School Managers Community of Practice #WST 2019
By Claire Nolan, School of Information and Communication Studies
The Work Smarter Together 2019 event took place on the 14th of March, and the School Managers Community of Practice were honoured to take part. I as Chair spoke at the afternoon event in the Fitzgerald Chamber, ‘Empowering People through Local Development initiatives in UCD’. The session we were involved in was with colleagues from James Joyce Library and from Registry. Together, we looked at how in our separate areas we create supports, collaboration and developments for our concerns.
At this talk, I outlined the remarkable breath of tasks and responsibilities of School Managers to those attending. The Community of Practice for this cohort of staff has been operating for less than one academic year but has already committed to setting up an online resource, has had an orientation workshop, and we also hold regular meetings to discuss operational affairs. It has also surveyed its members to better ascertain their aims for the coming year. The kinds of thing we are looking at for the year ahead are increasing our own knowledge of on-campus training, and of expanding our online resource library, an ongoing project.
The decision to take part in the Work Smarter Together 2019 was very much a good one. Not only did it allow us the opportunity to reflect on the work done so far, but it gave us the chance to discuss the group’s aims with those Communities already in existence, and this will be a big help to us in the future. As well as that, we have had follow ups with other staff and with HR to assist us with our goals for the coming academic year, so our overview has come at very much the right time.
For some background, the School Managers Community of Practice is made up of School Managers and Administrators across all colleges and schools. We have as our stated goals ensuring our training, support and recognition for each other’s work. If you are interested in knowing more then please do contact me at Claire.Nolan@ucd.ie
Once again, my thanks to Michael Sinnott and Olga Murdoch in the Agile unit for their help and support.
