USM update
By Jeremy Britton, USM Rollout Team
Greetings Colleagues,
A lot has happened in the world of the USM since our last WST Newsletter post. This post is a quick snapshot of some of the headline activities that the Project Team have been involved in, drawing attention to key milestones we’ve experienced in the last year.
USM Remote Working Group – A growing, principled, community
Unbelievably it has now been over a year since the first meeting of the Remote Working Group! This group has since grown in number and comprises approximately of 120+ staff in operational roles across UCD. For anyone unfamiliar with the group and what it is all about, it was initially brought together with a shared purpose of reducing duplication of effort, shared problem solving and consistency of response to commonly faced challenges during the pandemic. Recently, Eimear led a few members in a workshop to define the Group’s Operating Principles. There’s a whole other post dedicated to that journey in this month’s newsletter – RWG Key Principles Workshop.
The group now meets each Thursday at 10:30am, with an average attendance of 40 at each meeting. Notes are circulated after the meeting to all members.
The Continued Roll Out – Global and Sports and ALL, oh my!
As part of Phase 3 of the USM roll out, the Project Team has been working with colleagues in Access & Lifelong Learning, Global and Sports to extend the USM to their student-facing teams. This has been an interesting and exciting experience, as it sees the USM moving into a completely different space from the College/School focus it has had to-date. With that being said, the commitment to a high-quality student experience is one linchpin that unifies all student-facing operations teams in UCD. Approaching the roll out from this perspective has proven a valuable and rewarding experience. We are currently working with these areas to best embed and align the USM approaches and technology, as well as inviting the teams to join USM community initiatives like the Remote Working Group and Community Hub.
USM Project Manager- Remember that guy?
This month I am leaving my role as Project Manager for the Unified Support Model to take up the role of Interim Director of Administrative Services, Registry. I would like to take this opportunity to extend a huge thanks to all the colleagues that I’ve worked with over the past 3 years in developing and rolling out the USM. It has been a hugely rewarding experience which has given me a chance to work with so many different people in different roles across UCD. I did not really know what to expect heading into this role, but I don’t think I could have imagined the journey it would take me on, and while I’m sorry in many respects to be leaving, I’m so excited to see what comes next for the USM!
It’s not really goodbye, it’s see you around…