Executive meeting

Three main items on the Exec team meeting yesterday - internal communications, money and working with the new Faculties.

Following the voting we did at the departmental meeting about how we communicate with each other, we discussed a number of ways of improving things. One will be to formalise the reporting back from the Exec meetings - at the moment I give a short update on this blog (which I will continue to do), but we're also going to produce a regular digest of matters discussed and make sure it's posted on MUSE. Further development of Just for CiCS (our internal newsletter) and the departmental meeting will also continue. We were disappointed that the survey showed that some member of of staff don't have regular team meetings, and they will become compulsory now for all staff at least once a month. All staff will also be encouraged to use myChat and to have it open all of the time - I'm using it to have chats with two people as I type this!

Budgets are being looked at for next year, and in particular what projects are coming up which we may need to set aside large sums of money for. Three in particular are on the horizon - upgrading the telephone switch, implementation of Zimbra, and replacing the current managed desktop with a web based version. All will require substantial investment.

I'm going to an awayday on Friday with the rest of the Heads of Professional Services to look at how we will work with the new Faculty structure, and I've produced a paper for discussion. As soon as it's finalised, I'll circulate it so that everyone can comment in their teams.