges over the coming years. UBC’s budget cut may have direct negative impacts on all of us. I will work with AAPS board members and staffs, and most importantly, with all of you, to overcome challenges. I would like however to take this opportunity to encourage more of you to get involved. AAPS is a members driven organization and can be only as vibrant as its members make it. Thank you!

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Silos in UBC

There are many groups or units in UBC that work in a vacuum state with little functional access to other groups, or little interaction with them. We call it “Silo syndrome”. Think about yourself: how many AAPS members you met one time only and never meet again since then? Are you interested in knowing what is happening in another unit? Do you want to work in a cubicle, both physically and psychologically?

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Lifetime employment was gone

One clear message from AAPS 2012/13 annual report is that for AAPS members, lifetime employment at UBC was gone. While many of us enjoy working in this beautiful campus, chances are we won’t work at UBC for very long time. Roughly 50% of new AAPS members will leave UBC in five years, and only less than 25% of them will work at UBC for more than 10 years. We have to prepare for change, sometimes surprise.

Years of service

Years of service

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MOOC Study Group

Flexible Learning and Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) are reshaping not only higher education but also professional development. Many of us work hard everyday to provide superior flexible learning experience to UBC students. As staff members, we should also deem flexible learning and MOOC as viable professional development opportunities for ourselves.

I propose to set up on campus MOOC study groups to coordinate learners across campus so that we can learn together. Why? Much research has indicated that group-based study can improve learning experiences. I strongly believe that UBC should invest resources to support such MOOC study groups as a pilot for staff professional development. It is cost effective to UBC!

Some interesting MOOC courses

  1. Data Science Specification from Coursera
  2. Nanodegree from Udacity
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Knowledge Sharing

Size of Job Families

Size of Job Families (Source: 2012/13 AAPS Annual Report)

Knowledge Sharing is an activity through which knowledge (i.e., information, skills, or expertise) is exchanged among people, friends, families, communities (e.g., Wikipedia), or organizations. (source: WikiPedia)

Why knowledge sharing among AAPS members?

AAPS has more than 3,700 members from more than 40 job categories. Many AAPS members are experts in their areas. Compared with professional development from external resources, knowledge sharing among AAPS is therefore critical because:

  1. Cost-effective: Many AAPS members are happy to provide training or workshop to fellow AAPS members for free! In the fiscal year 2012/13, AAPS spent $114,198 in professional development. By taking advantage of AAPS members’ own expertise, we can have more professional development opportunities without spending more.
  2. Benefits to experts: To teach is to learn twice! (Joseph Joubert) Experts will not only reinforce their knowledge and skills, but also enhance their presentation skills
  3. Benefits to audience: Audience will be able to get best practice, first-hand experience, and most recent updates from a diversity of industries.
  4. It’s UBC’s commitment! UBC Strategic Plan promised Outstanding Work Environment and I believe no work environment can be outstanding without appropriate knowledge sharing.

Knowledge sharing examples:

  1. Inter-group: Information Systems & Technology and Statistical Analysis (why? IT + Statistics = Big Data Mining, plausibly
    the hottest area in today’s job market).
  2. Intra-group: Programmer Analyst and Business Analyst (or Project Manager, etc; see UBC IT’s Career Framework)

Any suggestion on knowledge sharing? Please let me know.

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Candidate Statement for AAPS Election 2014

Please vote for me! I am running for one year term Member-at-Large position in AAPS Election 2014.

I am committed to AAPS members and strive to diligently protect job security, enhance professional development, and promote knowledge sharing.

Having recently been transferred from an ongoing position at Library to a term position at UBC IT, I understand how important (yet tenuous) our job security is — that is why I will strive to emphasize the critical need for job security. Nonetheless, we have to face facts that “termination without cause” is unlikely to be removed from Article 9 any time soon. Therefore, professional development becomes extremely important to us since job security is no longer guaranteed. If we continue to build on our expertise for a hungry job market, then we will never need to be afraid as decent jobs are everywhere. Only continuing professional development can make us competitive.

AAPS members have diverse backgrounds and I believe knowledge sharing among members (from different job groups and within the same job group) will help all of us. Together, our knowledge sharing makes us more competent and competitive in the job market.

I welcome your feedback!

Thank you for your support. Please vote for me!

Sincerely yours,

Minghui Yu

Programmer Analyst, UBC IT

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