For those that don’t remember, March 13, 2020, was our last day in the office and Wednesday, March 16, will mark the two-year anniversary of the beginning of our radically different work experience – remote working.
While this isn’t necessarily a happy anniversary, it does give us a chance to reflect and look back over the last two years and how it has shaped us. COVID-19 has changed everything! On a macro level, it has shown us the best and worst in humanity, and on a micro level, there has been significant disruption, both good and bad, to our personal and work lives.
But there is light at the end of the tunnel. We now know what our post-pandemic normal will look like and it will be interesting over the next year to see what it feels like. Regardless, here we are two years later, still moving forward, together.
Because it is still so fitting, here again is the beautiful video Callum Linden created for our one-year anniversary.
Advancement awarded prestigious fellowship
We are excited to share the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE) announced Friday that former student leader and advocate Catherine Haba, Artsci’22, is the recipient of the prestigious TD Insurance Meloche Monnex Fellowships in Advancement at Queen’s University.
The fellowship, which is awarded to two emerging professionals in Canada each year, will see Catherine garner a broad range of skills in advancement and contribute to the development and implementation of the Office of Advancement’s first Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Indigeneity (EDII) strategic plan.
While studying Global Development at Queen’s, Catherine helped remove barriers to support student success through mental health and inclusivity initiatives. She co-wrote and developed an EDII strategy as an undergraduate representative for the Faculty of Arts and Science. Her advocacy and leadership within volunteer positions shone even brighter as president of the Queen’s Black Academic Society (QBAS) , where she successfully lobbied for the creation of two additional admission awards aimed at diversifying student recruitment and led a call to action in response to the Black Lives Matters movement that motivated Queen’s students and alumni to raise more than $30,000. She continues to be involved as vice-president of partnerships within the Queen’s Black Alumni Chapter, an organization working to strengthen Queen’s global alumni network.
These accomplishments – along with many others – garnered Haba an outstanding reputation within the Queen’s community and beyond. In 2021, she received the Agnes Benidickson Tricolour Award , the highest tribute given by Queen’s to a student for distinguished service to the university. In 2017, she received the United Way Community Builder award and was named a delegate for Canada at the 2017 Youth Assembly at the United Nations in New York City.
Catherine says she has always been drawn to opportunities that allow her to use her passion and experience to make positive change. She says she has a great level of understanding of advancement through her professional experience in the non-profit sector at the United Way/Centraide Ottawa, and within Health Canada, where she works as a compensation assistant.
“My accumulated experience and skills in this role alone strengthened my ability to be successful in the field of advancement, which involves multiple moving parts and interpersonal effective stakeholder communication,” she says.
Catherine has a proposed start date of May 16 and will report to Patricia Falzon, but will work with Advancement managers in Alumni Relations, Development, and EDII. She will spend approximately half her time on alumni relations activities, including:
- Leading a branch event and managing the relationship with a branch volunteer
- Developing and delivering a branch speaker event (in person and/or online)
- Developing new initiatives for young alumni for Homecoming 2022
And roughly half her time on development activities, including:
- Working with the AVP Development in support of the creation of a university wide EDII philanthropic priority
- Working with the Faculty of Law to develop a philanthropic priority
Finally, Catherine will focus on university wide engagement and professional development, including attending departmental and division meetings, attending donor and alumni events, and participating in advancement conferences.
“We are deeply honoured to be participating in this program and want to thank CCAE and TD Insurance Meloche Monnex for this important initiative,” says Executive Director of Principal Gifts Patricia Falzon. “We are looking forward to working with Catherine in the coming year on these important projects and in support of our mission to foster relationships that advance Queen’s and contribute to a better world.”
Hybrid pilot Q & A
With the start of our yearlong hybrid pilot, it is a good idea to host a Q&A over the next few weeks. If you have questions related to Building a Better Workplace and/or the hybrid pilot phase, please send it to the Advancement Leadership Team (ALT) through Advancing Your Voice. Here a few questions to get us started:
Q: What does the office layout look like?
A: There are 47 desks available to book, seven meeting rooms, and five breakout rooms. To see a copy of the room layouts take a look here (please make sure to log into the Queen’s VPN to access): I:\ADV Common\2020-2025 Advancement\Building a Better Workplace\Summerhill layouts\21-01843 Summerhill - Old Med Hybrid.02.pdf . Note: room 101 and 105 desks are not bookable because they are reserved for Admin staff.
Q: What technology will be available?
A: There will be one or two monitors and a docking station on each desk. You will need to bring your laptop and power cord to hook up to a docking station when you are in Summerhill.
Q: How do we book rooms?
A: There will be an Excel document available to all Advancement staff on Sharepoint (available soon). You can book up to four weeks in advance (the plan is that every Friday a new week is released). Desks can be booked for a whole day or just the morning or afternoon.
Q: Are there any designated or already assigned areas?
A: There are only two rooms that are designated for people. Rooms 101 and 105 are designated for administrative staff as they require certain PCI terminals. These rooms and desks will not appear in the room bookings.
Q: What do I do with my keys? Will rooms be locked?
A: You will no longer need room keys as all doors will be unlocked at all times. Once the office is open, we will arrange a way for staff to drop off any keys they currently have.
Q: How do I lock up my personal belongings while I am in the office?
A: Each desk will have a lockable filing cabinet that you can store personal items in for the day while you are working.
Driving Development
Dear Advancement team:
Last week, we rolled out the first pieces of the Driving Development project. As was mentioned in the rollout, this project was driven by the ambitious goals we have for our fundraising as outlined in Forward, Together. The purpose was to enhance our development practices and the tools and systems that support our fundraising work.
But this message is not about the project as much as it is about the people behind the project. This was truly an Advancement-wide project – benefiting from the expertise, advice, and forward-thinking from every single unit in our portfolio. We had steering committee members, working group members, consultants, project testers, and advisors who all helped bring this project to life. We re-imagined not only how we conduct our business of fundraising, but also how we come together as a single Advancement team – to identify issues and solve them.
As an Advancement Leadership Team (ALT), we count this project as a success. Not because it will roll out seamlessly or without bumps along the road, but because we truly leaned into our Advancement values to develop a way forward together.
So please celebrate this achievement with your teams who all inevitably had some role to play in this. And remember that you are an integral part of creating a high-performing, contemporary development organization.
The Advancement Leadership Team
2022-23 Planning Timeline Correction
Last week’s newsletter identified meeting dates for planning committees – two of which were reversed. Below is the correction:
- March 28 – Fundraising (reference Forward, Together Strategic Objectives 4) major, principal, and planned gift fundraising and 5) communications)
- March 29 – Alumni Engagement (reference Forward, Together Strategic Objectives 3) alumni programming and 5) communications)
- March 30 – Internally focused planning (reference Forward, Together Strategic Objectives 1) shaping the university 2) high-performing culture and 6) developing leadership capacities)
Some changes have also been made to the planning teams at (please make sure to log into the Queen’s VPN to access) I:\ADV Common\2020-2025 Advancement\2022-23 Planning\Multi-disciplinary teams - revised.xlsx.
Employee Spotlight
The Employee Spotlight celebrates the arrival of our new staff and existing 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’s feature includes:
Erica McIlquham is in the position of Associate Director, Development in the Faculty of Arts and Science. Learn more about Erica and the best piece of professional or life advice she’s received.